The midrange market is one of the hotly contested parts of the smartphone market. Today we are going to shine our spotlight on two very popular phones, pitting them against each other. We have the Xiaomi Redmi 9 vs Infinix Note 8.
The Xiaomi Redmi 9 is marketed as a budget device and sold as such despite having the specs that will rival any midrange phone. The Infinix Note 8 is a full-blooded midranger and it is marketed and sold as such. With both phones fiercely competing with each other in the market, a lot of consumers may be a bit confused as to which is the better option, or which one provides the best value for the price offered.
Redmi 9 vs Infinix Note 8
Build
The phones are built with plastic. They both have a plastic frame and a plastic back. The Infinix Note 8 weighs a hefty 206g while the Redmi 9 is slightly lighter at 198g.
Processors
Both the Xiaomi Redmi 9 and the Infinix Note 8 both use the Mediatek Helio G80. The Mediatek G80 is an octa-core SoC with two ARM Cortex A75 CPU cores clocked at 2.0 GHz and six ARM Cortex A55 clocked at 1.8 GHz. The GPU on board is the Mali G52 EEMC2.
Read: Everything you need to know about MediaTek SoCs
Software and Support
Both phones run on Android 10. Although the Redmi 9 runs on Xiaomi’s MIUI 11 (upgradeable to MIUI 12) while the Infinix Note 8 has XoS 7 installed. The Redmi 9 has better software support. It is upgradeable to Android 11 and would get at least two generations of updates from its parent company. The Infinix Note 8 on the other hand is stuck on Android 10 and wouldn’t get further updates beyond security patches.
Memory
Both phones due to their identical SoC, use the same LPDDR4x RAM and eMMC 5.1 of internal memory. The base version of the Redmi 9 comes in 3/32GB, 4/64GB, or 6/128GB while Infinix Note 8 ships with 6/128 GB.
Read: Smartphone storage (RAM/Internal memory) explained.
Performance
Both phones use a similar SoC and so the performance between them is very close. The Redmi 9 has a slightly better Antutu benchmark of 203,078 when compared to the 203,000 from the Infinix Note 8.
Camera
The Redmi 9 has a triple camera setup:
- Main camera: 13MP (wide) by Omnivision, f/2.2 aperture, 1.12um (pixel size) and a sensor size of 1/3.06”
- Ultrawide camera: 8MP by Samsung (S5K4H7), f/2.2 aperture, 1.12um (pixel size) and a sensor size of 1/4”
- Macro camera: 5MP (generic), f/2.2 aperture, both pixels size and sensor sizes are unknown.
- Selfie: 8MP (generic), f/2.0 aperture, both pixels size and sensor sizes are unknown.
The Infinix Note 8 has a quad camera set up.
- Main camera: 64MP (wide) (Generic) , f/1.9 aperture, 0.8um (pixel size) and the sensor size is unknown.
- Ultrawide camera: 2MP (Generic), f/2.2 aperture, pixel size and sensor size are unknown.
- Depth sensor: 2MP (Generic), aperture, pixel and sensor sizes are unknown.
- QVGA sensor: 2MP (Generic), aperture, pixel and sensor sizes are unknown.
- Selfie: 16MP (generic), f/2.2 aperture, both pixels size and sensor sizes are unknown.
Photos
The Infinix Note 8 has only one useful camera which is the 64MP main camera. The rest are duds. The Xiaomi Redmi 9 has what seems to be on paper the inferior main camera, but the main shooter is made by Omnivision. The 64MP on the Infinix is going to be binned back to 16MP. The pixels on the Redmi 9’s main shooter are two times bigger than those on the Infinix and would have better and brighter pictures. Where the Infinix shines is in terms of resolution. The ultrawide and the macro on the Redmi 9 are very decent while those on the Infinix are plain useless. MIUI’s photo software algorithm is also better than that of the XoS.
Videos
In the video department however, the Infinix Note 8 shoots videos of 1440p (@30fps) which are of a higher resolution than those shot by the Redmi 9. This is because it’s main camera has a higher resolution. The Redmi 9 shoots videos of 1080p (@30fps). The front facing selfies of both phones shoot videos of 1080p (@30fps).
Display
Both devices also use an IPS LCD display. The Infinix has a huge 6.95″ screen and a tall 21:9 aspect ratio. The display has a resolution of 720p (HD+) but has a weak pixel density of 258ppi. The Redmi 9 has a smaller 6.53” screen and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The display has a resolution of 1080p (FHD+) and a good pixel density of 395ppi.
The Infinix Note 8 has the brighter screen at 480 nit but lacks screen protection of any kind. The Redmi 9 has lesser brightness at 400 nit but has a Gorilla Glass 3 to protect the screen from scratches and accidental falls.
Battery
The Infinix Note 8 has a huge Li-poly 5200mAh battery and it supports 18W fast charge. The Redmi 9 has the smaller battery of the duo at 5000mAh and also supports 18W fast charge as well.
Audio
The Redmi 9 has a 0.7cc speaker while the Infinix Note 8 uses DTS/Stereo speakers.
Sensors
Both phones have fingerprint sensors for security, the Infinix Note 8 has a side-mounted finger print reader while the Redmi 9 has a rear mounted finger print sensor. They also both have proximity sensors, ambient light sensors, accelerometers, and compass. The Infinix Note 8 has a gyroscope which the Redmi 9 lacks.
Connectivity
The two phones both have dual 4G sim slots and support bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40 and 41. They also both support Bluetooth 5.0, USB type C and VoLTE. The Redmi 9 also supports NFC for wireless payments which the Infinix Note 8 lacks.
Prices
The Redmi 9 sells for ₦66,900 for the 4/64GB version. The Infinix Note 8 sells for ₦99,500 for the 6/128GB. All prices are courtesy of Slot and Pointek.
Verdict
Build: tie
Performance: Redmi 9
Camera: Infinix Note 8
Display: Redmi 9
Battery: Infinix Note 8
Sensors: Infinix Note 8
Connectivity: Redmi 9
Support: Redmi 9
Price: Redmi 9
In truth both phones are closely matched, the performance difference the both of them is very negligible. The Infinix has a much better main camera but the supporting camera sensors aren’t of much use other than aesthetics. The display is where the Redmi 9 stands heads and shoulders above the Infinix Note 8. FHD+ and 395ppi are miles ahead of HD+ and 258ppi.
Infinix Note 8 has a gyroscope which the Redmi 9 lacks. The gyroscope is very important for gaming and virtual reality apps. The Redmi 9 has NFC while the Infinix Note 8 does not. For the price, the Redmi 9 is my go-to-device, if you can ignore the absence of a gyroscope. If you can’t, then you would have to spend more and go for the Infinix Note 8.
Please leave a comment if you have any difficulty and remember to:
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel
- Follow on Facebook
- Follow on WhatsApp
- Join our Telegram community
- Participate on Reddit
- Find us on Quora
I love how you breakdown your reviews, its obvious here there is underlying attack just communication of knowledge to your audience on what device they can get. Great reviews, I’ll keep coming back.
Thank you for reading. Hope you stay. There are more topics.
How much note 8
75k for the 4/64GB and 80 to 82k for the 4/128GB