Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S review

MIUI 13 on top of Android 11

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S, like the rest of the Redmi Note 11 quartet, boots Android 11 with the most current MIUI 13 version. Most of the new MIUI features are under the hood, though they should make for a smoother, smarter, and more secure experience.

This version of MIUI 13 is based on Android 11, and it does not include any of the Android 12 features like the revamped widgets and their new widget page in the app drawer. There is no advanced Privacy Dashboard either with options like a protected clipboard, approximate location, updated Face Unlock algorithm. The updated File Manager and Clock app with Bedtime mode are nowhere to be found either.

Other notable missing features on Android 11 + MIUI 13 combo are the improved one-handed mode (iOS-style), and the improved camera app with zero shutter lag and motion photos.

Finally, the new live wallpapers showing microscopic stuff like how vitamin C and citric acid crystallize, as part of the Beauty of Science collaboration, are not available on the Redmi Note 11 series just yet.

Still, Xiaomi claims that MIUI has been reworked completely, even if you cannot tell that by the interface and its design alone - it looks and feels just like MIUI 12. But the new version reportedly focuses on much better resource distribution and should handle processor, RAM and storage usage better and smarter.

For example, MIUI 13 is supposed to keep track of the current use of the processor and RAM and suspend any currently unnecessary tasks to free resources and offer more fluid performance. Xiaomi promises a background process efficiency increase of up to 40% compared to the previous version.

Liquid storage is what sounds really cool and relevant for modern smartphones. Xiaomi says that in most phones, the storage performance is halved in 36 months due to inefficient storage management. And this is where MIUI 13 comes from - it offers 60% better defragmentation efficiency than MIUI 12 and different competitors. So, the storage performance drop in 36 months should be merely 5%. This sounds impressive, so here is hoping this feature lives up to the hype.

The final optimization done within MIUI's core is power management - the new version's optimization should lead to a 10% drop in the power consumption compared to MIUI 12's.

There is also an improved Smart Sidebar for even more fluid multi-tasking with pop-up apps. And the privacy has been improved with a number of features, some of which unique.

And now, let's take a closer look at MIUI 13 on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S 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

Breathing light is called Notification effect in MIUI 13. It can work with or without Always-on Display. Basically, that's a fancier version of the notification LED that uses the edges of the display - they flash with colors upon new notifications.

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 13 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

Just like in MIUI 12, MIUI 13 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 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), FM radio. There is also an MIUI File Manager. And, of course, a Mi Remote app that uses the integrated IR blaster.

Gallery • Music • Video • FM Radio • File Manager • 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 13 offers a Memory Extension option that's active by default (you can disable it if you like). It reserves 3GB of internal storage that serves as RAM extension. Less important memory blocks should come here.

RAM Extension

The Smart Sidebar is quite familiar - a small visible mark on the edge of the screen that expands into a menu anytime you swipe on it. You launch apps in pop-up windows from here. Of course, you can customize the actions for this menu. If you are within a multimedia app (like YouTube, Mi Video, Gallery, etc.), you will get the Video toolbox next to the shortcuts - it contains shortcuts for Screenshot, Record screen, Cast, Sound settings and Play Video with the screen off. And, oh yes, the last one works on YouTube, no Premium subscription needed!

Smart Sidebar • Smart Sidebar • Pop-up apps • Video toolbox • Sound settings

Other interesting MIUI 13 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 power-saving modes. Here, you can also check the battery temperature. Note that some phones have an optional Performance Mode, but it is not available on the Redmi Note 11 Pro.

Finally, even if not new per se, the Camera app offers an option to Shoot with screen off. If you toggle this feature on, the screen will be turned off after three minutes of inactivity.

Camera options • Screenshot editor • Battery page and options

Some MIUI ROMs include ads in the default apps; it is a well-known thing. On our review units, the Redmi Note 11S does have ads, also known as baked-in "recommendations".

If your Redmi Note 11S comes with such ads, you can disable those even if it's a bit tedious 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.

Ads • Ads • Disable ads • Disable ads

MIUI 13 has a lot of under-the-hood improvements that promise a smoother and faster experience right now, as well as for the next couple of years due to many optimizations. The interface is pretty much MIUI 12 with a couple of tweaks here and there. So, if you didn't expect a groundbreaking redesign, you will feel right at home with MIUI 13. We don't expect Android 12 to change that either.

