Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T 5G Hands-on, First Impressions

Xiaomi has finally revealed its newest and most affordable 5G phone – the Redmi Note 9T 5G – and it is powered by the latest Mediatek Dimensity 800U chipset so we’re pretty excited with this new handset.

The device feels good on the hands, quite light to be frank, considering its size.

We start off with the display – the Note 9T sports a 6.53-inch IPS LCD with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 by 2340 pixels. It is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5.

The power button on the right also serves as a fingerprint scanner for which can be set up to unlock the phone aside from the usual pins and password as well as facial recognition. Just above that is the volume rocker.

On the left side is the SIM card slot that houses two nano-SIM trays both of which support 5G connectivity. There’s also a separate tray for a micro SD card.

Up top is the secondary noise-canceling microphone, a speakerphone, and what could be an IR blaster to be used as a remote control for your home appliances.

At the bottom end, there’s a USB Type-C port, the primary microphone, speaker grills, and a 3.5mm headphone port.

The back panel is made of polycarbonate material with a slightly textured finish to fend off fingerprints and smudges. It also helps for an added grip or hold of the device. Apparently, this design was also made to be water-repellant.

The circular camera module houses the three cameras and an LED flash – the primary camera is a 48MP sensor, f/1.8 aperture and has phase-detection autofocus; the second camera has an 8MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture for ultrawide field of view and the 3rd one is a 2MP sensor with f/2.4 aperture for shooting macros. Shots look good on our initial tests and video recording can go up to 4K at 30fps.

The front camera has a 13MP sensor that can do 1080p videos. We’ll share more samples in our full review.

Powering the Note 9T is Mediatek’s Dimensity 800U 5G chipset which is composed of a dual Cortex A76 running at a max speed of 2.4Ghz and a hexacore Cortex A55 running at 2.0GHz. This is paired with a Mali-G57 MC3 GPU.

Our review unit comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage but there’s also a variant with 4GB/64GB configuration. Our initial Antutu benchmark score gave us a little over 300k points (302,368). The Note 9T runs on a custom MIUI 12 on top of Google Android 10.

Speaking of battery, the Redmi Note 9T comes with a 5,000mAh battery that has an 18W fast-charging capability. That’s a lot of juice for an affordable gaming phone.

So far, we’re liking a lot of the features of the Note 9T – the new chipset, refresh rate, large battery, and 5G capability. We’ll share more of this in our full review.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T 5G specs:
6.53-inch FHD+ Dot Display, 450nits
Corning Gorilla Glass 5
TUV Rheinland Certification
MediaTek Dimensity 800U CPU
Mali-G57 GPU
4GB LPDDR4X RAM
64GB, 128GB storage
Triple rear cameras:
• 48MP F1.79 (main)
• 2MP F2.4 (depth)
• 2MP F2.4 (macro)
13MP F2.25 selfie camera
Dual speakers
Splash-proof protection
USB Type-C
NFC
IR Blaster
5000mAh battery w/ 18W fast charging
161.96mm × 77.25mm × 9.05mm
199g
Nightfall Black, Daybreak Purple