Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra Review

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Extremely is an expensive telephone with world-class specs, however as a complete, it isn’t all the time larger than the sum of its elements. That is the rationale its wonderful digicam, flagship energy, ultra-fast charging and gorgeous display being set towards chunky design, mediocre battery life and an sometimes clumsy interface maintain it again from justifying its excessive price ticket.

Introduction

Xiaomi has had loads of success with funds smartphones, lately (and notably) with the confusingly good Redmi Notice 10 Professional. Nevertheless, can its confidently priced Mi 11 Extremely safe the identical form of success on the top-end of the market?

Wanting on the Xiaomi Mi 11 Extremely’s specs, there’s no cause the £1199 (roughly $1600, €1199) handset can’t cement the model as a category chief for world-first expertise to be one of the best telephone round.

The telephone’s display is sharp, easy and of fantastic high quality; its ceramic design feels super-premium; there are Harman/Kardon tuned audio system on the prime and backside; and it fees at a staggering 67W – wired and wi-fi with a appropriate charger.

There’s little doubt about it, the Mi 11 Extremely is an thrilling smartphone – however following a month of life with the machine, does the fact stay as much as the spec sheet?

Design and display

• Premium however chunky ceramic physique
• 4-sided curved glass show
• WQHD+, 120Hz AMOLED expertise

At 6ft 4in, I’m a tall man with large arms, and even I made an ‘ooof’ sound when dealing with the Mi 11 Extremely for the primary time.

It’s 234g, making it one of many heaviest telephones round – the outsized iPhone 12 Professional Max weighs 228g, and while you account for its digicam bump, it’s one chunky slab of a smartphone. Measurement apart, and the Xiaomi Mi 11 Extremely does really feel fantastically premium. It’s additionally distinctive in its heft and form – no one thing many smartphones can actually declare.

On the base of the Mi 11 Extremely is a dual-SIM slot and a USB-C port. Disappointingly for a telephone of the Mi 11 Extremely’s value, video-out from the USB-C port isn’t supported. In the meantime, telephones such because the Huawei Mate 40 Professional and Samsung Galaxy S21 characteristic full desktop UIs when hooked as much as an exterior show, whereas the OnePlus 9 and 9 Professional mission their cell interfaces on the very least.

The suitable facet of the Mi 11 Extremely is the place you’ll discover energy and quantity buttons. On the prime is an IR blaster for TV channel altering, whereas across the again is that hefty bump and curved ceramic goodness.

The back and front sandwich a buffed steel body, and the telephone (accessible in Black or White) is IP68 water- and dust-resistant. It additionally comes with a case; one thing Apple and Samsung don’t embrace.

The Mi 11 Extremely’s construct high quality (and dimension) extends to the entrance show, with its quad-curved WQHD+ panel clocking in at 6.81 inches. The AMOLED display incorporates a 3200 x 1440 decision, which is super-sharp, leading to an iPhone-bettering 515 pixels-per-inch. With a 20:9 side ratio, the telephone isn’t fairly the tallest round, but it surely isn’t too far off – and in flip, between its width and top, small arms could have bother navigating it.

The pure show high quality of the Mi 11 Extremely’s display can also be incredible when put aside the competitors. It incorporates a 5,000,000:1 distinction ratio, with HDR 10+ help and a peak brightness of 1700 nits. The tonal depth coated by the show makes it the most effective in the marketplace in actual life, and the in-hand really feel of the Huawei P40 Professional-like four-sided curve screams premium as your fingers swipe throughout its responsive, zingy pixels.

With a 120Hz refresh price, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Extremely’s display is as easy because the competitors, though one factor it isn’t is kind of as optimized for battery-saving, with a better minimal refresh price than telephones such because the Oppo Discover X3 Professional or S21 Extremely. I don’t know if that is the rationale I sometimes struggled to make it via a day with the telephone – extra on that later.

The place the Mi 11 Extremely does compete is color accuracy, with a JNCD of 0.4 (the decrease the quantity the higher), and 10-bit (additionally known as billion color) show tech. Protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, it’s packing top-tier safety, too.

