Realme 9i launches in India with new 4G Snapdragon chip, challenges Moto G31

The Realme 9i becomes Realme’s first of many smartphone launches for the year 2022. Coming in at a starting price of Rs. 13,999, it offers the base variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. You can pay Rs. 15,999 for the top-end variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. Realme has dropped this one in two colours – Prism Black and Prism Blue. The phone will go on sale from January 25 and can be bought via Flipkart, offline stores, and Realme’s own website.

The Realme 9i replaces the old Realme 8i and at the moment, competes with a couple of 5G models from Realme’s own stable. Additionally, the Realme 9i takes on some affordable 4G smartphones from Xiaomi and Motorola, namely the Redmi Note 10, Redmi Note 10 Lite, and Motorola Moto G31.

Realme 9i specs and features

Realme debuts the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chipset in India with the Realme 9i. This is a 4G LTE chip only and hence, does not support 5G networks. You can equip it with up to 6GB LPDDR4X RAM as well as 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. There’s a Dynamic RAM Expansion feature coming to the Realme 9i via future software update.

Realme is shipping the phone with its Realme UI 2 based on Android 11 and does no comment on the availability of the Android 12 update. All of this Android 11 interface is shown on a 6.6-inch Full HD+ LCD display with a refresh rate of 90Hz and a Dragon Tail Pro glass protection. The display also holds a 16MP front camera using a Sony IMX471 sensor.

On the rear, the Realme 9i gets a 50MP main camera with f/1.8 lens, a 2MP depth camera and a 2MP macro camera. There’s no ultra-wide camera on the Realme 9i.

The phone relies on a 5000mAh battery with support for 33W fast wired charging. Realme says this charging tech can do a 0-100 percent in 70 minutes.

Other miscellaneous features on the Realme 9i include a 3.5mm headphone jack, a stereo speaker setup, a power-key mounted fingerprint sensor, and a proximity sensor.