Month: August 2020

We have been too used to teabags, which is pretty very convenient to be honest with you. All you need to do is just simply ditch the tea bags once you are done. But to be able to enjoy natural tea leaves, its quite hassle, you need to have a teapot with proper strainer just not to digest the leaves. Good thing there is something invented called the Pinztea Tea Infuser. I was pretty excited myself as I am a tea drinker, to be able to carry the tea OTG. All I need to do is simply put the tea leaves to the small glass, then cover the strainer, pour in hot water to the flask, close the lid, and turn it upsidedown for around 5 minutes. 

Then Magic! You can now enjoy your fresh brewed tea, simply almost anywhere you go. its really convenient and I have been using this almost everyday. Freshly brewed natural tea wherever you go.

Now, under quarantine we are all very wary of cleaning the house and our surroundings. Well to be honest, you need proper gadgets to do the cleaning. Check out these cleaning agents from the iClean company, one of the many Xiaomi ecosystem company. There are mop, dust pan and broom to mention a few. Dusters are also in the house to dust off those pesky dust from the cabinets and walls.

We all know that the virus still havent stopped spreading in each country it is present, well except Taiwan and Vietnam. Now, we all have to be pretty careful, and one of the things we can do is to do preventive maintenance. The Smartmi Humidifier is a big help, you can use this to help make the air in your house more humid and at the same time you can add some essential oils to make it smells better. There are some oils like eucalyptus which can kill bacteria and fungi present in the air.

Redmi has released 3 Note series at the same time during the Live launch Globally on April 30th. Redmi Note 9s, Note 9 and Note 9 Pro was announced all at the same time. To my surprise, the 9s was pretty new to the family, we know that the Redmi Note 9 succeeds the Note 8 while the Redmi Note 9 Pro is the newer version of the Redmi Note 8 Pro. This leaves me pretty intrigued on what the 9s represents, it is pretty much of a new series of its own. Now we have it here on our hands, why not lets get on with it and review this new Redmi Note smartphone.

Redmi Note 9s Specs Sheet

• 6.67-inch FHD+ IPS LCD display @ 2400 x 1080 pixels, 395ppi, 84.5% Screen to Body Ratio, 20:9 Ratio
• Corning Gorilla Glass 5 front and back, Plastic Frame
• Qualcomm SM7125 Snapdragon 720G (8 nm) Octa-core (2×2.3 GHz Kryo 465 Gold & 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 465 Silver)
• Adreno 618 GPU
• 4GB / 6GB RAM
• 64GB / 128GB Internal storage, UFS 2.0
• Expandable via microSD, up to 512GB (Dedicated Slot)
• 48 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF, Night Mode
• 8 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), 1/4.0″, 1.12µm
• 5 MP, f/2.4, (macro), 1.12µm
• 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)
• 16 MP, f/2.5, (wide), 1.0µm
• Dual-SIM (Nano + Nano + Micro SD), Splash Proof
• 4G LTE, 4G+, VoLTE
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4G/5G Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Display
• Bluetooth 5.0
• GPS w/ A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou Positioning
• Fingerprint scanner (power button), Face Unlocking Feature
• USB-C Port
• 5020 mAh battery Li-Po, 18W Fast Charge Support
• Android 10 on MIUI 11
• 165.8 x 76.7 x 8.8 mm
• 209grams
• Available in Aurora Blue, Glacier White and Interstellar Gray

Unboxing

Design

I was pretty much surprise with the all new design for the Redmi Note 9s, the Redmi Note 8 was quite a disappointment as it was really just a beefed up Redmi Note 7 frankly speaking. The punch hole is a bit refreshing, the teardrop notch is quite 2019 already, I love the camera placement, to be honest, this is probably the main selling point of this phone. As soon as I was playing games, the camera does not give me that embossed feeling, like when I was using the Note 8, my index finger is a bit elevated, making it uncomfortable after long hours of gaming. This one is pretty much all my fingers are flat on the corning gorilla glass back. Which is very at ease when playing.

Snapdragon 720G

I was a bit surprise about the performance of this chipset, I was more of expecting it to be a power efficient series, but it turns out it can handle heavy games. Mobile legends it can handle Ultra frame rate as well as Call of Duty can handle High Settings! I was using the 6/128GB version and I honestly didnt feel any hicups during game play. On top of that, multitasking was a breeze and it can handle almost every load I throw at it!

Connectivity

The Redmi Note 9s supports 11 different LTE bands, it’s easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings and whats good on this unit now is that you can also set 2nd Sim on LTE as well since it now deploys the Dual 4G technology (5G is not available on this unit) on this unit but it should consume battery faster. We have experienced no problem surfing using LTE or 3G in our home country in the Philippines as well as dual standby mode is working seamlessly. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol as we were able to cast it to the Mi TV 4C, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and GLONASS are all present and working pretty good. We also have a smooth navigation using Google Maps while driving around the city using the Redmi Note 9s.

GSM: B2/3/5/8
WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/8
TDD LTE: B38/40
FDD LTE: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/20/28

Audio

1216 X max 0.5mm high amplitude ultra-linear speaker
Smart PA 10V external, pressure boosted, high volume
3.5mm headphone jack

Multimedia

• MP4

• M4V

• MKV

• XVID

• WAV

• AAC

• MP3

• AMR

• FLAC

• APE

Camera

The camera of the Redmi Note 9s is noteworthy, given its pricepoint, the camera does not disappoint. Now, we have taken shots from outdoors and some night shots. The outdoor shots are vivid and clear, while we are a bit impressed with the macro lens, it takes good macrophotography shots. Upon hitting the low light or night shots, it tends to underperform, as it is unable to brighten much of the scenes that needed to be enhanced digitally. I have no problem with the video, its clear, tho you need to use a gimbal or it since its a bit shaky. The selfies are definitely great, especially the portrait mode. Front camera video is good for vlogging, I can say that its one good entry level vlogging phone to have in your pocket.

Sample Shots
Outdoors

Selfie

Video Sample

Battery and Performance

We have drained the battery and charged it from 20% to 100%, now the phone can intake only 18W even the charger is a 22.5W. It took us 2 hours to complete the task and fill up the 5020mah tank, which is not quite fast for me. We have lasted a whole day fortunately upon daily use and it was impressive given that we are on mobile data most of the time while outside of the house.

Verdict

I have used this for almost a week and to be honest with you I love this phone. Last time I dont really like the Redmi Note 8 as it was just a Redmi Note 7 with some facelift, this time they made it better and took it more seriously. The Redmi Note 9s was a complete overhaul from front design to the back as well as the camera placement which plays a big role for me in this review. I loved the way they place the camera now since it was really easy to handle the phone while gaming, there is no longer that protuded feel on my index finger while playing, which is quite annoying when playing for long hours. The Redmi Note 9s is definitely a class on its own.