The Xiaomi Mi 9 arrives in Australia

Further expanding the Chinese brand's foothold Further expanding the Chinese brand's foothold in the upper mid-tier market, Xiaomi's Mi 9 smartphone is now available in Australia.

Following on from the Mi Mix 3, the Xiaomi Mi 9 is a lean, mean, flagship-fighting machine. It boasts a Snapdragon 855 processor, 6.39-inch AMOLED display, 6GB of RAM, an in-display fingerprint sensor, a 3300mAh battery plus a triple-lens (48-megapixel + 16-megapixel + 12-megapixel) 'AI' camera on the back of it.

There's also a dedicated Google assistant button on the side and a teardrop notch on the front.

If that all sounds familiar, this next part might not. In addition to supporting 27W QC4+ fast-charging over USB Type-C, the Mi 9 also supports 20W wireless fast charging. Xiaomi claim this feature is a world first when it comes to smartphones - though I don't see many Galaxy S10 owners ditching their devices over slower wireless charging anytime soon.

In Australia, the Xiaomi Mi 9 will be available in three colors (Piano Black, Ocean Blue and Lavender Yellow) and two memory configurations: 64GB or 128GB. Pricing for the 64GB model starts at $829 while the 128GB version of the Xiaomi Mi 9 comes in at $879.

Given the Snapdragon 800-series chipset inside the Mi 9 and the fact that Oppo's more-recent devices have soared above $1000 when it comes to price, that RRP is surprisingly competitive. The Xiaomi Mi 9 is available now via the Australian Mi Store plus local Mi marketplace partners like Amazon, Catch and eBay.