Performance and benchmarks

The Redmi Note 11S, just like the Redmi Note 11 Pro, employs the Helio G96 chipset by MediaTek, a less powerful chipset than the Helio G95 within the Redmi Note 10S (don't let the model number fool you). It is fabricated on the 12nm FinFET manufacturing process from TSMC.

The Helio G96 has the usual octa-core CPU with two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.05GHz and six energy-efficient Corext-A55 cores working at 2.0GHz. This is the same CPU inside the Helio G95 inside the Note 10S.

The Helio G96 chip features a dual-core Mali-G57 GPU. Unlike the previous G9x chips, and the G95 in particular, here we have a dual-core configuration instead of quad-core, which is somewhat disappointing.

Finally, the Redmi Note 11S is available in three configurations, both with LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage - 6GB RAM + 64GB, 6GB RAM + 128GB, and 8GB RAM + 128GB (our review unit).

So, GeekBench CPU tests show that the Helio G96 has an adequate processor performance for this class.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  2801
• Poco X3 Pro
  2574
• 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 11S
  1873
• Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
  1820
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1780
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1729
• Realme 8
  1690
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  1662
• Realme 9i
  1581
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  1577
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  1576

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Realme 9 Pro+
  814
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  771
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  736
• Poco X3 Pro
  735
• Realme 9 Pro
  694
• Poco X3 GT
  693
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  688
• Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
  636
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  569
• Realme 8
  533
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S
  526
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  525
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  511
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  502
• Realme 9i
  384
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  376

Unfortunately, the graphics performance and experience are subpar. The Helio G96 has a two-core Mali-G57 GPU, which is about 30% slower than the four-core Mali-G76 GPU inside the Helio G95 chip inside the previous Redmi Note 10S and the Realme 8 in our charts.

And the Redmi Note 11S is also one of the lower-scoring phones in the current price bracket, with the vanilla Redmi Note 11 being the weakest.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  38
• Poco X3 GT
  38
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  28
• Realme 9 Pro+
  23
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  22
• Realme 8
  18
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  16
• Realme 9 Pro
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S
  12
• 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
• Poco X3 Pro
  67
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  49
• Realme 9 Pro+
  41
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  38
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  30
• Realme 9 Pro
  29
• Realme 8
  29
• Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
  28
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  26
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  22
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S
  21
• Realme 9i
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  12

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 GT
  97
• Poco X3 Pro
  93
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  69
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  57
• Realme 9 Pro+
  56
• Realme 8
  48
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  41
• Realme 9 Pro
  41
• Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
  39
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  35
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  34
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S
  32
• Realme 9i
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  18

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 GT
  3991
• Poco X3 Pro
  3401
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  2491
• Realme 9 Pro+
  2296
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  2014
• Realme 8
  1486
• Realme 9 Pro
  1211
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  1204
• Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
  1107
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S
  1101
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1101
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  1040
• Realme 9i
  452
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  439

The Redmi Note 11S is among the lowest-scoring phones on the compound AnTuTu benchmarks. The Redmi Note 11 is the only one to have worse performance.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Poco F3
  631850
• Poco X3 GT
  506800
• Realme 9 Pro+
  495096
• Poco X3 Pro
  453223
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  429675
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  375528
• Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
  334981
• Realme 8
  298328
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  295442
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  288914
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  261309
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  261282
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S
  251201
• Realme 9i
  229368
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  228044

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Poco X3 GT
  578505
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  506432
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  437872
• Realme 9 Pro+
  416031
• Realme 9 Pro
  401894
• Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
  386474
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  382902
• Realme 8
  357488
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  330909
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  319093
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S
  308741
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  244526

There is some good news, too. The Redmi Note 11S offers outstanding stability - it offers 73% CPU, and 99.5% GPU sustained performance. You can expect no throttling and/or overheating during prolonged periods of benchmarks or testing.

CPU test • GPU test

The Redmi Note 11S offers smooth UI performance most of the time. The 90fps weren't always solid when some background task, notification, or other process intervenes, though. Some minor lag/stutter could happen when there is too much scrolling or swiping, too.

High frame rate gaming is possible in theory, but in real life, you will need to make quite a few tweaks for a smooth gaming experience, meaning lowering graphics quality and/or resolution.

So, the Redmi Note 11S offers a good overall experience, excluding gaming. Unfortunately, it is one of the slowest modern phones right now, with worse graphics performance than the Redmi Note 10S and most of its competitors. And that is not going to work in its favor when people get to vote with their wallets.