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Xiaomi Mi 9 Smartphone Review

An affordable flagship. Xiaomi has made the impossible possible with the Mi 9, at least according to the standards set by other manufacturers anyway. The Mi 9 only costs 450 Euros (~$505), which is midrange pricing, but it is one of the best flagship smartphones that you could currently buy. Its 48 MP triple camera, UFS 2.1 flash storage, premium design and AMOLED display are just a few of the reasons that the device excels, as is its brand-new Snapdragon 855 SoC. We put the Mi 9 to the test in our detailed review and see how it stacks up against other flagship smartphones.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 is here, and it embarrasses its flagship competitors. Unlike Samsung, Huawei and especially Apple, the Xiaomi continues to sell its high-end smartphones at a reasonable cost and does not arbitrarily hike the price up generation upon generation.

The Mi 9 currently sells for around 450 Euros (~$505), for which you get the brand-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC, 6 GB RAM and up to 128 GB of UFS 2.1 storage. There is a lot more to this flagship contender, but these specifications alone put the Mi 9 in contention with the considerably more expensive Huawei Mate 20 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10+ among others. The Mi 9 premieres the Snapdragon 855 too, which is another thing that the device has over the competition.

Xiaomi sells the Mi 9 with either 64 GB or 128 GB of UFS 2.1 flash storage, the former of which comes with only 6 GB LPDDR4x RAM. By contrast, you can choose between 6 GB and 8 GB RAM if you want 128 GB of storage. The device does not support microSD card expansion though, which is a shame.

The Mi 9 also has triple rear-facing cameras with a 48 MP main sensor, a stylish glass unibody design, dual-SIM functionality and a 2340x1080 AMOLED display. Lastly, the Mi 9 supports DRM Widevine Level 1, which means that the device can stream Amazon Prime Video and Netflix in HD instead of just SD. Incidentally, the Mi 9 is the first Xiaomi smartphone to be able to do this.

We have chosen to compare the Mi 9 against some of the best flagship smartphones released in the last year. Our comparison devices will include the Apple iPhone XR, Honor View 20, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, OnePlus 6T, Samsung Galaxy S10+ and Xiaomi Mi 8.

Xiaomi Mi 9 (Mi 9 Series)
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 8 x 2.8 GHz, Cortex-A76 / A55 (Kryo 485)
Graphics adapter
Memory
6 GB 
, LPDDR4x, 2133 MHz dual-channel
Display
6.39 inch 19.5:9, 2340 x 1080 pixel 403 PPI, Capacitive, AMOLED, Corning Gorilla Glass 6, oleophobic coating, anti-fingerprint, NTSC 103.8%, 90.7% screen-to-body ratio, glossy: yes, 60 Hz
Storage
64 GB UFS 2.1 Flash, 64 GB 
, 50.51 GB free
Connections
1 USB 2.0, Audio Connections: USB Type-C, 1 Fingerprint Reader, NFC, Brightness Sensor, Sensors: Accelerometer, camera laser focus sensor, electronic compass, gyroscope, proximity sensor, USB Type-C, aptX, aptX-HD, dual-SIM VoLTE, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, Wi-Fi 2x2 MIMO, MU-MIMO, Google Pay
Networking
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (a/b/g/n = Wi-Fi 4/ac = Wi-Fi 5/), Bluetooth 5.0, GSM: 850, 900, 1,800, 1,900. UMTS: B1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 34, 39. LTE: B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 20, 28, 38, 39, 40. 4x4 MIMO antenna. SAR values: Body – 1.301 W/kg, Head - 1.389 W/kg., Dual SIM, LTE, GPS
Size
height x width x depth (in mm): 7.61 x 157.5 x 74.67 ( = 0.3 x 6.2 x 2.94 in)
Battery
3300 mAh Lithium-Polymer, Quick Charge 4.0, 20 W wireless charging, 27 W wired fast charging
Operating System
Android 9.0 Pie
Camera
Primary Camera: 48 MPix , Sony IMX586, f/1.75, 1/2", 0.8 μm. 16 MPix wide-angle camera: f/2.2, 13 mm, 1/3.0", 1.0 μm. 12 MP telephoto camera: f/2.2, 54 mm, 1/3.6 ", 1.0 μm, 2x optical zoom. Photos up to 4K, videos in up to 8,000 x 6,000.
Secondary Camera: 20 MPix , f/2.0, 0.9 μm, HDR, up to 1080p @ 960 FPS slow-motion, 4K @ 60 FPS
Additional features
Speakers: Mono speaker, Keyboard: Virtual, Modular power supply, USB Type-C to Type-A cable, protective cover, SIM tool, quick start guide, warranty card, MIUI 10, 12 Months Warranty, fanless
Weight
173 g ( = 6.1 oz / 0.38 pounds), Power Supply: 35 g ( = 1.23 oz / 0.08 pounds)
Price
449 Euro
Note: The manufacturer may use components from different suppliers including display panels, drives or memory sticks with similar specifications.

 

Case

Xiaomi dresses the Mi 9, which weighs 174 g and measures 157.5 x 74.67 x 7.61 mm, in Gorilla Glass 6. This makes our review unit not only sturdy but also gives it a premium feel. It has a somewhat understated design too with its rounded corners, its narrow bezels and its waterdrop notch that contains a 20 MP front-facing camera.

Our review unit is the Piano Black version, which is the most visually unimpressive model in our opinion. If you like to make a statement with your phones, then the Ocean Blue and Lavender Violet versions are likely to be a better choice as light creates a rainbow effect when it refracts of their glass backs. We have included official press photos of those two models below, for reference. All three models have black displays and unfortunately have no IP certification against the ingress of water or dust.

While our review unit feels great in hand, it picks up fingerprints easily despite Xiaomi stressing that it has an anti-fingerprint coating. Moreover, the mostly glass design makes the Mi 9 somewhat slippery so we would recommend buying a case and a screen protector to limit the chances of damaging the device if or when it falls from your hands. Additionally, the Mi 9 sits shakily on a flat surface like a table, because its rear-facing cameras protrude by a few millimetres from its rear case.

Size Comparison

157.5 mm / 6.2 inch 74.8 mm / 2.94 inch 8.2 mm / 0.3228 inch 185 g0.4079 lbs156.9 mm / 6.18 inch 72.4 mm / 2.85 inch 8.6 mm / 0.3386 inch 189 g0.4167 lbs157.6 mm / 6.2 inch 74.1 mm / 2.92 inch 7.8 mm / 0.3071 inch 198 g0.4365 lbs157.5 mm / 6.2 inch 74.67 mm / 2.94 inch 7.61 mm / 0.2996 inch 173 g0.3814 lbs156.9 mm / 6.18 inch 75.4 mm / 2.97 inch 8.1 mm / 0.3189 inch 180 g0.3968 lbs154.9 mm / 6.1 inch 74.8 mm / 2.94 inch 7.6 mm / 0.2992 inch 175 g0.3858 lbs150.9 mm / 5.94 inch 75.7 mm / 2.98 inch 8.3 mm / 0.3268 inch 194 g0.4277 lbs148 mm / 5.83 inch 105 mm / 4.13 inch 1 mm / 0.03937 inch 1.5 g0.00331 lbs

Connectivity

As mentioned earlier, the Mi 9 comes with 6 GB RAM or 8 GB RAM along with 64 GB or 128 GB of storage. However, Xiaomi only equips the 128 GB variant with 8 GB RAM. Additionally, no model supports microSD card expansion. Moreover, our review unit, which is the 64 GB model, had only 50.5 GB of free space available upon delivery, so you may quickly run out of storage if you buy the 64 GB version.

Speaking of omissions, the Mi 9 also lacks a headphone jack, but Xiaomi includes a USB Type-C to 3.5 mm adapter in the box should you use wired headphones. The Type-C port only operates at USB 2.0 speeds though, but it does support USB On-The-Go (OTG) so you can connect external peripherals like a keyboard and mouse should you wish to do so. The Mi 9 has dual-SIM functionality too and has two nano-SIM card slots.

