Xiaomi created the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra with the aim of offering almost literally everything to its owner – θήκες κινητών -, incorporating the top components in every field creating an unrivaled whole. By far, it is the most impressive mobile phone of the company to date and perfect in general. The question that arises is if it can actually support what it promises.
Design – Screen
The back of the phone has a mixture of exaggeration and minimalism. Below, there is only the Xiaomi logo, very discreet and without unnecessary touches. On the other hand, on the upper side is the most distinctive (visual) part of the device, a huge part where the cameras are located and a small screen on their right, all in the same part which protrudes significantly from the device and occupies almost one third of the total area.
Speaking of weight, the total dimensions of the mobile phone are 164.3×74.6×8.38mm with a weight of 234g. It is a bit heavy compared to other phones of similar size, probably due to components such as the 5000mAh battery that it houses inside and of course the camera. The back is made of ceramic material, which offers great durability and a beautiful feeling to the touch, while the frame is made of aluminum. On the right side of the device are the volume and activation keys, with the left side remaining crystal clear. At the bottom there are several: a speaker, a microphone, a USB-C port and a SIM card slot. Respectively on the upper side, another speaker next to another microphone and next to an IR blaster.
Going forward, we will find a punch hole camera in the upper left corner of the huge 6.8 ”screen, the margins of which, however, are extremely thin. The panel is AMOLED (10-bit) technology and has WQHD + resolution (3200×1440 with a density of 515ppi), offering crystal clear images with vibrant colors and excellent black, with a maximum brightness that reaches 1700 nits and makes it easy to use even in light of the sun. It also supports HDR10 + and Dolby Vision standards, so content that utilizes them looks amazing, especially for mobile data.
Performance – Battery
We move on to the performance part, where more or less, we will see that the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra “wears” the best on the market. It is equipped with the octa-core Snapdragon 888 (1x ARM Cortex-X1 @ 2.84GHz, 3x ARM Cortex-A78 @ 2.4GHz and 4x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz) framed by the Adreno 660 GPU, 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 25GB of RAM UFS 3.1 – 8GB or 16GB RAM and 512GB storage are available in the Chinese market, while all models support 5G connectivity.
The AnTuTu benchmark is in the top five, ahead of other companies’ flagships despite using the same SoC, while Xiaomi promises multi-level cooling using copper and graphite pieces, heat-conducting paste and vapor chamber to meet Snapd 88 88 In everything concerning simple applications (social, mails, etc.) there were at least 2-3 applications open at the same time and the switching between them was always immediate and without problems. In the games, from Genshin Impact to Call of Duty. It coped with the above by maintaining constant frames in high graphics, with any drops being instantaneous and imperceptible.
Camera
Initially, it is a three-camera system with the main wide (50MP, f / 1.95, 1 / 1.12 ”sensor size, OIS) accompanied by an ultra-wide (48MP, 128 degrees, f / 2.2, 1 / 2.0” size sensor) and a telephoto lens (120x digital zoom, 10x hybrid zoom, 5x optical zoom, OIS). It can record up to 8K video from any camera, with the difference that the main one will also support HDR.
The huge sensor of the main camera easily shows its capabilities, as it receives a lot of light and manages to maintain colors, textures and details even in low light as few smartphones can do. It also gives a great bokeh effect, perfectly blurring the background around the subject, but in slightly more complex objects it sometimes blurs very close to the edges of the object and we either have to live with it or focus again in the hope that it will not repeat itself. In complete darkness, Night Mode does a great job, again due in large part to the camera’s large sensor – there’s just a noticeable drop in color quality, somewhat expected but worth mentioning.
In the video part, it goes just as well with small inconsistencies, such as autofocus that often struggles to adequately follow the subject or visual stabilization that is sometimes perfect and other times not so reliable. Otherwise, 8K / 24fps or 4K / 60fps, with many options for up to 960fps in lower resolution, offers the expected quality in details, textures and colors one would expect, but clearly inferior to static with images produced by the main camera.
The wide-angle lens is doing well, offering the largest angle currently available on a smartphone, and although there is an obvious drop in quality compared to the main camera, it is by no means bad or even mediocre. Even if a huge image is captured that will later be crop, the result remains impressive and detailed even if the photo was taken during the night. Of course, again due to the large angle of view, the edges of the photo have visible distortion, something common for ultra-wide lenses but to a greater extent due to the field of view.
At lower zooms, up to the hybrid 10x zoom, the results are amazing (in part thanks to the optical image stabilization) as long as one does not look too closely at the image – there are color and edge flaws. In general, it is one of the most capable telephoto lenses one can find on a cell phone today.
Conclusion
Taking a step back and looking at what the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra has to offer, it’s hard to find anything missing. Stunning screen, fantastic camera, two powerful speakers, fast charging, a small screen for additional uses (however limited) – are full of features and functions.