Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra long-term review

26 November 2021


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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • kj{
  • 13 Feb 2022

Not sure how many people here actually own this phone. I own 100+ phones.
This device is not "that good" by ANY means. In fact, other than hardware specs I would say it's not good and would not recommend it, here's why:

- questionable software preinstalled, everything calls back to Xiaomi and none of it seems very useful. a lot of it are just ads. By default the side screen is .. just ads. yep.
- very heavy, huge camera bump, awkward to use
- camera quality is OK but nothing spectacular. An iPhone or Pixel phone is still significantly better.
- the UI is still buggy and the phone still lags far too often compared to competitors

I know GSMA reviewers are biased, but I think they're pushing it a little too far lately.

    • P
    • Professional
    • S3u
    • 11 Feb 2022

    calhart, 08 Jan 2022this is my personal experience with the xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra,... moreI don't believe you! Mi Ultra is awesome! Don't talk bullshi....

      • S
      • Sonny
      • kcS
      • 30 Jan 2022

      Denis131, 09 Dec 2021I've made my account just to comment your nonsense, wh... moreWow man people love to hate when they just either don't spend the time to learn the product or act like apple and Samsung don't need software updates to fix things lol. Listen I love tech in general so im always spending my hard work money on new tech. First I live in the USA and I started with Huawei mate 10 pro for my first international phone and it blew me away how great it was and then I got the Xiaomi mi mox 2s and I was even more surprised with the quality of the device for the price and there was few things I didn't like (the front camera on the bottom but I don't use that camera much so really didn't bother me but there is no perfect phone lets be real everyone is different. I got the mi 11 ultra about 5 months ago and man this phone is a beast I had the iphone 12 pro max for work and I replaced that with the Samsung s21 ultra and I like Samsung they do great things but I also don't like certain things but much better than apple in alot of ways but the mi 11 ultra had some software issues with MIUI 12.5 but Xiaomi kept updating and fix things here and there but now with miui 13 the mi 11 ultra is on a another level is so smooth everything works. Also I use the stock Chinese version and couple things that might not be in English but no biggie I just know how to use the phone there is so many little things people miss on phones like this especially reviews don't come back after this MIUI 13 update and how you can use the rear display for all camera modes and battery performance is much better and that was maybe biggest concern I had with this phone but it's charges so fast not really big deal but now battery atleast last double of what it did in the end you can say s21u blow this away you are wrong there are toe and toe at best but mi 11 Ultra definitely has some better features nevermind software if you know how to use MIUI or like MIUI cause ONE UI not that great has some bugs I actually like my girlfriend's note 20 ultra better just the looks alone best the s21u nevermind the pen a great feature I wish Xiaomi did that with is phone but honestly I'm very happy with this phone and hope more people USA can learn about these companies like Xiaomi,oppo,vivo and Huawei because they definitely put together some great quality devices

        this is my personal experience with the xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, my first comment is that this isnt a samsung or iphone in one main respect, its really not the polished item that these are, i have an iphone 13 pro max and a galaxy S21 (not ultra) i have found the software extremely buggy and for me some major minus points. however its a stunning phone, the performance and camera is amazing, and the xiaomi service and support i have found first class and second to none, i bought my first Mi 11 ultra and it had some errors, mainly it wouldnt update and i was expecting to spend a long time with the service/help dept, but they agreed to change the phone immediately and within hours couriered me a replacement, i am sure no other company has this level of support? but this replacement i still found buggy, and one main downside was google pay, this said "cannot use this phone to pay in shops as it has been rooted or altered" talking to xiaomi again they confirmed this needed an update! ok great but when? three months later im still waiting for this. my next gripe is it loses GPS signal frequently, restarting the phone is the only way to restore the gps signal, not what you need when driving round a busy city centre. bluetooth, this takes sometimes several minutes to connect to my car, the samsung and iphone is instant. lastly the camera, sometimes when taking a picture it freezes or almost ten seconds before you can do anything after taking a picture, there are also delays in exiting some apps when pressing back or escape. so thats my take on it, a fabulous phone with great service let down by what i consider some major software glitches. and back to my starting point, this is nowhere near as polished and slick as a samsung or apple

          • A
          • Am bbbk
          • r3b
          • 21 Dec 2021

          Wolf, 07 Dec 2021It can be used in a case. The reviewer must be meaning to s... moreGuess it looks like a log of wood 😂🤣

            Denis131, 09 Dec 2021I've made my account just to comment your nonsense, wh... moreAfter reading the your very long comment (longest comment for this article, I think) as samsung fanboy, your comment that contain the truth is only 1 about selfie quality. But I talk about overall the performance of the phone itself, all side by side. Not just one criteria only. I write the comment before based on experience. If you using custom rom, now mi11 ultra has ability to record video using powerfull rear camera with it's secondary display too, not just for selfie only. My friend sell the s21U and buy mi11U and he feel satisfied with his choice. So the expert and the other users too. I comment for their experiences, including the author of the article too. Maybe s21U is the best for you obviously, but for the others it's not. Just check the new article from this site, s21 series including the ultra version is a loser flagship series from samsung this year. I think the last year flagship (s20 series) also has the same too. You can deny it with your reaction comment but the others can't.

