Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review! By 9to5Google

As the main flagship for Xiaomi in 2021, at least on paper, the mi 11 ultra really does not disappoint in any way shape or form. No smartphone is used on paper, though, and how it stacks up is a little more nuanced. Thanks for watching 95 google here on YouTube, remember to thumbs up, hit, subscribe and then tap the bell icon to be among the first to watch our upcoming videos. Do you like hulking, bulging tech, filling your pockets or palms for that matter? The 11 ultra is among the heaviest bulkiest devices that I've ever used. Part of that is owed to the frankly massive rear camera bump, but it's also thicker than the standard me 11. By a few millimeters too.

You can really tell that you have a sizeable slab of glass and metal in your pocket with this smartphone at 234 grams. It's a hefty device that needs plenty of attention. As the massively extruding camera module means. The m11 ultra is fairly top-heavy, which, unfortunately, I have found out to the detriment of the display on what is an overall good designed smartphone. I will say the ceramic backplate looks far more striking in white, rather than glossy gray, that my review unit came in here, because of that I would suggest that's the color that you go pick up if possible, the gray is fairly inconspicuous, were it not for that massive tactile plate and the astonishing rate at which it picks up fingerprints.

This is a real grease magnet, but if you chuck it into a case, it will be more than fine. The button placement as well, I would say, that's fairly good, with only the power button and the volume rocker on the right side of the chassis I have found. The buttons do feel a little sharp under the thumb and the micro texture on the power button really doesn't have a great deal as the ridges and grooves feel pretty much like ultra fine sandpaper. That said, it does help press it a little easier, or I assume it would some minor gripes aside, though, I cannot truly follow any major aspect of the fit and finish here. The mi 11 ultra feels every bit like a super premium.

Smartphone should the little finishes are, as you would expect, and the movement to add flat bezels at the top and bottom of modern smartphones is one that Xiaomi has grasped to the delight of my hands, because it's just so much more comfortable Harman Kardon tuned speakers are also contained within those top and bottom flat bezels, but they do point outwards and can be easily muffled, probably the only real complaint. I have of any real note with the hardware offered up here. Xiaomi has proven from the low to the high end that as a brand, they are more than capable of making high quality smartphone hardware. So far, the me11 ultra is without a shadow of a doubt, the outright best from Xiaomi today sure it's large, but it's assured, and it's almost as if Xiaomi is flexing its manufacturing muscle to show the rest of the industry that the firm's recent global growth is no fluke. There is the weird quirk on the mi 11 ultra of two displays, but the undoubted star is not that tiny smart band size panel at the back.

Rather, the massive 6.81 inch 120 hertz, HD, plus AMOLED, display at the front. This is the exact same panel found in the standard me 11. That does mean it suffers in the same ways, mainly from a design perspective. I really don't care for the corner caps that have been added. Unfortunately, these extended bezels didn't actually protect my review device from a fairly unfortunate and quite short, dropper must add.

A series of substantial cracks have now ruined that stunning panel, but even with these display splinters it's not enough really to detract too much from the excellent who plus resolution and 120hz refresh rate, you do have to adjust the refresh rate, as the resolution is set at HD, plus at 60hz right out of the box. It is tack sharp, even at full HD plus, which I promptly set the display resolution to after a little while using at the full fat resolution, you can leverage what you care about most or just go all out and max out the display resolution and refresh rate for the best overall experience. I personally thought the battery benefits would outweigh the display sharpness though there is an optical in display fingerprint reader, which is fast and fluid. The only downside is that, since cracking the screen, it has been a little slower. That said, it was absolutely fine prior to that, when trying to scan my fingerprint, even with the screen protector applied besides the massive camera bump itself, the tiny rear panel is without a question.

The other major talking point on the mi 11 ultra. It's a weird inclusion, as after a very brief period, just a few years ago, where smartphones seemingly offer dual screens, the gimmick looked to have died off. Part of that is down to the introduction of foldable, but the utility seemed to outweigh the pointlessness, and I have to say the same about the mini display here on the mi 11 ultra one of the few saving graces is a notification element when placing the phone face down. This gives you an at-a-glance portion to keep tabs on. However, the front-facing always-on display is still better for this kind of thing.

In my opinion, although on top of that, I have had fun framing up selfies with the rear camera as it can be used as a mini viewfinder kudos, so started Xiaomi for trying something different as at 1.1 inches in size. It won't be much useful for stuff. You would want to do on the main screen. Anyway. It's almost always a tale of great hardware versus somewhat frustrating software whenever I do happen to review a Xiaomi device while mini 12 is incredibly feature rich, it feels as though it inhibits the general internal and external hardware.

Pro s added animations sure help differentiate this from third party skins, but I can't help but feel this could be to the detriment of the long-term performance levels of this device. However, with that said, for now, you likely won't even give it a second thought unless you do get major errors and issues. The snapdragon 888 120hz display UFS, 3.1 storage and high ram allocation alleviates some weightier aspects of mini, but I have to ask why what benefit does a control center clone have over their tried and tested notification? Shade toggles that we've all become accustomed to because having used several Xiaomi devices with the new option included, I simply can't see the benefits. My worries over the long term performance levels aside, the beastly internals, took everything along nicely on the meal 11 ultra, and I've, yet to see a slowdown, but I have seen a few software bugs here and there apps do load instantly and gaming is a piece of cake even at the highest fidelity thanks to the game, turbo mode which actually ups the available system resources to ensure a stable refresh rate and performance levels. All in all, I can't really complain too much about the performance levels, even with some software misgivings and gripes.

