Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra

The Mi 11 Ultra is Xiaomi's highly anticipated flagship with impressive camera. Xiaomi places a big emphasis on that by giving it its own display. We're going to take a closer look at that here, compare it to the competition and decide whether you should buy it or not.

Something different at last

You have to hand it to Xiaomi; they have really created something different and special with the Mi 11 Ultra. We often see a large camera module, but the 11 Ultra has its own display. This mini screen can display the time and notifications, and is also useful while shooting a selfie with the main camera. For example, to get yourself properly in the picture. In addition, it simply looks cool; such a second screen on your mobile. It does come at a price; the module is huge, protruding and weighs quite a bit. The mini screen is touch-sensitive, but with a size of 1.1 inch, even the smallest fingers will quickly become too big. As far as we are concerned, Xiaomi should have left this out.

Camera system highly rated

The camera may look cool, but of course you have to be able to use it. Fortunately, they succeeded because the independent DxoMark has assessed the camera of the Mi 11 Ultra with a 143; at the time of release the highest score for a mobile phone ever. Especially the zoom functionality gets a good score. Full optical can do that with only 5x, hybrid with 10x and digital to a whopping 120x. During zooming, the transition from one lens to the other is hardly noticeable and the colors remain fairly constant. Something that competitors sometimes have trouble with. The 50MP main camera is also equipped with a remarkably large sensor: 1/1.12". That is almost 1-inch in size. This sensor, developed together with Samsung, catches more light than other phones and therefore sees more in the dark. Even more than the human eye. The ultra wide-angle and the tele camera for zooming follow close behind, each with a 48MP sharp sensor. All in all, a very complete set of cameras that are very useful in practice.

Most important Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra specifications

• 6.81-inch DotDisplay with WQHD+ resolution, AMOLED panel and 120Hz AdaptiveSync
• 50+48+MP camera with ultra wide-angle with 128° field of view and telephoto for 5-120x zoom
• 20MP selfie camera with video HDR and slow-motion video
• Powerful Snapdragon 888 processor with 12GB of RAM memory
• 256GB of non-expandable storage
• 5000mAh large battery with 67W fast charging (wired and wireless)
• 5G support but also 4G, 3G and 2G
• Waterproof IP68 ceramic housing

Ceramic design

Xiaomi has cloaked the Mi 11 Ultra in a waterproof IP68 ceramic black or white casing. This results in a particularly high finished build quality. This extends to the smallest details. For example, the screen is curved on all four edges so that it sits on the device like a drop. This screen is also exceptional; it meets the very latest and most comprehensive specifications. It's got unparalleled sharpness, high brightness and exceptional color reproduction. And with a maximum of 120Hz, it's incredibly smooth, too. Rounded bezels may look premium, but they do have one major drawback - ghost touches. These involve the screen thinking you're touching it when you're only holding it. Something the Mi 11 Ultra unfortunately also suffers from. Hopefully Xiaomi will solve this with a future software update.

Powerful enough, but for how long?

Speaking of which, officially we don't know how many updates the 11 Ultra will get. It came out with MIUI 12 which is based on Android 11, and an update to MIUI 12.5 followed in May which already fixed a lot of the aforementioned problem. If and when an update to Android 12 will come, we simply do not know and that is a bit of a shame for a phone with such a high price tag. In the meantime, the Snapdragon 888 will keep you busy, which can be called extremely powerful. The 5000 mAh battery seems sufficient on paper, but all the battery-guzzling functions mean that it does not perform above average. Charging is luckily fast with 67W. The extremely high speeds above 100W that Xiaomi is also known for are strangely enough missing. That would have finished the story as far as we were concerned.

Pro and cons Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra

• Mini screen on the back
• Record-breaking camera
• Premium build
• Outstanding display

• High price sometimes hard to justify