Xiaomi Mi 11 review: A powerful rival to top Android flagships
bySinlung-
Xiaomi finally made a phone that doesn't lag behind other Android flagships in any meaningful way.
Xiaomi Mi 11 has the fastest Qualcomm processor you can currently
get, the Snapdragon 888. It has a powerful, 108-megapixel camera, a
massive battery that lasts for days, and a huge 6.81-inch AMOLED
display. These are all major improvements over its predecessor, the
Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro. It has a few new features, too, such as wireless
charging.
The Mi 11 represents a change in Xiaomi's strategy. The company used
to offer fairly priced smartphones with top specs but a few missing
features. But this phone, just like its fiercest competitor, Samsung's
Galaxy S21 Ultra, has it all.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 is a powerful phone with all the latest bells and
whistles at a fair price. It's a pity its camera is one step behind the
competition.
A lot of the features that look good on the spec sheet are turned off by default, likely because Xiaomi
thinks most users won't even notice. For example, the phone's massive
AMOLED display has a 3,200x1,400 pixel resolution and a maximum 120Hz
refresh rate, but both settings are reduced by default. I used the phone
without them for a while, then turned them on, and the difference is
very subtle.
That's one big camera bump.
Same goes for the new, ultra-snappy Snapdragon
processor. Everything feels super-fast on this phone, but it also did on
the last one. And though the version of the phone that I got only had
8GB of RAM (you can get it with 12GB as well), it never felt like it
wasn't enough.
Xiaomi Mi 11 battery life and other features
In fact, the beauty of such a powerful phone is that it offers you
choices. The 4,600mAh battery is good enough to last through the whole
day even with the highest resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and always-on
display, but if you turn those features off, the phone will last two
days. The battery also charges really fast; you'll get from zero to 100
percent in less than an hour.
The reverse wireless charging — a staple on today's top smartphones —
is a cool feature that I never really use. But it's there, so maybe
it'll be worth it for that one time when your wireless earbuds are out
of juice and there's no power outlet nearby (yes, I'm optimistic about
us traveling again someday).
A feature that most people won't care about, but I do, is aptX HD and
aptX Adaptive which will increase sound quality for Bluetooth audio
streaming — and it's also something that Samsung's top phones don't
have. The differences in sound quality can be subtle, but they are
there, especially if you have high-quality headphones.
Xiaomi Mi 11 also has dual stereo speakers which are loud and sound quite good, even better than the ones on the iPhone 12 Pro.
Two things that are missing: Water resistance, and memory card
support. Neither are a dealbreaker for me, but they are important.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 is really big
This case is fairly thick, and still it doesn't fully protect the rear camera's main lens.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
Now that we've established that the specs don't
matter — in the sense that the phone has pretty much every feature you
could think of — what is it like to use?
One thing I have in issue with is the display. At 6.81 inches
diagonally, and mostly bezel-less, the display is impressive to look at,
but not the most practical. I prefer large displays, and this one is
right there on the edge of comfort for me. If you have smaller hands,
forget about operating this phone one-handed.
Other than that, the phone was a joy to use. The phone is Gorilla
Glass on both sides (it also comes with a leather back, if you prefer it
to glass). It's very slippery, but Xiaomi sent me a nice, grippy,
textile case that I used almost all the time. The under-the-display
fingerprint scanner is hit or miss. It would work 10 times in a row, and
then it would repeatedly fail me, for no apparent reason. Turning on
the face unlock feature got rid of that issue, thankfully. And the
display itself is great; I've compared it to the one on my iPhone 12 Pro
and can barely see a difference in terms of contrast, color vibrancy,
or sharpness.
MiUI 12: Not perfect, but easy enough to get used to.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
Software-wise, the combination of Android 11 and
Xiaomi's MIUI 12 worked well enough for me — once I'd gotten used to the
menus and eliminated most of the pre-installed crapware the phone came
with. MIUI 12 is a blend of vanilla Android features and some iOS
features, and I found the mix enjoyable.
Generally, Android
users fall into two camps; those who notice every little difference
between user interfaces, and those who don't mind. I fall into the
latter category, except when the phone really annoys me with a dumb
feature, which the Mi 11 never did.
