Mi 11X vs Redmi Note 10 Pro Max Detailed Camera Comparison By TecworkZ

Hey guys it’s Sagar and in this video I am putting the triple cameras on the Mi 11X, against the quad cameras on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. Now out of these 2, the Mi 11X starts at Rs.29,999, so it is more of a mid tire phone which packs in many of the flagship level specs, but it comes with a 48 Megapixel primary camera, which was a surprising move from Xiaomi. Redmi Note 10 Pro Max starts at Rs.18,999, so it is the more budget oriented option of the two. It packs in modest specs like you would expect a sub Rs.20,000 phone to come with, but at the back it packs in a 108 Megapixel main camera, which is supposed to blow the camera on the Mi 11X out of the picture. Is that really what’s going to happen or will the powerful ISP on the Snapdragon 870 processor on the Mi 11X, save its images, let’s find out. I have over 160 image and video samples combined from both these phones to show you guys, so make sure to check out the complete video.

If you want a detailed look at the camera interface on either of these phones, I suggest you check out their individual detailed camera reviews. I will leave a card to those videos on the top right corner of your screen and also link them in the description section. Before we get to the image and video samples, if you are new to the channel, please consider hitting the Subscribe button and turning on all notifications for the channel. It is free and will take less than 5 seconds of your time. I always include the video samples after we are done checking out the images, but some of you want me show the videos first, so let us start with the videos for this comparison.

Both phones can shoot videos at up 4K 30fps. Now this is fine for the Note 10 pro max given its price point, but like most people I feel the Mi 11X should have got the option to shoot 4K videos at 60fps. This can’t be added to the Mi 11X via software update, because its main camera, which is the Sony IMX582 isn’t capable to shoot at that resolution. I took this video in overcast conditions, so you might see a bit of noise or gain from both the phones. This noise is not there if you shoot videos in bright light, which I will show in a few moments.

But you might experience it when shooting videos indoors where there is not enough light. Video from the Note 10 Pro Max is noticeably brighter In these overcast conditions. We see the same thing while shooting at 1080p resolution. There is also a cool tint to the videos from the Note 10 Pro Max, while in reality, colours were more closer to how the Mi 11X is showing in its videos, but slightly brighter.4K videos from the Mi 11X are electronically stabilised, and they look really good specially when compared side by side with the one from Note 10 Pro Max. Since there is plenty of light in this video, you will notice that both the phones are not showing any noise or gain in these videos.

You will have to drop the resolution and frame rate down to 1080p 30fps to enable electronic stabilisation on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. While these videos look good and stable, you loose out on all the sharpness and extra details that the 4K videos capture. For slow motion, Mi 11X can shoot 240fps videos in 1080p, while note 10 Pro max can do 120fps at the same resolution. There is 960fps shooting option on both phones, but it is not true 960fps, and doesn’t look good, so I never use it. I found sticking to 240fps on Mi 11X and 120fps on Note 10 Pro Max at 1080p resolution gives us the best results.

You can shoot 240fps videos on the Note 10 pro max, but you will have to drop the resolution to 720p, which doesn’t look very detailed. When you are shooting slow motion videos, best practice is to shoot them in bright light, preferably outside in bright sun. I am shooting these videos under my high powered LED light so you don’t see any flickering. If you shoot them indoors, you will get lot of grain or noise in these videos and depending on what lights you have at your home, they can cause interference and you will see flickering in your slow motion shots like you can see in this particular video. You can see this because I have my room light turned on.

So just keep these 2 things in mind, if you are shooting slow motion videos. Coming to the images, we will start with the ones which I shot in daylight. I managed to take some images when the sky was clear, and a few in overcast conditions, so it will give a you good idea of how these cameras perform in various lighting conditions. From the first look, images from both the phones look good and detailed. The only difference you might notice without zooming in, is the slight change in the white balance and colour temperature between these images.

