Xiaomi has recently launched MI 11 Ultra with a brand new design to stand in a huge crowd. It has a stunning design with a ceramic back and a massive camera bump at the back. This camera bump is actually weird for some people but at the same time gives gorgeous look to stand proudly in competition. Its featured design evokes the luxury phones such as Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max. Let’s get into the detailed review of MI 11 Ultra!
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra – Detailed Review
The MI 11 ultra is packed in a standard black box with copper color letters imprinted on it. Wondering what’s in it?
On unboxing, we got each and everything you will need. That is a USB-C to headphone jack adapter, a standard transparent case, a USB charging cable, a 67-watt fast charger, and of course your MI 11 Ultra smartphone.
One of the most eye-catchy features of MI 11 Ultra is the huge raised area on the rear. It can not be missed and is a great conversation starter. In fact, one can not overlook it at any time. This black portion actually houses three cameras with a modern-style sensor on the main camera and a small display screen.
On the front, there is a 6.81-inch Super AMOLED display, that provides you great ingredients. Such as high resolution, high refresh rate, high brightness, HDR, a billion colors, and everything an awesome smartphone should offer.
Xiaomi MI 11 Ultra price range is somewhat higher but is that justified? Wait we will help you decide this in this review very soon.
Pricing And Availability
The Xiaomi MI 11 Ultra has a price of £1,199 / AU$1,799. At this cost, the phone competes with luxury phones like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra at $1,199 / £1,149 / AU$1,849, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which costs $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849.
Price of Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra in Pakistan is expected to be around 1,55,000 PKR.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra-Specs At A Glance
| Price | $ 1,299.99 |
| Body | Dimensions: 164.3 x 74.6 x 8.4 mm (6.47 x 2.94 x 0.33 in) Weight: 234 g (8.25 oz) Build: Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus), ceramic back, aluminum frame |
| Display | Type: AMOLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, 900 nits (HBM), 1700 nits (peak) Size: 6.81 inches Resolution: 1440 x 3200 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~515 ppi density) |
| Platform | OS: Android 11, MIUI 12.5 Chipset: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5 nm) CPU: Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 680 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 680 & 4×1.80 GHz Kryo 680) GPU: Adreno 660 |
| Memory | Card-slot: No Internal: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM |
| Sound | Loudspeaker: Yes, with stereo speakers 3.5mm Jack: No |
| Battery | Type: Li-Po 5000 mAh, non-removable Charging: Fast charging 67W, 100% in 36 min (advertised) Fast wireless charging 67W, 100% in 39 min (advertised) Reverse wireless charging 10W Quick Charge 4+ Power Delivery 3.0 |
| Colors | Ceramic White (Cosmic White), Ceramic Black (Cosmic Black) |
MI 11 Ultra Design
The design of MI 11 Ultra is no doubt incredible. When we first grabbed the phone, it looked remarkable with an aluminum frame, a curved display with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, and a ceramic back. The glass on the front is built curved on all sides to make it smooth and comfortable to grab. A negative point is, that it is extra heavy with 234g weight but thanks to Xiaomi, it is still not very thick at 8.38mm.
On the main display at the front, MI 11 Ultra has a 6.81-inch QHD+ (3200×1440) AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 480Hz touch sampling rate, and a magnificent brightness of 1,700 nits. All these features are alike to that of the MI 11 vanilla model.
Talking about the back of the phone, there is a black hump that has three cameras, laser autofocusing bits, triple LED flash, and a small display. Two of the camera units are large conventional optics and a periscope for the telephoto. On the right side of the camera, there is a 1.1-inch (126×294 pixel resolution) OLED display.
We can customize this small screen to show the battery level, date and time, notifications, or personalized images. Alongside, you can also receive or reject calls and use it as a viewfinder for photography. Although this display can be essential, it can be annoying as well as it automatically turns on while placing the phone on the table or while holding it in hand. Many times while holding the phone the display screen on the back turns on with our touch.
Furthur, at the bottom there is a dual-SIM tray, a USB Type-C port, primary mic and a speaker.
MI 11 Ultra Camera Review
Considering the camera of MI 11 ultra, it is the most advanced camera of all Xiaomi phones and has three rear cameras. The primary 50-megapixel sensor is the largest one with a size of 1/1.12 inches with a wide aperture of f/1.95. Its OIS supports HDR10+ video recording and has Dual Pixel Pro autofocus, which is found to be effective.