Left-hand side: SIM card slot, AI button
Left-hand side: SIM card slot, AI button
Right-hand side: power button, volume rocker
Right-hand side: power button, volume rocker
Top side: microphone
Top side: microphone
Underside: microphone, USB Type-C port, speaker
Underside: microphone, USB Type-C port, speaker

Software

The Mi 9 currently ships with Android 9 Pie, atop of which Xiaomi adds its MIUI 10 UI. While MIUI operates on the same concept as stock Android, Xiaomi has heavily customised it to the extent that it hardly resembles the OS that Pixel devices use in some areas.

One noticeable absentee is the app drawer, with Xiaomi choosing instead to spread app icons over several home screens like Apple does with iOS. Moreover, you swipe up from the home screen to bring up Google search rather than right as you do on stock Android; open apps are closed by swiping to the side instead of down too. Furthermore, Xiaomi has rearranged the settings menu, which may take some acclimatisation if you are used to a more stock Android experience. In short, MIUI will not feel alien to you if you have used recent versions of Android or iOS, but it has its idiosyncrasies that may catch you out initially.

Xiaomi preinstalls the standard suite of Google apps and its own along with a few third-party apps like AliExpress and Facebook. You can uninstall the latter two though, which is not always the case with some custom versions of Android. The 11 apps that Xiaomi files under the Tools folder take up approximately 280 MB of space, which is a rather small impediment on the 64 GB of storage. The Mi 9 can stream HD content from services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix too thanks to being Widevine DRM L1-certified.

Incidentally, our review unit had February 2019 security patches installed during our tests towards the end of March. These were only one month old with Google releasing the March security patch on March 4. Hence, there should be no problems here with old and potentially compromised security patches.

Default home screen
Default home screen
Default home screen
Default home screen
Preinstalled Google apps
Preinstalled Google apps
Preinstalled Xiaomi tools
Preinstalled Xiaomi tools
Some preinstalled third-party apps
Some preinstalled third-party apps
Device information
Device information
Android Security patch information
Android Security patch information
Storage information
Storage information

Communication & GPS

The Mi 9 supports all modern Wi-Fi standards up to IEEE 802.11ac and can connect to 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks. Xiaomi equipped the device with a 2x2 MU-MIMO router that should help it achieve excellent Wi-Fi transfer speeds. The international version that we tested also supports LTE Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 20, 28, which is required for LTE FDD, along with Bands 38, 39 and 40 that are needed for LTE TDD. Hence, you should have no issues with connecting to an LTE network regardless of where you live. The device has an NFC chip and supports Bluetooth 5.0 too including aptX and aptX HD codecs.

The modem that Qualcomm integrates within the Snapdragon 855 SoC supports up to 2 Gb/s download speeds over LTE. However, Xiaomi has not stated what LTE speeds the Mi 9 can achieve, so we suspect that it will be lower than 2 Gb/s.

We should also point out that the Mi 9 emits comparatively high levels of radiation, which manufacturers measure in SAR, which is an acronym for specific absorption rate. The Mi 9 emits 1.389 W/kg when held against your head and 1.301 W/kg when next to the rest of your body, which is below the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) in Germany’s safe threshold of 2 W/kg. However, other manufacturers manage to significantly undercut Xiaomi here. The Galaxy S10+, for example, has an absorption rate of 0.52 W/kg. While this is not overly concerning, it is something that distinguishes the Mi 9 from other modern flagships.

As expected, our review unit achieved excellent Wi-Fi speeds in our iperf3 Client tests. The Mi 9 averaged 678 Mb/s in the download test, which we conducted with our Linksys EA8500 reference router. This speed puts the device 45 Mb/s clear of the Galaxy S10+ in second place in our comparison table. Transfer speeds fluctuated between 549 Mb/s and 725 Mb/s during this test, which is slightly more than many of our comparison devices did in the same test, although these fluctuations should be hardly noticeable in daily use.

The Mi 9 finished behind the Mate 20 Pro and iPhone XR in the upload test with an average speed of 534 Mb/s, but this is at least 11% faster than our other comparison devices. The fluctuations between 430 Mb/s and 578 Mb/s are also not as dramatic.

Networking
iperf3 transmit AX12
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Mali-G76 MP10, Kirin 980, 128 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
696 (647min - 714max) MBit/s +30%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Mali-G76 MP10, Kirin 980, 128 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
663 (289min - 805max) MBit/s +24%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Mali-G76 MP10, Kirin 980, 128 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
650 (6min - 792max) MBit/s +22%
Apple iPhone XR
A12 Bionic GPU, A12 Bionic, 128 GB NVMe
644 (578min - 672max) MBit/s +21%
Xiaomi Mi 9
Adreno 640, SD 855, 64 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
534 (430min - 578max) MBit/s
OnePlus 6T
Adreno 630, SD 845, 128 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
474 (241min - 497max) MBit/s -11%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Mali-G76 MP12, Exynos 9820, 512 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
457 (398min - 508max) MBit/s -14%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Adreno 630, SD 845, 128 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
429 (256min - 448max) MBit/s -20%
Honor View 20
Mali-G76 MP10, Kirin 980, 256 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
298 (278min - 319max) MBit/s -44%
iperf3 receive AX12
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Mali-G76 MP10, Kirin 980, 128 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
1001 (209min - 1106max) MBit/s +48%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Mali-G76 MP10, Kirin 980, 128 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
615 (532min - 642max) MBit/s -9%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Mali-G76 MP10, Kirin 980, 128 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
491 (100min - 534max) MBit/s -28%
Xiaomi Mi 9
Adreno 640, SD 855, 64 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
678 (549min - 725max) MBit/s
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Mali-G76 MP12, Exynos 9820, 512 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
633 (561min - 684max) MBit/s -7%
OnePlus 6T
Adreno 630, SD 845, 128 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
629 (621min - 638max) MBit/s -7%
Apple iPhone XR
A12 Bionic GPU, A12 Bionic, 128 GB NVMe
517 (477min - 528max) MBit/s -24%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Adreno 630, SD 845, 128 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
491 (444min - 499max) MBit/s -28%
Average of class Smartphone
  (last 2 years)
376 MBit/s -45%
Honor View 20
Mali-G76 MP10, Kirin 980, 256 GB UFS 2.1 Flash
339 (325min - 351max) MBit/s -50%
04080120160200240280320360400440480520560600640680720Tooltip
Xiaomi Mi 9; iperf3 receive AX12; iperf 3.1.3: Ø678 (549-725)
Xiaomi Mi 9; iperf3 transmit AX12; iperf 3.1.3: Ø534 (430-578)
GPS Test: Inside
GPS Test: Inside
GPS Test: Outdoors
GPS Test: Outdoors

The Mi 9 uses BeiDou, Galileo, GLONASS, GPS, and dual-GPS for location services. The latter can also be found in some flagships like the Mate 20 Pro and helped our review unit achieve a satellite fix with up to four metres accuracy after a few seconds regardless of where we tested it. In short, the Mi 9 has excellent GPS accuracy.

We also took our review unit on a short car journey to compare its location accuracy against the Galaxy S10+. You may have seen the results from our Galaxy S10+ review, but we have included them below if you have not. The Galaxy S10+ does not support dual-GPS, yet both devices plotted roughly the same route, which makes it difficult to call a winner. The Galaxy S10+ recorded a more natural way at points, but the Mi 9 is accurate enough for all general navigation tasks like cycling, driving or walking.

GPS Test: Xiaomi Mi 9 – Overview
GPS Test: Xiaomi Mi 9 – Overview
GPS Test: Xiaomi Mi 9 - Corners
GPS Test: Xiaomi Mi 9 - Corners
GPS Test: Xiaomi Mi 9 - Roundabout
GPS Test: Xiaomi Mi 9 - Roundabout
GPS Test: Samsung Galaxy S10+ - Overview
GPS Test: Samsung Galaxy S10+ - Overview
GPS Test: Samsung Galaxy S10+ - Overview
GPS Test: Samsung Galaxy S10+ - Overview
GPS Test: Samsung Galaxy S10+ - Roundabout
GPS Test: Samsung Galaxy S10+ - Roundabout

Telephone Features & Call Quality

The Mi 9 supports simultaneous dual-SIM LTE and VoLTE if your mobile carrier provisions the device on its network. The MIUI phone app has a different layout than the stock Android 9 Pie, but it has all the usual features that other call apps have like a call log, contacts and quick access to phone settings too.

