Xiaomi 11T Pro review

Design, build quality, handling

The Xiaomi 11T Pro looks like most of the Mi 11 phones - be it Lite, Mi 11, or Mi 11i. The number of cameras does change, but the overall design remains the same. And that's not a bad thing - you can instantly recognize the 11th Xiaomi generation for its curved rear panels with two large camera rings.

Xiaomi 11T Pro and Mi 11i

The new Xiaomi 11T Pro has a flat-screen covered by a Gorilla Glass Victus sheet, and the entire front is indistinguishable from the rest of the recent Xiaomi phones. That's where the curved frame and the slightly curved rear glass panel should help.

See, we have the Meteorite Gray option here, and it's quite nice - the paint layer below the glass is made to look like brushed aluminum. The color itself can be described as dark gray, and it has no gradients, just a subtle brushed aluminum texture underneath the surface. You can also spot the new Xiaomi logo on the back - there is no longer a Mi insignia.

The dark hue is a massive booster for fingerprints and smudges, though. They are easy to clean, but they do stick fast, and if you don't like smudgy phones, you either use the supplied case (and make the 11T Pro thicker) or get the brighter Celestial Blue or Moonlight White options.

The frame is also slightly curved, it has an aluminum base with thick paint (hence no antenna bands) and has a grippy matt finish. It is probably the one thing that is responsible for some grip on this Xiaomi 11T Pro and you will appreciate it.

Finally, the Xiaomi 11T Pro is IP53-rated for dust and splash resistance. It will survive light rain and pool splashes but submerging it in water is not a good idea.

The front is where you'd see the improved 6.67-inch OLED screen. It has a flat panel with rounded corners and a small punch-hole center at the top to make way for the 16MP selfie camera. The bezels are reasonably thin and balanced.

The 11T Pro screen supports 10-bit colors and Dolby Vision, in addition to HDR10+ and 120Hz refresh rate capabilities and 480Hz touch sampling.

There is one super-thin grille above the screen for a small earpiece. There is no LED notification light, though you can use various display tricks such as Always-on and/or Breathing light.

The 11T Pro's rear glass panel is slightly curved towards the frame across all four sides. It makes the phone looks thinner than it actually is. The surface is extremely slippery and a massive fingerprint magnet, but you can clean it with a single wipe with a hand or a shirt.

An enormous black rectangle houses all snappers on the back, and as usual - it is jutting out of the rear panel and makes the phone wobble on your desk. It's a two-step setup - the wider, thinner glass houses the tri-LED flash and the third microphone, as well as the dedicated camera glass that is sticking out even more.

The three snappers, top to bottom, are as follows - the 8MP ultrawide, the 5MP tele-macro and the 108MP primary. The wide and primary camera feature these familiar gray halo accents.

Now, let's look at the Xiaomi 11T Pro sides.

The left is completely bare, while the volume and power keys are on the right. The surface of the lock/power key doubles as an always-on fingerprint scanner. It has superb speed and accuracy, but if you touch it way too often while handling the phone (resulting in misreads), just change its recognition trigger from Touch to Press and it'll solve everything (except the universe).

The top of the 11T Pro accommodates another microphone and one of the speakers. You can spot the harman/kardon logo here.

The other speaker is at the bottom lovely symmetrical to the top one. The USB-C port is also here, the primary mic/mouthpiece, too, as well as the dual-SIM tray.

We appreciate the new harman/kardon dual-speakers setup. It supports Dolby Atmos and delivers nicely balanced sound. The bottom speaker is noticeably louder than the top, but when both are working together, they are tuned correctly.

Weirdly, sound, mostly mid-tones, is also coming from the earpiece grille, in addition to the top dedicate grille. We cannot be sure if there is an actual earpiece, of it's just one speaker that's buried somewhere beneath the screen, and it sound goes from both front and top grilles. But it's not really important as the speaker sounds good in multimedia, and the earpiece seems great in calls. That's enough by our books.

The Xiaomi 11T Pro measures 164.1x76.9x8.8mm - that's 1mm thicker and 8 grams heavier than the Mi 11i. Maybe the new battery design is responsible for the extra thickness and weight. Still, the phone is in line with other 6.67-inchers.

The Xiaomi 11T Pro feels great in hand - it's a phone with a solid build and of balanced weight, and we like that it is splash-proof. The phone has slippery glass panels, but the matt frame is grippy and offers enough support for a rather good case-free experience. The 11T Pro is also one very good-looking phone, and we can't see many people not liking it. We sure did.