Realme 9i India launch on January 18; Redmi Note 11S coming soon to spoil its party

Realme 9i budget 4G phone will be launched in India on January 18, Realme announced today. The 9i was only recently launched in Vietnam and there’s a very high probability that Realme will launch the same model in India, too. Rival Xiaomi, soon after, announced that it too, will launch an unspecified Redmi phone—likely the Redmi Note 11s—in the country soon, though the exact date hasn’t been disclosed yet. It’s abundantly clear, the two phones—Realme 9i and Redmi Note 11s—will be priced under Rs 20,000 and could end up competing against each other.

There is more clarity around the Realme 9i. The phone has already launched in Vietnam and Realme India has confirmed it will be powered by the same 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chip. The design shared by the company through a tweet and the product’s dedicated teaser page also seems familiar and in line with the model announced recently. The phone comes in blue and black though only the blue version is being shown off in India at the time of writing.

The Realme 9i has a 6.6-inch 1080p IPS LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate and hole punch cut-out. Under the hood, it has a Snapdragon 680 chip paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. This is expandable. Software is Android 11-based Realme UI 2.0. The phone further has a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging support.

Also Read | Redmi Note 11T 5G review: Good looks, great battery life

For photography, the Realme 9i has a triple camera setup on the rear with a 50MP main sensor. On the front, it has a 16MP camera.

In Vietnam, the Realme 9i sells for VND 6,490,000 which roughly translates to Rs 21,200.

As for the upcoming Redmi phone, this will come only days after the Redmi Note 11T. This will be the second model to launch in the Redmi Note 11 series. Whether it will slot above or below the Redmi Note 11T remains to be seen. The Redmi Note 11 Pro and Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus were recently launched in India as the Xiaomi 11i and Xiaomi 11i Hypercharge. The Redmi Note 11T, too, was a rebranded Redmi Note 11 5G.