realme 9i Review - Budget battery king?
realme 9i was launched in the country on May 4, calling it the new battery powerhouse.
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| realme 9i |
To recap, the realme 9i sports a 6.6-inch LCD 1080p+ panel with an adaptive 90Hz refresh rate with a top-left punch-hole housing the 16MP f/2.1 selfie camera.
Inside, it is powered by 2.4GHz 6nm Snapdragon 680 octa-core processor, Adreno 610 GPU, 6G LPDDR4X RAM + 5GB virtual RAM (11GB in total), 128GB UFS 2.2 expandable storage up to 1TB, and a 5,000mAh battery capacity with USB-C 33W fast charging (up from 18W).
At the back, it has a 50MP f/1.8 main shooter w/ PDAF + 2MP f/2.4 4cm macro + 2MP f/2.4 B&W + LED flash.
However, do all of these make the handset worth the upgrade? Let's find out!
If you haven't read the first part of our review, please click here.
Multimedia Experience
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| Beautiful 6.6-inch display |
As mentioned, realme 9i features a big display of a 6.6-inch FHD+ screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and a 180Hz touch sampling rate. There's no mention of Gorilla Glass protection, but it comes with a pre-installed screen protector.
The display is great. It is bright, immersive, vibrant, and has punchy colors. It has a system-wide dark mode and switching between it and light mode, the experience is both amazing.
Its sunlight legibility is also commendable. You can comfortably see what's on your screen with high brightness. As expected, it supports 10 points of multitouch.
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| Big display and stereo speakers |
For the sound, realme 9i has a single bottom-firing grille speaker. The sound is pretty loud, full, and pleasing. We didn't experience uncomfortable distortions despite 100 percent volume.
We used our pair of earphones to try and test its 3.5mm headphone slot. The sound is much more enjoyable, so we recommend using yours when you have it.
The dual microphones did a sizeable performance, too. It gave us good calls and clear voice quality. Overall, the realme 9i audio experience is beautiful.
Cameras
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| Triple rear camera setup |
As you know, the realme 9i has a triple rear camera setup featuring a 50MP f/1.8 main shooter with PDAF, 2MP f/2.4 4cm macro, 2MP f/2.4 B&W, and LED flash.
The two lenses are protruding while the other one lying flat on the right side with the LED flash above it. The design is familiar and reminds us of the OPPO Reno7 Z 5G.
realme 9i's stock camera app has the following modes: night, video, photo, portrait, slo-mo, time-lapse, expert (pro), extra HD, pano, text scanner, and ultra macro.
The pro mode allows control for: ISO 100-6400), shutter speed (1/8000-32 seconds), EV (+-2), white balance, focus, and lens.
Rear Camera Samples
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| Daylight |
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| Daylight 2x |
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| Daylight 5x |
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| Daylight 2 |
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| Daylight portrait |
realme 9i takes good daylight images and portrait shots. The results are highly detailed using the 50MP camera. You can use this by clicking on the camera app's settings and turning on the 50MP. Otherwise, the handset takes 12.5MP photos.
The images are also close to natural-looking. The bokeh effect has a clean subject from background separation.
However, the digital 5x zoom only takes usable images, but not great as expected.
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| Indoor |
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| Indoor 2x |
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| Indoor 5x |
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| Indoor food |
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| Indoor lowlight |
Indoors, the images have a similar quality to those of daylight. The photos have satisfying colors, sharpness, vibrancy, and contrast. This is evident in both indoor areas with beautiful lighting and low-lit. The images are natural-looking as well.
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| Lowlight |
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| Night mode |
For low light, the images came out soft using auto mode. However, the night mode puts more details on the photos. Before we forget, realme 9i has no ultra-wide angle lens.
The 2x and 5x digital zooms are available in the night mode.
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| The selfie camera is housed at the top left punch-hole |
realme 9i has a 16MP selfie camera housed on the upper left punch-hole.
Only the night, video, photo, and portrait are usable in the front shooter.
Of course, it hasbeautification, screen light, bokeh, and filters.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Daylight selfie |
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| Daylight portrait selfie |
The selfie camera takes beautiful and detailed images using both the auto and portrait modes. The photos came out with the right amount of sharpness, brightness, and colors, making them natural-looking.
We also love how the bokeh neatly separates the subject from the background.
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| Indoor selfie |
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| Indoor portrait selfie |
Indoors, we noticed how the camera automatically increases the exposure of the image when switched to portrait mode. Take it from our samples—the images were taken with split seconds in between.
