Xiaomi Mi 9 Vs Mi Mix 3: Which One is a Better Choice?

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Mi 9	Mi Mix 3
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Affordable price. Impressive camera setup. Powerful chipset.	Great all-screen design. Solid battery life
CONS	CONS
Gets hot rather easily. Odd-looking UI. Low battery capacity.	Heavy and bulky. Slider is fun, but stiff. Interface needs polish.

BASIC SPECS

DESIGN & BUILD

Mi 9:

On the left, we see a new hardware addition to the xiaomi phones. A dedicated button for google’s assistant. Pressing it even when the phone is locked launches the google assistant and you can start giving your commands straight away.

At the bottom, there is microphone, USB Type-C port, and loudspeaker. Yes, only one speaker and it’s not getting any help from the earpiece either. So audio quality is one of the few weaknesses of the Mi 9.

This phone feels extremely well built there is nothing in the build quality that would give away. The more affordable price compared to other flagships. It has a good heft to it and despite our screen, the mi 9 feels comfortable to hold.

Mi Mix 3:

The highlight feature of this device is sliding screen. I have to say that the design of this device is still my favourite in 2020. I know, most people won’t like it too much. There is no IP rating or dust resistance.

On the right side of the mobile, there power and volume buttons which are easy to reach. I don’t have any issue there.

On the bottom there is only USB-C port and speaker grills. Sadly, there is no audio jack.

On the left side of the mobile, there is SIM card tray and a button which is mapped with Google Assistant.

DISPLAY

Mi 9:

On the front, you have a large 6.4-inch AMOLED display made by Samsung. Topped with a small teardrop notch and only a slight hint of a bottom bezel.

The phone the screen is protected by corning gorilla glass 6 which shows that xiaomi isn’t cutting any corners when it comes to durability glass can be found on the back of the Mi 9 as well.

Mi 9 camera bump houses three separate cameras the top one has a very distinct reflective circle around it making this phone easy to recognize even from a distance.

Mi Mix 3:

The first thing you noticed about this phone is the screen. It’s not just because of the minimal bezels and the incredibly clean looks. The screen itself is noticeably crisper than last year even though it has the same pixel density as before. Even at a glance, you can tell the panel itself is clearly a higher quality one and it’s not just because the mix 3 now has an AMOLED display and the lovely blacks that come with it.

It can get up to 630 nits of max brightness in auto mode and and up to 430 nits, when you manually adjust it.

The display is near the top of its class for sunlight legibility and when you switch from automatic to standard contrast mode, it’s also very color accurate.

AUDIO

Mi 9:

As i mentioned above that there is only one bottom firing speaker which is the downside of Mi 9. Let’s talk about qulaity of sound which is average. If you are watching movies and playing games then I will recommend you to use bluetooth headphone as there is no 3.5mm jack.

Mi Mix 3:

Audio is also pretty solid, the single bottom firing speaker scored a good rating on our loudness tests but more importantly has a rich sound and no distortion.

There is no headphone jack. Audio by the headphone dongle had solid though not necessarily chart-topping performance and the film supports high-quality audio codecs for a better Bluetooth experience.

SOFTWARE & PERFORMANCE

Mi 9:

The snapdragon 855 is a beast of a chip and it will handle everything you throw at it even when playing heavy 3D games, this phone gets only slightly warmed while others are almost unwhole double under the same load.

Mi 9 has paired with 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage and while that’s lower than his flagship competitors, it’s acceptable considering the price. But there is another option available with 8GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.

If you are buying this phone to get good daily performance then you should go with 6GB varient but if you are a hardcore gamer then I would recommend you to buy 8GB varient.

Mi Mix 3:

The mi mix 3 is powered by a Snapdragon 845 chipset in either 6/8 or even 10 GB of RAM. Although, the Snapdragon 845 is not a top of the line chipset, Snapdragon 855 is released, so mi mix 3 will be slightly outdated. The performance of the phone is pretty well, especially with MIUI 10 on the top of Android 9.

This is no vanilla Android, so if you’re a die-hard purist it might not be the best device for you. However, it despite the extra little tools that Xiaomi includes, it’s generally quite easy to get used to. The gestures are awesome and make the phone much more usable one-handed. Once you get used to them, it becomes very difficult to go back to buttons because they seem slow and far from intuitive. The task switcher has also been updated and is easier to sort through.

My biggest gripe with MIUI is the lack of an app door but if you’re willing to sacrifice a little bit of optimization, a third-party launcher takes care of that pretty easily.