              • k
              • karl anal
              • 3Z5
              • 10 Dec 2021

              Denis131, 09 Dec 2021I've made my account just to comment your nonsense, wh... moredenis sorry but you sound like an samsung employee
              Got thre s21 ultra as it got out. Sold it after 7 days.
              First off, the camera and the battery are au pair on the mi11ultra and the s21ultra.
              The build quality is a tad better on the samsung BUT wgere the s21ultra misarabely fails
              are the FP Sensor and the Face unlock. After trying to get acustomed to the samsung for 1 week i gave it up. Both sensors are working really bad so i went back to huawei.
              The face unlock works all the time every time in every condition, so good that i dont even use FP Sensor. The s21ultra is a great phone IF you dont use FP or Face ID, than it is a gret choice but if you use one of those than it is very annoying and for me not usable at all.
              Doesnt matter if it is 2 generations ahead of every other phone, if the everyday simple stuff
              doesnt work perfectly in my book it is a failure.
              I bought it to my wife last week and for her it is perfect since she doesnt use any of the mentioned. So please lets stay real here.

                Anonymous, 03 Dec 2021You poor USA people have no choice which is why these guys ... moreOk then. Tell me those so called "options" that are better than it.

                  Anonymous, 03 Dec 2021"mi 11x pro is an actual competitor, but doesn't ... moreHow many times do I have to say this?

                  Gcam is not the same proccesing as the proccesing on the google pixel phones.

                  If they do that, then google is going to crash their pixel phone sales because the good proccesing is basically the #1 thing that you are going for when you buy a pixel.

                  Even if hardware was the only thing that mattered, the google pixel phones have 2.4 micron sensor pixels anyways, which is still 25% larger than the mi 11x pro.

                    zillion, 08 Dec 2021Are you kidding? S21U left behind everything compared Mi11U... moreI've made my account just to comment your nonsense, while your saying that Samsung s21 ultra is behind Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra. I am here to say to you, that your wrong, owning both of them, battery on Xiaomi is way way way way more worse then S21 Ultra, Camera comparing side to side is worse on Xiaomi, front camera you cannot even compare to S21 Ultra its 4k60 and on Xiaomi is 1080p so please. Dont compare phones if you dont know real facts about them.
                    I feel like design from behind on xiaomi is sticking to much, and its not user friendly (This is only personal preference)
                    Design overall on huawei is nice, however i always have feeling that my xiaomi will get broken because its to heavy even samsung is, however samsung feels more i dont know premium in design.
                    While i find both nice devices and i have Exynoss version of samsung and Snapdragon version of Xiaomi i find Samsung still better overall. Maybe next year Xiaomi does something that willl impress alot of minds, but so far Samsung is clear winner, only that i could find better is perfomanse results 68k benchmark on xiaomi and 65k on samsung however i am user of 12gb version + Exynoss Not sure how much diffrence it makes, but yeah i am not gonna give credits to samsung for it, but anyways that thing is so small if i will be honest that i dont even want to compare perfomanse since i am gonna be never using that much of perfomanse that those phones can offer, i am mostly on traveling, so i use my kind of premium samsung phone for bussines and xiaomi more for family and rest of people i know! Both phones are hand down well made, well perfomanse, nice camera, Xiaomi terrible battery definetely

                    Overall if i had to give point to one of these phones, i'd say its gonna be samsung all the way, also i am kind of wanting to get and iphone 13 pro max, as i've noticed some drastic changes. But were gonna see i guess. But please just because you have xiaomi dont lie to people and let them know Xiaomi is the phone to go, there are many facts on which Xiaomi fails and Samsung wins, ofcourse samsung aswell fails on some, but those are not even close to Xiaomi. Be fair next time with your commenting. So other people can know real truth. I hate seeing people lie to community, just to feel better

                      Anonymous, 05 Dec 2021Only 12gb ram, no thanks , s21ultra has 16gb ram and Samsun... moreAre you kidding? S21U left behind everything compared Mi11U. The major lead for S21U only 3 years android version support and montly security updates.

                        • W
                        • Wolf
                        • rJG
                        • 07 Dec 2021

                        Anonymous, 04 Dec 2021Hey can someone pls tell me why he said "unfortunately... moreIt can be used in a case. The reviewer must be meaning to say that he personally would not be using a case as it might have added to it's thickness and weight or taken away the beauty of this phone. I am using Nillkin Camshield Pro case for it right now.

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • 0T4
                          • 06 Dec 2021

                          bananaman, 04 Dec 2021Hey, nice photos of Serbia and Belgrade.Close...but not enough.

                            • T
                            • Trooper
                            • mE0
                            • 05 Dec 2021

                            Zafar ghulam, 05 Dec 2021My younger brother gave a password on the lock screen of my... moreHow do we know it's your phone, and that you haven't just stolen it from your brother ?. Mister stranger on the internet...

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • mXr
                              • 05 Dec 2021

                              Only 12gb ram, no thanks , s21ultra has 16gb ram and Samsung features that this phone does not half half

                                • Z
                                • Zafar ghulam
                                • 8pA
                                • 05 Dec 2021

                                My younger brother gave a password on the lock screen of my LG G5 and he forgot the password now give me hints to open the phone because i dont want my data etc to be lost

                                  • b
                                  • bananaman
                                  • nUk
                                  • 04 Dec 2021

                                  Hey, nice photos of Serbia and Belgrade.

                                    • D
                                    • AnonD-1026503
                                    • RxE
                                    • 04 Dec 2021

                                    Anonymous, 04 Dec 2021Hey can someone pls tell me why he said "unfortunately... moreIt can

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • K1L
                                      • 04 Dec 2021

                                      Hey can someone pls tell me why he said "unfortunately can't be used in a case?"

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • fn1
                                        • 04 Dec 2021

                                        Xiaomi the company.If you say company say Xiaomi.
                                        Quality, smart and genuine.No lie at all.
                                        Keep it up.

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