If you zoom in 2-3 times, that is when you start noticing more detailed in the images from the Note 10 Pro Max. These are 12 megapixel, pixel binned images from both the phones. If you don’t zoom in, it is honestly difficult to tell which phone has captured more details. Mi 11X’s images seem to have slightly more contrast in them, whereas ones from the Note 10 Pro Max are slightly brighter in comparison. The difference in their colour temperature calibration is more easily visible in these overcast images.

Mi 11X is showing the scene as it was, but the Note 10 Pro is adding blue tint to its shots, and trying to make the scene look much cooler than it was in real life. Both phones are capturing lot of noise in these lighting conditions, but images from the Note 10 Pro Max are still capturing much more details. Again zooming in, none of the images look impressive from so close, in these lighting conditions. But out of the 2, Note 10 Pro Max is showing slightly sharper looking flowers. As I mentioned before, Mi 11X is showing more true to like colours, and Note 10 Pro Max is trying to cool all the images down.

Normally I like natural looking colours, but I think ones from the Mi 11X could you a little boost in terms of saturation, because on their own its images are looking a bit dull, and even more so when compared side by side with ones from the Note 10 Pro Max. I know colour is a personal choice, so depending on your colour preferences, you might like one over the other and that is completely fine. In this case, I am leaning towards the one from the Note 10 Pro Max. I am not saying that its colours are better, it’s just that I prefer them over the ones form the Mi 11X. Coming to higher dynamic range situations.

I left the HDR mode on auto on both of them. Both of them take a different approach while processing HDR shots. In this image, sun was right besides the building, so it was difficult for both phones to see lot of details on the building which was in the shadows. Both of then still managed to bring back many details from the shadows, but Mi 11X completely blew up the bright sun in the process, while the Note 10 Pro Max was able to keep most of the highlights in check. We see the same thing in this next set of images as well.

Mi 11X is able to bring up lot of details from the shadows, but it blows up the highlights. Note 10 Pro on the other hands handles the highlights really well, but in that effort, it doesn’t bring up as many details from the shadows as the Mi 11X, making the overall image appear a bit too dark. Although it blows the highlights, I like the HDR shots from the Mi 11X, because most of the areas that we tend to look at are brighter and detailed in its images, whereas they look too dark in Note 10 Pro Max’s shots. I feel both the phones need a few software updates to refine their HDR mode. Mi 11X needs help handling highlights in a better way and the Redmi need help with bringing up the shadows.

When the conditions are not too harsh, or when the sun is not directly in the shot, both of them do a good job of evenly bringing up the shadows and preserving the highlights. Out of these 2, Mi 11X is quicker at setting the focus on a nearly object for these close up shots. Note 10 Pro Max gets a bigger sensor and wide aperture, so its plane of focus is very narrow, and that makes it a bit difficult for it to set the focus on a very close object quickly. But once the focus is set, the subject appears very sharp and the background gets a very nice optical blur in images from both these phones. Redmi has a much bigger sensor so the background in its close up shots is a bit more blurred out.

Having a big sensor is not always the best thing, specially while taking close up shots. As you can see the petals in the image from the Mi 11X are in perfect sharp focus, but very small area is in focus in the image form Note 10 Pro Max and there is a bit of fringing and distortion in the elements which are not in focus. You will see this thing in almost all close up shots from the Note 10 Pro Max. If you want sharper close ups from this phone, you will need to move a few inches away from the subject. If you want to get even closer to your subject, both these phones come with dedicated macro cameras, and you can see, it lets you get a lot closer to the main subject.

You can get incredibly close to your subject and still set the focus when using this macro lens. Both phones get the same sensor and lens setup for this camera, so these images are almost identical from both. Macro lenses have 5 megapixel sensors behind it, which is over 2 times better than the 2 megapixel macro cameras we see on most phones, so there are enough details in the subject which is in focus in these shots. I know not everyone is interested in taking macro shots with their phone, but if you get any of these 2 phones, try this camera out and you will be amazed by how the world looks through this lens. Both phones also get wide cameras, and it is again same on both of them.

