Xiaomi rebrands Redmi 9 to Redmi 9 Prime for India launch

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Xiaomi has launched a new Redmi smartphone in India and it’s the Redmi 9 Prime that the company previously unveiled in Europe as the Redmi 9. The budget smartphone boasts a powerful chipset for the price, a large battery, and a quad-camera setup.

The name is inspired by Xiaomi’s first “Prime” branded made-in-India phone, the Redmi 2 Prime. The company later launched the Redmi 3S Prime and the Redmi 9 Prime is its third Prime series phone in the country. Xiaomi says that the Redmi Prime series will focus on mid-tier phones and sits somewhere between the Redmi Note series and the numbered Redmi series.

So what’s the Redmi 9 Prime all about? Here’s a complete rundown.

Redmi 9 Prime specs

The Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime comes with the MediaTek Helio G80 octa-core CPU and a Mali-G52 MC2 GPU. The chipset incorporates two Cortex-A75 cores and six Cortex-A55 cores.

The phone has a 6.53-inch FHD+ LCD display with a centered waterdrop notch, a 5,020mAh battery, 18W charging, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of expandable storage (up to 512GB).

Related: These are the best Xiaomi phones you can buy

In the camera department, the Redmi 9 Prime carries four rear sensors: a 13MP primary shooter with AI scene detection, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, a 5MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. An 8MP selfie shooter rests in the notch upfront.

Elsewhere, you get support for NFC, a 3.5mm headphone jack, wireless FM radio, IR blaster, dual SIM slots, as well as a USB-C port. There’s also a fingerprint sensor at the back of the phone, just under the camera array.

Redmi 9 Prime price and availability

The Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime will be available in four colorways: Mint Green, Sunrise Flare, Matte Black, and Space Blue. It’ll go on sale in India through Amazon during the August 6-7 Prime Day sale.

It’s priced at Rs 9,999 (~$133) for the 4GB/64GB storage version and Rs 11,999 (~$159) for the 4GB/128GB storage model. It’s worth noting that the Redmi 9 is only available in 3GB/32GB and 4GB/64GB options, so Indian users are getting more storage and RAM in the base model as well as double the storage for the top-end variant.

The Redmi 9 Prime goes up against the likes of the Realme Narzo 10 which also carries the Helio G80 processor, as well as a higher resolution 48MP primary camera and a 16MP front camera.

Next: Poco M2 Pro review — A better Redmi Note 9 Pro