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Xiaomi Mi 9 review: A worthy OnePlus rival
I can't spend $1,000 on a smartphone. I just can't. I've walked into countless phone stores, credit card in hand, with every intention of buying the latest flagship. I walk up to the demo area, wake the handset I've already decided to buy and spend a few moments swiping through the app drawer, willing myself to follow through on the purchase. My throat tightens and a few minutes later my legs are moving involuntarily out the door and down the street. It's been this way for years. I love high-end smartphones but can't stomach the price-tag when I think about the rent, bills and unpaid student loans waiting for me at home. Instead, I've veered toward OnePlus and similar brands that offer flagship performance at two-thirds, or sometimes even half the price of phones from likes of Samsung, Google and Apple. And now, Chinese giant Xiaomi has finally entered Europe, including the UK. That makes its latest flagship, the glossy Mi 9, a tantalizing prospect for people like me, who want the best, or close enough, on a tighter budget.
Google brings dedicated Assistant buttons to more phones
Google Assistant buttons won't just be limited to a handful of LG phones this year. The internet giant has widened its partnerships to add dedicated buttons to a whole range of handsets in 2019, including returning partner LG (on phones like the G8 ThinQ, V50 ThinQ and K40) and Nokia (3.2 and 4.2). Phones from Xiaomi (Mi Mix 3 5G and Mi 9), Vivo (V15 Pro) and TCL are also in line for Assistant buttons later on. Google expects over 100 million phones to ship with a hardware shortcut to its AI helper, and that's not including Samsung phone owners who remap their Bixby buttons.
Xiaomi's Mi 9 flagship comes to Europe on February 28th
Xiaomi's latest Android flagship, the Mi 9, will hit European store shelves on February 28th. At a press conference in Barcelona, the company confirmed that the phone will be available with either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage for €449 (roughly $510) and €499 (roughly $566) respectively. We went hands-on with the Mi 9 last week and liked what we saw. The handset sports a 6.39-inch, FHD+ (1080x2340) AMOLED display with a teardrop notch and 19:6 aspect ratio. It's also packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, 6GB of RAM and a 3,300mAh battery.
