ISSUE 67 • ANDROID ADVISOR 89BUYING GUIDEXiaomi has also enlarged the panel, now up from
6.21- to 6.39in. Yet the phone’s size and weight
has barely changed, with Mi 9 still just 7.6mm thick
(though it feels thinner with its curvier frame) and
actually weighing a few grams less.
It’s achieved this impressive design feat in three
ways: first by reducing the phone’s chin by some
40 percent to just 3.6mm; second by increasing the
aspect ratio from an already tall 18.7:9 to a slinky
19.5:9; and third – unfortunately – by shaving 100mAh
off the battery. The result is a super-high screen-
to-body ratio of 90.7 percent, and a design that is
not only significantly better looking but also more
comfortable in use.
All this glass remains a magnet for fingerprints,
though in our testing with Mi 9 we found it less
notable than on the Mi 8 Pro we use day in, day
out. Xiaomi has also taken steps to rectify two of
our biggest gripes with that phone, enhancing the
in-display fingerprint sensor and making some
improvements to the Always-on Display.
Xiaomi claims this new fingerprint sensor works
25 percent faster than on the Mi 8 Pro, and it did
seem a little better in use. There’s still some way
to go here in making the fingerprint sensor work
effortlessly every single time, however, and we
often found our impatience prompting us to punch
in the PIN code instead.
But that screen – it’s something to behold. Xiaomi
uses a Samsung AMOLED panel, allowing it to offer
the mix of vibrant, punchy and saturated colours
we love with deep blacks and crisp whites. The