Review on Xiaomi Camera Factory Unlocked Smartphone by Jaleel Pruitt

I've been thinking about buying a Xiaomi smartphone for a long time and tried out Redmi Go in a spontaneous purchase, saw Redmi 8 and decided to wait, then Redmi 9 and reviews came too. Before purchasing, I watched several video reviews and guides on how to get the best experience. Here are my thoughts. First impression: I'm not about super cheap phones, I think what I need and the design plays a part in that. Is this phone really big? Yes. Can it be too big sometimes? Yes. Then why do I need such a big phone? Productivity is above everything. I understand that it has a plastic body because despite the large and wide size of the Redmi 9, the risk of falling is kept to a minimum thanks to the textured back and transparent body, which is actually not that bad. The design reminds me of the Note 8 Pro, but it's smaller and made of plastic. I can feel a large battery in this device, but the weight is evenly distributed and I haven't had any issues with the weight on the bottom or the top. Hardware and utility performance: We have a headphone jack and USB-C on the bottom (which I prefer) and an IR blaster on the top, which I've found works well. Not great, just ok. The microphone performance isn't much better or worse than the slightly cheaper or more expensive phones I've used, they're clear enough to pick up my words, as is the speaker. Headphone performance is identical to my latest Galaxy A10E phone. The fingerprint scanner is fairly fast, but the positioning and elevation makes it a little too easy for the palm to press, which doesn't seem to be noticeable. Face ID is stunningly better than other devices with an identical front camera setup. Speaking of cameras, the Redmi 9 aggressively beats its pay grade, but not much above it. When shooting outdoors it's serviceable, but indoors it's pretty mediocre, there's imperfect image stabilization but it can be compensated for when conditions are right. The Full HD display is mathematically 1080p, which is something many other OEMs don't want to invest in a sub-$200 phone. You get what you pay for and it's not as noticeable outdoors in full brightness. The battery life is amazing considering I'm not a power user I get a good four days of battery without feeling the need to charge, even at 45% - less than half! Finally, performance comes in the form of four gigabytes of RAM, which makes a big difference, especially since the chipset sits in the "Super Budget Gaming" performance band (Mediatek Helio G80), allowing this thing to fly between tasks for at least seven to eight applications , before everything starts to reboot upon recovery. Software: Here I confused a lot with Xiaomi phones. I'm caught between the overly cautious power user and the average nobody who just uses what's available. When using Xiaomi smartphones, you are dealing with ads and a series of malware that you cannot remove immediately without special tools. I don't like rooting, I'm unreliable at it, so I break things. Using a non-root solution called ADB Fast Tools, I was able to remove most ads and other crap I don't like lingering on my phone, as well as most but four Google apps. Also, Xiaomi has done a better job with MIUI 11 by adopting common features instead of copying iOS. I prefer black dark mode with color accents over just dark gray, this version of MIUI gets it right. Gestures aren't that important to me, maybe because it's another programming thing I'm not good at, and I often miss the spot when swiping home. For all the apps I uploaded using the tool above, I used simplified alternatives with basic functionality and discarded what I couldn't upload with these simpler apps. General Pros and Cons: + Acceptable build quality + Awesome battery life + Very good performance for the price + MIUI improvements fit stock Android - Inconvenient and overreactive fingerprint scanner - Gesture navigation not good enough to promote system apps