Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro 5G Review: Cheapest 5G Flagship Phone of 2019

Xiaomi released its first 5G mobile phone, Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 5G, which is also one of the first 5G mobile phones in the world. However, since the Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 5G version has not been sold in China for a long time after being released, it is basically placed in the European market, so most people know very little about it.

Seeing that the 5G era is coming soon, a small number of domestic manufacturers have already launched the mass-produced version of the 5G mobile phone. At the same time, many people are anxiously waiting for the shot of the Xiaomi brand 5G mobile phone in China.

After all, Xiaomi, founded 8 years ago, did not have the opportunity to lead 3G and 4G. Now,  5G provides an opportunity. Wang Xiang, senior vice president of Xiaomi, once said that Xiaomi hopes to promote 5G together and lead the development of 5G industry.

Now, the first 5G mobile phone that Xiaomi has launched in China has finally arrived. It is the protagonist of our evaluation experience today – Xiaomi Mi9 Pro 5G. The whole machine was based on the comprehensive upgrade of the “Fighting Angel” Xiaomi Mi9 at the beginning of the year. In other words, not only the addition of 5G modules but also the performance, experience and other aspects of the upgrade.

At the same time, Xiaomi Mi9 Pro is only 3699 yuan, which is the cheapest 5G flagship. Is it worth buying? Next, let’s take a look at our experience evaluation, whether it meets everyone’s expectations for Xiaomi’s first 5G flagship in China.

Design & Appearance

The outer packaging is in the Linyi millet 9 Pro “dream white” color, 5G logo is quite eye-catching. We can also find out by name only that Xiaomi Mi9 Pro belongs to the same family series as Xiaomi Mi9 released at the beginning of the year, or based on the latter upgrade. So in terms of appearance, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro comes with most of the design elements from Xiaomi Mi9.

On the front side, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro is basically the same in appearance, the familiar drop screen design, 6.39-inch AMOLED screen. The same shape of the screen, the difference is that it has the “primary color screen” color management technology blessing, the color difference is smaller than before, the color reproduction is more accurate, the eye protection mode is also improved from the 32-order eye color temperature to 256 steps, smoothing the transition.

Specifically, specifically, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro has a screen resolution of 2340×1080 and a pixel density of 403 PPI. The drop-shaped non-display area accommodates the front camera. This is the chin detail, which visually looks exactly the same as Xiaomi Mi9.

Classic sandwich structure: The design of double-sided glass + metal middle frame has been used continuously for three generations on the digital flagship. It is a heritage of family-style. We can see that the middle frame part is still polished with high light, which forms a tight transition with the upper and lower curved glass.

At present, there are two kinds of different colors of the dream white and titanium silver black, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro is optional, we get the “dream white” color. This is also the new color scheme introduced by Xiaomi, which looks fresh and elegant overall.

The Xiaomi Mi9 Pro can also transform a variety of colors when the light is shining or the ambient brightness changes. For example, in the environment of the blue background board, it will appear cyan, and the glass back sheet processed by the AG etching process is very dreamy, and the fingerprint is not contaminated in daily use.

As a distinguishing mark from the 4G mobile phone, the back of the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro also includes a 5G Logo, which is different from the Xiaomi Mi9 series and other models. It is worth noting that the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro 5G also canceled the AI-specific physical key that appeared on Xiaomi Mi9.

Xiaomi Mi9 once created a three-photograph of “Holly Magic Angel Eye” on the back. This design was later retained in the Xiaomi CC9 series and the Red Rice K20 series. It also continued to the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro. The 3.5mm headphone jack is still removed. Xiaomi Mi9 Pro is not too thin, but the weight of 196g is relatively well controlled in the “brick” 5G mobile phone. In addition, with the sleek body, the whole mobile phone is not inferior to Xiaomi Mi9 in terms of hand.

Experience

At the 5G terminal level, the types and quantities of models that have been on the market are still very small, and the range of people covered by each brand is also very limited. We always need Xiaomi, one of the giant manufacturers, to cut in and incite more people to join the 5G exchange. Prior to this, we have experienced the Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 5G version that was only sold overseas. This machine has not been intended to return to the domestic market. Part of the factor is that single card single waiting is not suitable for the actual situation in China.

The Xiaomi Mi9 Pro is relatively mature. Like the previous Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 5G version, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro 5G also has support for the 5G network. However, the previous Snapdragon 855 upgraded to the Snapdragon 855 Plus platform, this time finally supports dual card dual standby, of course, still only supports NSA non-independent networking. The Xiaomi Mi9 Pro adopts a 5G seven-antenna design. In addition to supporting the existing N41 and N78 bands, it also supports the future mobile 5G band N79.

