Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge / Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G review

Android 11 under MIUI 12.5

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G boots Android 11 with the previous MIUI 12.5 version - in contrast to all other MIUI 13-powered Redmi Note 11 phones. Xiaomi has promised the MIUI 13 update is coming "very soon" though. Surprisingly, there are really no differences feature-wise between the devices. Let's take a look.

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G supports an Always-on display - unfortunately, it can never be always on. It can only appear for 10s after a tap. At least there are a lot of AOD themes you can choose from. A few of those can also be customized.

Always-on display

Notification effect is another MIUI stand-out feature even though it's not new. The edges of the display light up in colorful animations when a new notification arrives.

One more thing, you can choose the lockscreen clock style, too.

Notification light • Notification light • Notification light • Lockscreen clock style

You unlock the screen via the side-mounted fingerprint scanner. The reader is easy to set up, blazing-fast, and the accuracy is superb. You can set the unlock method to Touch or Press - the Press will spare you accidental misreads of your palm (that eventually lead to PIN input) if you are using the phone without a case. A 2D Face Unlock is available, too, but it is far less secure than the fingerprint option.

Biometrics

The homescreens are business as usual - they are populated with shortcuts, folders, and widgets. The leftmost pane, if enabled, is Google's Discover.

MIUI 13

MIUI 12.5 offers an app drawer, and it automatically organizes your apps into categories. The first is All, meaning it contains all apps. Then follow Communication, Entertainment, Photography, Tools, New, and Business. You can edit these categories or even disable them altogether.

You can disable the app drawer entirely if that's not your thing.

App drawer

MIUI offers an independent Notification shade and Control Center. You summon them like on the iPhones - pull down from the left part of the screen for the Notification Center, pull down from the right for the Control Center.

If you are not fond of this iPhone-ish split - you can disable the Control Center, and the shade will revert to its normal looks and operation.

Notifications • Toggles • Settings • The old combined view

The task switcher is familiar, too, if you've ever used a Xiaomi. It shows all of your recent apps in two columns. Tap-and-hold on any card for the split-screen and pop-up shortcuts (where available), or just swipe it left or right to close it.

There is a Floating Windows button on top of everything. You can put a compatible app in a floating state, but you only have one floating window at a time.

Task switcher • Task Switcher • Task switcher • Split screen • Floating window • Floating window

Themes have always been a huge part of MIUI, and they are available on MIUI 13, too. You can download new ones from the Themes store, and they can change wallpapers, ringtones, system icons, and even the always-on display style.

Themes

MIUI comes with its proprietary multimedia apps - Gallery, Music, Mi Video (with streaming options). There is also an MIUI File Manager. The FM radio app is available, too. And, of course, a Mi Remote app that uses the integrated IR blaster.

Gallery • Music • Video • File Manager • FM radio • Mi Remote

MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps, define the battery behavior of selected apps, and apply restrictions only to certain apps.

Security

And speaking of memory, MIUI offers a Memory Extension option that's active by default (you can disable it if you like). It reserves up to 3GB of internal storage to serve as a RAM extension. Less important memory blocks should come here.

RAM Extension

There is no Smart Side bar in this version of MIUI. Instead, its functionality was split between Floating Windows and Video Toolbox - and that's the better way. You can either put an app into a Floating Window from the Task Switcher. Or from within its notification bubble by swiping down on it. Neat!

Floating Window

If you are within a multimedia app and you have enabled the Video toolbox for it (like YouTube, Mi Video, Gallery, etc.) you will get the Video toolbox next to the shortcuts - it contains a Dolby Atmos switch, plus shortcuts for Screenshot, Record screen, Cast, and Play Video with the screen off. And, oh yes, the last one works on YouTube, no Premium subscription needed!

And this Video Toolbox also contains the entire functionality of the missing Sidebar, so essentially, by enabling the Video Toolbox for an app, you also bring back the Sidebar and its pop-up apps shortcuts.

Video toolbox

Other interesting MIUI 12.5 improvements you may not notice at first include a better screenshot editor, a brand-new battery page with performance mode, and an option for the camera app to shoot videos with the screen turned off.

When you take a screenshot, you will notice a modern-looking interface with brushes, erasers, text and selection tools, among others.

The Battery page offers four battery modes - two power-saving types, Balanced (default), and a Performance option that may give a small performance boost for a while but then lead to throttling. Here, you can also check the battery temperature and enable the Charging Boost option.

Screenshot editor • Battery page and options

Some MIUI ROMs include ads in the default apps, it is a well-known thing, and our Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G does come with baked-in ad "recommendations" across most of its system apps.