Similar to daylight images, we also received clean bokeh for indoor selfies using the portrait mode.
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| Lowlight selfie |
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| Night mode selfie |
In low light, realme 9i still delivers. The difference between using a night mode and auto is the amount of brightness. Both modes use the handset's "fill light" feature, however, the latter produces a brighter and soft image.
Meanwhile, the former is sharp and more detailed, but lacking in exposure.
realme 9i can take up to 1080p videos at 30fps. Digital zoom up to 10x is available while taking videos.
Performance
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| realme 9i benchmarks |
To recap, realme 9i is powered by a 2.4GHz 6nm Snapdragon 680 octa-core processor, Adreno 610 GPU, 6G LPDDR4X RAM + 5GB virtual RAM (11GB in total), and 128GB UFS 2.2 expandable storage up to 1TB.
realme 9i benchmarks:
- AnTuTu - 257,214
- Geekbench 5 - 359 (single-core), 1,554 (multi-core)
- 3D Mark WildLife - 456 at 2.70 average fps
- CPDT - 675.54 MB/s sequential read speeds and 375.99 sequential write speeds
During regular usage, realme 9i provides a good performance. We did not encounter lags and hiccups throughout our experience.
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| Genshin Impact and Asphalt 9 default settings on realme 9i |
The same is true when it comes to gaming. We tried the Asphalt 9 and Genshin Impact, and above are the default settings. The former was smooth, however, realme 9i does not support high-quality graphics.
For security, realme 9i has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and face unlock. We didn't have issues using them as they're both responsive and snappy.
In terms of connectivity, we have the following: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, FM Radio, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, and dual SIM.
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| Stellar battery |
Now, on the exciting part, the battery. We wouldn't be headlining this review with a "budget battery king?" for no reason. realme 9i packs a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging support.
One of the strongest battery performance around!
Using our usual PCMark Battery Test, realme 9i garnered a total of 27 hours and 31 minutes!
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| Battery settings |
This translated to real-life usage as we earned a day and a half with this handset in moderate usage. It includes texting, calling, social media & web surfing, music playbacks, and casual gaming.
As for charging, realme 9i takes an hour only to be fully charged using its in-box 33W USB-C fast charger.
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| realme UI 2.0 |
Moving to the software department, we have the realme UI 2.0 based on Android 11. The UI is familiar with the off-white background, app drawer, and a bunch of Google apps.
Even if it comes with pre-installed third-party apps, we don't find it cluttered. Overall, we are overly satisfied with realme 9i's optimization and how easy it is to use.
Pros - Beautiful design, immersive display, amazing cameras, 33W fast charger, big battery, stereo speakers, 3.5mm jack,
Cons - No ultra-wide lens, still on Android 11
realme 9i Specs
Display: 6.6-inch 2.5D curved LCD w/ 90Hz adaptive refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, FHD+ 2412 x 1080 resolution at 400 ppi
CPU: 2.4GHz 6nm Snapdragon 680 octa-core processor
GPU: Adreno 610
RAM: 6GB LPDDR4X
ROM: 128GB UFS 2.2 expandable via microSD card slot up to 1TB (dedicated)
Back Camera: 50MP f/1.8 w/ PDAF + 2MP f/2.4 4cm macro + 2MP f/2.4 B&W + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 16MP f/2.1
Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 33W Dart charging
OS: Android 11 w/ realme UI 2.0
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, FM Radio, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, dual SIM
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, face unlock, dual-mic, USB-C, Colors: Prism Black, Prism Blue
Dimensions: 164.4 x 75.7 x 8.4 mm
Weight 190 g
Price: PHP 11,990
Verdict
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| Budget battery king! |
realme 9i indeed is an affordable battery king.
Its 5,000mAh battery and 33W fast charging support are something we need in this digital age. Having a reliable handset for a day and a half is useful.
Moreover, its beautiful design, immersive display, amazing cameras, stereo speakers, and presence of a 3.5mm headphone jack slot add to the reasons it's appealing to those on a budget.
However, there are similarly priced handsets with higher RAM and 5G-ready such as the realme 8 5G. Another realme with 120Hz screen, the 8i, is also the same price as the 9i.
What do you think guys?
Build/Design - 4.25
Multimedia Experience - 4
Cameras - 4.25
Performance - 4
Average - 4.13/5
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