As far as the second-tier city of Zhengzhou, where the author is located, it is difficult to achieve a stable and reliable 5G network connection and has a great relationship with operators. As shown above, we went to the 5G Experience Hall of Zhongyuan Road, Zhengzhou Unicom. In this case, I have encountered this familiar scene. The handheld Xiaomi Mi9 Pro cannot anchor the 5G network naturally in the 5G experience hall designated by Unicom.

At the same time, the author also noticed that the 5G experience machine of the hall has also been removed, and the exhibition hall of the experience hall is empty. In this case, the author also suspected at the beginning, is there any problem with the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro in our hands? Could it be that the 5G network cannot be anchored naturally without tuning? Then I saw this scene – at the gate of China Unicom’s Zhengzhou branch, we can use the mobile card to anchor the 5G network naturally, and the download rate reaches 599Mbps without uploading manually. It reached 69.6Mbps.

As shown in the figure above, the left is the speed measurement results in the 5G network environment, and the right is the speed measurement results in the 4G network environment. At present, the 5G network of operators is still unstable, and it is still unable to reach the theoretical peak under the 5G network. Under this test condition, we saw that the download rate of the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro reached 599 Mbps, which is 18 times that of the 4G network, and the upload rate is 9 times that of the latter.

Take the “Glory of the King” which is close to 2GB as an example. You can see that when downloading the application, the download speed of the 5G network is up to 90MB/s, and the installation package is downloaded in just a few seconds. The contrast is With the 4G network in the same test environment, the download speed can be described by the turtle speed.

Network delay experience

I especially care about network latency, especially the latency of everyday use scenarios. The specific test plan is to use everyone’s recurring – ping Baidu home page. Next, I used Xiaomi Mi9 Pro to ping on 4G network and 5G network respectively.

The above is the delayed performance of Xiaomi Mi9 Pro ping Baidu 4G, 5G network. It can be seen that the average delay in the 4G network is 98ms, and the average delay in the 5G network is 45ms. The 5G network delay of the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro is about 53ms lower than that of the 4G network environment, which is greatly improved. There is still a gap compared to the absolute ideal delay of 1ms, but this level has nothing to do with the terminal manufacturers.

At the current NSA networking stage, the user plane transmits through 5G, and the control plane signaling still passes 4G transmission. That is to say, the total delay in the non-independent networking mode is that the 4G control plane signaling delay superimposes the 5G user plane delay, and then superimposes the Internet delay.

Therefore, at the current stage, it is subject to the operator, not only the game delay, but also the ceiling of the network delay of all 5G mobile phones under daily use. We expect that in a somewhat distant future, the SA network will kick off the 4G control plane signaling delay, and the ideal delay of 1 millisecond is possible.

What is ridiculous is that we are unable to anchor the 5G network naturally using the Unicom card at the same location as the China Unicom Zhengzhou branch. This is not the first time I have encountered such a problem. For details, please refer to our previous evaluation experience for other brands of 5G models. If the authors who are in the same city as the author need to experience the 5G network at present, based on the poor experience of the author in the past, it is recommended to be cautious when choosing an operator.

Performance

Fast is not just 5G. In terms of performance, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro naturally inherits the peak performance of the digital flagship series. It is equipped with the Snapdragon 855 Plus. Compared with the Snapdragon 855, the Snapdragon 855 Plus has mainly made two upgrades:

First, the Kryo 485 CPU clocked up to 2.96GHz (previously Snapdragon 855 was 2.84GHz), with a single thread increase of 4.4%. Second, the Adreno 640 GPU achieved a 15% performance improvement to 675MHz (585MHz). As a result, the Snapdragon 855 Plus is currently the strongest flagship U in the Qualcomm camp. By running the test, you can understand more intuitive:

1. Master Lu

Master Lu can evaluate and compare the five core hardwares of CPU, GPU, RAM, storage and display, which is more suitable for ordinary white users to understand mobile phone related information.

2, GeekBench test

About GeekBench: A cross-platform CPU performance test tool that accurately reflects the single-core and multi-core performance of the device CPU. The test load simulates real-life application design, and the results are more meaningful. It can also measure the performance of GPU graphics.

The single-core score can reflect the pros and cons of the CPU architecture design and the operating frequency. Multi-core scores reflect the efficiency of multiple CPU cores working at the same time.

Geekbench, the Xiaolong 9 Pro is equipped with the Snapdragon 855 Plus a single-core score of more than 3600 points. In terms of multi-core, the score of more than 10,000 is not too different from the previous Snapdragon 855 platform.

3, Androbench test

About Androbench: AndroBench is a benchmark application that measures the 4K random storage performance of Android devices, including internal or external storage. This is a typical UFS 2.1 storage speed.

