98 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 67BUYING GUIDE
The resulting quality of images in our test was
superb, with excellent lifelike colouring and detail that
is sharp right to the edges of the shot. It’s difficult to
fault for a £1K phone, let alone one half that price.
In low light quality steps down a notch, with some
noise visible in the shot. But overall, the Mi 9 did a
fantastic job of lighting the scene, and it sets itself
apart from less capable camera phones by clearly
defining text and easily distinguishing between the
various shades of black in the scene.
For video super slow-mo at 960fps at 1080p
and 4K at 60fps are supported.Software
The Mi 9 runs MIUI 10, which is a custom version of
Android 9 Pie, most obviously different in the lack of
an app tray, the custom drop-down notification bar,
the reordering of the Settings menu and the various
Xiaomi apps and features preinstalled on the device.
There are a couple of ways MIUI 10 is different
on the Mi 9 than on other Xiaomi phones that run
the software. For starters, there’s Dark Mode. This
is one of the trendiest software features of late,
reversing the screen colours and reducing its drain
on battery life by up to 83 percent. It can also be
easier on the eyes than a bright white display. While
Google’s talking about adding a system-wide Dark
Mode in upcoming Android 10, Xiaomi’s already
there with MIUI 10 on Mi 9.
The other new feature here is something we
mentioned earlier in this review, the customizable
Always-on Display. You still don’t have nearly as