You can disable those even if it's a bit tedious to do it because you have to do it for every system app that has them. For example, if you are annoyed by the app scanner's ads, just hit the settings gear, and disable recommendations. Ads in the File Manager - Settings->About should do it. Themes - go to Settings and disable Recommendations. It's not ideal, sure, but at least you can get rid of them all.

An ad • Disable ads • Without ads

We've seen MIUI 13, and its interface is pretty much MIUI 12 with a couple of tweaks here and there. So, when the update arrives, you will feel right at home with MIUI 13. Don't expect big changes once Android 12 arrives, either. Though Xiaomi is promising plenty of under-the-hood optimizations.

Performance and benchmarks

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G is the most powerful Redmi of the new Series 11, and that is why Xiaomi advertises it as the 'ultimate' Redmi Note. It is running a recent Dimensity 920 chipset that is more powerful than the Helio G96 and the Snapdragon 695 5G chipsets within the other two Pro models.

The Dimensity 920 shares the DNA of the Dimensity 1200 and 1100 top-tier chips. It is based on the same TSMC N6 process and uses the same "big" ARM Cortex-A78 cores and "LITTLE" Cortex-A55 ones. The Dimensity 920 has a total of two big CPU cores, clocked at up to 2.5 GHz and six more Cortex-A55 ones, working at up to 2.0 GHz. Compared to the Dimensity 1100 and 1200, which both have four Cortex-A78 performance cores each.

The Dimensity 920 uses four Mali-G68 GPU clocked at 950MHz. This should provide plenty of power for a mid-range smartphone.

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G is available with either 6GB or 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM. The storage options are 128GB and 256GB, and the storage is of the UFS 2.2 kind. We have the 8GB/128GB model.

Finally, the Dimensity 920 chip supports dual 5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, tri-band GPS.

And now, let's run some benchmarks.

The Dimensity 920 processor offers excellent performance for the mid-range segment and a meaningful jump over the Redmi Note 10 Pro's Snapdragon 732G platform.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  2832
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  2801
• Realme 9 Pro+
  2335
• Poco X3 GT
  2310
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  2225
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  2063
• Realme 9 Pro
  2020
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1780
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1729
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  1662
• Realme 9i
  1581

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Realme 9 Pro+
  814
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  787
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  771
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  736
• Realme 9 Pro
  694
• Poco X3 GT
  693
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  688
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  569
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  511
• Realme 9i
  384
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  376

There is one phone in this price bracket that with much more powerful graphics than the rest of them - the Poco X3 GT with its top-tier Dimensity 1100 chipset. Other than that, the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G is up to par and has enough GPU power to make for a smooth gaming experience.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 GT
  38
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  28
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  28
• Realme 9 Pro+
  22
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  22
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  17
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  16
• Realme 9 Pro
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  12
• Realme 9i
  7.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  6.8

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 GT
  68
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  49
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  49
• Realme 9 Pro+
  41
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  38
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  30
• Realme 9 Pro
  29
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  22
• Realme 9i
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  12

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 GT
  97
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  69
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  68
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  57
• Realme 9 Pro+
  56
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  41
• Realme 9 Pro
  41
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  34
• Realme 9i
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  18

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 GT
  3991
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  2491
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  2477
• Realme 9 Pro+
  2296
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  2014
• Realme 9 Pro
  1211
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  1204
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1101
• Realme 9i
  452
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  439

The compound AnTuTu tests put the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G in line with the Realme 9 Pro+ and not that far behind the SD778G-powered Galaxy A52s 5G. And it is noticeably faster than the Redmi Note 10 Pro.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Poco X3 GT
  506800
• Realme 9 Pro+
  495096
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  429675
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  375528
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  295442
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  288914
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  261309
• Realme 9i
  229368
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  228044

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Poco X3 GT
  578505
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  527663
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  506432
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  437872
• Realme 9 Pro+
  416031
• Realme 9 Pro
  401894
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  382902
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  319093
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  244526

Finally, we ran the CPU and GPU stress tests, and the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G demonstrated outstanding stability. It kept 80% of its CPU performance while running at maximum speed for an hour.

Then the Note 11 Pro+ 5G scored 99.7% stability on the 3D Mark stress test, an excellent result!

CPU test • GPU stress test

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G is properly equipped for its mid-range class. We experienced hiccups whatsoever, no freezes or UI lag. Apps ran smoothly, and the multi-tasking experience was a breeze.

Even better, the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G offers a good gaming experience - we played many of the most popular games, and they ran just great. High Frame Rate gaming is possible, too, and will happen if the GPU can handle it. And unlike on the rest of the Redmi Note 11 phones, it can and does happen on the Pro+ model.

The phone has a good cooling solution, and it will never get hot anywhere, just slightly warm at a couple of particular spots.

Long story short, the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ offers excellent performance, stability and temperature control across the board, and we are happy with the overall experience.