Note 10 Pro Max has a 1 degree wider field of view on this lens, but I don’t think anyone will notice this little difference. Any differences that we see in these images is due to the processing both these cameras choose to apply. We see better dynamic range from the wide camera on the Note 10 Pro Max. Wide shots are not as sharp or detailed as the ones from the primary camera on either of these phones. Although these images should look same from both, if we zoom in, we see slightly more details in the wide shots from the Note 10 Pro Max.

Due to the superior ISP on the snapdragon 870 processor, I would have expected wide shots from the Mi 11X to be slightly sharper, but that is not the case. Other than the detail levels, we also see a shift in colour temperature and white balance as you switch the lenses on both the phones. Wide images from the Note 10 pro max are not trying to aggressively cool the scene down as its main camera. Now I remember using the camera on the Note 10 pro Max when it came out, and there wasn’t this big off a difference between the 2 lenses. I guess one of the software updates might have messed with it.

In either case, I this is something that can be fixed with an update. All the images form the main cameras on both these phones were 12 megapixel pixel binned ones. If you want to capture higher resolution images, you can switch to the 48 megapixel mode on the Mi 11X and 108 megapixel mode on the Note 10 Pro Max. Now there is definitely a big difference between the 48 and 108megapixel images, but just like with the pixel binned images, you won’t be able to see the difference without zooming way in. If you like to take a lot of high resolution images, Note 10 Pro Max captures much more details in its shots.

These images are 3-4 times larger in terms of file sizes, so I really think it is best to stick with the default 12 megapixel mode for shooting most of your shots on both these phones, specially in overcast conditions like these. Else you will see a lot of noise being captured in these shots. This happens because when not shooting in the pixel binned mode, size of each individual pixel becomes very small and these tiny pixels are not able to gather enough light. So the processor ends up adding artificial light by increasing the ISO which in the end adds much noise in the shot. If you are a long time subscribe of the channel, you know that I love taking portrait mode shots with my phone.

Note 10 Pro Max comes with a depth sensor, whereas the Mi 11X relies on software to separate the subject from its background. Both methods seem to be working as they should. I mentioned this in my Mi 11X’s camera review, that if the background is brighter than your subject, it will completely overexpose the shot. So to take better portrait shots with the Mi 11X, if you see the shot being over exposed, tap on your subject in your screen or adjust the exposure manually to get a better exposed portrait shots. Note 10 pro max doesn’t have this issue, you can just point the phone at your subject and it takes amazing portrait shots.

Edge detection is mostly accurate from both the phones. I feel the Mi 11X captures pale looking skin whereas the Note 10 Pro Max makes the skin look as it should. I feel this is where a bit of saturation could help Mi 11X’s images look much better. For portrait of things, I feel the edge detection is a bit more accurate on the Note 10 Pro max. It seems the depth sensor is still better at detecting the edges, when the subject has complex edges.

In this one both did a very good job to separate the flowers from the leaves and rest of the background. If you don’t use the Portrait mode very often, I think you should start using it, because it is the easiest way to make your images look more professional. With that, let us move on to the images shot in artificial and lower lighting conditions. In artificial light, Note 10 Pro Max is adding a slight pink hue to some of the shots. Lights in this lobby are slightly warm like you see in the image from Mi 11x, and not pinkish like we see in Redmi’s images.

Just like we saw in overcast lighting conditions, Both of them again capture noise in these lighting conditions. And it only increases as we move to even lower light. None of them has OIS which would have helped them to reduce this noise. We can’t expect OIS to be available on the Note 10 Pro max, as it is a sub Rs.20,000 phone, but the lack on OIS on the Mi 11X came as a bit of surprise for everyone, given its price point. I expected the bigger sensor on the Note 10 Pro Max to capture sharper and detailed images in these lighting conditions, but as we zoom in we see much more details in the low light shots from the Mi 11X.

