Undeniably, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro was one of last year’s best value for money phones, but what about the successor.

The new members of the Xiaomi Redmi Note series have already been officially introduced, so we have the opportunity to compare the two devices based on specifications. It’s also worth dealing with because Redmi’s engineers have worked hard on the new mobile, we get essentially different things in every way. It's a matter of getting better or worse!

External

The design of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro was an absolute fit for last year’s trend, at least in terms of the front panel and self-contained camera sitting on the drop-shaped island. On the back, however, the camera group placed on the centerline was not the usual layout. At the competing manufacturers, we got cameras placed either in a straight line but on the edge, or in a large group of four, in the top corner of the phone.

The front of the Redmi Note 9 Pro is already reversing this year's trend, meaning that the self-timer camera peeks through a small hole, which, at least from the front, makes the phone stand out among the high-end mobiles. We can also see a big change in the back. The centered camera group no longer extends to the center of the back cover. The fingerprint reader that moved to the top of the phone is also gone.

Overall, the Redmi Note 9 Pro has refined a lot compared to its predecessor, and based on the exterior, it could safely compete one price class higher, which is a joyous change.

Sizes

We have become accustomed to phones getting bigger year after year. Just like the cars, the models in the same series grow a bit each year to get closer to the space available in the one higher category in the end.

Redmi Note 9 Pro is also obese. It gained more weight, 200 grams instead of 209 grams, and the housing also became larger. While the Redmi Note 8 Pro was 161,4 x 76,4 x 8,8 millimeters, the offspring was already 165,5 x 76,7 x 8,8 millimeters. As can be seen, the thickness fortunately did not change, the width was only minimal, but the height became 4 millimeters more.

What’s gratifying is that the front panel display ratio has been minimal but improved, so the slightly larger case has a panel with a 6,67-inch diagonal, instead of last year’s 6,53-inch phone. This also brought with it an increase in resolution because we got 8 x 1080 pixels instead of the Note 2340 Pro 1080 x 2400 pixels. Which isn’t so much fun, AMOLED still doesn’t fit into the mid-range, so I still have IPS left after Redmi Note 8. To make sure that wasn’t enough, we could also read that the brightness was 450 nits, while the Redmi Note 8 Pro had 500 nits. I hope this is just a mistake.

Processor

In the case of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro, one of the biggest surprises was that the manufacturer included a MediaTek processor. Although we were afraid of it, it turned out that the Helio G90T was not a bad choice at all, pounding many Qualcomm tiles into the ground.

In the case of the Redmi Note 9 Pro, Xiaomi returned to the Qualcomm Snapdragon family and placed the 10G, already proven in the Xiaomi Mi Note 720, in the mobile. This is measured on the net, if only minimally, but faster than the MediaTek Helio G90T. However, according to my own measurements, the Helio tile is faster, if not much.

Sure, the score given by the synthetic tests is quite different, and the sense of speed in real life is different, but since I’m currently using a Mi Note 10 and have had the Redmi Note 8 Pro for a long time before, I can say they play essentially the same music. That is, in the field of the central unit, the new model gives exactly what last year, only the manufacturer and type of proci changed under the hood.

Battery

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro, like the other members of the Redmi 8 series, has very good battery life. For this, a 4500 mAh battery was built into the phone, which no longer seemed enough this year. The manufacturer has changed it to a larger capacity, exactly 5020 mAh, which means 10 percent extra capacity. Of course, the display is also larger, so it is expected that battery life will not increase by ten percent.

The only icing on the cake is that the housing has not become thicker due to the larger battery. And, once it’s foam, the really good news is still left. Redmi’s new phone received a 33-watt fast charge, a significant improvement over last year’s 18 watts.

Kamerák

In the field of cameras, at least on the basis of numbers, there has been progress and backwardness. The 8-megapixel main camera of the Redmi Note 64 Pro was a very pleasant surprise, with brutally good images in good lighting conditions. Wide-angle optics and a built-in sensor were also available, but that didn’t dazzle us, and I don’t see any point in the two-mega-macro since then, apart from saying we have one on our phone.

Let’s start with the selfie camera and some bad news right away. While we got 8 megapixels in advance in the Redmi Note 20 Pro, the successor’s camera is now only 16 megapixels. I wonder why? The main camera of the Redmi Note 9 Pro is only 48 megapixels, so, at least in terms of resolution, it’s a clear step backwards. In fact, the resolution and image quality do not follow from each other, but knowing the 48 mega sensors on the market, the mid-range lens systems, the 48 megapixel solution is no wonder, but we can expect usable quality images.

I don’t want to talk about the 8-megapixel wide-angle camera anymore. We’ll see what it shows in practice, but I don’t expect much good for the first blick. What is gratifying, however, is that the two-mega macro has been changed to 5 megapixels. We won’t change the world with that either, but maybe the machine will make some sense with this resolution.

Conclusion

As you can see, the Redmi Note 9 Pro has become a good phone, though, at least in terms of cameras, it’s not as good as it was, maybe we could rightly expect it. It became more beautiful, it became bigger than its predecessor, it brought the obligatory in this form. The battery also got bigger, but the display remained IPS. Besides the cameras, the processor is a bit of a sore point, in which they stepped forward on paper, as instead of the frank MediaTek, a very tiny, but really only a peasant hair better Snapdragon got into the mobile. For me, that means the mobile hasn’t gotten better in terms of strength.

Which one is worth buying? If the exterior is important, and to make the design last, the Redmi Note 9, but in all other respects, the Redmi Note 8. I think so. Because the proci is also strong in last year’s model, the display is minimally smaller, but IPS here and there, and I can’t go without saying that we’ve stepped back to 64 megapixels again instead of the 48-megapixel camera. And the 5 mega macro doesn't work, I wouldn't use it just like the 2 mega.

Prices

For now, only Indian prices are available, but based on these, the Redmi 9 Pro seems a bit cheaper than its predecessor. Below are the prices:

Redmi Note 8 Pro:

• Redmi Note 8 Pro 6 / 64GB: € 176
• Redmi Note 8 Pro 6 / 128GB: € 201

Redmi Note 9 Pro:

• Redmi Note 9 Pro 4 / 64GB: € 154
• Redmi Note 9 Pro 6 / 128GB: € 190

Buy Redmi Note 8 Pro:

• Banggood
• Gearbest

Buy Redmi Note 9 Pro:

• Banggood (April 2020.04.06, XNUMX not yet available)
• Gearbest (April 2020.04.06, XNUMX not yet available)

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