Meet the Realme 9i, the budget smartphone with big ambitions and affordable price range, but with a very crowded category of phones, does the 9i have what it takes to make it ? Let’s fine out!
Design & Build
Like a lot of others in the same category, the Realme 9i is made from plastic with a glossy vertical striped pattern with a reflective surface, and comes in two colour options, Prism Blue and Prism Black.
The Realme 9i sports a 6.6-inch display with thin bezels and a chin with a rounded frame all around. The selfie camera is placed on the top left of the screen. The power button is on the right side of the device and the volume buttons on the left. A capacitive fingerprint scanner is integrated into the power button as well.
On the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a speaker, and a primary microphone. The top houses the secondary microphone, and an earpiece which doubles up as a speaker. The SIM tray supports a microSD card option with expansion up to 1TB.
Features and Performance
The Realme 9i comes with 6.6-inch full HD+ LCD (2412 x 1080p), a pixel density of 400ppi and a 90Hz refresh rate which changes dynamically based on the content and usage. In general, the display is bright and has great color reproduction, even in bright outdoor conditions.
The Relame 9i runs Realme UI 2.0 (Android 11). The UI is generally easy to use and familiar. The device is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 680 SoC paired with Adreno 610 GPU, and comes in 4GB/6GB LPPDDR4x RAM with 64GB/128GB storage (UFS 2.1) storage configurations. The device also features Dynamic RAM Expansion (DRE) technology, where users can extend their 4GB/6GBRAM by another 5GB to 9GB/11GB, provided from storage.
We’ve used the device for over a week on daily basis, and found that it delivered a great user experience considering the category and price its positioned at. From responsiveness to capabilities, overall, it performed well in our daily use.
The phone is packed with a 5,000mAh battery and following our tests, we were able to get more or less a day of usage with your asks like emails, watching YouTube videos, and social media.
The box contains a 33W charger which is capable to charge the phone from 0 to 100% in around an hour.
Camera
The Realme 9i packs a triple camera setup with a 50-megapixel primary camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel black-and-white camera. On the front, there’s s a 16-megapixel shooter. Options wise, the Realme’s camera app is easy to use and has toggles for HDR and AI enhancement.
Photos taken with the primary 50Mp main camera were good with good color reproduction and good dynamic ranges. Sadly, when it came to low-light photography, the Realme 9i didn’t deliver the same results as in normal light conditions. The images come out a bit blurry. Macro shots were decent.
Overall The Realme 9i’s can take some very good photos.
Verdict
The Realme 9i is a great budget smartphone and ticks all the right boxes for its category. For the official price of AED 699, you get a good overall deal, with a display, good cameras, fast performance, and strong battery life.