Our review unit has impressive call quality even over hands-free. Our call partners could easily understand us and reported that background noise did not mask our voice. Hence, the microphone does a great job at suppressing ambient noise. The Mi 9 also maintained excellent mobile network reception when connected to Vodafone despite us testing the device in a rural area.

Cameras

Photo taken with the main camera
Photo taken with the main camera

The days of dual rear-facing cameras being something special are definitely over. OEMs have moved towards triple or quintuple rear-facing cameras in the last year, and Xiaomi has done the same with the Mi 9. The star of the show is its 48 MP Sony IMX586 main sensor. The Chinese company has even included a dedicated 48 MP mode in its MIUI camera app, such is its attempts at delivering an excellent camera experience. Practically, the 48 MP sensor should capture even finer details than other smaller sensors can, and you should be able to enlarge photos without losing any image fidelity too.

The default camera app scales the resolution down to 12 MP for standard photos by interpolating four pixels into one, which theoretically should make pictures look more detailed. Incidentally, the IM586 has an f/1.75 aperture and a pixel size of just 0.8 μm, which helps keep it only 8 mm wide diagonally.

Photo taken with the front-facing camera
Photo taken with the front-facing camera

Xiaomi complements the 48 MP sensor with a 12 MP telephoto lens, which has an f/2.2 aperture, a 1.0 μm pixel size and a 2x optical zoom along with a 16 MP wide-angle camera that has the same aperture and pixel size. There is a 20 MP front-facing camera too. Together, these cameras offer an impressive array of options for budding photographers, which is further helped by the plethora of camera modes including a Pro mode should you want to adjust settings like ISO, shutter speed and white balance. There are other modes too like portrait, panorama and night as there are with most modern flagships.

The triple rear-facing cameras achieve exquisite results in daylight, as demonstrated below by scenes 1 and 2. Both photos have excellent dynamic range, are detailed and they look incredibly sharp too. Qualitatively, the photos shot with the Mi 9 look noticeably better upon looking closely than those shot with the Honor View 20, which uses the same 48 MP sensor. The triple cameras struggle with image noise in artificially dim lighting as with scene 3, but the result is still leaps ahead of what the View 20 manages.

The Mi 9 can record videos in numerous resolutions too ranging from Full HD at 30 FPS up to 4K UHD at 60 FPS. The default camera app has a super slow-motion mode too that records at 960 FPS. Overall, our review unit took equally impressive videos during our tests.

Image Comparison

Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.

Scene 1Scene 2Scene 3
click to load images

We also subjected our review unit to further camera tests under controlled lighting conditions. We compared its colour accuracy by comparing the colours it reproduced against our ColorChecker Passport reference chart. We also took a photo of our test chart, which sometimes catches even flagship smartphones out with its fine lines and complex structures.

The Mi 9 could not reproduce the ColorChecker Passport reference colours precisely, and generally they look oversaturated. However, the triple camera setup did a mostly great job of capturing our test chart. The coloured areas at the centre of the chart look sharp and pop against the greyscale background, while fine lines are preserved too. Contrast levels drop off noticeably towards the bottom corners of the chart, and it should not be as noticeable in most photos. In short, Xiaomi has equipped the Mi 9 with a fantastic set of cameras that challenge even the most expensive smartphones.

ColorChecker Passport: The lower half of each area of colour displays the reference colour
ColorChecker Passport: The lower half of each area of colour displays the reference colour
Our test chart in detail
Our test chart in detail
A photo of our test chart
A photo of our test chart

Accessories & Warranty

A look at the power supply included with our review unit
A look at the power supply included with our review unit

Xiaomi includes an 18 W (5 V/2.5 A, 9 V/2 A or 12 V/1.5 A) charger with the international version of the Mi 9, which supports Quick Charge 3.0. By contrast, the company includes a more powerful 27 W Quick Charge 4.0 charger with the Chinese model, for some reason. All models also come with a silicone case, a USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable, a Type-C to 3.5 mm adapter, a SIM tool, a quick-start guide, and warranty information.

Xiaomi has an extensive set of warranty pages on its website that it splits by country and region. Essentially, the company affords the Mi 9 a two-year limited warranty in countries in which it trades like Italy, Spain or the UK. By contrast, buyers based in countries where Xiaomi does not operate, like Germany, must rely on third-party warranty instead.

Please see our Guarantees, Return Policies & Warranties FAQ for country-specific information.

Input Devices & Operation

The high-quality craftsmanship of the Mi 9’s elegant glass chassis is matched by its physical buttons. The AI ​​button, about which we will discuss more below, the power button and the volume rocker provide good feedback with their crisp pressure points and react immediately when pressed. The same applies to the AMOLED touchscreen, which detects up to 10 fingers simultaneously. Our review unit responded to inputs almost immediately with virtually no delays.

Xiaomi has also equipped the Mi 9 with an in-screen fingerprint sensor, as is the zeitgeist for 2019 flagship smartphones. The device can store up to five fingerprints and worked perfectly throughout our tests. Optionally, you can unlock the Mi 9 with your face using the front-facing camera, although this is not as secure as a fingerprint, password, pattern or PIN.

The AI ​​button, which sits on the left-hand side of the Mi 9’s frame, triggers Google Assistant by default but you can freely customise it to open apps like the camera or other things like turning on the flashlight and switching back to your last used app. The button supports double or single presses too, and neither of them must be set to the Google Assistant unlike Samsung and its Bixby button.

Xiaomi preinstalls Google Gboard as the default keyboard for the international version of the Mi 9, which functions just as well as it does on other devices that we have tested. You can replace the keyboard with another too like those that are downloadable from the Google Play Store.

Using the default keyboard in portrait mode
Using the default keyboard in portrait mode
Using the default keyboard in landscape mode
Using the default keyboard in landscape mode

Display

Sub-pixel array
Sub-pixel array

The Mi 9 has a 6.9-inch AMOLED display that operates natively at 2340x1080 with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Xiaomi has christened this as HD+ but in practice it should not be different from other 2340x1080 displays. The display has a 403 PPI pixel density and a 90.7% screen-to-body ratio thanks to its narrow bezels.

Our review unit achieved an average maximum brightness of 586.9 cd/m², according to X-Rite i1Pro 2 and is 94% evenly lit, which is on par with the best of our comparison devices. The HDR-capable display moves with the likes of the Mate 20 Pro and the Galaxy S10+, which currently have some of the best displays found in any flagship smartphone. The more realistic APL50 test, which measures maximum luminosity by evenly distributing light and dark areas across the display, claims our review unit reaches an average maximum brightness of 714 cd/m², although this is only with the ambient light sensor activated. Switching off the sensor reduces the maximum brightness to 399 cd/m², which is only around 10% darker than the best that the OnePlus 6T and Xiaomi Mi 8 manage. The panel in our review unit also reached a minimum of 2.28 cd/m² in our tests, which should be dim enough to use the Mi 9 in a dark room without suffering from eye strain or headaches.

The only drawback with the Mi 9’s display that we noticed is that it uses pulse-width modulation (PWM) to regulate luminosity, which can cause eye problems and other issues for some people. The screen in our review unit flickers at 245.1 Hz at 99% brightness and below, which is low enough to affect those who are PWM sensitive.

