The Xiaomi Mi9 Review: Flagship Performance At a Mid-Range Price
by Andrei Frumusanu on September 13, 2019 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Xiaomi
- Snapdragon 855
- Xiaomi Mi9
GPU Performance
GPU performance of the Mi9 will be dictated by how Xiaomi was able to implement the SoC in the physical hardware shell of the phone, and how well it’s able to dissipate the heat throughout the body of the phone. Other factors on the software side such as thermal throttling limits can also greatly impact the results, and as we’ve seen in the S855 we can see very much a wide range of results amongst the many Snapdragon 855 devices.
On the 3DMark Physics test which is a CPU stress test within a GPU thermally constrained power scenario, we see the Mi9 perform very well in the sustained long-term results. It’s not quite as good as the OnePlus 7 Pro or the RedMagic 3, but it beats all other Snapdragon 855 devices.
In the graphics test, the positioning shifts a bit amongst the devices, with the Mi9 falling back to the middle of the pack. Still it’s a good performance given that the Mi9 has one of the lower body masses amongst the phones, and thus not quite as good thermal dissipation abilities.
In GFXBench, we’re seeing again some very good results for the GPU performance of the Mi9, however it stands a bit out that the delta is greater in workloads like T-Rex. Here the large framerates put more stress on the CPU as well as memory of the phone, likely creating more heat and in turn forcing the Mi9 to throttle more.
Overall, the Mi9’s gaming performance was very good and competitive. It’s not the best but it’s also far from the worst amongst Snapdragon 855 devices. The odd thing here is that the Mi9 performs significantly better than Xiaomi’s own Black Shark 2 gaming-oriented phone whose sustained performance just completely collapses in our stress tests. We’ll be reviewing the Black Shark 2 separately in the next few weeks, but things aren’t looking well for that phone.
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CityBlue - Sunday, September 15, 2019 - link
"The contents of this article are entirely independent and solely reflect the editorial opinion of AnandTech."Could Anandtech include a similar disclaimer when posting any Intel-related content? Because based on articles over the last few months (or rather, articles that haven't appeared *cough* Zombieload and other security issues *cough*) it does appear that Intel has editorial control over Anandtech articles. And yes Dr Ian, security is bl**dy important to your readership!
It shouldn't be a problem including such a disclaimer if Anandtech is 100% independent, because any such claim would be highly dubious at best.
hanselltc - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I am pretty sure you labelled the P30 P30 images wrong Andrei.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Thanks, I fixed the night shots.Despoiler - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I just bought one of these the other week. I was looking at a One Plus 7, but there are so many of the same phone platform made by different companies. I think Xiaomi has the best spec of all the different phones that look like they are build off the same reference design. It's also the cheapest of all of them.The Mi 9 is great given you do two things. 1) Install a different launcher. Apple like app icons across many screens is terrible. App drawer please. I'm using Evie, but really anything is better than stock. 2) Install a Google Camera port like Arnova8G2. The stock camera has a tendency to produce softer pictures than Google's camera. Also Google Night Sight is a better implementation.
s.yu - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
All default cameras are worse than Gcam by most measures.eastcoast_pete - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Hi Andrei: did you have a chance to also evaluate the video capabilities of the Mi9? I appreciate the details on the still photography, but wonder how the strengths and weaknesses there impact video. If you have the data, would love to see them - Thanks!Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I didn't have time for it today, I'll update it in next few days. The lack of OIS isn't very good for video.NXTwoThou - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
The EIS for the Mi9 is shockingly good. Unfortunately it only works at 30fps.Redmyth79 - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
True but for your info no current flagship has OIS or any stabilization at 4k@60fps. So it's not just the Mi 9Redmyth79 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Read this info on the EIS, it's actually a advanced version of OIShttps://www.gizchina.com/2019/02/17/mi-9-closed-lo...