When we first moved into the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro something unexpected happened: having come from the wonderfully designed Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ flagship, the much more affordable Xiaomi didn't leave us with a hint of disappointment.

At this asking price you probably won't find a better phone on the market. The 9T Pro is Xiaomi out-OnePlusing OnePlus, creating a phone with majority flagship specs and design for a cut of the price. It's a very impressive next-gen update of the original Mi 9.

However, the Mi 9T Pro isn't quite perfection. So what corners have been cut in order to create such a serious phone for such a price?

Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro

Amazon

Our quick take

It's quite simply bonkers the Mi 9T Pro sells for the price it does, given its flagship specification, which makes for very fluid use and ensures no task will be a problem. The screen is decent, even the cameras are pretty good, while battery life lasts for a solid innings too.

It's not a perfect phone, though, as we've had a few quibbles with the MIUI's software quirks, along with some intermittent connectivity issues, and the calls quality is poor given the limited speaker space on the front of the phone.

Overall, however, we struggle to think of a better phone at this price point than the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro. It's even undercutting OnePlus by quite a margin, which alone is enough reason to look at this Xiaomi.

Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro - 4.5 / 5

FORAGAINST
  • Huge amounts of performance for the price
  • Includes 3.5mm headphones jack
  • Solid battery innings
  • Unrivalled spec for the price
  • OLED panel looks tasty
  • Fairly decent cameras too
  • MIUI software can be cumbersome
  • Fairly chunky build
  • No dust/waterproofing
  • Poor call quality
  • Not great cameras in low-light
  • Some Bluetooth/connectivity issues
  • Not the highest-res screen ever

Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro

Amazon

Design & Screen

  • 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Under-screen fingerprint scanner
  • Aluminium frame with Gorilla Glass front/rear
  • Dimensions: 156.7 x 74.3 x 8.8mm / Weight: 191g
  • 6.39-inch Super AMOLED display, 1080 x 2340 resolution, no notch
  • Finishes available: Carbon Black (as reviewed), Red flame, Glacier Blue

There seems to be a trend for large phones of late, the megalith that is the iPhone 11 Pro Max being one such example. Although the Mi 9T Pro isn't massive by any means, it does have a slightly burly build and weight about it, so don't expect the sveltest slab in your pocket.

Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro review image 2
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But Xiaomi has bucked the trend elsewhere by including a 3.5mm headphone jack up top, so you can plug in headphones to listen to your tunes. And, of course, there's Bluetooth too, if that's your preferred way of listening.

Speaking of Bluetooth, we've found that to be a little hit and miss in terms of connectivity. The same can be said of intermittent mobile signal when out and about. Both these issues could be attributed to software handling, perhaps, but we'll get to that stuff later. It's little nitpicks such as this that hold the Mi 9T Pro back from total perfection.

In terms of design our carbon fibre-esque review handset - that's 'Carbon Black' by Xiaomi's word - looks rather fetching. The rear isn't too glossy so doesn't adsorb fingerprints like most other phones these days, while the protruding cameras offer up a single red highlight around the top lens to add a lick of accent colour. Having used the phone for many weeks, however, the edging of the camera unit has lost some paint work - something that's no bother for the main glass-clad body.

Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro review image 3
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To look at you wouldn't think this is a phone that costs just 40 per cent of many top-name flagships. Front-on the minimal bezel surrounding the 6.39-inch Super AMOLED panel (the same that Samsung uses, as that's where it's sourcedfrom) makes the screen look dominant - it's got a higher screen-to-body ration than many flagships because there's no notch. How come? Because the front-facing camera is a pop-up one, hidden inside the body.

Being an OLED panel, the Mi 9T Pro offers deep blacks and plenty of colour. Most competitors at this level are LCD, so that's a big tick in the pros box for this handset. The resolution isn't the highest going, though, but with a Full HD+ panel it's got enough pixels to make good; any more and the battery life might not last out so long really. It's all about balance.

Performance & Battery

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, 6GB or 8GB RAM configuration
  • Google Android 9.0 (Pie) OS; Xiaomi MIUI 10 software
  • 4,000mAh battery; 27W fast-charging via USB-C

In terms of day-to-day performance we think the reason the Mi 9T Pro has impressed us so much is because its battery life digs its heels in and just keeps on going. There's no drama getting a 15 hour day out of this phone when using it heavily, including gaming, which is a lot more than we could say about the aforementioned Samsung Note 10+.

Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro review image 7
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So you might expect this Xiaomi to have a lightweight, middling processor to help that battery life along. Not so. Instead, there's a top-spec (for 2019) Qualcomm chipset under the hood.

Having an SD855 under the hood at this price point is a revelation really. Coupled with the 6GB or 8GB RAM - the latter only going to the top-end storage version, if you pay extra - it really flies along when it comes to loading apps and games. So if you're into PUBG Mobile or any other such demanding title, this phone has got your back.

The performance gripes only really come from the software. While the Mi 9T Pro shipped runing Google's Android 9.0 operating system, heavily reworked with Xiaomi's MIUI software, that's now ugradable to Android 10 (with Xiaomi's MIUI 11). This is typical of a Chinese brand, because Google isn't a thing in China, thus each company has to have its own gateways into getting apps, to protecting its products and services, and to offering its own akin-to-Google applications too.

Which might be great if you're based in China and Mandarin if your main language. Not so much elsewhere, where we don't care for the duplication of app stores - yep, Xiaomi has its own, alongside Google Play - because it just muddies the water. We've had the phone update some apps from its own store, others from Google Play, then pause and hesitate while it security checks and scans apps - a potentially great way to add a layer of security, but unnecessary for when Google Play Protect is in place.

So that's the main hurdle of this Xiaomi phone: its software. There's no app drawer. Notifications work a bit differently, too, so if you delete an email from your inbox the notification about it won't go until you separately delete that.

Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro review image 12
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In the same breath, MIUI adds some desirable additions, including dual apps, so you can run two versions of Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, and so on, across two different SIM cards. Plus it's very adept at handling battery useage, including per app, where there's a lot of customisation to ensure everything keeps on working as you see fit.

Cameras

  • Rear triple camera system
    • Main: 48 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (equivalent)
    • 2x zoom: 8 MP, f/2.4, 53mm (equivalent)
    • Ultra-wide: 13 MP, f/2.4, 12mm (equivalent)
  • 4K video at 30/60fps, Full HD at 30/120/240fps
  • Pop-up selfie camera (motorised)

The final major part of the Mi 9T Pro's puzzle is its camera arrangement, which differs from the original Mi 9 by using different sensors and specifications and, of course, hiding that front-facing camera behind a motorised pop-up mechanism.

Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro review image 9
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Having a number of lenses adds versatility to such a system, with this phone embodying a standard wide lens, an ultra-wide (0.6x) and a 2x zoom so you can capture a variety of scenes.

Interestingly the main unit is a 48-megapixel one, which uses four-in-one pixels to deliver 12MP shots with greater clarity - as it has four sites rather than one to draw from in terms of colour and information. It works well, too, with images having enough snap to them when viewed at 100 per cent on a screen. Whether under limited light when we were shooting lobsters on ice, or when out in the bright Berlin sun, there's ample detail on show.

Things aren't always totally on the money though. The wide-angle, which is lower-resolution, suffers with detail loss to its edges, while image processing is a bit heavier here - groups of trees, for example, lack that real definition and become a green mush.

And when it comes to low-light, the wide-angle and zoom lenses are a bit of a write-off - only the higher-res main camera can cope to some degree here, using its night mode, but even then it's not a patch on the offerings you'll find from Apple, Google and Huawei. Can't have it all, we suppose, but even for shooting in limited light the Mi 9T Pro punches above its competition at this price point.

Then there's that all-important front-facing camera, which pops-up, including a light-up red outer edge, when hitting the selfie button in the camera app. It take a little moment for that camera to reveal itself, but it's fairly speedy to get into place. It's a logical way to avoid a notch on the screen, although it removes the possibility of facial recognition sign-ins.

Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro review cameras image 15
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We're not the biggest selfie fans in the world - ok, so we took a bunch of snaps with our friend's dog in Chicago because, well, why not? - but find this 20-megapixel shooter to do the business. It also goes a bit over the top when it comes to facial smoothing and beauty modes (because, er, Xiaomi), but many will be looking for such a solution anyway.

Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro

Amazon

To recap

It's quite simply bonkers this phone sells for the price it does, given its flagship specification, which makes for very fluid use and ensures no task will be a problem. The screen is decent, the cameras are pretty good too, while battery life lasts for a solid innings too. It's just the software quirks and some intermittent connectivity/Bluetooth/calls quality that hold it back a touch. But that's all forgivable given the price point.