First, a little bit of a background.

I’m a user who comes from a few years of using flagship phones, mostly getting last years flagships for the price of new midrange phones. My last phone, before switching to Mi 9T was a Galaxy Note 8. So fair to say I’ve gotten used to the flagship look and feel of the modern phones. Also, I’m somewhat of a power user. I don’t do any sorts of gaming on my phone, but other than that, smartphones for me are basically a substitution for a laptop most of the times. I use my phone for about 3-4 hours a day, sometimes even more than that. Working with sheets, checking social media, doing slides, taking photos (a lot of photos), watching movies… that’s what I’m mostly using the Mi 9T (or any phone) for.

All of this above is just so you can get to known how much and for what I use my phones and to see if this phone fits for you too.

**My phone: Mi 9T Glacier Blue – 6/128GB**

I’ll split this “review” in a few categories.

1. Build quality
2. Screen
3. UI/UX
4. Camera(s)
5. Battery
6. Wow factor

**1. Build quality**

As you all know, this phone is made form glass and aluminium. It does give the phone the premium look and feel, but compare it to the higher and flaghsip and it just doesn’t quite match them. I’d say it’s 90% up there but coming from the Galaxy Note series it does lack that certain refinement that the Note has. But it’s fine, this phone isn’t there to completely beat the latest flagships and for the price it’s as close as you can get to having that flagship feel.

The back glass is stunning, I’ve gone with the glacier blue variant and the effect that it has when you point it at the sun, the blue shining over the back panel, it looks beautiful. It is, however, a fingerprint magnet, but I’m a guy who always uses a case on my phones, so fingerprints don’t bother me at all. I’ll admire the shiny blue back panel from time to time and show it of to my friends, but it’s mostly covered for safety, because as JerryRig says “glass is glass and it will break”.

Aluminum frame feels solid but it’s also one of the things where you can feel the lackness of the premium feel as the transitions from the aluminum to the glass isn’t that seamless as it is on my Note 8. It’s not a big deal as I mentioned before.

Popup camera feels as solid as it gets, the motor is maybe a bit on a slow side, but it’s not like I’m in a hurry that I need to take a selfie in 0.1 seconds. The fall detection works pretty well so you don’t have to worry about breaking the camera if you drop the phone while taking a selfie. I wouldn’t suggest using the popup camera for unlocking of the device, it’s too slow for that and it messes with the longevity of the motor unnecessary.

In-display fingerprint sensor is also a bit slower than a regular sensor, but it’s only noticeable if you really try for it to be. I find it a bit more forgiving (as in it unlocks my phone even with my finger a bit off or at a weir angle) than some of the fingerprint sensors I’ve used before.

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**2. Screen**

Oh, the screen, all the screen, the beautiful AMOLED screen. I’ve been thinking of getting either this or the Mi 9, but not having a notch is where I made my decision and boy was that decision right. Once you see the completely bezelless screen in front of you, it’s hard not to wonder what’s the next step in smartphone industry. I keep the brightness and contrast on auto most of the time and it works pretty good. There’s a few times that it can go a bit too dim or too bright for a second or two, but I’ll probably start using it on manual brightness anyways, so it’s not a big deal for me. As for the brightness and contrast it’s plenty bright in plain daylight, the screen and everything on it is readable and it’s, probably, a bit brighter than my Galaxy Note 8 was. Full HD, well this ratio of 1080p resolution is more than enough and I kept all my previous phones that had the ability to change the resolution at 1080p. If you must have 2K resolution, then this won’t be the phone for you, but you may give it a try, because this is a pretty sharp display with solid vibrant colors and I don’t think that not having 2K resolution will mean a lot for me in the future. Also, enable the full screen in the settings menu and use gestures, it takes advantage of the screen and is, IMHO, the right way to use the phone. I’ll talk about gestures more in the UI/UX part.