568
cd/m²
587
cd/m²
589
cd/m²
589
cd/m²
593
cd/m²
600
cd/m²
591
cd/m²
564
cd/m²
601
cd/m²
Distribution of brightness
tested with X-Rite i1Pro 2
Maximum: 601 cd/m² (Nits) Average: 586.9 cd/m² Minimum: 2.28 cd/m²
Brightness Distribution: 94 %
Center on Battery: 593 cd/m²
Contrast: ∞:1 (Black: 0 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 0.9 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5
ΔE Greyscale 1.5 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
95.4% sRGB (Calman 2D)
Gamma: 2.27
Xiaomi Mi 9
AMOLED, 2340x1080, 6.39
Apple iPhone XR
IPS, 1792x828, 6.10
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
OLED, 3120x1440, 6.30
Honor View 20
LTPS, 2310x1080, 6.40
OnePlus 6T
Optic AMOLED, 2340x1080, 6.41
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
OLED, 3040x1440, 6.40
Xiaomi Mi 8
AMOLED, 2248x1080, 6.21
Screen
-18%
-22%
-79%
-58%
-113%
-157%
Brightness middle
593
672
13%
576
-3%
492
-17%
437
-26%
710
20%
430
-27%
Brightness
587
641
9%
582
-1%
475
-19%
442
-25%
721
23%
434
-26%
Brightness Distribution
94
92
-2%
90
-4%
94
0%
95
1%
97
3%
94
0%
Black Level *
0.35
0.4
Colorchecker dE 2000 *
0.9
1.3
-44%
1.3
-44%
2.4
-167%
2.21
-146%
3.7
-311%
5.09
-466%
Colorchecker dE 2000 max. *
2
2.7
-35%
3.5
-75%
5.2
-160%
4.27
-114%
10.3
-415%
8.05
-303%
Greyscale dE 2000 *
1.5
2.2
-47%
1.6
-7%
3.2
-113%
2.1
-40%
1.5
-0%
3.3
-120%
Gamma
2.27 97%
2.3 96%
2.18 101%
2.06 107%
2.307 95%
2.1 105%
2.257 97%
CCT
6548 99%
6868 95%
6561 99%
7125 91%
6353 102%
6611 98%
7026 93%
Contrast
1920
1230

* ... smaller is better

Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)

To dim the screen, some notebooks will simply cycle the backlight on and off in rapid succession - a method called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) . This cycling frequency should ideally be undetectable to the human eye. If said frequency is too low, users with sensitive eyes may experience strain or headaches or even notice the flickering altogether.
Screen flickering / PWM detected 245.1 Hz ≤ 99 % brightness setting

The display backlight flickers at 245.1 Hz (worst case, e.g., utilizing PWM) Flickering detected at a brightness setting of 99 % and below. There should be no flickering or PWM above this brightness setting.

The frequency of 245.1 Hz is relatively low, so sensitive users will likely notice flickering and experience eyestrain at the stated brightness setting and below.

In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18110 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured.

AMOLED panels typically can produce absolute blacks because they can switch off pixels individually, and the one in the Mi 9 is no different. Blacks look rich and help the display achieve a theoretically infinite contrast ratio, which makes colours look sharp. Xiaomi has included two contrast modes too, which it has labelled “standard” and “increased contrast” within the main settings menu.

The display reproduces colours accurately when set to either mode, although colours are a bit too cool for our liking on the increased contrast mode. Our photo spectrometer and CalMAN software demonstrate that our review delivers an almost perfect colour temperature of 6,548 K, which is just 48 K above our ideal value when set to the standard contrast mode. Moreover, DeltaE deviations are all better than the ideal value of 3. None of our comparison devices can match the Mi 9 on colour accuracy. Many come close but they all fall short in one area. Hats off to Xiaomi here because it has done an exemplary job at calibrating the display in our review unit.

CalMAN: Colour Accuracy – Standard colour profile, sRGB target colour space
CalMAN: Colour Accuracy – Standard colour profile, sRGB target colour space
CalMAN: Colour Accuracy – High Contrast colour profile, DCI P3 target colour space
CalMAN: Colour Accuracy – High Contrast colour profile, DCI P3 target colour space
CalMAN: Colour Space – Standard colour profile, sRGB target colour space
CalMAN: Colour Space – Standard colour profile, sRGB target colour space
CalMAN: Colour space – High Contrast colour profile, DCI P3 target colour space
CalMAN: Colour space – High Contrast colour profile, DCI P3 target colour space
CalMAN: Grayscale – Standard colour profile, sRGB target colour space
CalMAN: Grayscale – Standard colour profile, sRGB target colour space
CalMAN: Grayscale – High Contrast colour profile, DCI P3 target colour space
CalMAN: Grayscale – High Contrast colour profile, DCI P3 target colour space
CalMAN: Colour Saturation – Standard colour profile, sRGB target colour space
CalMAN: Colour Saturation – Standard colour profile, sRGB target colour space
CalMAN: Colour saturation – High Contrast colour profile, DCI P3 target colour space
CalMAN: Colour saturation – High Contrast colour profile, DCI P3 target colour space

Display Response Times

Display response times show how fast the screen is able to change from one color to the next. Slow response times can lead to afterimages and can cause moving objects to appear blurry (ghosting). Gamers of fast-paced 3D titles should pay special attention to fast response times.
       Response Time Black to White
4 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined↗ 2 ms rise
↘ 2 ms fall
The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming.
In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 10 % of all devices are better.
This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (21.6 ms).
       Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey
4.4 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined↗ 2.4 ms rise
↘ 2 ms fall
The screen shows very fast response rates in our tests and should be very well suited for fast-paced gaming.
In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.2 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 10 % of all devices are better.
This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (33.9 ms).

The Mi 9 is well prepared for outdoor use too thanks to its incredibly bright display. You should be able to read the device in direct sunlight, although reflections may cause you to have to look harder at the screen than if you moved to a shadier spot.

Using the Xiaomi Mi 9 outside on an overcast sky
Using the Xiaomi Mi 9 outside on an overcast sky
Using the Xiaomi Mi 9 outside on a sunny day
Using the Xiaomi Mi 9 outside on a sunny day

Likewise, our review unit has stable viewing angles thanks to its AMOLED panel, as we expected. We noticed a slight brightness shift when looking at the display from the side, but this does not come at the expense of readability. In short, you should have no issues with reading the Mi 9 from practically any angle.

Viewing angles
Viewing angles

Performance

The Mi 9 is powered by the hotly anticipated Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC, which makes its first appearance in our offices. The SoC is manufactured on a 7 nm FinFET process like the HiSilicon Kirin 980 and has a Qualcomm Kyro 485 CPU that consists of a prime core that can clock up to 2.84 GHz, which is supported by three 2.42 GHz performance cores and four ARM Cortex-A55 cores that can reach 1.8 GHz combined. The SoC also integrates a Qualcomm Adreno 640 GPU. Interestingly, manufacturers can integrate the Snapdragon 855 with a 5G modem, so we expect to find it in several 5G smartphones by the end of the year.

As expected, the Mi 9 proves to be a worthy competitor to other flagship smartphones in synthetic benchmarks and completely outclassed its predecessor in the process.

When it comes to pure CPU performance, such as in Geekbench 4 Single Core and Multi-Core, the Mi 9 falls into line with its Android competitors but is resoundingly beaten by the iPhone XR and its Apple A12 Bionic SoC. However, the Adreno 640 represents a big leap over the Adreno 630 and generally outscores the ARM Mali-G76 MP10 and MP12 in synthetic GPU benchmarks like 3DMark, AnTuTu and GFXBench. The Mi 9, for example, scored around 12% more in AnTuTu v7 than the European variant of the Galaxy S10+ and 25% more than the Mate 20 Pro. Please keep in mind that the US variant of the Galaxy S10+ will not suffer the same performance deficit as our review unit though because it too is equipped with a Snapdragon 855 SoC.

