Xiaomi Mi 9 Hands On And First Impressions, WOW!

I've had the Xiaomi Mi 9 now for about 4 hours and I am ridiculously impressed with the device. Here are the initial impressions of the device after a short period of time.

Build: When i took the device out of the box all I could say was wow. The devices feels quite seemless in the hand. The metal frame really gives it a nice heft and a reassuring cool metal detail to break up the sheets of glass. The in hand feel of this device is as premium as the Mi Mix 3 which i have gotten to spend time with (about two hours playing with a store managers test unit here in vietnam). Although the Mi 9 doesn't have the same Teutonic feel of the heavier Mi Mix 3, it doesn't feel like its a budget device or a device made with cost in mind.

Screen: Oh how I have missed AMOLED displays. It's been a few years since I have used an AMOLED display and they really are a thing of beauty. The one on the Mi 9 has fantastic viewing angles, tons of contrast (obviously) and the system wide black mode really does look awesome. Xiaomi advertised this was a Samsung panel and the quality really shows. That said just because it LOOKS great doesn't mean it necessarily color accurate. The temperature can obviously be adjusted in the settings but its definitely a different experience than that on my Pocophone F1.

Cameras: They are great. I already shot a ton of photos with them, in night mode, not in night mode, in pro mode on a tripod, in 48mp vs 12mp mode. I am thoroughly impressed with the amount of detail and dynamic range we are able to get out of this camera and the 3 separate focal lengths are awesome for professional photographers such as myself. Just the freedom to use focal lengths and composition more freely on this device is really awesome.

ALSO GCAM WORKS OUT OF THE BOX! No flashing or modification to the rom required since Xiaomi has already begun enabling camera 2 API standard on devices with newer versions of MIUI. I tried the Gcam night sight on the Mi 9 and compared it directly to that on my pocophone f1 (the pocophone f1 Gcam port is stable). While it's not a clear win for the mi 9 I can surely see that specialized ports of Gcam will yield even better results.

Charging speed: This thing is ludicrous. I came home put the phone on the charger for 20 minutes and it jumped from 46% battery to 87% battery.

Bootloader unlock time: I have already applied to unlock the bootloader of this device and I cannot wait to get Xiaomi EU roms on it. I hate the Chinese rom and its lack of ability to remap the AI button to google assistant. That will obviously be something that changes with global firmware but right now the stock chinese software is my least favorite part of the phone.

I'll be doing more follow ups as I use the device more and i will of course be sharing pictures here as well.