The second lens is housing an ultra-wide camera, which is 48MP with an f/2.2 aperture.
Finally, its 48-megapixel telephoto camera has OIS, 5X optical zoom, and 120X digital zoom. Additionally, it offers a selfie shooter of 20-megapixel.
Clicking pictures with MI 11 ultra was a fantastic experience. It clicks brighter and naturally looking detailed photos. It has a setting with which we captured sharp images even in the dim light surroundings. MI 11 Ultra can shoot 8K video recordings with attractive qualities but with 24fps.
You can zoom and shift cameras while capturing but with excess zoom, it will blur the pictures and videos. Also, we recorded slow-motion videos at spectacular 1,920fps at 1080p that was actually of greater quality and mesmerizing to watch than other phones.
The MI 11 Ultra mobile large primary sensor does an awesome job in low light with proper details and colors. It occupies a slow shutter so there is no need to turn on the Night mode. The camera apps artificially brighten the images, which does look artificial in contrast to the real scene.
But great thing is that noise is kept at bay in darker regions. The ultra-wide camera captures usable shots at night when we use a night mode. With a telephoto camera, autofocus is slow, and magnification limits to 60X.
Low Light performance
As we reviewed MI 11 Ultra, we found that its 20-megapixel selfie camera captures decent and bright photos during bright light while in low-lit conditions it captures low-quality pictures. Fortunately, for this, the rear cameras can be used to click great selfies due to the secondary display on the back panel. Video recording with the front camera is only limited to 1080p 60fps.
Mi 11 Ultra’s camera vs S21 Ultra
Mi 11 Ultra has all the potential to be amongst the best camera smartphones of 2021, but will it beat the current champion is hard to say. Soon we will pitch the cameras against each other to find which smartphone camera is the real Ultra.
Currently S21 Ultra is holding the top spot once we pitched it against the following high-end sets. Read detailed reviews to find how it manages that.
Battery And Performance Of MI 11 Ultra
Mi 11 Ultra has a powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset, with 12GB of RAM. On the Geekbench benchmark test, the phone scored well. However, with multiple testing, the score drops drastically. We are not sure why this happens, but maybe due to bugs. Also, the phone gets hot due to a poor heat management system which could be the reason.
The MI 11 ultra packs a 5000mAh battery that runs quite a long time even when we played games, watched videos, did video calling, and a lot of messaging. However, when the phone becomes hot it consumes power at a faster rate. Also its 65W wired charger power the phone within 30 to 45 mins.
Both the OnePlus 9 Pro and the Oppo Find X3 Pro are slightly quicker than Mi 11 ultra while Galaxy S21 Ultra charges at a slower speed than this. Also, it can be charged wirelessly at the same speed.
Concerning performance, this smartphone proved to be an awesome one for gaming. We played call of duty mobile, asphalt 9, and some other high-end games and all ran smoothly. After long gaming sessions, the phone becomes hot but still doesn’t affects performance. Stereo speakers also played a great role in this respect thus improving the gaming experience. MI 11 Ultra scored a very good rating for loudness in our test and overall worked magnificently while gaming. It is amongst the best gaming phone in the all-around category.
This phone runs the best mobile games smoothly and without any problem.
Software and Hardware Explained
MI 11 Ultra runs MIUI 12.0.2 based on Android 11. It supports an Always-on display and has tons of AOD themes. The display also supports breathing light, due to which the edges of the display flash with colors when you get new notifications.
Additionally, 2D Face Unlock is available in MI 11 Ultra with a fingerprint sensor. MI 11 Ultra offers a couple of additional privacy options and a security app. For security, it scans your phone for bugs, manages your blacklist, restricts your data usage, checks battery behavior, and frees up RAM. Also, It restricts unnecessary permissions to your installed apps and unknown apps. Additionally, the phone supports NFC, Wi-Fi 6e, and Bluetooth 5.2, and has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.
Conclusion
Xiaomi MI 11 Ultra is no doubt a stunning phone with amazing specifications and a huge camera bump. Its features can stand out proudly in competition against top-tier phones such as Samsung Galaxy 21 Ultra and iPhone 12 Pro Max. We have presented you with a detailed review of the MI 11 Ultra, that shows specifications as well as negative features of this phone. Now, tell us in the comments section, will you buy this smartphone?
[…] It is expected that the 50 MP camera sensor will be the ISOCELL GN2 that we saw in Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra. ISOCELL GN2 is the largest camera sensor that produces brighter and sharper image qualities. […]