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**3. UI/UX**

I have a global MIUI version of the phone and coming from Samsung’s own One UI, there’s a few things to get used to. Gestures aren’t the same, but I prefer the MIUI gestures over the One UI ones. The swipe from either side of the screen to go back is great and other gestures mimic the ones we see on iPhones, so swipe up for home and hold up for recent apps. Recent apps menu is well organised an it’s also one of the things I prefer over my last phone. I don’t like the drawer of this phone. Period. I’m a long time Nova Launcher user, but if you don’t use any kind of launcher, I don’t know if you will get used to the look and feel of the stock launcher. I’m just not a fan of it and that’s my personal biased opinion. Some of you may like it over other launchers, but I prefer myself a bit more stock like experience and that’s where Nova comes in and fixes this problem for me. Considering that, it’s not a big minus, but I would recommend using a launcher with this phone. Settings menu is good, but the search function needs some getting used to because Xiaomi has a different way of naming some functions than other manufacturers do. That also may be a personal opinion and preference on my side, but Samsung’s settings search worked way better for me. Other than that, it’s easy to navigate and get to the right settings using the menu itself, it is an Android phone after all so it’s not much different than any other, except the MIUI skin on it.
Notifications are a bit tricky, at first the notification shade wouldn’t expand, so I had to enable that by long pressing the notification and ticking the option. There’s still a few times I find the notifications a bit annoying when I try to pull them down, but it may be just a thing of getting used to it. Notification LED is on top of the phone so that also needs a bit of getting used to, but it works and at least Xioami put one there. All things considered, MIUI10 is best that Xiaomi has ever had to offer, it’s blazing fast without any hitches, it has great practicality and if you take the time to set it up along your needs it will treat you well. It does take a bit to setup and get used to, at least for me it did.

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**4. Camera(s)**

Were do we start here? There’s 4. Selfie, main, telephoto and wide. I’ve talked about the selfie camera a bit before, but I’ll do it again. It’s a solid camera that get’s the job done. The popup aspect is fun and it gave space for a better camera to be put there than a notch (just my logic). I’ll say this now and it will be applied to all of the cameras. Stock experience is good but GCam mods is what makes this phone excel and that’s pretty much it for the selfie cam too. It takes great photos when there’s enough light, a bit worse ones in the dark, but personally I find it way better than my Note 8 was and way better than some flagships are now.

Main cam captures everything great. If you use the 48MP mode it will have all the detail you need. I mostly use just the regular mode and it handles photography very well. It does get a bit soft in dark, but the night mode fixes that (if you have enough patience to hold your phone still for a few seconds to get that sweet photo).

Wide camera is what I missed the most (I used to own the LG V20). Fun to use, easy to get great photos and new perspectives out of and the distortion correction works nice. It’s lacking the megapixels that the main cam has but it’s one of the most fun mobile photography experiences you can have. I may be biased on this, again, but it’s becoming my main camera for a lot of shots.

Telephoto is not something I’ve used much and not something that I’ll use in the future. It’s there but IMO you won’t use or need it that much, unless you’re using the portrait mode, of course.

Again, pair the camera with a GCam mod and it will shoot gorgeous photos, but if you decide agains that, it takes solid photos without it too!

P.S. I didn’t do much of a video testing so I’ll update the post with that later on if anyone is interested.

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**5. Battery**

I had to put this in a separate category because the battery blows me away. There isn’t a day that I don’t go to bed with at least 30% still on, and most of the days it’s closer to 40 or 50%. I charge the phone once a day for half an hour and it’s enough for the whole day. 4000MAh really shines combined with dark mode MIUI and the AMOLED display. If this is something you worry about, then don’t, the battery life is AMAZING!

**6. Wow factor**

I’ve put this in a special category because there wasn’t a single person who saw this phone in my hands and didn’t go “wow” and that is before I show them the popup camera or the in-display fingerprint sensor. It truly feels like a phone from the future and the wow factor is definitely something to consider nowdays and I’m telling you, this phone has it!

tl;dr: Xiaomi Mi 9T gave me everything I expected from the phone and more. It’s plenty of fast for everyday tasks and as I said, I don’t game that much, but it seems to handle games just fine for what I’ve tried. Screen is beautiful and bezelless design feels like the future is now. The cameras are good and there’s one for almost every situation you find yourself shooting in. Wow factor is there and build quality is on pair with a lot of more expensive phones out there. This phone is good at all the things a regular or even a bit heavier user like me will put it on.

I’d give it an 8/10 rating. Of course it’s not on par with the likes of the S10 or the P30 pro, but it comes just at the fraction of the cost of those. It’s not perfect, it has things that need getting used to, but once you get to know and love it, it’s a lot of a phone for a not a lot of a price!

Also, it’s my first review of this kind so be gentle on me, and if you have any questions I’ll try to answer them as quick as I can!