Xiaomi Mi 11X Pro / Mi 11i hands-on review

Performance

The performance on the Mi 11X Pro is excellent. Admittedly, it's hard to tell the difference between the Snapdragon 870 and 888 during daily use most of the time but there are instances where you can see the advantages of the faster chip, namely while updating or installing apps and while processing images in the camera app.

Gaming performance was excellent as well, with the Mi 11X Pro handling even demanding games with ease. You can also play some titles in 120Hz, provided the developer has unlocked this feature. Unfortunately, most haven't. Still, 60Hz looks good enough in most cases and even console-quality titles like Genshin Impact run with ease.

However, the performance in games doesn't last for long as the phone tends to overheat quickly. This will not just cause the display to dim substantially but also lower the performance of the device. Speaking of Genshin Impact, the game ended up locking itself to 30fps after a few minutes of play. Moreover, even if you quit the game, you'll notice that the phone itself is now locked to 60Hz and the full 120Hz is only available once it cools down sufficiently.

Unfortunately, as with the Mi 11X, we weren't able to run any benchmarks on the Mi 11X Pro due to software restrictions placed on the review unit build. Fortunately, the Snapdragon 888 is a known quantity at this point and we do have several other devices we've reviewed with benchmarks on this chipset.

Camera

The Mi 11X Pro features a triple camera array on the back, which includes a 108MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, and a 5MP macro camera. We have already talked about the ultra-wide and macro camera in our Mi 11X hands-on, so we will largely focus on the main camera here, as that's the major differentiating factor between the Pro version and the amateur Mi 11X.

The Mi 11X Pro uses a Samsung ISOCELL HM2 sensor, which is the company's smallest 108MP sensor. This camera uses the nine-pixel binning technique, which means it combines nine pixels into one to generate a 12MP image from the 108MP sensor.

The image quality from the sensor and the software processing during daylight is very good. Images have good color accuracy, good dynamic range and contrast, and a reasonable amount of detail. The level of detail is typical for a 12MP image, meaning it's not particularly impressive in the grand scheme of things, and not on par with the tetracell 108MP sensors, which can spit out 27MP images.

Daylight images

Unfortunately, there is not much point in shooting at 108MP either. Whether you switch to the dedicated 108MP mode or toggle the 108MP option in Pro mode, the camera only produces soft 108MP images, which have been reconstructed from a 12MP base image.

When shooting in low light, you have the option of shooting in the standard Photo mode or Night mode. For Photo mode, you can additionally enable an optional auto night mode, for better image quality. It's worth noting that this is designed to produce quick and dirty results in the Photo mode, and not as good as using the dedicated Night mode.

Auto • Auto night • Night mode

The image quality with the Night mode enabled is quite good. The images are well-exposed, the colors remain largely faithful, and the noise levels are pleasantly low.

Overall, the camera on the main camera on the Mi 11X Pro is quite good, but we also wanted to put the performance into perspective, so we threw in a few other devices to compare.

Xiaomi Mi 11X (in Cosmic Black) next to the Mi 11X Pro (in Celestial Silver)

First, is the standard Mi 11X, which has the 48MP Sony IMX582 sensor for the main camera. In our hands-on, we noted that the images from this camera had decent detail but the colors and dynamic range weren't impressive.

Camera comparison: Mi 11X Pro vs. Mi 11X

Compared to the Mi 11X Pro, it's easier to see the difference. The Mi 11X Pro is clearly superior in terms of color reproduction and dynamic range. It's also leagues ahead when it comes to image quality in low light. The only similarity is the level of detail, which is largely the same. A shame, considering the vast difference in native resolution between the two sensors.

We also decided to compare the Mi 11X Pro with the OnePlus 9R, which costs the same in the Indian market. The two phones performed quite similarly, with the Mi 11X Pro having slightly better contrast and color accuracy. The Mi 11X Pro does, however, have more aggressive sharpening, which can occasionally look unpleasant.

Camera comparison: Mi 11X Pro vs. OnePlus 9R

Lastly, we also decided to throw in the Mi 10T Pro. This phone is in a similar price range as the Mi 11X Pro but has a more premium Samsung ISOCELL HMX sensor, which is also 108MP but uses tetracell to produce 25MP images.

Compared to the Mi 11X Pro, the images from the Mi 10T Pro are vastly more detailed. Moreover, the 108MP mode on the Mi 10T Pro also produces great results, with even more detail. The HMX sensor also does incredibly well in low light, turning some scenes almost unrecognizably brighter. The only issue with this camera is the colors, which look overly warm and green. This isn't unfixable but does take some work from the user.

Camera comparison: Mi 11X Pro vs. Mi 10T Pro

The Mi 11X Pro can also record 8K video at 30fps. This is curious because the HM2 sensor is only capable of recording video at up to 24fps, which means Xiaomi is either interpolating frames or recording at a slightly lower resolution and then upscaling to 8K.

Regardless, the quality of the 8K video is pretty decent, with good colors and dynamic range. The level of detail is acceptable although looking closely it's easy to tell that it isn't native 8K. However, the bigger issue is that unlike the 4K mode there seems to be no digital stabilization at all when shooting in 8K, which makes the footage quite jerky and often unusable if you don't use a gimbal or stabilize it in post. The upside to not being stabilized is that you get a much wider, uncropped field of view in 8K.

Overall, the camera performance on the Mi 11X Pro is quite good. The main camera does well most of the time regardless of the lighting conditions. We think this is one of the best cameras you can get in this price segment. The macro camera can also take some surprisingly good shots in decent lighting conditions and can even shoot video, which is something you don't see every day. However, the camera overall is let down by the mediocre ultra-wide, which produces passable results in daylight and is largely unusable at night.