Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra long-term review

26 November 2021


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  • MAOKING
  • 2MD
  • 28 Nov 2021

Xiaomi's technology is highly regarded. Xiaomi will soon surpass Apple and Samsung to become the world's No. 1 market leader. Other companies have a lot to learn from Xiaomi.

    Love my Mi 11 Ultra, it's a headtuurner wherever I go.
    You will never have people asking you about an iPhone pro Max model which looks essentially the same in the last three years or any other dull looking flagship for that matter.

    That rear display certainly sets it apart. Your phone will be the talk of the party guaranteed!!
    I have already seen so many jealous faces at events when they realize this phone stands out even if one is casually talking on it, while their boring iphones are lost in a sea of similar boring looking iPhones which are mainly bought by these people for their logo and "if it's expensive, it must be better" mentality.

    It's just a beautifully crafted jewel from top to bottom, with the best hardware and software to boot along with it. Premium luxury rolled inside a ceramic package is how I would describe the build quality.

    The best display on smartphone right now....excels in every department.. Zero compromises.

    The best cameras on the market. Day or night, photo or video, Mi has got you covered.
    The best selfies and vlog footage you can get using rear camera.
    Again zero compromises in camera unlike other flagships like iPhone 13 pro Max or Vivo X70 pro plus or S21 Ultra.

    Software is smooth butter. Everything just glides. This is what a luxury experience looks like.
    Miui is filled with more features than you can count.
    I don't know even use half of them regularly, but they are there for people who need them unlike other manufacturers who put boring stock ui devoid of useful features.
    The best looking, most functional and smoothest ui on Android.
    And this is coming from a OnePlus 8 pro user.

    The battery life is great.. around 7.5hr SOT with my usage.
    The charging is out of this world. I can just forget to charge it in the morning while getting ready for work and still have full day worth of battery life left with a quick top up of 15-20 minutes.

    Totally satisfied with this device.... If I have any complaints.. it's availability. I had to go through alternative means to get this device.. Xiaomi was charging the cheapest in my country but availability was huge issue with delays in release.
    Xiaomi made the best phone of the year but they need to work on making it easily available.
    I wouldn't mind paying 500$ extra for the price I got it at. It will still be totally worth it....

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • gCY
      • 28 Nov 2021

      hgoor, 28 Nov 2021I bought this phone to get away from Samsungs lackluster Ex... moreYou know that camera you love so much is made by Samsung right ? Xiaomi only assemble their phones and nothing else. 80% of their components are from Samsung.

        Anonymous, 28 Nov 2021You're making a big issue over 10 or 15 % less powerfu... moreActually the Exynos did make a huge difference, Atleast in my brief time I used it before returning it. The video recording was bad... Just worse compared to my Galaxy Note 9 in low light. The performance in games was the worst out of flagships. The thermals were really poor. Now, I don't know how much has improved after software updates though.

        Samsung cheapened out on cooling, yes!!!
        But that cooling you mention inside Sony is also marketing, nothing more, it has same overheating issues during basic tasks.

          hgoor, 28 Nov 2021I bought this phone to get away from Samsungs lackluster Ex... moreI sold mine in 2 days after using it,just because of the weight and battery drain,did miui 12.5 enhanced improved battery life?just sold mine before it came to my phone

            • S
            • Seriously
            • 0xU
            • 28 Nov 2021

            [deleted post]Please stop spamming around the all topics how your'e amazed with your new iphone. This has nothing to do with this review thread.

              Also, the battery drain with camera's its normal, as you should know that bigger the sensor - more power it takes and also dissipate's more heat. That's why they used that huge bump of camera island, as the main sensor is huge, and aux cams has quite big ones too. Once the camera module is activated it runs all cameras simultaneusly, so the impact is felt significantly of power usage.

                hgoor, 28 Nov 2021I bought this phone to get away from Samsungs lackluster Ex... moreas I mentioned - its not shutter lag. Just a long duration and unfinished animation of shutter. But the image gots captured immediately - you can check this in fast action.
                The trick how to disable that bad animation of shutter I've mentioned in commets before

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • Sec
                  • 28 Nov 2021

                  Anonymous, 27 Nov 2021lmao a 78mm wide phone with flat sides is a nightmare in te... moreYour a 78mm phone

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • mXr
                    • 28 Nov 2021

                    hgoor, 28 Nov 2021I bought this phone to get away from Samsungs lackluster Ex... moreYou're making a big issue over 10 or 15 % less powerful than Snapdragon, though developers love exynos over Snapdragon. There are more custom ROMs and kernels available for exynos .
                    Running on enhance mode is more than enough power, even standard mode is sufficient.
                    E2100 is mighty Arm A78 x1cores are so powerful it needs 11watts off power , that's a battery drainer but you have inteli5 powered CPU, you're complaint over throttle.

