What Xiaomi is promoting as the Mi 11 Ultra’s highlight feature ruins what should be a fantastic phone: the enormous camera bump makes the device cumbersome, and the rear display not only lacks any useful functionality but also regularly gets in the way. Considering the high asking price, it is difficult to justify a phone with this bothersome “extra.” It’s unfortunate because a superb phone with amazing cameras, a strong processor, and a visually appealing screen is hidden beneath that massive bulge.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra design
This phone is a beast. The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is a blunt weapon because of its enormous rear bump, which would make it large for a phone even without it.
The phone measures 164.3 x 74.6 x 8.4 mm; the camera bump is not included in those measurements, although we would guess that it adds more over 10 mm to the thickness. With a weight of 234g, it is the only heavier phone in the category of big gaming phones.
The power button and volume rocker are located on the right side of the phone, and we found them to be reasonably accessible. Sorry, wired audio aficionados, but there is a USB-C port on the bottom edge but no 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone lacks a microSD card port, hence it lacks expandable storage despite having a dual-SIM slot.
The phone appears to be adequately protected on paper. Its glass back is composed of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, a toughened glass; the fact that it is “tough… for glass” doesn’t say much about how durable the material is. Additionally, the phone has IP68 protection against dust and water.
The elephant in the room, or the elephant on the phone, is the next topic of discussion. Because it contains three enormous lenses and a secondary display, the rear camera bump is incredibly large and noticeable on the device.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is difficult to fit in a tiny pocket; on occasion, we had to carry it in our bag since it wouldn’t fit in certain of our pants, which isn’t exactly the most convenient location for a phone. We were concerned that a drop would harm the cameras and the tiny display because the case that comes with the phone hardly covers it and leaves the bump completely exposed while it is used.
The bump has some amusing features. We could use it to connect the phone to our laptop, which was a convenient way to multitask (though it was completely unnecessary because we could have just split-screened on the laptop). We could also use the bump as a grip, similar to a Kindle Oasis, when holding the phone in landscape mode rather than the sides. However, the inconveniences more than outweigh any novelties the bump may provide.
Display
Similar to the “vanilla” Mi 11, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra has a powerful 6.81-inch smartphone screen that is curved at the edges and features a cutout for the front camera in the upper-left corner.
Beyond just being called “Ultra,” the phone boasts one of the largest screens we’ve ever seen at that size.
The screen has a resolution of 1440 x 3200, which is higher than the typical 1080p used by most phones. It also has a refresh rate of 120 Hz, support for HDR 10+, a maximum brightness of 1700 nits, and AMOLED technology, making it one of the most aesthetically pleasing phone screens we’ve ever seen.
An in-screen fingerprint scanner is also present. Although the Mi 11 Ultra doesn’t have the same problems as the Mi 11, we still frequently had to lift and replace our thumb in order for the scanner to detect our print. Xiaomi phones have historically had problems with this piece of technology since they can be finicky to operate.
What about the 1.1-inch screen on the back? This display is identical to that of the Xiaomi Mi Band 6, but unlike that multipurpose sports band, it only has three different uses for the rear panel.
Its primary function is as an always-on display, which allows you to monitor the time and energy level even when you put your device’s screen down. Though such is the premise, it isn’t really “always” on; rather, it turns off after a short period of time, making it useless.
When you use the rear display to take a picture of someone, they may see how they appear because it also serves as a viewfinder for photography. A 1.1-inch screen is difficult to see from a distance, as you can guess, so it’s not particularly useful for this purpose either. In addition, the viewfinder only functions in the basic Photo mode, not Portrait, which is what you’d likely be using to take a picture of someone.
Ultra cameras
When it comes to smartphone photography, quantity is rarely equal to quality. The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra features three rear cameras, which is the same number as the iPhone 12 Pro Max and one less than the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra or OnePlus 9 Pro.
48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide, 50MP f/2.0 primary, and 48MP f/4.1 periscope cameras—the latter of which has a 5x optical and 120x digital zoom—are among them. A 20MP f/2.2 front-facing camera is also included.
