Xiaomi, a recent entrant into the Australian market, is now looking to gain traction in the burgeoning "premium mid-tier" category with the Mi9T. On paper it

premium-looking design; notchless display; 3.5 mm headphone jack; good Wi-Fi performance; precise GPS; dual-SIM; Widevine DRM L1; impressive pictures in good lighting; fast fingerprint sensor; fast facial recognition; vibrant AMOLED display; fast midrange SoC; long battery life; quick-charging...

no water or dust-resistance certification; no microSD card slot; Type-C port operates on the slower 2.0 standard; high SAR values; underwhelming low-light shots; PWM; no wireless charging; comparatively expensive

The Mi 9T is the most balanced Xiaomi phone we've seen so far, combining some of the best features of the Mi 9 series to create an affordable and strong all-rounder. The large notch-less display, its huge battery and a triple-display camera promise to revolutionise the mid-range phone market.

We take a look at Xiaomi's Mi 9T to determine if it truly is the best mid-ranger....

Awesome design Versatile camera Excellent performance

Tinny speaker No microSD expansion

The Xiaomi Mi 9T has a clear goal: to be among the best mid-range smartphones on the market. Thanks to its competitive price tag, features and specs, it achieves this goal and has won me over. Here's my full review.

Value for the price; Good OLED display; Battery life; Camera experience

No microSD support; No IP67/8

Xiaomi Mi 9T is the standard version and a substitute for folks who might not want to spend much on the higher Mi 9T Pro version, which comes with SD855 CPU. Instead, this unit comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 Octa-core CPU clocked at 2.2GHz, along with 6GB of RAM and up to 128 GB internal...

After one week of use this is one of the best phones I have ever used. Fast and snappy. Camera is excellent. Display is gorgeous. I could go on and on. It's not perfect however. I see no reason it shouldn't have an SD card slot. Would have made this phone a little more versatile.

Many say Xiaomi is overcharging for the phone, some even say the phone should be priced at par with the Realme X, which starts Rs 16,999. I beg to differ. The Redmi K20 is a superior smartphone for Rs 21,999. I am not the biggest admirer of Xiaomi phones, but the Redmi K20 has caught my attention.

As you may or may not know by now, the Xiaomi Mi 9T is the global version of the Redmi K20 - they're the same phone with of course different names, and various software, with the latter having the Chinese version of MIUI.

Lots to love at a low price point