Digital camera

• 50-megapixel wide-angle digicam is the principle sensor and it’s large
• 48-megapixel ultra-wide digicam for selection
• 48-megapixel periscope digicam for zooming

The large deal about this massive telephone is its most important digicam. The Xiaomi Mi 11 Extremely incorporates a 1 /1.12-inch sensor dimension, which isn’t a lot smaller than the one-inch sensors on premium compact cameras such because the Sony RX100.

The larger the digicam sensor, the higher probability it has of grabbing mild and capturing the very best image. This immediately places the Mi 11 Extremely when in comparison with smaller digicam sensors on a few of the greatest digicam telephones round.

With its 50-megapixel decision, the first digicam on the Mi 11 Extremely packs loads of pixels, however doesn’t shoot full-res pictures by default.

It takes 12.5-megapixel pictures with four-in-one pixel combining. The telephone’s lens sports activities an f/1.95 aperture, optical picture stabilisation (OIS) and eight components.

Photographs from the principle digicam are completely tanked up with depth when a topic is lower than half a metre away. Background blur makes for wealthy, high-impact pictures, be it an individual or a succulent. Regardless of shallow depth and placing bokeh, nevertheless, the place the Mi 11 Extremely’s most important digicam drops the ball is usable element. If the tap-to-focus misses the mark only a contact, the Mi 11 Extremely’s pictures aren’t as crisp as these taken on considerably lower-cost, older-generation 48-megapixel digicam telephones such because the 48-megapixel Poco F3, owing to the restricted focus depth.

In different phrases, the Mi 11 Extremely has idiosyncrasies, so to get essentially the most out of it, you really want to grasp the way it works.

The telephone’s nuanced digicam story extends to the 48-megapixel telephoto digicam. Doubling up as a macro digicam when capturing topics from roughly one metre away (or extra), it’s one of many extra versatile ‘zoom’ modules accessible. Whereas Xiaomi claims it packs a 120 occasions digital zoom and a ten occasions hybrid zoom, its optical zoom vary is 5 occasions, placing it on par with the Huawei Mate 40 Professional. The zoom module packs OIS, a half-inch sensor dimension and an f4.1 aperture.

Whereas not fairly as stellar at choosing up far-off element because the Huawei P40 Professional Plus or S21 Extremely in my expertise, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Extremely continues to be a formidable digicam system for going large and much with out compromising on element.

The telephoto digicam comes into its personal in vibrant environments and when Night time mode is engaged. Its pictures additionally profit from extra impartial color stability than the punchy most important digicam. Having stated that, color consistency throughout the three modules might be higher.

In the case of the 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle digicam, this is likely to be our favorite module on the Mi 11 Extremely. It sports activities autofocus, which not many ultra-wide cameras characteristic, and its 128-degree subject of view lens is matched with a large f/2.2 aperture. Most spectacular is that it’s additionally capable of seize macro pictures, providing you with three cameras with which to shoot close-up objects, every with its personal traits.

Even with distortion correction utilized, the Mi 11 Extremely’s ultra-wide sports activities a good quantity of barrel distortion, given simply how large its angle of view. That stated, with all of the element it captures and its 48-megapixel decision, you’ll be able to fortunately crop into pictures taken on the ultra-wide digicam, zapping peripheral distortion and making for a extra real looking shot. Alternatively, put it in Photoshop or Lightroom, and it may be adjusted. With its virtually GoPro aesthetic, I loved the artistic ops barely distorted, super-wide pictures delivered, however they received’t be for everybody.

In case you’re getting a way the Mi 11 Extremely’s digicam is one for fanatics greater than amateurs, you’re on the cash. Of us who simply wish to level, shoot, and be assured a dependable shot could be higher off with an iPhone 12 Professional Max or a Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely. That stated, if you happen to’re eager to grasp your digicam telephone’s quirks, the Mi 11 Extremely can – within the arms of a educated photographer – seize really world-class pictures.

The telephone additionally shoots as much as 8K decision video throughout all three of its rear cameras, and in vibrant environments the footage it captures seems nice, with stabilisation working a deal with throughout all resolutions. When the lights drop, the principle and ultra-wide digicam are one of the best to lean on for video. The telephone additionally incorporates a 20-megapixel entrance digicam for selfies, which is a mighty flattering module with software-enhanced magnificence options that vary from naturally enhancing to completely over-the-top – the selection is yours.