Geekbench 4.4
64 Bit Single-Core Score (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
3523 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
4750 Points +35%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
3378 Points -4%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
3314 Points -6%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
2384 Points -32%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
4505 Points +28%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
2430 Points -31%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (3406 - 3537, n=14)
3480 Points -1%
Average of class Smartphone
  (800 - 9574, n=90, last 2 years)
5063 Points +44%
64 Bit Multi-Core Score (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
10999 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
11276 Points +3%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
10024 Points -9%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
9868 Points -10%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
8995 Points -18%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
10259 Points -7%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
8907 Points -19%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (10187 - 11388, n=14)
10955 Points 0%
Average of class Smartphone
  (2630 - 26990, n=90, last 2 years)
13549 Points +23%
Compute RenderScript Score (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
7482 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
21070 Points +182%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
8938 Points +19%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
9028 Points +21%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
13341 Points +78%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
10177 Points +36%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
13371 Points +79%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (7372 - 8024, n=12)
7629 Points +2%
Average of class Smartphone
  (2053 - 18432, n=70, last 2 years)
10590 Points +42%
PCMark for Android
Work performance score (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
10985 Points
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
12535 Points +14%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
12778 Points +16%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
10590 Points -4%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
9793 Points -11%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
9689 Points -12%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (10330 - 14439, n=19)
12161 Points +11%
Average of class Smartphone
  (10884 - 19297, n=2, last 2 years)
15091 Points +37%
Work 2.0 performance score (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
9035 Points
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
9225 Points +2%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
9243 Points +2%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
8487 Points -6%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
7812 Points -14%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
7983 Points -12%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (8342 - 11440, n=19)
9710 Points +7%
Average of class Smartphone
  (9101 - 12871, n=4, last 2 years)
10872 Points +20%
3DMark
1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Score (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
62225 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
77597 Points +25%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
57047 Points -8%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
57073 Points -8%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
64534 Points +4%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
55740 Points -10%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
55397 Points -11%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (55771 - 83518, n=17)
70036 Points +13%
1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics Score (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
106534 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
162695 Points +53%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
67730 Points -36%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
67388 Points -37%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
84998 Points -20%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
70318 Points -34%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
77203 Points -28%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (97354 - 110432, n=17)
105781 Points -1%
1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Physics (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
25339 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
27413 Points +8%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
36755 Points +45%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
37164 Points +47%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
35022 Points +38%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
32302 Points +27%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
27858 Points +10%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (20636 - 45072, n=18)
32923 Points +30%
2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
7166 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
5724 Points -20%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
4996 Points -30%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
4979 Points -31%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
6336 Points -12%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
4465 Points -38%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
4363 Points -39%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (5251 - 7820, n=18)
7091 Points -1%
Average of class Smartphone
  (712 - 7285, n=52, last 2 years)
3548 Points -50%
2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Graphics (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
9963 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
7806 Points -22%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
5305 Points -47%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
5252 Points -47%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
8272 Points -17%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
5303 Points -47%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
6243 Points -37%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (6122 - 10008, n=18)
9272 Points -7%
Average of class Smartphone
  (618 - 9451, n=52, last 2 years)
3905 Points -61%
2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Physics (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
3614 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
2960 Points -18%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
4150 Points +15%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
4214 Points +17%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
3483 Points -4%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
2875 Points -20%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
2124 Points -41%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (3001 - 4618, n=18)
3925 Points +9%
Average of class Smartphone
  (1093 - 4525, n=52, last 2 years)
3005 Points -17%
2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Unlimited (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
7449 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
7555 Points +1%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
5456 Points -27%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
5087 Points -32%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
6310 Points -15%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
4052 Points -46%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
4034 Points -46%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (5268 - 8141, n=18)
7186 Points -4%
Average of class Smartphone
  (704 - 23024, n=115, last 2 years)
9038 Points +21%
2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Unlimited Graphics (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
10291 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
14085 Points +37%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
5854 Points -43%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
5327 Points -48%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
8397 Points -18%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
4449 Points -57%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
5328 Points -48%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (6358 - 10420, n=18)
9569 Points -7%
Average of class Smartphone
  (607 - 45492, n=114, last 2 years)
15757 Points +53%
2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Unlimited Physics (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
3788 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
2880 Points -24%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
4407 Points +16%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
4393 Points +16%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
3374 Points -11%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
3087 Points -19%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
2181 Points -42%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (2345 - 4703, n=18)
3892 Points +3%
Average of class Smartphone
  (1075 - 8749, n=114, last 2 years)
4335 Points +14%
2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
5509 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
3629 Points -34%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
4201 Points -24%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
4238 Points -23%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
4734 Points -14%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
4452 Points -19%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
3356 Points -39%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (4556 - 5747, n=20)
5489 Points 0%
Average of class Smartphone
  (286 - 7890, n=102, last 2 years)
2685 Points -51%
2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Graphics (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
6355 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
3806 Points -40%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
4206 Points -34%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
4256 Points -33%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
5241 Points -18%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
5186 Points -18%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
4010 Points -37%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (5429 - 6362, n=20)
6201 Points -2%
Average of class Smartphone
  (240 - 9814, n=102, last 2 years)
2675 Points -58%
2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Physics (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
3758 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
3121 Points -17%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
4183 Points +11%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
4175 Points +11%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
3537 Points -6%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
2977 Points -21%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
2137 Points -43%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (2705 - 4612, n=20)
3954 Points +5%
Average of class Smartphone
  (858 - 4679, n=102, last 2 years)
3127 Points -17%
2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Unlimited (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
5913 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
4405 Points -26%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
4275 Points -28%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
3847 Points -35%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
5189 Points -12%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
4529 Points -23%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
3646 Points -38%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (3969 - 6404, n=20)
5819 Points -2%
Average of class Smartphone
  (317 - 20131, n=174, last 2 years)
6545 Points +11%
2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Unlimited Graphics (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
7076 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
5061 Points -28%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
4250 Points -40%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
3718 Points -47%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
5877 Points -17%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
5371 Points -24%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
4471 Points -37%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (5184 - 7148, n=20)
6793 Points -4%
Average of class Smartphone
  (267 - 33376, n=173, last 2 years)
9330 Points +32%
2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Unlimited Physics (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
3754 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
3030 Points -19%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
4364 Points +16%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
4381 Points +17%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
3681 Points -2%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
2925 Points -22%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
2215 Points -41%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (1934 - 5024, n=20)
3942 Points +5%
Average of class Smartphone
  (938 - 8480, n=173, last 2 years)
4158 Points +11%
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7
T-Rex Onscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
60 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
60 fps 0%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
61 fps +2%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
60 fps 0%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
60 fps 0%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
58 fps -3%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
60 fps 0%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (59 - 91, n=20)
63.4 fps +6%
Average of class Smartphone
  (22 - 165, n=177, last 2 years)
83.6 fps +39%
1920x1080 T-Rex Offscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
167 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
232 fps +39%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
120 fps -28%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
118 fps -29%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
152 fps -9%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
96 fps -43%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
120 fps -28%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (85 - 167, n=20)
153.1 fps -8%
Average of class Smartphone
  (19 - 791, n=177, last 2 years)
243 fps +46%
GFXBench 3.0
on screen Manhattan Onscreen OGL (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
60 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
60 fps 0%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
42 fps -30%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
59 fps -2%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
59 fps -2%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
53 fps -12%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
56 fps -7%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (46 - 85, n=20)
59.6 fps -1%
Average of class Smartphone
  (6.8 - 165, n=178, last 2 years)
71.3 fps +19%
1920x1080 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
100 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
132 fps +32%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
73 fps -27%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
67 fps -33%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
59 fps -41%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
67 fps -33%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
67 fps -33%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (50 - 102, n=20)
92.3 fps -8%
Average of class Smartphone
  (9.2 - 363, n=178, last 2 years)
137.9 fps +38%
GFXBench 3.1
on screen Manhattan ES 3.1 Onscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
58 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
60 fps +3%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
26 fps -55%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
48 fps -17%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
53 fps -9%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
37 fps -36%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
45 fps -22%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (27 - 58, n=20)
47.7 fps -18%
Average of class Smartphone
  (3.7 - 158, n=178, last 2 years)
60.2 fps +4%
1920x1080 Manhattan ES 3.1 Offscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
69 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
88 fps +28%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
29 fps -58%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
50 fps -28%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
59 fps -14%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
67 fps -3%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
47 fps -32%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (35 - 71, n=20)
62 fps -10%
Average of class Smartphone
  (6.2 - 279, n=178, last 2 years)
97 fps +41%
GFXBench
on screen Car Chase Onscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
38 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
58 fps +53%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
16 fps -58%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
28 fps -26%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
31 fps -18%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
23 fps -39%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
28 fps -26%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (16 - 41, n=20)
31.7 fps -17%
Average of class Smartphone
  (5 - 117, n=178, last 2 years)
42.9 fps +13%
1920x1080 Car Chase Offscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
42 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
54 fps +29%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
31 fps -26%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
32 fps -24%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
35 fps -17%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
43 fps +2%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
26 fps -38%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (22 - 43, n=20)
39.2 fps -7%
Average of class Smartphone
  (2.9 - 166, n=178, last 2 years)
58.6 fps +40%
on screen Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Onscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
37 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
59 fps +59%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
18 fps -51%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
31 fps -16%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
34 fps -8%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
26 fps -30%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
35 fps -5%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (17 - 38, n=20)
32.5 fps -12%
Average of class Smartphone
  (3.6 - 123, n=218, last 2 years)
43.3 fps +17%
1920x1080 Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Offscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
41 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
63 fps +54%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
33 fps -20%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
34 fps -17%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
37 fps -10%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
46 fps +12%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
34 fps -17%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (22 - 43, n=21)
39.9 fps -3%
Average of class Smartphone
  (2.3 - 229, n=218, last 2 years)
62.9 fps +53%
on screen Aztec Ruins High Tier Onscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
24 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
59 fps +146%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
19 fps -21%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
20 fps -17%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
22 fps -8%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
16 fps -33%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
22 fps -8%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (11 - 26, n=20)
20.9 fps -13%
Average of class Smartphone
  (2.8 - 105, n=218, last 2 years)
32.2 fps +34%
2560x1440 Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
16 fps
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
20 fps +25%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
13 fps -19%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
14 fps -12%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
14 fps -12%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
17 fps +6%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
14 fps -12%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (8.5 - 24, n=21)
16.2 fps +1%
Average of class Smartphone
  (0.85 - 94, n=218, last 2 years)
25 fps +56%
Basemark GPU 1.1
1920x1080 Vulkan Medium Offscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
35.63 fps
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
25.57 (7.38min - 46.96max) fps -28%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
32.86 fps -8%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
38.5 (9.69min - 72.94max) fps +8%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (24.5 - 36.3, n=3)
32.2 fps -10%
Vulkan Medium Native (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
32.2 fps
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
16.92 (6.06min - 28.78max) fps -47%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
29.68 fps -8%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
27.18 (8.36min - 46.5max) fps -16%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (22.7 - 32.2, n=2)
27.5 fps -15%
1920x1080 OpenGL Medium Offscreen (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
37.41 fps
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
29.12 (9.74min - 74.17max) fps -22%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
35.34 fps -6%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
32.26 (8.31min - 85.07max) fps -14%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (33.1 - 37.4, n=3)
35.9 fps -4%
AnTuTu v7 - Total Score (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
374820 Points
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
300617 Points -20%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
306296 Points -18%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
294488 Points -21%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
333277 Points -11%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (217967 - 398720, n=16)
354450 Points -5%
AnTuTu v6 - Total Score (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
257246 Points
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
250848 Points -2%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
252800 Points -2%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
228939 Points -11%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
273655 Points +6%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
234421 Points -9%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (239512 - 268271, n=12)
255436 Points -1%
VRMark - Amber Room (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
4964 Score
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
5025 Score +1%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
4716 Score -5%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
4967 Score 0%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (4486 - 4969, n=3)
4806 Score -3%
Average of class Smartphone
  (1010 - 10071, n=14, last 2 years)
5281 Score +6%
BaseMark OS II
Overall (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
4595 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
5721 Points +25%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
4687 Points +2%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
4746 Points +3%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
4458 Points -3%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
4520 Points -2%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
3852 Points -16%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (3847 - 5397, n=19)
4796 Points +4%
Average of class Smartphone
  (411 - 11438, n=158, last 2 years)
5704 Points +24%
System (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
8441 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
11946 Points +42%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
8604 Points +2%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
8594 Points +2%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
8156 Points -3%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
8344 Points -1%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
6620 Points -22%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (5993 - 9143, n=19)
8539 Points +1%
Average of class Smartphone
  (2376 - 16475, n=158, last 2 years)
9621 Points +14%
Memory (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
4031 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
3263 Points -19%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
6283 Points +56%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
5616 Points +39%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
4344 Points +8%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
4306 Points +7%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
3261 Points -19%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (2661 - 7500, n=19)
5097 Points +26%
Average of class Smartphone
  (670 - 12306, n=158, last 2 years)
6230 Points +55%
Graphics (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
9270 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
15969 Points +72%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
6273 Points -32%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
7484 Points -19%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
7969 Points -14%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
8401 Points -9%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
7895 Points -15%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (8125 - 9510, n=19)
9174 Points -1%
Average of class Smartphone
  (697 - 58651, n=158, last 2 years)
13900 Points +50%
Web (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
1378 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
1722 Points +25%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
1424 Points +3%
Honor View 20
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 8192
1404 Points +2%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
1398 Points +1%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
1383 Points 0%
Xiaomi Mi 8
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
1292 Points -6%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (1076 - 1601, n=19)
1356 Points -2%
Average of class Smartphone
  (10 - 2145, n=158, last 2 years)
1487 Points +8%
Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal - offscreen Overall Score (sort by value)
Xiaomi Mi 9
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Adreno 640, 6144
1415 Points
Apple iPhone XR
Apple A12 Bionic, A12 Bionic GPU, 3072
2754 Points +95%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
HiSilicon Kirin 980, Mali-G76 MP10, 6144
1571 Points +11%
OnePlus 6T
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, Adreno 630, 6144
1201 Points -15%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
Samsung Exynos 9820, Mali-G76 MP12, 8192
1928 Points +36%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
  (1075 - 1425, n=4)
1334 Points -6%
Average of class Smartphone
  (177 - 6114, n=61, last 2 years)
2145 Points +52%

