Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: A smartphone attached to a camera

The evolution of a typical smartphone maker goes like this: The company starts by offering good phones at low prices.

May 21, 2021

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review: A smartphone attached to a camera

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The evolution of a typical smartphone maker goes like this: The company starts by offering good phones at low prices. Then very good phones with a few missing features at decent prices. Then phones with every feature imaginable, but prices on par with expensive flagship phones.

Xiaomi has reached that last stage.

Originally known for smartphones that cost next to nothing despite having the latest processor and a lot (but not all) of the features of a Samsung flagship, Xiaomi has now launched the Mi 11 Ultra, a smartphone that's almost ridiculously overpowered — with a price to match.

All the features, and then some

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra has a massive 6.81-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate; Qualcomm's most powerful processor, the Snapdragon 888; 8 or 12GB of RAM and 256 or 512GB of storage; and a 5,000mAh battery. For comparison, those are basically the specs of Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra, which has the same display size and processor, and a battery of equal capacity. The Xiaomi also has a very powerful camera system, both on the front and back.

It even has a secondary display on the back — nicked from Xiaomi's Mi Band wearable — which can display essential info such as time, date, and notifications. It can even be used to preview selfies taken with the rear camera.

The phone is top-heavy; you might have to readjust your standard holding position.

Once upon a time, Xiaomi used to cut costs on the little things, such as water resistance or wireless charging. Not this time: The Mi 11 Ultra has IP68 dust/water resistance and it supports fast charging, both wireless and wired, as well as reverse charging.

It also has stereo speakers, tuned by Harman/Kardon, and supports hi-res 24-bit/192kHz audio, which should make a difference if you connect the phone to high-quality headphones or speakers. In fact, the only features this phone doesn't have are memory card support and a 3.5mm jack, but you won't find those on top Apple or Samsung smartphones either.

Phone performance is incredibly speedy and smooth in everyday use, but it's the same with most flagships these days. In fact, the experience was nearly identical to the Mi 11, which I reviewed two months ago. That isn't surprising given the display, processor, most other specs, and the software were exactly the same. Check out my review of that phone for more details.

Two big differences: While the camera bump on the regular Mi 11 is big, on the Mi 11 Ultra, it's absolutely massive. Place that phone on a flat surface, even with a case, and it won't lie flat. The Mi 11 Ultra is also a lot heavier than the Mi 11 (234g vs. 196g), and it's noticeable. This device is almost like a phone stuck onto a camera, and it's noticeable when you hold it. It's top heavy, too, so you might have to hold it a little differently than you would most other smartphones.

Also, the Mi 11 Ultra has a slightly bigger battery than the Mi 11 (5,000mAh vs. 4,600mAh). I haven't noticed a difference, but again, if you turn on all the fancy tech that this phone packs, such as the 120Hz refresh rate and super-high resolution, the battery will drain a lot faster.

The rear display is a nice addition as it tells you the time and date, even when the phone is face down. It's not that useful for selfies, though.

Oh, and there's also that cute little display on the back; more on that later.

The most imposing camera system on a phone, ever

The main difference between the Xiaomi MI 11 Ultra and the regular Mi 11 is in the rear camera system. The Ultra has a triple camera system with a 50-megapixel wide angle main camera, with a massive, 1/1.12'' sensor, f/1.95 aperture, optical image stabilization, and laser focus. There's also a 48-megapixel ultra-wide camera with an f/2.2 aperture, which doubles as a macro camera, and a 48-megapixel telephoto camera with f/4.1 aperture and 5x optical zoom. All three cameras support 8K video recording and Xiaomi's Night mode.

In practice, that means you'll get very nice, sharp and detailed daylight photos on both the main and wide camera.

The wide camera is pretty great, but make sure you tick the setting that corrects distortion in ultra-wide shots, otherwise the edges of your photo will be way too curvy.

In this wide shot, Xiaomi's software fixed the curviness on the edges,; the downside of that is that the edges are now blurry.

The zoom camera goes to 120x which is nuts, and frankly, it's just a gimmick, because everything will be too jittery at magnifications anywhere close to that. I've had the fortune to be able to test the Huawei Mate X2 and the Mi 11 Ultra side-by-side, and the Mate X2 handles extreme zoom better. The Huawei phone manages to stabilize the image even at very high magnification, and the resulting photos have a ton of details you won't be able to see with the naked eye. The Mi 11 Ultra isn't bad in this regard, but it pales in comparison. I wouldn't recommend zooming in past 20x or so.

Taking this photo was a pain due to poor stabilization. Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra allows for 120x zoom, but you probably won't use anything over 20x.

Although the Mi 11 Ultra has a completely new camera system, compared to the Mi 11, it exhibits some of the same problems. Namely, low-light photography. The Mi 11 would often produce photos that are unnaturally green. The Mi 11 Ultra didn't do that, but the low-light photos I took were uneven. Sometimes, the photos turned out great. But often, the photo would be too bright, turning night into day (with tons of noise and glare).

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra can take a good low-light photo, but it doesn't always do it. This one is pretty good.

Dedicated night mode exists, but it was even worse, often producing oddly blurry results. As is somewhat typical of Xiaomi's smartphones, I was able to get good photos, but not always on the first try.

Selfies, both front and back

Make no mistake, the rear display is a gimmick. I bet most users will never use it for selfies, because using the standard selfie camera, with the massive primary display as the viewfinder, is just so much easier. It's nice to have basic information such as time and date even when you lay the phone on its face, but other than that, the secondary display isn't a game-changing feature you must have.

Turn off the beautifying features if you want true-to-life selfies.

As for the selfie camera, it's the same as on the Mi 11, meaning the selfies are generally good, if a little soft. You'll want to disable all of the beautifying options if you want to get true-to-life results. Oh, and forget about night-time selfies; the Mi 11 Ultra's front camera fared poorly here, even in Night mode.

Conclusion

The most powerful Xiaomi phone ever may not be the best Xiaomi phone ever.

Xiaomi's Mi 11 Ultra is a big, bold, powerful phone, but at US$1,299 for the 8GB variant, it's also extremely expensive. For comparison, Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra starts at US$1,199, while Apple's iPhone 12 Pro Max starts at US$1,099.

The Mi 11 Ultra's camera system is great, but not the best you can get, so whether you'll want to get one or not will boil down to your affection for the brand and the phone's design. In other words, if you really, really love Xiaomi and don't care about the price, go for the Ultra. If not, one of the other Xiaomi Mi 11 phones will do.