Xiaomi Mi 11
A new chip, stellar main camera and 120Hz screen make this almost the complete package
SCORE
PRICE €750 from mi.com/fr (not yet available in UK)
Instead of doubling down at the budget end of the spectrum, Xiaomi has set its sights on plump wallets with the Mi 11. In return, the handset is graced with Qualcomm’s new flagship processor, a gigantic 108MP camera and a 120Hz display.
This is the first phone we’ve seen with the Snapdragon 888 chipset inside, Qualcomm’s first to be manufactured on a 5nm fabrication process – just like Apple’s A14 Bionic and Samsung’s Exynos 2100. It delivered on its promise with a big performance increase – up to 28% – compared with the Snapdragon 865 in Geekbench 5’s single and multicore CPU tests. Scores of 1,128 and 3,667 respectively beat Samsung’s equivalent by around 5%, but the A14 Bionic in the iPhone 12 family remains the king with results of 1,598 and 3,994.
Improved graphics rendering is also on the cards, with the Adreno 660 GPU returning an average of 96fps in the GFXBench Manhattan 3 benchmark at the screen’s native (1,440 x 3,200) resolution. As a point of comparison, the Snapdragon 888’s offscreen score is identical to the A14 Bionic and
36% faster than the Exynos 2100.
The Mi 11 fails to keep to its chart-topping ways for battery life. Its result of 16hrs 38mins in our video-rundown test matches the iPhone 12 but trails behind the Samsung Galaxy S21 by over two hours. Switch the display to 120Hz and the Mi 11’s battery life drops to 13hrs 19mins. You’ll need to charge it at the end of a busy day.
Perhaps this is why the Mi 11’s screen runs at 60Hz by default – you must enable the 120Hz mode in the display section of the phone’s settings menu to notice the benefit. Just note that once you get used to the slick scrolling of 120Hz it’s hard to go back.
The AMOLED panel performs exceptionally. Xiaomi offers two colour profiles, as well as an “Auto” mode that adjusts colours based on ambient lighting, and I found the “Original” setting to be the most colour accurate: this returned an average Delta E of 0.71. Display brightness is also superb, peaking at 538cd/m2 with the Auto setting engaged and a dazzling 1,283cd/m2 when displaying HDR content.
While a 6.81in diagonal makes the Mi 11 sounds enormous, the screen curves around the left and right edges. It also stretches out to all four corners, with a 20MP selfie camera embedded in a hole-punch notch in the top-left. This gives it a premium look, and it’s only enhanced by the rest of the design. You can choose from “Midnight Gray” or “Horizon Blue” colours for the rear, which is coated in a frosted glass finish that looks great and doesn’t ravenously collect fingerprints.
This is where you’ll find the Mi 11’s intriguing mix of cameras. To start with, it shares the same 108MP camera as the £1,329 Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. This is backed by a secondary 13MP (f/2.4) 123˚ ultrawide camera, as well as – bizarrely – a 5MP (f/2.4) macro unit. Why bizarre? Because a telephoto camera is surely far more useful, and while the macro lens does a good job of taking up-close
“The Xiaomi Mi 11 is yet another reminder that there’s no need to spend excruciating sums on the latest Apple or Samsung”
pictures, ictures, you aren’t gaining a huge uge amount compared to the standard tandard camera.
Fortunately, the default shooting hooting mode – which captures “pixelbinned” 16MP images – is among the best we’ve tested and is capable of capturing detail-rich images, with a subdued colour palette and welljudged contrast. The camera software can be fiddly ddly while the ultrawide camera amera is nothing special, but nighttime ighttime shots ride to the rescue: escue: these are exceptional, striking triking a perfect balance of boosting oosting image brightness without adding visual noise, an unnatural nnatural warm tint or blowing lowing out street lights.
The Mi 11 is capable of recording ng 8K video, although you’ll need an 8K TV or monitor to view it. The footage is richly detailed and surprisingly stable during quick pans. Just be warned that the file size is about twice the size of the equivalent 4K footage – a ten-second video is roughly 222MB.
It’s great to see Android 11 installed from the get-go, which bodes well for future upgrades and support, but note that there’s no microSD slot, so you’re stuck with your initial choice of either 128GB or 256GB of storage (alongside 8GB of RAM). Then we come to the real caveat: the Mi 11 isn’t yet available in the UK. Xiaomi hasn’t announced UK pricing details or a release date, but we believe it’s coming soon. A currency conversion suggests that it should cost roughly £660, but I expect the 128GB version to cost closer to £700 when it arrives on these shores.
So the Mi 11 is almost the complete package, and yet another reminder that there’s no need to spend excruciating sums on the latest Apple or Samsung. Do your wallet a favour, save hundreds and consider picking up a Mi 11 instead… when it arrives in the UK.
SPECIFICATIONS
Eight-core Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 8GB RAM
Adreno 660 graphics 6.81in 120Hz AMOLED screen, 1,440 x 3,200 resolution 128GB/256GB storage 108MP/13MP/5MP rear cameras 20MP front camera Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 NFC USB-C connector 4,600mAh battery Android 11 74.6 x 8.1 x 164.3mm (WDH) 196g