Cameras

Since the end of 2018, the 48 Megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor has become the standard that domestic manufacturers like, and it has been the first to be equipped with the previous Xiaomi Mi9. The sensor itself has better hardware quality and has a 1/1.75-inch outsole that supports pixel four-in-one. As a result, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro’s main camera also uses this sensor, also equipped with a 12MP telephoto lens and a 16 Megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, to meet the needs of various scenes.

The above is a macro proof. During the day when the light is sufficient, it can be observed that the coloring tendency of the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro is exactly the same as that of the Xiaomi Mi9, which is more loyal to the naked eye and at the same time moderately optimized. When shooting a relatively large scene, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro 5G will prompt the user to turn on the super wide-angle mode, and the use of the super wide-angle lens will bring a more visual impact.

In terms of nighttime photography, the performance of Xiaomi Mi9 Pro 5G is not much different from that of Xiaomi Mi9. The same camera hardware superimposes the same software algorithm. The performance of the two can be regarded as completely the same, with a small gain.

Battery

As a 5G mobile phone, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro inevitably needs to be loaded with more antenna components and RF chips. The increase in power consumption is obvious. I remember that when the Xiaomi Mi9 was released, the battery of 3300 mAh attracted some attention from rice noodles. The Xiaomi Mi9 Pro complements this part and adds the battery to 4000 mAh.

1, Online life

I use the BiliBili client to play online barrage video, 20% volume, 70% brightness. Starting from 96% of electricity, after 1 hour, the remaining power is 87%. Power consumption is 9%. According to this power-down rate, in the same test environment, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro can fully play online video for 10 to 11 hours.

2, The game life

Starting from 99% of electricity, after 1 hour, the remaining power is 78%. The power consumption is 21%. According to this rate of power loss, Xiaomi Mi9 Pro is expected to eat chicken for more than 5 hours.

3, Charging

In addition to the increase in battery capacity, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro has also improved in terms of charging. The machine supports 40W wired fast charge, 30W wireless fast charge, and 10W wireless reverse charge, so the comprehensive and high power charging specifications have been at the forefront of the domestic flagship, which is an unexpected surprise. Using the wired charging head that comes with the note, the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro takes only 50 minutes from 2% blood return to 99%.

Visit Also: Xiaomi Mi9 Pro 5G To Get Started: Coming 5G Phone With Lowest Price

Verdict 

Xiaomi Mi9 Pro 5G is currently the cheapest 5G flagship phone, starting at only 3699 yuan, high-cost performance can be seen. Before talking about the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro product itself, we had to talk about a problem – that is, whether the 5G mobile phone should be bought.

I want to talk about my point of view when I use the 5G mobile phone and the Xiaomi Mi9 Pro experience. According to the author’s understanding, the first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen have basically completed the complete construction of the infrastructure, fully equipped with the long-term use conditions of 5G mobile phones. For the first line, similar to our measured Xiaomi Mi9 Pro 10 times more than the download/upload speed of the 4G network is really awesome for the use of daily mobile phones.

For second-tier provincial capitals such as Zhengzhou and cities with relatively developed economies, only one or two of the three major operators are slightly more active, focusing on coverage in the downtown area. This kind of 5G network is sometimes worthwhile to start a 5G mobile phone. Anyway, the current 5G mobile phones are all backward compatible with 4G. When necessary, the 5G switch is turned on. If there is no condition, it can be used as a 4G mobile phone.

As for the cities below the second line without 5G construction plan, and the users of the resident towns and villages, I believe that we still need to wait for the 5G base station to be laid. It is not recommended to buy any brand of 5G mobile phones. Then we talk about Xiaomi Mi9 Pro, the author thinks that the upgrade of this “Pro” is still worthy of the name. First of all, the large battery of 4000 mAh solved the small battery pain point of the Xiaomi digital flagship series.

The routine upgrade of the Snapdragon 855Plus, the unexpected upgrade of the fast charge, and the steady progress of the camera are also practical upgrades that can actually enhance the experience. Before the X55 baseband commercial, the Qualcomm camp pushed the 5G new machine to be the flagship of the 855 855 PLUS+X50 baseband.

In this way, Xiaomi Mi9 Pro is one of the mature 5G terminals you can buy for quite a long time.

As Lei Jun said, 5G mobile phones cannot sell the price of 4G mobile phones in the short term. Xiaomi Mi9 Pro sits firmly at the lowest price in the 5G mobile phone category, and will not change hands in the short term:

8+128GB price 3699 yuan; 8+256GB price 3799 yuan; 12+256GB price 4099 yuan; 12+512GB price 4299 yuan, combined with all the shortboard bucket performance, there are 5G network conditions you use You can buy and buy with your eyes closed, right now it is available on Geekbuying for just $699.99 using coupon code: 3SAXMJLY