The mid-range segment has some good phones with nice features without pressing much on your wallet. Realme 9i a mid-tier phone with Snapdragon 680, has some prospects to be one of the best in the under 30k price segment in Nepal. Find out how and why in this Realme 9i Review with camera samples, performance, and usage experience.
Realme 9i Review
Design and Display
Realme 9i comes in a typical Realme design language with a rectangular camera module on the back. Made up of plastic, the phone doesn’t feel cheap though. I had this blue color variant with a reflective back panel. Holding this phone in my hands didn’t feel that heavy but it might feel so for a person with shorter hands. I would prefer the volume buttons on the right side but it’s okay. Overall, the phone looks decent as a mid-ranger for its price.
Realme 9i Display 
Talking about the display, the smartphone boasts a 6.6 inches Full HD+ 90Hz IPS LCD panel with a punch-hole cutout on the upper left side. The 90Hz refresh rate is smooth without any hiccups. Despite being an LCD screen, there is not much to complain about when it comes to the display quality. The contents look vivid and punchy. Watching movies, series and Youtube videos feel as pleasant as on an AMOLED panel. If I have to nitpick, the only thing I missed was the inky black color quality found on AMOLED screens. And also, sunlight visibility seems a bit dimmer but it is usable.
Realme 9i Camera Review
The phone packs in a triple camera setup; 50MP + 2MP + 2MP. Sadly, there is no ultrawide camera on this phone following the pattern of the Realme 8i, its predecessor. The main camera is capable of producing decent pictures with an ample amount of light provided. Daylight pictures look good enough to use for social media. AI and HDR are strong and give vibrant colors to the subjects. If you are fond of warm-toned images, you will like the outputs. To be honest, colors are not so natural, especially with HDR and AI turned on.
For portraits, the camera can differentiate subjects from the background to achieve a nice amount of bokeh. As a result, human subjects’ portraits come with good edge detection although not perfect. The skin tones look ‘okayish’ and tend to produce lighter color tones. For nonhuman subjects, Realme’s camera algorithm has been great. Bokeh looks good along with edge detection.
Also Read:- Realme GT Neo 2 Camera Review, Decent Enough?
For videos, it can only shoot up to 1080p at 30fps. There is no stabilization at all and as a result, videos come shaky. Also, the output is not that great to lookout. The scenario goes the same on the front camera videos too.
The 8MP unit on the front captures the average quality photos. Skin tone comes pale in most scenarios but the details are respectable. You also get AI features to tweak your facial structure, eyes, etc. Under low light, selfies come below average as expected.
Performance & UI
Snapdragon 680 on this phone feels okay for a mid-range device. The 6nm silicon is all good for day-to-day tasks such as social media browsing, playing casual games, multimedia usage, etc. The chipset well accompanies the 90Hz refresh rate and there are no complaints about that. It feels snappy and smooth. As the phone still boots on Android 11 based Realme UI 2.0, I feel a kind of a bummer. Realme UI 3.0 on top of Android 12 is out already and it looks a lot better. There are some occasional bugs in the current Realme UI 2.0. Also, it comes with tonnes of bloatware which can be thankfully uninstalled.
When it comes to gaming, Realme 9i is more than enough to handle casual games. While graphics-intensive titles cannot run on full fps. I got only 30fps for PUBG while playing it at the lowest graphics setting. The gameplay was average, to be honest. Similarly, Call of Duty was also offering the same kind of performance on this device. Heavy games are playable but not at the best fps.
Besides gaming, the phone delivers a decent performance for multimedia. The IPS LCD screen is a nice one and you’ll only notice a difference when viewed with an AMOLED panel side by side. The dual stereo speakers are loud although not so crisp. It easily caters to your multimedia needs. Also, the headphone jack has a dedicated DAC through which audio output becomes amazing on earphones.
The cellular and WiFi reception is good. The 4G speed is commendable too but sadly there is no VoLTE. Realme should push an upgrade for this. There is virtual RAM expansion as well from which you can expand RAM up to 3GB virtually for better RAM management and usage.
Check out: Realme 9 Pro Plus Price in Nepal
Battery Life and Charging
The phone boasts a 5000mAh battery and a 33W fast charger in the box. The juice is enough for more than a day with moderate usage without gaming. If intensive tasks are carried out, it still can give more than 5 hours of SOT (Screen On Time). Charging takes around 1 hour and 15 minutes to go from 0 to 100 percent. Nevertheless, Realme 9i’s battery life is commendable. For nongamers, this phone is a good one for battery life.
Pros
- IPS LCD Panel with superb viewing angles and colors, 90Hz Refresh Rate
- 50MP Main Camera with Strong AI and HDR
- Stereo Speakers and Headphone Jack
- Great Battery Life and 33W SuperDart Charging
Cons
- 2MP Macro + 2MP Depth Sensor, not that usable
- Bloatware
- Realme UI 2.0 is still on Android 11 and some bugs are there
- No VoLTE
Do Read:- Redmi Note 11 vs Realme 9i, The Midrange Rivals
Verdict
Realme 9i is a decent mid-range device. Starting at Rs.24,499 for 4/64GB and Rs.27,999 for the 6/128GB variant, it does some justice for the price. The display is good despite being an LCD panel. You get a capable camera and a good set of stereo speakers. I missed the ultrawide camera badly and didn’t find the macro and depth that appealing at all. The colors could have been more natural though. The AI engine is strong though. For the software side, Realme UI 2.0 needs an upgrade to fix some bugs and I think, customers deserve the Realme 3.0 with Android 12 which is already out for a while now.
The battery life is great, you get a charger bundled in the box. The 90Hz refresh rate is also okay for the price. But coming to the drawbacks, Realme could have gone for an AMOLED panel and an ultrawide camera. The counterpart, Redmi Note 11 features both things. Besides that, the phone is good to get for the price.
Do Check:- Realme Mobile Price in Nepal
So that was our Realme 9i Review. What do you feel about this device? Are you using or planning to buy one? Do pour your thoughts in the comment section below.