Xiaomi also has some nice visual features to make the phone feel a
bit more premium. One I loved is called Super Wallpapers — dynamic
wallpapers that zoom in and out of visual scenery depending on where
you're at in a menu. One, for example, starts by showing you the planet
Mars from afar when the phone is locked; unlock it, and the animation
will breeze through Mars' thin atmosphere and zoom into a canyon.
This kind of visual wizardry helps, because the front of the Mi 11
looks the same as all Android phones these days, with small bezels and a
punch-hole selfie camera in the upper left corner. On the back, the
massive main camera sensor is by far the most noticeable feature. It
looks powerful, but it protrudes a lot; not even my (fairly thick) case
was able to fully protect it. My unit had a matte back that glistens in
icy white and light blue; it looks like frosted glass, and it's pretty
fancy, although I do think that aurora effects and gradient colors are a
bit overdone on phones these days.
Xiaomi Mi 11 cameras: Good, but not the best
That's one big viewfinder.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
The phone's massive, 108-megapixel camera sensor,
coupled with a 13-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, and a 5-megapixel
telemacro sensor, is decent, but not as good as its size would lead you
to believe.
Xiaomi's last flagship phone, the Mi 10T Pro,
was a bit of a disappointment in the camera department. It was good,
but not an improvement over 2019's Mi Note 10. The new Xiaomi Mi 11 is
similarly perplexing: Its camera has more features and is often great,
but sometimes it's an odd step backward. Also, it doesn't seem like the
camera system is an upgrade from the Mi 10T Pro in a hardware sense,
except for the lack of a depth sensor and increased resolution of the
macro sensor (5 instead of 2 megapixels).
In daylight, you'll get beautiful, detailed photos, and if the
lighting is really perfect, you can switch to the 108-megapixel mode to
get those extra details (by default, the phone takes 27-megapixel
photos). For tinkerers, the camera's Pro mode lets you tweak every
little detail, which might actually be useful given how often the
camera's default settings didn't work for me.
In broad daylight, the 108-megapixel sensor shines.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
Xiaomi made some improvements to low-light
photography and added some new features. One is the Supermoon mode,
which uses AI tricks to make photos of the moon appear better than they
should be, even at maximum zoom. It also has automatic night mode —
similar to the iPhone 12 — which automatically takes better photos in
low-light scenarios, after a few seconds of delay.
This photo of the moon was taken in
Supermoon mode with maximum zoom. Safe to say that AI had something to
do with it looking this good.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
However, low-light photography on this phone is
hit or miss. Some photos I took on auto night mode had a horribly
unnatural greenish tint, and the Mi 10T Pro actually took a better
photo. Dedicated night mode worked better for me.
Ouch. That's way too green.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
The phone offers a default 2x zoom setting, though
you can go much farther than that, up to 30x, by pinching out on the
camera screen. The results are alright, up to a point; I wouldn't go
over 3x unless necessary. You can also go to 0.6x for those widescreen
shots.
Zoom on the Mi 11 won't be as good as what you get on a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
If you like macro photography, the Mi 11's
5-megapixel macro camera will let you zoom in at near-microscopic
levels. It's a gimmick, but it's a cool one, and not every phone has
it.
Macro mode won't be useful often, but it's tons of fun.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
The selfie camera has a 20-megapixel sensor, and
it does the job well. But even when I removed every possible beautifying
option, it would still often produce photos that were slightly too soft
for my taste.
Turning beautifying options off is a must.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
Generally, the Xiaomi Mi 11 camera can produce
great photos, but it doesn't always do it — you'll often have to take
several mediocre photos (or tinker with the settings) to get one that's
great. On the other hand, despite the lack of a depth sensor or a
dedicated zoom camera, it's still plenty versatile.
On the video front, the phone offers 8K recording at 30fps, which
will make you pine for that missing memory card support. There are also
several special video recording modes, including a Super macro mode, and
a mode that has the camera track moving objects.
A good deal, but not the best cameraphone around
Frosty back isn't reflective and doesn't collect fingerprints very much.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
Xiaomi Mi 11 is the company's best phone so far.
It's powerful, good looking, has a ton of features, and even beats top
competitors in certain (albeit minor) regards. Its camera, however, is a
step behind the best cameraphones in class. The Xiaomi Mi 11 starts at
749 euros ($902), which is alright (in Europe), but not cheap enough to
make it an instant recommendation.
