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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Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
You're welcome to point out and name the actual tests you have problems with.Xiaomi has a history of cheating in benchmarks - I'm using obfuscated application IDs that circumvent such detection and thus the numbers published here represent the actual app performance of the phone.
Redmyth79 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I would love to challenge you on that as I'm a 1st time buyer of Xiaomi being the Mi 9.Again I've owned Galaxy S4-S9+ Note 9, LG G2-G4, V20-30, IPhone 6plus-8plus yet the Mi 9 makes small work of all them including the iPhone XS Max in performance!
I also have posted my results on my YouTube which that can't be cheated as I even video recorded a AuTuTu 8.02 system test which I got 440,701 and sense then I've gotten higher.
No BSing there
Andrei Frumusanu - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
I accept your challenge. You play the AnTuTu card, you lose.Ian Cutress - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
AnTuTu is the laughing stock of benchmarks. The minute someone tries to justify their position with an AnTuTu score, you know not to take them seriously.Korguz - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
if you really have owned all those phones, then either, you dont take care of them, and they get broken fast, and need to be replaced, you are one of those that HAS to upgrade for no reason other then for bragging rights, or, and this is tied in with the 2nd reason, more money then you know what to do with :-)Jon Tseng - Sunday, September 15, 2019 - link
No links yet to your supposed data?Cellar Door - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
The matter a fact here is that Andrei is the best and most technical phone reviewer for the past few years - yet here you are with anecdotal at best claims, and insulting tone.NXTwoThou - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I finally gave up my Lumia 950 for a Mi9 8/256 this year for less than what I paid for my 950 back in the day. Xiaomi has some really odd things that go on as they have three main roms available and the bootloader can't be unlocked for a set period of time. Once you do unlock it, xiaomi.eu uses the china beta roms and strips out the China specific things, removes all ads, and finishes translation. My phone became a whole other beast after using the weekly xiaomi.eu roms. We got moved to Android 10 August 8th. OIS, waterproofing, and a non-slippery back are the only things I feel that need refinement.MrSpadge - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Same here, finally switched from Lumia 950 to a Mi9. I've got two points to add:- I've toned the sharpening down one notch in the camera app, as it was producing halos around edges
- I've bought the international version after reading that the Ads can be disabled. First I had none, but after using it for 2-3 months annoying Ads started to pop up. It happens less than each day on average, but when it happens it's really annoying. You tip something and the phone does not react. Brain says "WTF" and after a short break (depending on network speed) the Ad is shown, sometimes as still image and sometimes as videos with loud sound (depending on your current setting). This interrupts the work flow and maybe also the environment and really, the least thing I'll do with whatever is advertised is to buy it. Already tried different ways to turn this off, depending on forum suggestions, but was not yet successful.
NXTwoThou - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
I've been on .eu rom since I was allowed to unlock. The only ads I've ever seen since are very random with the built in music app and cleaner. Neither of which I use often enough for it to be an annoyance. I don't see any sharpening settings in the built in camera app. Are you using GCam?