New major hit for value for money champ

With him Wed 8 And his Wed 9Xiaomi dominated the high-end smartphone market at a discount. With him Wed 10 In the past year, the Chinese brand has gambled on taking it to the next level. From now on, Xiaomi is no longer satisfied with a single “flagship” and relies on a whole line of products bearing the “Mi” brand. As a result, prices rose significantly and the range, in our opinion, has lost consistency. We are often in particular Wed 10 At a price of 799 euros which was much worse than Mi 10 Pro At € 999 … the other Xiaomi phones cost half that amount. For once, the king of value for money failed to convince us.

This year, Xiaomi is playing the game smarter. To prevent us from comparing the new Mi 11 with the rest of the range, the brand has decided to launch this device only at the very beginning. Slightly cheaper thanks to the 128 GB version (749 euros, 256 GB is still the same price as 799 euros), and the new Mi 11 also eliminates many of the shortcomings of its predecessor and acquires a matte glass back as well as support for wireless charging. For a week, he adopted him.

Almost perfect design

Xiaomi Mi 11 is a very beautiful smartphone. With this device, we feel that the brand’s engineers have tried to create something really complicated. The back of the device, in matte glass, is arguably the most attractive on the market today (on par with the back of the Galaxy S21). We particularly appreciate the automated aspect of its camera module that allows it to deftly stand out from the rest of the market. It’s almost cute!

The curve is the emblem of Mi 11. While using it, the smartphone perfectly conforms to the curves of the hand. Its screen, according to Xiaomi, has a “quadruple curvature”. We don’t really like this intentionally confusing term. The four edges of the Mi 11 are well curved, but only the edges on the right and left are creased at the level of the screen. At the top and bottom, the black borders curve slightly. The user gains nothing from it. Going through, we notice that the lower border is slightly thicker than the upper border. It’s a shame, Xiaomi comes close to a perfect analog.

Another somewhat unfortunate point, the shape of the screen corners does not match the angles of the device. It’s details, but it’s not very pretty.

Among the other details that we appreciated with the Mi 11, we find the shape of its speaker is really very beautiful. The Chinese brand has taken the adventure of redeeming the standardized points that its competitors usually use with a pattern that makes a sound. It is as original as it is successful.

In short, the Xiaomi Mi 11 achieves an almost flawless design. Note that with its large 6.81 inch screen, this mobile phone is not intended for small phone lovers. Luckily, its 196 grams weight makes it somewhat enjoyable to use.

Really flawless screen

Xiaomi criticized last year, and clearly wants to compete with the best this time. To achieve this, the Chinese manufacturer relies on a screen that ticks all of the boxes. Quad HD + definition, refresh rate up to 120 Hz (although Xiaomi limits it to 60 Hz by default), very strong brightness (885 cd / m² According to our lab measurements), superb color accuracy (Delta E in “native display” mode 0.78, by default 4.64), the Chinese brand hits really hard. Using the Mi 11 is a real pleasure as long as its curvature doesn’t bother you (after several minutes at hand, you can be a little tired). Otherwise, it’s really cool.

Snapdragon 888, a beast under the hood

Another point where Mi 11 hits home, strength. The world’s first smartphone equipped with the new Qualcomm processor, Snapdragon 888, the Mi 11 is arguably the most powerful smartphone on the market at the time of writing (although iPhones are still graphically higher). Compatible with 5G (thanks to the built-in X60 modem), the phone offers really excellent performance. We tested its processor in a dedicated article.

Also read: Snapdragon 888: is Xiaomi Mi 11 the most powerful processor on the market?

According to AnTuTu 8, the Xiaomi Mi 11 is the most powerful smartphone on the market.
If this graph is not fully displayed, click here.

In use, we have to admit that the Mi 11 is really cool. Thanks to the MIUI overlay (and many animations), the fluidity is really there. It’s so much fun, especially when the 120Hz refresh rate is activated.

However, it seems important for us to clarify that everything is far from perfect in MIUI. There is always a lot of pre-installed software on the smartphone (which is ridiculous at € 799), and to our surprise, we discovered new bugs. For example, the bubble-shaped notifications introduced with Android 11 … are square on Mi 11. Even worse, they sometimes float in the middle of the screen for no reason. We notice in traffic that, by default, MIUI now offers a classic shortcut display in Notification Center. An earlier version of MIUI It was copying the iOS interface, which is very annoying. This is an option now.

Other little practical things

Without going into details, let’s also applaud the quality of the Mi 11’s stereo speakers, the extremely subtle tactile feedback and the under-display fingerprint sensor that is very fast (despite its small size). A mobile phone can also replace your TV remote control or air conditioner thanks to the infrared port.

Autonomy, the weak point of the Mi 11

Inside there is a high-capacity battery of 4,600 mAh. However, the autonomy of the smartphone is not as great as expected. In fact, the smartphone only withstood the versatile battery life test at 12:14 am when its screen was configured to 60Hz. At 120Hz it’s down to 9:13 am, which isn’t really good … the best high-end smartphones usually go over 15 hours. The independence of the smartphone in streaming video (10:08 AM) and in calling (9:42 PM) is also disappointing.

During use, we were a bit disappointed with the Mi 11. The smartphone has the advantage of charging very fast (23% in 5 minutes, 100% in 48 minutes) but it often happens that we get stuck. End of the day with 120 Hz mode activated. It is a shame. Thankfully, at 60 Hz, we keep going all day.

The camera is not versatile enough

Finally, let’s talk about the Mi 11 camera module. We loved its design minus its configuration. In fact, like its predecessor, the Mi 11 appears not equipped. Undoubtedly, in making the rest of the range more competitive, Xiaomi decided to deprive its device of optical zoom. As for the well-being, this is necessarily important. Especially since the brand still finds it beneficial to add a macro sensor to their devices just to create a fake triple camera module. We hate this kind of marketing misinformation. A double unit was adequate.

Fortunately, the rest of the Mi 11 cameras are of good quality. The smartphone has a 108 Mpix sensor (f / 1.85) and an ultra-wide angle attached to a 13 Mpix sensor. As you can see, its quality is really honorable even if we notice a lack of sharpness at night. Without being the best, Xiaomi does well.

In short, the main drawback of the Mi 11 camera is its lack of versatility. Fortunately, its quality is very good.