With these extra details the noise level also seems to be more in its images. Low light performance of the Note 10 Pro Max is really not up to the point. Even with the night mode turned on, you don’t see a big improvement in its low light images. I mean Mi 11X’s low light performance is noting out of the ordinary, but it still seems to be doing better in this comparison details wise. This is another example where more megapixel doesn’t necessarily mean better images, Image processing matters even more in todays day and age.

Note 10 Pro Max is showing the pink tint in more and more shots as we move to even lower light. I took these 2 images in extremely low light with the night mode turned on. Both seem to have captures good about of light, given the available conditions, but the Mi 11X’s image is again sharper, brighter and more detailed. While neither one of these are very good at low light photography, if these 2 are your only options, you should know the Mi 11X does slightly better. That brings us to the front facing cameras.

Mi 11X gets a 20 megapixel front facing camera, and its selfies have more details compared to the ones from the 16 megapixel one from the Note 10 Pro Max. You will have to compare these selfies side by side and zoom way in to see this difference. Overall colours and skin tones in the selfies from the Note 10 Pro max are a bit inconsistent while taking normal selfies. In this one it is showing pale looking skin, whereas Mi 11X is doing a good job. But in this one colours from Redmi seem to look better.

And again in this one, it fades the colours a bit. Overall if you look at these selfies on respective phones, I feel you will be satisfied with them. Colours and dynamic range in the images from the Mi 11X take a big hit, when you switch to the portrait selfie mode. Suddenly it desaturates the colours, and even skin tones appear to be off. Note 10 Pro on the other hand starts doing better job with the portrait selfies.

Faces are in perfect sharp focus, provided you have turned the beauty mode or skin smoothening off, and the edges are detected accurately for the most part. Given the inconsistency in capturing accurate colours, I would say both selfie cameras are on the same level. Detail level wise Mi 11X does produce tad sharper looking images. Here is a video from the front facing camera of the Mi 11X and the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. You can see how both the phones are handling the colours of the scene, exposure and stabilisation when I am walking around with them.

You can also let me know in the comments, which one of these 2 do you think is handling my voice better. With that, we have seen well over 165 image and videos samples from both these phones combined, and after going through all of them, although the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max came up on top most of the times, I really don’t think that the difference was that much, and in lower light, Mi 11X actually did better. Before I took these image and video samples, I thought that the Note 10 Pro Max is going to win this comparison hands down, but the results are not that simple. Even with a 108 megapixel main camera, Note 10 Pro Max doesn’t best the 48 Megapixel camera on the Mi 11X in every department. In many scenarios image processing on the Mi 11X actually makes its camera perform almost as good or in case of low light, even better.

I will say it again, the megapixel count alone doesn’t decide if a camera on any phone will be good or bad, it has to be backed by a good image signal processor. Imaging how poorly the same 48 megapixel sensor would have performed if it was put on the Note 10 Pro Max, or how well the 108 mp could have been if it was backed by the snapdragon 870 processor on the Mi 11X. All in all, if you plan on getting the Mi 11X and are worried about its cameras, don’t be, it is doing the best it can, with the hardware it has got. At that price, you get a very good overall performing phone. If you don’t want to spend as much, go with the Note 10 Pro Max and be proud of the fact that other than in lower light, your phones camera can go head to head and in many cases even beat the cameras on the Mi 11X.

These are my thoughts about the cameras on the 2 phones, after going through all these images. You guys saw them too, so what do you think about them? Let me know in the comments. If you want to purchase any of these phones, I will really appreciate if you buy them from the affiliate links in the description of this video. That is it for this video guys. Please hit the like button if you enjoyed this video, and subscribe to the channel for more quality tech videos like this.

You can also check out some of the other videos from this channel. This has been Sagar and I will catch you guys in the next video. Take care.

Source : TecworkZ