Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Review

Rear cameras, photo and video samples

The Redmi Note 9 features a 48MP main camera with a 1/2" sensor size, 0.8μm pixel size that becomes 1.6μm with the 4-in-1 Super Pixel technology. The camera has an f/1.79 aperture, 6-element lens, and a 79.4° field of view. The default image resolution of the camera is 12MP and there's a separate mode that shoots in the original 48MP resolution. Unfortunately, the main camera does not shoot 4K videos. It is limited to 1080p videos instead. The unit does not support real zoom - the 2x icon you see on the screen is merely a digitally zoomed and cropped image.

You can switch to the 8MP ultra-wide camera and snap photos with it as well. It makes images with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels and has a 118° field of view. The sensor has a 1.2 μm pixel size, a 1/4" optical format and the camera's aperture is f/2.2. The lens consists of 5 elements. The ultra-wide camera is capable of recording 1080p videos at 30 fps.

The Redmi Note 9 also has a 2MP depth-sensing unit with a 1/5" sensor with 1.75 μm pixel size, 3-element lens and an f/2.4 aperture. Finally, there's the 2MP macro camera. It has a 1/5" sensor with 1.75 μm pixel size and an f/2.4 aperture. With it, you can shoot from as close as 2 cm and the photos are with a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. It is also supported by autofocus.

Front camera, photo samples

The Redmi Note 9 is equipped with a 13MP front camera with a 1.12 μm pixel size, 74° field of view, 1/3.06" sensor size, an aperture of f/2.25, and a 5-element lens. It shoots 1080p videos at 30 fps. Face unlock is supported.

Camera app

The Camera app is the usual MIUI one but customized according to the camera specifics of the model. As usual, the main screen of the app has a circular shutter button at the bottom's center with a shortcut to the list of photos and videos to its left and the camera switch to its right. Above those buttons, you will see the list of shooting modes - Photo, 48MP, Portrait, Video, Short Video, Slow Motion, Night, Panorama, Pro. The top of the screen contains the flash and HDR options, AI on/off and Macro on/off buttons, Beauty mode with a beauty-effect slider and a large choice of filters. If you click on the hamburger menu in the top right corner, you also get additional shooting options - straighten, tilt-shift, timer, camera frame, dynamic shots and a shortcut to the camera settings hideen behind a hamburger menu. These additional options change depending on the shooting mode that's active at the moment. When you're shooting videos, you can choose the resolution and fps from the corresponding option on the top of the screen. By default, the smartphone takes 12MP photos with the main camera. This corresponds to the 1x zoom level. If you want to snap 48MP shots, you either go to the 48MP mode or choose the corresponding option from the Pro Mode. If you want to take photos with the ultra-wide camera, simply click the 0.6 zoom level or choose this type of camera from the Pro Mode. If you want to take macro shots, then tap on the macro icon on the top of the screen or choose the macro camera from the Pro Mode. The 2x zoom level actually uses the main camera. It takes a normal photo, digitally zooms it in and crops it. There's no optical zoom on this smartphone. The Portrait mode supports studio lights effects and beautification. The Night Mode was introduced with the launch of the Mi MIX 3 and, of course, has found its way on the Redmi Note 9. For this mode, the main camera is used. The Pro mode allows you to adjust the white balance, f-number, ISO, exposure compensation and shutter speed as well as choose the camera with which you want to shoot - macro, wide, ultra-wide. The video shooting options are quite expanded. You can switch on track moving objects, vlog shooting, macro video, real-time video beautification, etc. The Camera settings are one and the same for the front and rear cameras and include toggles for camera sounds, location info saving, save the previous mode, add a time stamp on photos, device watermark, show grid lines, focus and shoot, scan QR codes, save original photos as well. You can also set the camera frame and picture quality. When shooting videos, the settings allow you to set the resolution and fps, the video encoder, time-lapse interval. The rest of the video recording options are the same as for the photo shooting ones. The interface for the front camera is almost entirely identical to the one for the rear cameras. Whenever you choose a shooting mode that's not supported by the front shooters (the Night mode, for example), the device simply switches to the rear cameras.