                    Go kick Samsung@rse for using cheap junk dustbin cooling system

                    Sony uses double copper cooling chambers
                    Samsung cheape using no cooling.

                      • h
                      • hgoor
                      • 3YN
                      • 28 Nov 2021

                      I bought this phone to get away from Samsungs lackluster Exynos chipset they push here in Europe. Coming from a note 10+ the 11 Ultra is blazing fast. But I hate the weight. In practice it's annoying to hold the phone for a long time.
                      Another thing is that the battery just barely lasts 3/4 of the day when you have 120hz on. So you'll need to put it on 60hz if you want to get further than that. Still: if you use your cameras (more on that later) you'll drain your battery in no time.
                      MIUI is ok once you get used to it. In fact I'm a fan of it's customizability. Finding your way in the settings, however, is a nightmare. What a cluster f**. Stuff is all over the place!
                      Also I switched to the xiaomi.eu ROM as the EU ROM sucks due to removed functionality like call recording and such.
                      Now the main attraction for me are the cameras. Or maybe I should say the main camera. Coming from Samsung which has pretty darn good camera, I can say this main shooter blows that out of the water! I have not seen such good, balanced pictures as from this camera. Let alone the bokeh I get. The wide angle and zoom are more gimmicky than useful, but the main camera steals the show. When used right I get balanced colors, lighting and amazing photos overall. The night shots I get are phenomenal. One super annoying thing is - indeed - the shutter lag. Why?
                      All in all the 11 Ultra is a bit of a mixed bag for me and i don't know if I'll get another Xiaomi after this one - also in lieu of the whole spying and censoring scandal surrounding Xiaomi right now.
                      Simply put: this phone is not for everyone.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • 9aS
                        • 28 Nov 2021

                        Mart, 27 Nov 2021For me the camera is a dissapointment. The closer look on t... moreMay be you should check your eyes lol

                          ABF Media, 27 Nov 2021Half truth is always dangerous. Didn't You forget to ... moreThat's not what shutter lag means

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • 83n
                            • 28 Nov 2021

                            Anonymous, 28 Nov 2021Lol so confusing, telling us to flash Chinese ROM. No other... moreIt comes with china ROM out of the box.
                            It's tech tablets fault for not being on latest software supplied by Xiaomi which is China ROM.

                              Anonymous, 27 Nov 2021Why do people always come up with claims like "once yo... moreBecause all of those things are true... One can't go back to an inferior experience.
                              I think you are the one with issues....wanting to go back to 60hz or slower charging which is an inferior experience, no matter which way you look at it.
                              We must be moving forward, not backwards in the tech world.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • xZI
                                • 28 Nov 2021

                                Who owns it, 28 Nov 2021Does not matter if he uses latest ROM. If its global, its s... moreLol so confusing, telling us to flash Chinese ROM. No other Chinese flagship tells us to use a Chinese ROM and the global ROM is just as good.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • tZk
                                  • 28 Nov 2021

                                  Anonymous, 27 Nov 2021The best way is to assess as many reviews as possible from ... moreYou claimed to have iPhone 12 Pro, but how can we be sure if you also lied?

                                    To this day, this monster still my dream phone, as my current phone have big screen, 6,85in..i cant get back to more smaller one like 6,5 even 6,7,its make so different for me while gaming and multimedia, and yeah, for those say once you used to fast charging (imma used 33w) there no way going back to slower one.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • nYE
                                      • 28 Nov 2021

                                      walkman8, 27 Nov 2021"Don't like" and "not being able to liv... moreI agree

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • nYE
                                        • 28 Nov 2021

                                        ABF Media, 27 Nov 2021Once you sit inside a Mercedes cabin, would you feel the sa... moreBut there is downgrade and downgrade.

                                        I remember the days of 30hz monitors and no I would not to go back to that time.

                                        Same with 5 watt chargers.

                                        But I am totally fine switching between my 120hz pc and notebook screens to 60hz ones pretty much anything else I use have.

                                        I am also fine with switching between my work phone having a 50watt charger and my own phone having 18watt.

                                        There is a line for me what is a downgrade I dont like and a downgrade I dont mind, I game a lot for example and everyone I know that uses 120+Hz monitors says "oh no I would die watching a 60hz screen!" (let's ignore they watch movies and YouTube at lower...).

                                        Yet I don't mind, I enjoy my fast monitors but if I had to go back to a 60hz one I wouldn't mind.

                                        As to answer your question, if both have enough comfort for my linking, I don't care going back to "the worse" version.

                                        Maybe it's just me, maybe because I switch between "great" and "average" stuff all the time, that I dont mind it.

                                        I can always go back to "worse" because I dont take luxurious stuff for granted.

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