The Mi 9 is also currently one of the fastest smartphones in browser benchmarks as our comparison tables below demonstrate. Our review unit cannot shake the iPhone XR from its pinnacle, but it typically finished above or on par with our most competitive Android comparison devices.

JetStream 1.1 - Total Score
Apple iPhone XR (Safari Mobile 12.0)
267.8 Points +142%
Xiaomi Mi 9 (Chrome 73.0.3683.75)
110.5 Points
Huawei Mate 20 Pro (Chrome 69)
109.2 Points -1%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 (84.4 - 120, n=17)
108.4 Points -2%
Honor View 20 (Chrome 71)
108.1 Points -2%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus (Samsung Browser 9.0)
91.8 Points -17%
OnePlus 6T (Chrome 70)
86.1 Points -22%
Average of class Smartphone (66.1 - 104.3, n=2, last 2 years)
85.2 Points -23%
Xiaomi Mi 8 (Chrome 72)
75.5 Points -32%
Octane V2 - Total Score
Apple iPhone XR (Safari Mobile 12.0)
42897 Points +75%
Average of class Smartphone (4633 - 89112, n=202, last 2 years)
33355 Points +36%
Xiaomi Mi 9 (Chrome 73.0.3683.75)
24534 Points
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 (17011 - 33918, n=21)
23749 Points -3%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro (Chrome 69)
23285 Points -5%
Honor View 20 (Chrome 71)
22500 Points -8%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus (Samsung Browser 9.0)
20849 Points -15%
OnePlus 6T (Chrome 70)
16824 Points -31%
Xiaomi Mi 8 (Chrome 72)
15086 Points -39%
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total
Xiaomi Mi 8 (Chrome 72)
2818 ms * -50%
OnePlus 6T (Chrome 70)
2282 ms * -22%
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 (1852 - 2611, n=19)
2147 ms * -15%
Honor View 20 (Chrome 71)
2048 ms * -9%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro (Chrome 69)
1952 ms * -4%
Xiaomi Mi 9 (Chrome 73.0.3683.75)
1873 ms *
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus (Samsung Browser 9.0)
1857 ms * +1%
Average of class Smartphone (388 - 9999, n=165, last 2 years)
1658 ms * +11%
Apple iPhone XR (Safari Mobile 12.0)
610 ms * +67%
WebXPRT 3 - Overall
Apple iPhone XR (Safari Mobile 12.0)
161 Points +49%
Average of class Smartphone (37 - 304, n=118, last 2 years)
130.7 Points +21%
Huawei Mate 20 Pro (Chrome 69)
124 Points +15%
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus (Samsung Browser 9.0)
115 Points +6%
Xiaomi Mi 9 (Chrome 73.0.3683.75)
108 Points
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 (90 - 129, n=20)
105.2 Points -3%
Honor View 20 (Chrome 71)
99 Points -8%
Xiaomi Mi 8 (Chrome 72)
83 Points -23%
WebXPRT 2015 - Overall
Apple iPhone XR (Safari Mobile 12.0)
343 Points
Huawei Mate 20 Pro (Chrome 69)
334 Points
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus (Samsung Browser 9.0)
314 Points
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 (260 - 316, n=2)
288 Points
Honor View 20 (Chrome 71)
263 Points
OnePlus 6T (Chrome 70)
260 Points
Xiaomi Mi 8 (Chrome 72)
245 Points
Xiaomi Mi 9
Points