CAMERA

Mi 9:

We have a main 48-megapixel camera, 12-megapixel telephoto with 2x optical zoom, and the 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens to complete the set.

The star of the show is the 48-megapixel sensor made by Sony. However, comes with a drawback the large sensor lacks OIS. While you can shoot at the full 48 megapixels, you’ll have to switch to the dedicated camera mode which lacks certain features like HDR. When it comes to image quality, the Mi 9 is almost flawless.

The telephoto and the wide-angle can be very handy depending on the object you’re trying to capture and switching between the camera modes is easy.

At night the dedicated night mode combines four pixels into one to gather more light for more dramatic looking and cleaner pictures.

When it comes to front, you will find a 20 MP Camera. Daylight photos are well balanced and rich with details and with portrait mode you get that sweet bokeh effect. In challenging light conditions, the selfies won’t be perfect but they’re still worthy of sharing on social media.

Mi Mix 3:

On the back, the new mix 3 has a 12 megapixel main shooter with a 12 megapixel telephoto camera and daylight photos come out nicely detailed but with quite a bit of noise. The dynamic range is good and you can rely on auto HDR for more difficult scenes. It fixes clip highlights with very few changes to the rest of the photo. Colors are a true-to-life, unless you use the AI camera in which case saturation is boosted a little too much and makes photos look like they have an Instagram filter.

The telephoto camera takes pretty good images in decent light. Shots are sharp and detailed with wide-dynamic range and once again accurate colors. There’s no optical image stabilization, unlike on the wider shooter.

In low-light, photos are sharp enough with well preserved colors and surprisingly there’s plenty of noise but not so much of it that it gets in the way.

The quality of the photos taken in portrait mode, rely a lot on whether you’re in a well-lit environment or not. In brighter locations, you’ll get pretty good detail portraits with excellent subject separation and convincing blur.

On the front, you’ll also find a dual camera setup. However, this time around you have one main 24 megapixel snapper and a 2 megapixel depth sensing one. There’s more than enough detail and colors are Pleasant. Dynamic range isn’t impressive but auto HDR should help salvage things and more extreme lighting. Selfie portraits are also quite convincing but sharpness takes a hit.

The mi mix 3 can capture video up to 4k at 60fps and slow motion video up to 960 FPS is also available. However for some reason, it doesn’t allow you to use a telephoto lens for video which is really irritating. 4K videos were sharp and detailed, although not class-leading. Contrast is great and color rendition is vivid without being too much. Despite OIS, there really isn’t any stabilization with 4k videos.

1080p capture is also excellent, the mi mix 3 actually outperforms many other competitors who ignore 1080p video optimization. The stabilization is actually also quite good and we didn’t observe any issues like wobbling.

SECURITY

Mi 9:

I just want to say that in-display fingerprint reader is best at this price range. This is an optical fingerprint sensor which can be little bit finicky sometimes. Overall, the in-display fingerprint reader performs well enough.

Well, there is also a faceunlock feature but without infrared feature, so unlocking your device in dark area would be a problem.

Mi Mix 3:

This device comes with rear mounted fingerprint sensor. And yes, I know it’s pretty outdated in 2020. But I have to say that the fingerprint reader is very fast and accurate. 

There is also faceunlock and it is not that good, in terms of security, so I will recommend to fingerprint sensor or pin, password, or pattern.

BATTERY

Mi 9:

The Battery is the weakest part of the Mi 9. It comes with 3300mAh battery which is very low to it’s competition. Despite that most users will get through a whole day with ease but if you spend your time on gaming then you’d be looking for a charger sooner. We measured that 30 minutes of video playback at max brightness will cost you 6% of your battery. While intense gaming for the same amount of time will take away 10%.

Mi Mix 3:

The mi mix 3 also supports a quick charge 3.0 and 4.0, so the supplied charger can get the battery from 0-54% in 30 minutes. Unlike most phones, this one also comes with its own wireless charger which can replenish the battery from 0 to 32% in half an hour.

WHICH ONE YOU SHOULD BUY?

I would say that if you love a slider phone with premium design then you should buy Mi Mix 3. But I will buy Mi 9 because it is good in performance, battery life, and in cameras.

Jaskaran Singh

Jaskaran, a tech enthusiast from childhood, inspired by his father, began his tech journey by rooting Android phones. He now writes on various tech topics, aiming to simplify complex ideas for a broad audience. His writing is direct, concise, and flows effortlessly, making tech topics accessible and engaging.