The primary camera produces incredibly brilliant, vivid images with tons of detail and realistic-looking depth effects. As seen by the Mi 11’s 108MP camera, Xiaomi’s decision to put a huge sensor size ahead of high resolution is obviously successful in this case.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra performance and specs
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, like the most of 2021’s high-end Android phones, is powered by the potent Snapdragon 888 CPU and has 12GB of RAM. According to our daily experience, the phone’s internal components allow it to be powerful enough for a variety of tasks.
The phone’s multi-core score of 3519 on the Geekbench 5 benchmark test places it about in line with the Mi 11’s score of 3569 and the iPhone 11 Pro Max’s score of 3424. But since our testing procedure calls for completing the test three times and averaging the results, we retook it and discovered that the score had plummeted in an odd way.
After running the test five times, we discovered that the results plummeted between 100 and 350 points each time. By the time we ended testing, the scores were comparable to those of the outdated Sony Xperia 5 and the less expensive Moto G100.
Is there a bug in the software? We don’t think so, but we can’t be certain. The phone seemed to heat up quickly throughout our month with it, and several TechRadar testers confirmed this. We would assume that the phone has quite poor heat management because it became really hot while the Geekbench 5 test was running, which is probably what caused the declining results.
Power users may suffer much if their phone’s performance can drop so sharply and so quickly. If they play a lot of games or need to render a lot of videos, they may discover that their phone becomes weaker with continued use. This problem hasn’t been observed in other Snapdragon 888 phones.
For the record, even after playing PUBG Mobile for a long time or playing COD: Mobile for a number of consecutive games, we didn’t have any problems when gaming. Therefore, if you, like us, don’t play for extended periods of time at a time and our experience doesn’t fully align with what the data indicate, the heat management and performance difficulties probably won’t be a deal-breaker.
Whether you’re playing Spotify loudly, viewing a movie without headphones, or making a voice or video chat, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s twin stereo speakers provide excellent audio quality.
Software
The MIUI user interface is superimposed on top of Android 11 on the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra.
MIUI can be both fantastic and irritating, as we’ve seen with other Xiaomi phones. It’s reasonably attractive, and you can customize the appearance of your phone with a variety of personalization choices.
Nevertheless, MIUI is also somewhat glitchy; the swipe-down menu has visual issues, notifications can occasionally be sent more than once, and you may receive “phantom” notifications that cause your phone to buzz and light up even if no messages have been received.
Additional problems include MIUI’s bloatware, which are third-party apps that come pre-installed and that you’ll probably have to remove, and a security check pop-up that shows up when you install a new app and may interfere with other tasks you’re working on.
Battery life
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s battery life has been reported in a wide range of ways. Some people think it’s great, while others think it’s bad. Based on our experience, we lean more toward the latter assessment.
Although the phone boasts a massive 5,000mAh battery, it is obviously unable to keep up with the large 120Hz display, the potent processors, and the rear screen. We frequently discovered that the phone had trouble lasting a day between charges.
When we used the phone sparingly, we would frequently end the day with 10% to 20% of its battery left, and when we used it more frequently, the phone would be fully charged by the time we went to bed. However, it was used quite a bit to require a mid-day charge.
As we mentioned in the “Performance and specs” section, power consumption appeared to rise sharply when the phone heated up. If you’re a heavy user, keep this in mind.
Although there are many phones that don’t last a full day, we can’t exactly include “battery life” on the review’s “Cons” list. However, if you regularly experience battery anxiety, we wouldn’t advise purchasing this phone.
Fortunately, charging is extremely fast; the phone can be charged from empty to full in just over 30 minutes using the 67W wired method. The fastest wireless powering we’ve seen in a phone (at least since its introduction) is also available for wireless charging at the same speed, but there’s a catch.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s large camera hump prevented us from flattening the gadget when we attempted to use it with a wireless charger, which made it difficult to determine the best powering position. Even when we did, charging was excruciatingly slow.
Last but not least, the phone has 10W reverse wireless charging, allowing you to charge Qi-compatible watches, headphones, and other gadgets.