* ... smaller is better

Xiaomi equips the Mi 9 with UFS 2.1 flash storage as we mentioned at the start of this article, which helps the device power through all daily tasks. We experienced practically no load times with our review unit, while apps installed almost instantly from the Google Play Store. Likewise, we could not faze the Mi 9 even with intense multitasking. In short, you should never experience any lags or stutters with the Mi 9.

AndroBench results reinforced our initial impressions too. Our review unit achieved up to 165 MB/s 4K transfer speeds, which puts it in the same league as the Mate 20 Pro and View 20. However, it only reached 666 MB/s in 256 KB sequential read tests, which is generally well below our comparison devices. However, this is almost irrelevant to everyday use, as we experienced when we opened multiple apps consecutively.

Xiaomi Mi 9Huawei Mate 20 ProHonor View 20OnePlus 6TSamsung Galaxy S10 PlusXiaomi Mi 8Average 64 GB UFS 2.1 FlashAverage of class Smartphone
AndroBench 3-5
-5%
-3%
-33%
-28%
-35%
-24%
105%
Sequential Read 256KB
666
853
28%
847
27%
735
10%
811
22%
693
4%
696 ?(392 - 895, n=52)
5%
1468 ?(215 - 4512, n=210, last 2 years)
120%
Sequential Write 256KB
388.3
196.4
-49%
250.1
-36%
204.4
-47%
249.1
-36%
207.8
-46%
224 ?(132.7 - 512, n=52)
-42%
1078 ?(57.5 - 3678, n=210, last 2 years)
178%
Random Read 4KB
149.4
157.4
5%
168.9
13%
138.5
-7%
135.2
-10%
136.3
-9%
137.2 ?(78.2 - 192, n=52)
-8%
242 ?(22.2 - 543, n=210, last 2 years)
62%
Random Write 4KB
165.3
157.8
-5%
138.9
-16%
22
-87%
22.7
-86%
21
-87%
84.7 ?(8.77 - 208, n=52)
-49%
266 ?(13 - 709, n=210, last 2 years)
61%
Sequential Read 256KB SDCard
83.2 ?(Huawei NanoSD 128 GB)
73 ?(Toshiba Exceria Pro M501)
68.6 ?(18 - 87.1, n=33)
Sequential Write 256KB SDCard
72.4 ?(Huawei NanoSD 128 GB)
60.7 ?(Toshiba Exceria Pro M501)
52.2 ?(17.1 - 71.9, n=33)

Games

The powerful Adreno 640 GPU also makes the Mi 9 ideal for playing games. The Adreno 640 is also the first GPU to support the Vulkan 1.1 API, which we expect games to take advantage of in the coming years. Hence, the Mi 9 should remain future-proofed for at least a few years. Subjectively, even the most complex of modern games run smoothly on our review unit, regardless of the graphics settings at which they are played.

Unfortunately, we were unable to assess frame rates because the app that we usually use, GameBench, would not work on the Mi 9 at the time of testing. We hope to bring you updated benchmark results subsequently though.

Dead Trigger 2
Dead Trigger 2
PUBG Mobile
PUBG Mobile

Emissions

Temperature

GFXBench battery test - Manhattan
GFXBench battery test - Manhattan
GFXBench battery test - T-Rex
GFXBench battery test - T-Rex

The Mi 9 feels cool to the touch even when operating under full load, which is impressive. Surface temperatures on our review unit reached a maximum of 31.8 °C even during stress tests like GFXBench, but the device should typically average around 27 °C when idling.

However, the Mi 9 throttles from time to time to keep temperatures down, as demonstrated by GFXBench Manhattan benchmark results. Nevertheless, our review unit still scores highly even when it throttles, so we doubt that most people would notice the difference even if they push their Mi 9 hard during a long gaming session.

Max. Load
 31 °C
88 F
31.8 °C
89 F
30 °C
86 F
 
 31.8 °C
89 F
30.7 °C
87 F
30.1 °C
86 F
 
 31.3 °C
88 F
31.4 °C
89 F
30.2 °C
86 F
 
Maximum: 31.8 °C = 89 F
Average: 30.9 °C = 88 F
28.8 °C
84 F
30.3 °C
87 F
30.5 °C
87 F
28.5 °C
83 F
30 °C
86 F
30.8 °C
87 F
29 °C
84 F
30.2 °C
86 F
30.9 °C
88 F
Maximum: 30.9 °C = 88 F
Average: 29.9 °C = 86 F
Power Supply (max.)  26.1 °C = 79 F | Room Temperature 21.6 °C = 71 F | Voltcraft IR-260
(+) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 30.9 °C / 88 F, compared to the average of 32.7 °C / 91 F for the devices in the class Smartphone.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 31.8 °C / 89 F, compared to the average of 35 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 56 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 30.9 °C / 88 F, compared to the average of 33.8 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 27.9 °C / 82 F, compared to the device average of 32.7 °C / 91 F.
Heat map of the front of the device under load
Heat map of the front of the device under load
Heat map of the back of the device under load
Heat map of the back of the device under load

Speakers

Pink noise speaker characteristics
Pink noise speaker characteristics

The Mi 9 has a single speaker that Xiaomi has placed on the underside of the device next to the Type-C port. The speaker sits behind the right-hand grille if the display is facing upwards; it appears that the left-hand grille is just there for decoration.

The mono speaker reached a maximum of 87.1 dB(A) during our tests, during which it did not distort. The speaker reproduces mid and high tones linearly, but bass tones are rather thin on the ground. In short, the speaker is good enough for making hands-free calls and for occasionally having music playing in the background, but we would recommend using external speakers or headphones for a better listening experience.

dB(A) 0102030405060708090Deep BassMiddle BassHigh BassLower RangeMidsHigher MidsLower HighsMid HighsUpper HighsSuper Highs2039.432.92528.325.43118.726.54026.725.95033.229.46322.622.78021.822.210024.43112523.839.216018.550.420017.149.125017.853.831515.556.140014.162.55001467.963013.869.180014.773.5100015.477125015.276.6160014.376.5200014.574.9250013.971.7315014.675.9400014.178.1500014.374.3630014.574.6800014.875.71000014.8751250014.864.4160001558.2SPL26.887.1N0.871.4median 14.8median 71.7Delta1.78.842.737.742.136.430.529.133.632.738.134.830.431.825.224.825.524.9262921.538.920.144.618.947.817.85418.35819.162.619.565.217.366.515.767.214.369.615.87114.874.915.470.714.766.814.361.314.768.414.870.714.267.51462.214.554.914.347.568.82881.222.2147.9median 15.8median 62.2median 64.64.212.216.6hearing rangehide median Pink NoiseXiaomi Mi 9Xiaomi Mi 8
Frequency diagram (checkboxes can be checked and unchecked to compare devices)
Xiaomi Mi 9 audio analysis

(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (87.1 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 25.1% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (10.7% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(+) | balanced mids - only 4.4% away from median
(+) | mids are linear (5% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(+) | balanced highs - only 3.4% away from median
(+) | highs are linear (4% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (17.3% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 8% of all tested devices in this class were better, 6% similar, 86% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 38%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 27% of all tested devices were better, 8% similar, 65% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%

Xiaomi Mi 8 audio analysis

(±) | speaker loudness is average but good (81.2 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 64.6% lower than median
(+) | bass is linear (0% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(-) | nearly no mids - on average 64.6% lower than median
(+) | mids are linear (0% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(-) | nearly no highs - on average 64.6% lower than median
(+) | highs are linear (0% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(-) | overall sound is not linear (124.5% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 93% of all tested devices in this class were better, 6% similar, 1% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 38%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 98% of all tested devices were better, 2% similar, 0% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%

Battery Life

Power Consumption

As we have mentioned throughout this review, the Mi 9 is the first Snapdragon 855-powered smartphone that we have tested. Hence, our power consumption table looks more skewed in the Mi 9’s favour than it will do in a few months once we have tested more Snapdragon 855-powered devices.