If you like mini, then you'll be right at home and loving all the extras tacked onto android 11. This is a proper flagship smartphone that looks acts and runs like one and in recent years. That means a lot more than it once did so now. It's time to turn our attention to the camera and the era of the periscope zoom on smartphone. Cameras should really have been upon us a few years ago when Huawei slapped the still impressive zooming tech in the P30 Pro sure, android OEMs from the likes of opp, who more or less pioneered the tech and Samsung have followed suit.

But this is the first Xiaomi flagship to actually pack in the enhanced zooming option. That alone is neat, but Xiaomi decided to slap in a whole bucket load of extra smartphone camera hardware, tech and even that little rear display for some extra wow factor. It's absolutely massive, it's frankly ridiculous, but, as I said with the 108 megapixel me 11, I just love experimenting and taking photos on the ultra model. I will admit that the 120x zoom is a bit of a gimmick at that sort of zoom level. As things do tend to be a grainy mess, but the sheer fun you can have even being able to get a closer look at things up to half a mile away, never gets old.

Some of the best photos that I've taken with me, 11 ultra, have been in or around the 8 to 15 x, zoom level, which, although not quite the 120x advertised, is a testament to the quality of the zoom capabilities on offer. Here. In my experience, image detail and sharpness remain very good even up to 20x. I haven't even mentioned the larger 15 megapixel main sensor, as this is an extra bonus for beautiful depth of field effects. The natural both is excellent, with good focus fall off on a subject when you've nailed the framing.

I could easily wax lyrical about the camera here. It wows in the portrait effect department using a combination of that larger sensor and some AI post-processing, even with those trinkets and awesome flexibility, I can't outright say the Xiaomi mi 11 ultra is the best smartphone camera out there, though sometimes the processing ruins colors for noticeable reason. I can't fault the sharpness and detail, as these are second to none, but some colors can really look at odds even compared to those taken mere moments later, in the exact same lighting, framing and zoom conditions, the HDR mode can also result in some washed out. Looks that feel like the camera system has applied a soft Instagram filter shortly after you've pressed the shutter button. I also can't always depend on the m11 ultra to tackle moving subjects as well as even my Pixel 4a.

Sometimes your subject will end up a blurry mess while other times, good lighting or good timing makes no difference whatsoever. I'm sure that this handful of issues can be fixed with a software update which will push the meal of an ultra into the outright contenders' category, where it ought to be it stings, a little more as the video quality is very good, even at 8k 24fps. Personally, I slapped the resolution down to 4k60 and so long as you don't zoom in too far, the quality stands up well here too, with a five thousand million power battery tucked inside ahead of time. I had high hopes for the Xiaomi mi 11 ultra, I'm pleased to say that it hasn't disappointed me too much either to know I use the phone app full HD plus 120 hertz, as it offers the perfect balance of smooth performance and visual quality. Let's get into the murky world of screen on time, though, six to seven hours were what I would receive regularly.

This is easily a full day phone for me, even if I try and use it heavily. However, if I started taking tons of photos and messed around with videos, as I did during one full testing day, the lifespan was not quite as long, and it was closer to four to five hours. You'll have to juice for yourself if this is an adequate of a flagship smartphone, especially price such as this. For me, it's enough to take on even the busiest of days, but overall it isn't exactly class leading screen on time, though, is a tough metric as usage patterns and installed. Apps can dictate heavily on the eventual figure that you will see on your device.

The Xiaomi mi 11 ultra is no different. Xiaomi even throws in a 67 watt gallium nitride charger in the box here, which likely won't make the cut next time, but it's nice to see bundle with the m11 ultra. It's very fast and very welcome. Given the slow charging, a 5, 000 million power capacity cells wouldn't be much fun. It even supports 67 watt wireless charging, which is frankly insane.

That said, I haven't been able to test this yet, but it looks pretty awesome in practice. So all in all the Xiaomi mi 11 ultra is arguably one of the finest smartphones available today, but in a couple of areas might even edge out the galaxy s21 ultra provided you're happy with some software quirks. That am I'll. Stop short of calling this the best smartphone of the year. So far as personally, I still think the Samsung Galaxy s 21 ultra just pips the me11 ultra with a firmer update schedule and ever so slightly better camera tuning, which could change, though, with future mini builds other than this.

The two really do go to toe. In fact, I actually do prefer the m11 ultra in a number of key ways. For starters. Xiaomi has tried something different with the outlandishly large rear camera bump, and personally I prefer this design, even though it is a real beast to handle. Overall, it's a familiar experience with the m11 ultra as it was the with the me11, though, in that just a few tiny tweaks would make this exceptional, but it still manages to be well excellent, so that's some 11 ultra among the best android phones.

You can buy right now, but if you have any questions, then do slap them down below, and we'll do our best to answer as many as possible and as always, this is Damien with 95 google saying thanks for watching, and I will speak to you later. You.

Source : 9to5Google