Xiaomi’s Mi 9 Transparent Edition has way more RAM than you need
Remember the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro with its eye-catching transparent back? As we wrote in our review, it had “all the power you could want” with “an aggressively low price”. Well, Xiaomi has just revealed some key details about its follow-up, the Mi 9 Transparent Edition, and it has specifications that are beyond overkill.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor found in the regular version of the Xiaomi Mi 9 will be paired with a frankly ridiculous 12GB RAM. It’s not the first phone to get three times as much RAM as your average laptop – the Lenovo Z5 Pro GT has it too – but it’s still an unusual feature and one that’s frankly more for bragging rights than any actual material performance gain.
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Obviously I’ll eat plenty of humble pie if I’m wrong on that, but the 10GB RAM in the OnePlus 6T Mclaren Edition doesn’t offer much of a boost over the vanilla version according to the benchmarks, and I’d expect the same to be the case here, too.
Still, the rest of the specifications look pretty promising. Xiaomi says that the Full HD+ AMOLED display has a massive 90.7% screen-to-body ratio and will hit a peak of 600 nits of brightness. The fingerprint reader will be embedded in the screen, but is apparently equivalent to a 5μm macro camera, which will hopefully lead to fast and accurate unlocks.
On top of these generous core specifications, you can expect to see a triple-camera array, featuring a 48-megapixel Sony IMX 586 sensor, supported by a 12-megapixel telephoto lens and a 16-megapixel wide angle snapper. Selfie lovers will no doubt get extensive use out of the 16-megapixel front-facing camera.
Finally, the 3200mAh battery supports both 22W fast charging via USB-C or 15W fast Qi-wireless charging if you’ve got a pad to support it.
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Appropriately for a handset with a transparent back, there’s not really much left to the imagination here, aside from the most important detail: price. I fully expect this to be Xiaomi’s most expensive handset so far, but give the competitive pricing of its past efforts, that may still appear like a bargain compared to the competition.
Xiaomi has said that the Mi 9 will launch on the same day as the Galaxy S10 in China – February 20 – but we may have to wait until the company’s MWC 2019 event on February 24 to hear details of UK pricing and availability.
Do you like the look of the Xiaomi Mi 9 Transparent? Let us know on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
