Xiaomi Mi 11X hands-on review

Camera

The Mi 11X has a triple camera system on the back, consisting of a wide, ultra-wide, and macro camera. It also includes a single 20MP camera on the front.

The camera app UI has largely remained unchanged from previous versions, but Xiaomi has kept adding more and more features. Fortunately, you can now access most of them more easily, as the app optionally allows you to have the additional camera modes in a simple drawer that can be pulled up from the bottom - similar to the OnePlus Camera app - instead of clicking the More button at the of the list.

The default camera UI, however, is cluttered with way too many options, and you'd be better off taking some time out and removing the unnecessary ones to make the remaining ones easy to access.

Camera app

The Pro mode for still images is also quite elaborate, with options for not just focus peaking but also zebras for exposure compensation. The Pro mode also allows saving RAW files not just from the main wide camera but also the ultra-wide camera.

The main camera on the back is the 48MP Sony IMX582 sensor with a 6P 25mm equivalent f1.79 lens. The IMX582 sensor is almost identical to the popular IMX586, with the difference being the IMX582 can record videos up to 4K 30fps while the IMX586 can do 60fps.

The image quality from the main wide camera is decent but there are a few issues with it. The primary issue is with the colors, which tend to come out undersaturated. This is with the AI mode disabled, which can add a bit more saturation and contrast based on the scene but we prefer to leave it off for testing.

Main camera daylight

The other issue with the colors is that as the amount of light in the scene gets lower, they take on a strangely darkened appearance similar to the bleach bypass effect. This is most commonly seen when shooting indoors, where objects and especially skin tones tend to look darker and lifeless.

The other issue is with the dynamic range. The dynamic range in the image is often quite anemic, with both shadows and highlights being inadequately exposed. The HDR mode on the phone barely ever kicks in, even in high contrast situations, and even when it does it doesn't really seem to do anything.

The level of detail in the image is fine but unspectacular since this is still just a 12MP image. There is some oversharpening and haloing around high contrast edges but by and large, the images look fine.

Zooming on the Mi 11X is done entirely on the main wide camera. The 2x zoom mode seems to take a straightforward 1:1 pixel crop from the center of the 48MP sensor so the results are quite usable. Beyond that, the image softens considerably and becomes steadily less usable.

1x • 2x • 5x • 10x

Compared to the 48MP IMX586 camera on the OnePlus 9R, the Mi 11X fares a bit worse. While OnePlus' colors are occasionally of questionable taste, there's no denying that the 9R camera is pulling much more detail out of both shadows and highlights, while having much better saturation.

Mi 11X • OnePlus 9R • Mi 11X • OnePlus 9R

The 8MP ultra-wide camera with 15mm equivalent f2.2 lens isn't great. The color performance is decent and the colors even come out a bit more vibrant than the standard wide camera. However, the 8MP resolution is simply insufficient for such a wide field of view and so there's really not much detail to be found in the images.

Ultra-wide camera daylight

Once again, the OnePlus 9R does a bit better here, although the difference isn't as dramatic as with the main camera. The 16MP images from the ultra-wide on the 9R generally have more detail and look better on larger screens. The 9R ultra-wide also has a wider perspective for a more dramatic look.

Mi 11X • OnePlus 9R • Mi 11X • OnePlus 9R

Low Light image quality is so-so. Depending upon the lighting, the camera may choose to kick into a night mode of sorts even in the standard photo mode, but this only happens when the light is really low. This results in a situation where you could be in light that's not low enough to trigger this function so you end up with worse images, as the standard processing cannot cope under poor lighting.

Main camera low light

Alternatively, you can just manually switch to the actual night mode, which works a bit better. Mind you, it's still not great as Xiaomi's night mode is quite lackluster and far behind its rivals. Still, the images are generally better exposed compared to not using night mode, with decent colors and dynamic range. There's also a ton of oversharpening added to compensate for the noise reduction.

Main camera night mode

The ultrawide low light performance is really quite poor. The images are usually unusable and you often can't even see what the subject is.

Ultra-wide camera low light

Enabling night mode makes a big difference and it's a prerequisite if you intend to shoot in even slightly low light conditions with this camera. Still, the night mode can't perform miracles, and even with it enabled the images can be underexposed and too soft to make out any detail.

Ultra-wide camera night mode

The 5MP macro camera turned out to be pretty decent. The issue with these cameras usually is that even if you have the novelty of the perspective, the image quality itself is rather poor. The images from the macro camera on the Mi 11X are rather good and it also has autofocus so you don't have to be at a set distance from the subject. This results in much more usable images.

Macro

The Mi 11X can record video in 4K at 30fps from the main camera and 1080p 30fps from the ultra-wide camera. Interestingly enough, even the macro camera is capable of recording video, something we usually never see on phones from other brands.

The 4K video quality from the main camera is quite good in daylight with good color performance, dynamic range, and resolution. The image stabilization is also quite decent.