In our opinion Xiaomi Mi 9T is one of the best phones ever made, we’re still using it in 2024 and it’s now over 4 years old and let’s review it, but how it’s holding up? Feature wise it is still quite a capable device, design wise it looks more modern then a lot of newest phones which is mindblowing. The only area where it wasn’t able to keep up is the hardware, but that is to be expected. Let’s take a closer look to each part.
Body
Back in 2019 when it was released, build from aluminium frame and glass back was considered to be premium and so it’s the case today. The phone itself had gorgeous color options with flame like back glass covers in red and blue that changed depending on the viewing angle. Also the body is really slim even for today’s standards. Compared to the today’s phones in the same price range that 9T was released in, quite often it beats then in build quality which is sad and impressive at the same time.
After 4 years of use, there are some paint chips around the corners of the device, but really apart from that, phone is in a really good shape, no scratches on the back glass. It helped that the phone was well looked after with the screen protectors and plastic cases.
Display
Still a great AMOLED display, maybe even the perfect size with 6.39″, which is a sweetspot between being able to enjoy media consumption and not have the phone which is not going to fit your pocket. It’s protected with the Gorilla Glass 5, still a very solid technology for scratch and shatter protection.
It falls behind the today’s displays in the PPI department, but not by much, with 403 PPI, it lacks around 10-15%, but the screen is still plenty sharp. 60Hz display does feel clunky tho compared the the modern screens.
Camera
As mentioned in the intro, hardware feels really behind and especially when it comes to the camera. Phone is equipped with 48 MP main shooter, 8 MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom and 13 MP ultra wide lens. For daylight photos, it still produces solid images, but it has quite bad dynamic range, exposure and contrast compared to modern cameras. Mi 9T also struggles in low light conditions, with a high noise and graining.
Front facing camera apart from raising heads and people absolutely being mind blown when they see such a hidden motorized camera, it produces solid images and selfies.
It supports 4K 30FPS video recording, so on par with the modern mid ranger, quite impressive to be honest. Front facing camera tho only supports 1080p 30FPS video recording.
Battery
Battery capacity is 4000 mAh and we were able to get around 3 years of decent battery life, now the battery is replaced and sadly it doesn’t seem like it has as much juice as it had with the factory battery, but it is enough.
Charging speed is slow for today’s standards at only 18W, but that is actually the same speed like new Iphones have, not bad.
Performance
Equipped with the Snapdragon 730, it feels laggy at times even with just opening the apps and navigating through the system, it hasn’t aged that well.
Gaming in newest titles is not the best experience, we’ve managed to play Call of Duty Mobile at medium settings with above 40 FPS, but something like Genshin Impact even at low settings would be a struggle.
This was to be expected tho, a mid range chip can’t age well, something like Snapdragon 855 that was in Mi 9T Pro was a lot more future proof, but also more expensive.
Features
Unlocking can be made with the camera face ID or optical underscreen sensor. Unlocking through the camera is a bit slow since you’ll have to wait for the camera to pop up and then read your face. Optical sensor is still used in many newest low and mid range phones, so it’s definitely not old tech. On this phones it phone it works perfectly even after this many years.
Belive it or not, it has a headphone jack and eventhough usually everything is not being connected wirelessly, it is a nice option to have.
Conclusion
It really is a legendary phone, from 2019 there hasn’t been such a quality phone at the affordable price that can give run for their money to the flagships. People can’t really tell that this phone is now almost 6 years old from just looking at it.
If you’re not a power user, there isn’t really a great option in around $300 dollars that even after that many years can bring so many big improvements that would make the swap worth it. We might upgrade to something newer in the near future just because the hardware is really starting to show it’s age, but Mi 9T will stay in our hearts as the best phone we ever had.
In case you are looking for a new budget, mid range or a flagship phone, feel free to look at our recommendations for each:
