Owning a modern smartphone like the Xiaomi Redmi 9 opens up access to technologies that were the preserve of professional photographers until recently. One of the key features that attracts users’ attention on the camera menu is the mysterious acronym AI. Many device owners wonder what exactly is behind this designation and whether it really helps to take better pictures in everyday life.
Artificial intelligence in mobile photography has ceased to be just a marketing ploy and has become a real tool for image processing. In the budget segment, which includes the model in question, the introduction of such algorithms allows you to compensate for the physical limitations of optics and matrix. Understanding the principles of this feature gives you the opportunity to fully unleash the potential of your gadget and get consistently good results even in difficult lighting conditions.
Next, we'll go into detail about how the neural network analyzes the frame, what scenarios it supports, and whether it should be kept on-line, and how the system makes decisions about color correction and exposure balancing based on the contents of the frame.
The principle of artificial intelligence in mobile photography
The AI Scene Detection is based on real-time image analysis. The smartphone processor processes the video stream from the matrix, highlighting key objects and determining the type of scene. It uses a huge database of millions of photos in which the algorithm has learned to recognize textures, colors and shapes. When you point the camera at an object, the system instantly matches the picture with the benchmarks.
Unlike the standard automatic setting, where the parameters are set by average values, AI-The mode makes spot corrections, for example, when shooting a meal, the algorithm will increase the saturation of warm shades, making the dish more appetizing, but if the sky appears in the frame, the system will increase the blue color and add contrast to the clouds to make them look larger. All these changes occur in fractions of a second before you hit the down button.
Importantly, the Redmi 9 optimizes this process for the MediaTek Helio G80 processor, which means that the algorithms work efficiently without causing severe shutter delays. The neural network also helps to combat the digital noise that often occurs when shooting in low light, smoothing out color heterogeneities.
The user can observe the algorithm from the pop-up prompts at the bottom of the screen, which indicates the recognized object. However, it is worth remembering that the system is not always perfect and can be mistaken in mixed scenes. In such cases, manual adjustment or disabling of the function can give a more natural result.
The main scenarios of recognition in Redmi 9
Xiaomi Redmi 9 can identify more than 20 different scenes, allowing you to tailor your shooting settings to specific conditions, and the most common modes include the following categories that significantly improve the final image:
- 🍔 Food: The algorithm increases the saturation of red and yellow tones, adds sharpness to textures, making the dish visually more attractive and “tasty".
- 🌳 Nature and greens: Green spectrum is enhanced, dynamic range is increased to preserve details in both light and dark areas of the landscape.
- 🐶 Animals: The system focuses on the pet's eyes and tries to freeze movement to avoid lubricating the fur when playing actively.
- 🌇 Sunset and sky: The sky gradients are emphasized, the bright sun is prevented from re-lighting, and shadows are drawn in the silhouettes of buildings or trees.
Each of these modes has its own color correction profiles preset, and when you see the icon, it's a signal that the camera has already applied the filter and exposure settings, which eliminates the need to edit the photo in third-party apps immediately after shooting.
But automation can be too aggressive, for example, when shooting documents or texts, the AI function may try to "improve" contrast so that the text becomes unreadable or artifacts appear, and in such situations it is better to switch to the standard mode or "Documents" mode.
The impact of AI on the quality of portrait photography
Special attention should be paid to the work of artificial intelligence in portrait mode, where segmentation algorithms play a key role: the camera must clearly separate the subject (person) from the background in order to correctly apply the blur effect (bokeh). In Redmi 9, this feature is implemented software, since there is no telephoto lens for measuring depth.
The neural network analyzes the contours of the face and body, defining boundaries. If you stand against a contrasting background, the blur will work perfectly. However, in complex backgrounds, such as when hair merges with the color of the wall, errors can occur. AI tries to smooth these transitions, but it is not always possible to completely avoid artifacts.
And in portrait mode, the AI Beautify function is activated, which automatically adjusts skin tone, hides minor defects, and can even change the shape of the face according to selected beauty standards, and the degree of this exposure can be adjusted by a slider, but it is often set to averages by default.
⚠️ Attention: Excessive use of beauty filters can lead to loss of skin texture and unnatural "plastic" face.
For group portraits, the system tries to illuminate all the faces in the frame evenly, and it analyzes the geometry of the scene and selects the optimal focus point so that everyone in the picture is in sharpness, not just the one who is closer to the center.
Comparison: AI is on vs. off
To understand the real value of the function, we need to consider specific examples of differences in the final image. Below is a table showing how the image changes depending on the state of the AI switch in the viewfinder.
| Parameter | AI's off. | AI Included |
|---|---|---|
| Flower saturation | Natural, close to reality | Bright, rich, "advertising" |
| Dynamic range | Standard, possible relights | Extended (HDR-effect), details in the shadows |
| Sharpness | Optical sharpness of the lens | Increased Programmatic Sharpening (Sharpening) |
| Noise suppression | Minimal, see grainy noise | Aggressive smoothing, possible "soapiness" |
| Processing speed | Instant. | 0.5-1 sec delay for frame processing |
As you can see from the comparison, the AI mode makes the image more spectacular for social networks, the photos look brighter and contraster immediately after the shooting, but for further professional processing in editors, it is better to use the original, less processed file.
In low light conditions, the difference becomes even more noticeable. AI-The regime attempts to pull the image out of the darkness, but this often results in digital artifacts and the loss of fine detail.The standard mode at night can give a darker but cleaner shot.
Configure and manage the AI Camera function
The MIUI camera is very simple to control, and the camera app's home screen, in the top corner (usually right), has an AI switch that says, when it's on blue or orange, it's active, and when you press it, it changes color to gray, which means you go into manual scene control.
To fine-tune it, you need to go to the camera settings menu, and you can find additional parameters that affect how the algorithms work. For example, some versions of the firmware offer an AI Improvement setting or a retouching degree. The path to settings is usually: Settings (three bars) → Settings → Improvements.
And also, there's the AI Studio feature, which is sometimes found in the gallery, which is a separate module that offers you to create a collage or video of your best shots, automatically selected by the neural network for quality and plot, which doesn't affect the actual shooting process, but is an extension of the work of artificial intelligence.
If you notice that the camera often misbalances white or makes unnatural colors, try clearing the camera app cache. Go to Phone Settings → Apps → All Apps → Camera → Clear → Clear the cache. This will reset temporary files and can fix algorithm failures.
Typical problems and ways to solve them
While useful, the AI feature in the Xiaomi Redmi 9 can be a bit of a inconvenience. The most common complaint is shutter delay. Because the phone needs time to analyze the scene and apply filters, the moment of shooting can be missed, especially when photographing children or animals in motion.
Another problem is the instabilities of the work, where the camera can't see an obvious scene, or it can apply a food filter to the face, making the skin look unnaturally orange, and these are software bugs that are sometimes fixed with system updates, but they can remain in the current version.
⚠️ Note: If the camera app starts to fly out frequently or freeze when turned on AI, Try lowering the resolution of the shooting or turning off the function in the settings.
In some cases, users find that after updating the MIUI firmware algorithms start to work worse, this is due to the fact that new versions of the software may not be fully optimized for the hardware of the device, in which case waiting for a patch or a rollback to the previous version of the system helps.
Also worth remembering is the heating of the device, which is when the neural network is working hard, it can load the processor, which can lead to higher body temperature and accelerated battery discharge, and with a long photo shoot in AI mode, this can be a noticeable factor.