Xiaomi has been a household brand in India for several quarters with a market share of more than 25 percent. The company is selling budget and mid-range smartphones till 2021, when it entered the premium space with full force. Xiaomi has launched several devices in the premium segment as consumers want to buy the best affordable flagship smartphone. The affordable flagship smartphone category, often referred to as the flagship killer segment, was once ruled by OnePlus. However, with the OnePlus 9 price in India starting at around Rs 50,000, Xiaomi is looking to fill the void with its new Xiaomi 11T Pro.
The Xiaomi 11T Pro is the company's bet to take on the OnePlus 9RT, which is another great value-for-money device. However, the Xiaomi 11T Pro, or HyperPhone as the company likes to call it, has an edge over the OnePlus 9RT. So, how's the real world performance? Should you save a few thousand bucks and buy the Xiaomi 11T Pro over the OnePlus 9RT? After using the device for almost a week, here is our Xiaomi 11T Pro review.
Xiaomi 11T Pro Review
The USP of Xiaomi 11T Pro is its hyper-performance unit. The smartphone under Rs 40,000 comes with Snapdragon flagship-grade chipset and fast-charging technology in India. While the device is a well-rounded phone, it does have a few drawbacks as compared to the OnePlus 9RT. So, without further delay, let's start our Xiaomi 11T Pro review with the display unit.
performance and software
The Xiaomi 11T Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 888 SoC, which was last year's flagship chipset. Despite being a year old, the chipset is powerful enough that you can use it to handle any task. I played games like Asphalt 9, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) and PUBG: New State on my smartphone. Along with 120Hz refresh rate support, I would have preferred BGMI with 90Hz refresh rate support and as of now, users will have to be satisfied with Extreme (60fps) frame rates up to HDR graphics. No game was left behind and I really enjoyed playing these mobile gaming titles on the Xiaomi 11T Pro. The device does get slightly warm to the touch. However, it's not as bad as the initial lot of Snapdragon 888-powered smartphones, which were plagued with heating issues.
The haptics on this device are also responsive, which adds to the gaming experience. Another thing worth appreciating are the speakers. The Xiaomi 11T Pro sports a stereo speaker setup with cutouts on either side to provide a surround sound experience. The quality is so good that I could hear the footsteps coming from afar while playing the BGMI.
RAM management is also pretty excellent on my unit with 12GB of RAM. No apps restarted after I went back to one even after recording a video, which otherwise kills multiple apps in the background. While we're at it, the Xiaomi 11T Pro runs Android 11-based MIUI 12.5 out of the box. If you're concerned, no, there are no ads. Although the MIUI 12.5 update comes with minimal bloatware, which can be uninstalled. I find it annoying when some system apps spam you with notifications. However, the user experience is improved with a single tap on toggle in the notification settings.
MIUI 12.5 is claimed to improve system performance at the core and it seems to be doing just fine, at least in my experience. Apart from improving efficiency, custom Android skin also includes features like super wallpaper, floating window, etc. While these features make MIUI feature-rich, it would have been nice to have the latest Android 12 update out of the box. Xiaomi has promised three years of software updates and four years of security support on the Xiaomi 11T Pro. Hence, the device is confirmed to get the Android 12 update along with MIUI 13 soon.
Battery and fast charging
One of the selling points of the Xiaomi 11T Pro is its fast charging technology. The Xiaomi 11T Pro comes with 120W fast charging support and comes with an adapter box. Yes, we have seen the same on the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge (Review). However, for the price, the device lacked a competing processor. Xiaomi 11T Pro certainly compensates for this with an added premium.
Starting with the battery life, Xiaomi 11T Pro has a 5000 mAh battery. With such a huge battery, one can expect a full day battery life. For my use case, I got an average of about 6.5 hours of screen-on time. Apart from gaming, the phone was my primary device for watching YouTube videos, scrolling social media, and participating in video calls. Battery life will be better for those who do not play much games in their phone.
The charging experience includes 120W fast charging support. Xiaomi claims that the device charges from zero to 100 percent in 17 minutes. That's a tall claim for a 5000 mAh battery. During my Xiaomi 11T Pro review period, I depleted the battery six times to check the claim. To my dismay, the 11T Pro took about 30 minutes to charge each time.
After reaching out to the brand, I was told that the 17 Minutes claim was announced after several lab tests done by the company. These tests were done in a controlled environment with airplane mode enabled, location services being turned off, etc. The ambient temperature should also be below 25 degrees to fully charge the phone in less than 17 minutes. While my Xiaomi 11T Pro review unit didn't charge within 17 minutes, I'm fine with refilling the device's battery in 30 minutes.
design and performance
For a smartphone under Rs 40,000, the Xiaomi 11T Pro has a decent feel with a glass back. The rear panel curves along the edges, which helps in providing better grip. The frame, which houses the side-mounted fingerprint scanner, is made of plastic and may bother some people. Xiaomi said that it was a trade-off to increase the weight of the device by no more than 204 grams.
The device comes in three different colors. Our Xiaomi 11T Pro review unit came in this Celestial Magic color, which throws different shades of blue, orange, purple and more when viewed from different angles. The rear panel has a glossy yet frosted finish that hides fingerprint smudges. I am personally not a fan of this color and would choose Moonlight White instead. Not only does it have a matte finish, but it also hides fingerprint smudges along with looking very classy. Those who want a shiny back can opt for the Meteorite Black color option.
On the front, there is a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with Full HD + resolution. The display is bright at 1000 nits, which means you shouldn't experience any problems while watching content indoors or out. Our review unit, however, had this unusual problem in that the panel would dim slightly even when the display brightness bar was set to maximum. Minus that, our experience on this device was pretty good.
The screen is flat and comes with very thin bezels. You get good viewing angles and the colors are vibrant too. Xiaomi has used a 10-bit AMOLED panel on it, which offers up to a billion colors. The device also comes with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision support which provides an excellent multimedia experience while watching shows on Netflix or Prime Video. There is also support for 120Hz refresh rate for those who want a smooth scrolling experience.
At the back, the phone houses a rectangular camera module that houses a triple-camera setup. While we're at it, let's get to some samples of the Xiaomi 11T Pro camera.
camera
Xiaomi 11T Pro comes with a triple-camera setup at the back. There is a 108MP Samsung ISOCELL HM2 sensor, which is also found on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max (Review), Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge (Review) and even the Mi 10i (Review). When asked why Xiaomi used the same sensor and did not upgrade the 108MP sensor on the 11T Pro, the company told us that the sensor is well optimized to process the best output. The claim is true and we were really quite impressed with the performance of the main camera. The ISP of the Snapdragon 888 also plays a key role here in capturing better colors and details.
The main 108MP sensor churns out nicely detailed images. Unlike the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge, the main camera of the Xiaomi 11T Pro does not oversharpen the images to capture more details. There are instances when the software has oversaturated blue tones, but overall, the results are impressive. The same can be said for lowlight performance. There is little-to-no noise in the camera samples we clicked. There is a good amount of detail in the images as well. Shadows are exposed well without overblowing the highlights.
There's also an 8MP ultrawide camera that offers a wider frame and gets closer when it matches the colors of the main camera. Obviously, there is distortion around the edges and the details are not that good by comparison. The third camera is the 5MP tele-macro camera that we saw on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. This is by far the best macro camera implementation we've seen in the entire industry. Super Macro mode provides excellent depth while focusing quickly on the subject. Xiaomi 11T Pro sets a benchmark in the premium segment with its macro camera.
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