It has a shooting speed of 4.5 frames per second without the additional motor pack, a shutter speed of 1/12000 of a second due to carbon-reinforced shutter blades, a pentaprism, and it is compatible with xi zoom lenses having a "power zoom function".

The Minolta 9xi has smoothed contours with buttons that were largely hidden or placed directly by the fingers controlling them.

The Minolta 9xi records at 5 frames per second without an external motor or battery pack, coupled with the four-sensor autofocus system that could continuously track not only horizontally but vertically and diagonally—even when an object came towards the camera.

The camera lacks a built-in flash, which was seen as an attempt by Minolta to appeal to more professionally inclined photographers.

The camera was also criticized for its heavily "computerized" interface, with few buttons and many functions only accessible behind the card door.