Regardless, the Mi 9 consumes considerably less on average than our comparison devices. Our review unit consumes a minimum of 0.67 W at idle, which is better than all but the iPhone XR of our comparison devices. Likewise, the Mi 9 averages just 1.26 W at idle, a value that is only beaten by the OnePlus 6T. The system consumed a maximum of 9.3 W under load but averages 3.71 W, which is significantly lower than our comparison devices.

In short, the Mi 9 currently has class-leading power consumption. However, we expect this to change once we have tested more Snapdragon 855-powered devices.

Power Consumption
Off / Standbydarklight 0.01 / 0.24 Watt
Idledarkmidlight 0.67 / 1.26 / 1.29 Watt
Load midlight 3.71 / 9.3 Watt
 color bar
Key: min: dark, med: mid, max: light        Metrahit Energy
Currently we use the Metrahit Energy, a professional single phase power quality and energy measurement digital multimeter, for our measurements. Find out more about it here. All of our test methods can be found here.
Xiaomi Mi 9
3300 mAh
Apple iPhone XR
2942 mAh
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
4200 mAh
Honor View 20
4000 mAh
OnePlus 6T
3700 mAh
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
4100 mAh
Xiaomi Mi 8
3400 mAh
Average Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
 
Average of class Smartphone
 
Power Consumption
-38%
-35%
-58%
-11%
-30%
-76%
-24%
-23%
Idle Minimum *
0.67
0.61
9%
0.95
-42%
0.97
-45%
0.7
-4%
0.73
-9%
1.5
-124%
0.939 ?(0.58 - 1.96, n=19)
-40%
0.894 ?(0.42 - 2.37, n=157, last 2 years)
-33%
Idle Average *
1.26
2.67
-112%
2.17
-72%
2.58
-105%
1.1
13%
1.53
-21%
2.2
-75%
1.506 ?(0.85 - 2.8, n=19)
-20%
1.452 ?(0.69 - 4.26, n=157, last 2 years)
-15%
Idle Maximum *
1.29
2.69
-109%
2.25
-74%
2.63
-104%
2.1
-63%
2.07
-60%
2.6
-102%
1.799 ?(1 - 2.9, n=19)
-39%
1.632 ?(0.79 - 4.45, n=157, last 2 years)
-27%
Load Average *
3.71
4.34
-17%
4.47
-20%
5.24
-41%
4.2
-13%
6.03
-63%
6.1
-64%
4.61 ?(3.64 - 5.8, n=19)
-24%
5.55 ?(2.4 - 16.5, n=157, last 2 years)
-50%
Load Maximum *
9.3
5.66
39%
6.15
34%
8.73
6%
8.3
11%
9.18
1%
10.9
-17%
9.04 ?(7.49 - 11.9, n=19)
3%
8.23 ?(4.32 - 20.8, n=157, last 2 years)
12%

* ... smaller is better

Battery Life

The Mi 9 has a 3,300 mAh battery, which is rather small compared to the batteries in most of our comparison devices. Correspondingly, while our review unit achieved respectable runtimes in our battery life tests, it averages significantly less than all but the Galaxy S10+ of our comparison devices.

Our review unit managed almost 17 hours in our looped H.264 video battery life test, which is longer than all but the iPhone XR, which incidentally has the smallest battery life of our comparison devices. However, the Mi 9 needed recharging in under 10 hours when we ran our practical Wi-Fi test, which is over 7 hours shorter than the Honor View 20 lasted. Moreover, our review unit lasted just over 3 hours under sustained load, which is worse than all but the Galaxy S10+ of our comparison devices.

The Mi 9 supports up to 27 W wired charging, but the international version comes with an 18 W charger as we mentioned in the Accessories & Warranty section. However, our review unit still recharges fully with the included charger in 1:13 hours, which is incredibly fast. The Mi 9 can also recharge wirelessly at 20 W and is the first smartphone to be able to do so according to Xiaomi. Overall, the Mi 9 may not have the best battery life, but at least you can recharge it quickly.

Battery Runtime
Idle (without WLAN, min brightness)
27h 30min
WiFi Websurfing
9h 06min
Big Buck Bunny H.264 1080p
16h 48min
Load (maximum brightness)
3h 14min
Xiaomi Mi 9
3300 mAh
Apple iPhone XR
2942 mAh
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
4200 mAh
Honor View 20
4000 mAh
OnePlus 6T
3700 mAh
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus
4100 mAh
Xiaomi Mi 8
3400 mAh
Battery Runtime
47%
19%
25%
25%
-8%
9%
Reader / Idle
1650
2969
80%
1747
6%
1928
17%
1936
17%
1560
-5%
1634
-1%
H.264
1008
1011
0%
854
-15%
932
-8%
903
-10%
921
-9%
897
-11%
WiFi v1.3
546
910
67%
767
40%
969
77%
865
58%
483
-12%
736
35%
Load
194
270
39%
282
45%
222
14%
261
35%
187
-4%
215
11%

Pros

+ premium glass case
+ fast Wi-Fi
+ precise GPS
+ dual-SIM
+ Widevine DRM L1-certified
+ excellent triple rear-facing cameras
+ fast fingerprint sensor
+ fast facial recognition
+ impressive AMOLED display
+ powerful SoC
+ UFS 2.1 flash storage
+ wireless charging
+ Quick Charge 4.0

Cons

- case picks up fingerprints easily
- not water-resistant or dustproof
- the device does not lie flat because of its triple rear-facing cameras
- no microSD card slot
- Type-C port operates only at USB 2.0
- no headphone jack
- PWM
- underwhelming battery life

Verdict

The Xiaomi Mi 9 smartphone review. Test device courtesy of TradingShenzhen.
The Xiaomi Mi 9 smartphone review. Test device courtesy of TradingShenzhen.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 is a triumphant smartphone that puts other flagships to shame by being incredible value for money. The base model, which has 6 GB RAM and 64 GB of storage, is well-equipped by modern flagship standards. However, the 128 GB model may be a better choice for many people because the Mi 9 does not support expandable storage.

Xiaomi has equipped all Mi 9 models with excellent triple rear-facing cameras and a bright AMOLED screen that has exemplary colour accuracy, which all fits in a stylish and high-quality glass case. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC also makes the Mi 9 one of the most powerful smartphones that money can currently buy. That will change with the release of more Snapdragon 855-powered smartphones though.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 is the smartphone to buy if you are after a flagship experience but on a budget. It offers everything that its competitors do but without needing to spend a fortune.

While we have a few gripes, like the lack of a headphone jack and no microSD card support, the Mi 9 is in good company with many of its competitors that also lack these features. The classy glass case is also prone to fingerprints, and the triple rear-facing camera housing makes the device wobble on a table, but these quibbles do not detract from what is one of the best flagship smartphone experiences that money can buy in early 2019.

Xiaomi Mi 9 - 08/31/2022 v7
Manuel Masiero

Chassis
84%
Keyboard
67 / 75 → 89%
Pointing Device
95%
Connectivity
50 / 70 → 71%
Weight
90%
Battery
88%
Display
92%
Games Performance
55 / 64 → 86%
Application Performance
76 / 86 → 88%
Temperature
94%
Noise
100%
Audio
81 / 90 → 90%
Camera
70%
Average
80%
86%
Smartphone - Weighted Average

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Manuel Masiero, 2019-03-29 (Update: 2019-03-30)