Efficiency

• Flagship energy nice for 3D video games
• Loads of storage, however no SD card slot
• Turns into sizzling with sure intense video games and benchmarks

With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset matched with as much as 12GB of RAM, you received’t be seeing slowdown on the Mi 11 Extremely – though that doesn’t imply its consumer expertise is flawless.

Day-to-day, my first impression of the telephone’s energy was nice because of its nippy efficiency matched with a easy display and a handsome interface. All of it runs on Android 11, with Xiaomi’s acquainted MIUI 12 excessive – and, not like Huawei, Xiaomi telephones don’t have Google limitations, so you’ll be able to entry all of the apps you want.

Whereas the interface seems good, and runs a lot better than it did on older Xiaomi telephones with much less irritating adverts and blocks to your smartphone move, it nonetheless serves up some UI gremlins.

When the telephone’s darkish mode is activated, a few of my Twitter contacts’ profile pictures have been inverted. Interactive notifications for apps similar to Spotify additionally seem with invisible buttons. This can be a hazard of closely redrawn consumer interfaces over Android – and of the principle Android telephone makers (together with Huawei, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Samsung and Sony), Xiaomi’s UI has essentially the most gremlins.

Not surprisingly, the telephone benchmarked nicely, scoring 1126 (single-core) and 3655 (multi-core) on GeekBench 5. In the meantime, when confronted with Wild Life on 3DMark, it scored 5594, putting it on the higher echelon of flagship smartphones – though not fairly on the prime of the pile, with the iPhone 12 Professional and Asus ROG Telephone 5 bettering it.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Extremely additionally heated up fairly a bit when operating intensive benchmarks and high-octane video games similar to Genshin Affect. Given the telephone will seemingly entice power-hungry avid gamers with its maxed-out specs, the very fact you may have to run top-tier titles at something lower than maxed-out graphics settings might be a bitter capsule to swallow, particularly with the £1199 price ticket.

What the Mi 11 Extremely does do rather well is play again movies. Its expansive display was a deal with when displaying off episode after episode of HDR present on Amazon Prime Video or Netflix, and the Harman/Kardon-tuned audio system are loud and broad.

Battery life

• Large battery can wrestle to get via the day with heavy use
• Wi-fi and wired charging are super-fast

The Mi 11 Extremely didn’t make it via a full day on a single cost with average to heavy use.

My full day seems like a 6am begin and a 10pm cease, full with a number of photograph taking, Instagram scrolling, Spotify listening and a few Netflix or YouTube watching. You could possibly make it work if you happen to’re extra restrained, however my Mi 11 Extremely time benefitted enormously from a wi-fi charger on the workplace.

Watching an hour of Netflix used up round 7% battery with the display at 60% brightness. Ramp as much as full brightness, and that battery drain climbs to 10%.

In a flip for the books, the Mi 11 Extremely’s quick wired charging is as quick as its wi-fi charging – each 66W. With that in thoughts, the telephone solely ships with the wall charger and cable, so that you’ll have to purchase the Xiaomi-compatible charger to make the most of these prime speeds. I didn’t have one to check the wi-fi speeds, however I did have a wired charger, and the telephone powered as much as full in round 37 minutes. Whereas not the quickest telephone to get to 100%, it’s the quickest to take action with a 5000mAh battery.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Extremely is a type of telephones that isn’t straightforward to advocate for most individuals, but it surely’s a whole lot of enjoyable to make use of if you happen to take into account your self an enormous geek.

The handset’s second display alongside the digicam is just too small to be actually sensible when taking selfies – it’s extra helpful to present individuals you’re photographing a view of themselves. Gaming additionally falls behind some lower-cost smartphones because of the truth that demanding titles at max settings warmth up the telephone. Then there’s that battery life – it’s solely ever effective.

What the Mi 11 Extremely does do is take stellar footage while you become familiar with its digicam quirks. It additionally seems incredible when enjoying again video on its vibrant, punchy display, plus it sounds wonderful and performs easily day-in-day-out.

Finest Provides

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