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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jaju123 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Nice review. Would be very interested in a Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro review if you manage to get your hands on it. Seems to be an upgrade on some aspects of this phone.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Among the upcoming reviews, iPhone 11, Mate 30, Pixel 4 in the foreseeable future I don't think we'll have time for the Mi9T Pro, sorry.yeeeeman - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
Why not Galaxy s10 with exynos 9825? Pixel 4 has Qualcomm 855 which we know. Huawei mate 30 will have Kirin 980 which again we know. iPhone is interesting, sure, but 9825 being a shrink it is curious to see what the impact is. Come on, it is launched for over a month now....Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
We're not getting sampled by Samsung so we'd have to buy one. Currently the 9825 doesn't represent any notable performance difference, the Note10 doesn't have any notable camera differences, so other than the chip's power efficiency for an academic view on 7EUV it's lower on the priority list than the aforementioned new devices.s.yu - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
Maybe you could lend one :)s.yu - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
sorry borrow XDjaju123 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
No worries, I'm interested in those devices too so should be interesting!AkiraAkimoto - Saturday, September 14, 2019 - link
Will you review the latest Vivo flagship Nex 3 and the Xiaomi's flagship Mixα？Rumor says that the Mix series will have a great leap comparing with the previous Xiaomi deviceRedmyth79 - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
This site is not accurate so the 9Tpro would never get a fair shake. Trust me I own a lot of the phone es tested including the Mi 9. The Mi 9 test higher then the 9Tpro also so you know but the scores hear are apparently made to make them not look up to par with the other Flagship phones with 855 chip sets. Hell the 980 Kirin is from last year on the P30 pro and I know for a fact in 99% of test it doesn't come close to any 855 chipped phone much less a Mi 9 that truthfully on any other site including a lot of the actual test here it best out 99.9% of the phone es and the S10+ actually does about the worse of any but here some how it's rated near the top and the mi 9 is no where near where it should be. It's a crying shame.Cellar Door - Friday, September 13, 2019 - link
This site should get mods for troll account like this.