Xiaomi launches Mi 11 Ultra; What a beast

[dizmo]

Xiaomi launched their new flagship today, the Mi 11 Ultra, and what a beast the phone is, only missing two things that are slowly becoming archaic; I'm sure you can guess what they are.

Weight wise it's a bit of a chonker, but it's ever so slightly smaller than the S21 Ultra, while having a very slightly larger display.

 

 

Spec

Spoiler

Size: 164.3 x 74.6 x 8.4 mm

Weight: 234 grams

SoC: Snapdragon 888

RAM/ROM: 256GB/8GB, 256GB/12GB, 512GB/12GB; UFS 3.1
Screen: AMOLED, 6.81", 1B colors, 1440x3200 (20:9), 120hz, GG Victus
Battery: 5,000mah
Charging: 67w, both wired and wireless, 10w reverse

Looking for more?
https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_11_ultra-10737.php

Highlights:

 

 

Cameras

Kind of the star of the show, it uses Samsung's new GN2 1/1.12" sensor. Featuring 1.4um pixels, it's one of the largest sensors we've seen in a phone yet.

This sensor features OIS, laser Auto Focus, Dual Pixel PDAF, and an f/2.0 lens. It can also capture HDR photos almost instantly.

The Ultrawide sensor has a 48MP sensor with f/2.2, PDAF, and a large 1/2.0" sensor. It's also able to shoot macro photographs.

 

A 48mp sensor brings up the rear in the periscope telephoto. It's another large 1/2.0" sensor, significantly larger than what's in the S21 Ultra, has an f/4.1, OIS, 5x optical zoom (10x hybrid), as well as PDAF.

 

The selfie camera is more of a typical affair with 20MP, f/2.2, and a smaller 1/3.4" sensor.

 

All three cameras support night mode, 8k video recording, and can be shot simultaneously. The Mi 11 Ultra has taken the crown on DXOMark as the best camera system to date.

 

The AMOLED screen, at 1440p and a static 120hz, has received a great A+ rating from DisplayMate. It also has HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support, reaches 900 nits (peak 1,700), and is protected by the latest Gorilla glass.
On top of that, it's has a 480hz polling rate, crushing the 300hz polling rate on the gaming focused RoG Phone 5.
 

The phone has what you'd expect from a Chinese flagship; a massive 5,000mah battery, and 67w fast charging, in both wired and wireless modes. It can apparently fully charge the phone in 36 minutes. The phone has custom chips to allow 30v charging, and 10w reverse wireless charging is also present for the few that use it.

 

As an added nicety, there's a small 1.1" AMOLED screen on the back of the device. It has an always on mode, can show notifications, and can be used as a viewfinder when taking selfies with the main camera.

 

 

The phone also has the basics you'd expect; 8/12GB of RAM, Snapdragon 888, Bluetooth 5.2, WiFi 6E, NFC, stereo speakers, IP68 rating, it even has the sought after IR blaster.

No 3.5mm jack, but you shouldn't be surprised. There's also no expandable storage.

The back of the device is made of ceramic.

The phones will launch initially in China, in black and white, with global availability at a later date.

Base models will have 8GB of RAM and 128GB ROM, going up to 256/12 and 512/12.

Starting at: CNY 6,000, then CNY 6,500, topping out at CNY 7,000.

International pricing not yet released.

 

Quotes

Quote

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is truly deserving of its superlative name. It’s hard to pick which is the the phone's greatest strength, but it may well be the camera.

 

My thoughts

I'm not sure how Xiaomi is at software support, but the phones hardware spec is impressive. Expensive, yes, but IMO it has earned the cost.

I can't wait until more companies make use of Samsung's sensors, as they continue to make great improvements. Watch out Sony, they're coming for you.

If you can take selfies with the main camera and have a screen on the back for it, why not have a full front screen and ditch the selfie camera entirely? I can only imagine they didn't do this for video calls. I'm a little surprised they didn't put an under the screen camera in this one, but maybe they're saving that for

 

While I'm not usually a fan of Chinese devices for various reasons, this one seemed worthy of mentioning. It also has increased band support, so it's possible to use it on more Western carriers; something I might have to consider. The phone, in my eyes, only really lacks one or two things, one of them being the fact it has USB 2.0 for data transfers instead of 3.0.

 

I can't wait to hear the cries of it lacking a headphone jack (that the majority doesn't use) and not having SD card support. Oh, and the hole punch you won't even notice after a couple of weeks

 

Sources

https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_11_ultra_brings_a_massive_gn2_sensor_48_mp_periscope_lens_and_a_secondary_display-news-48419.php

[BuckGup]

12 minutes ago, dizmo said:

My thoughts

 Give a few sentences with your thoughts on the news. For example, this might be why you think the news is interesting, what you think the broader implications of this news are for the tech industry, or how you expect the story to develop in future. 

 

You make some rather bold claims but I think I agree with you on them

[ARikozuM]

Why does this keep happening? Is it really because Enter posts the thread?

[dizmo]

 

Just now, BuckGup said:

You make some rather bold claims but I think I agree with you on them

I haven't been that premature in decades.

Just now, ARikozuM said:

Why does this keep happening? Is it really because Enter posts the thread?

I think it does if you're still typing in the title.

[Random_Person1234]

I've also had problems with accidentally posting. Most of the time it has been hitting enter while typing the title, but once I clicked a combination of buttons near shift and it posted.

[Drama Lama]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Starting at: CNY 6,000, then CNY 6,500, topping out at CNY 7,000.

International pricing not yet released.

 

International prices will probably be higher not only because of import taxes but also because in China Xiaomi makes small margins on their phones and makes a lot of profit by selling their cloud services. Outside of China people don’t really use these services, so Xiaomi tries to make more money on the hardware itself 

[AzzaNezz]

I had xiaomi redmi note 7.It was a truly great phone,used it for 1 and half year,only last couple months i saw that battery is draining faster then normal.

But their software sucked ass,i started getting ads while using phone normally,before loading games,while going into photos,thats when i ditched it.

[Fasterthannothing]

29 minutes ago, AzzaNezz said:

I had xiaomi redmi note 7.It was a truly great phone,used it for 1 and half year,only last couple months i saw that battery is draining faster then normal.

But their software sucked ass,i started getting ads while using phone normally,before loading games,while going into photos,thats when i ditched it.

What did you expect it's a Chinese phone spyware comes free no purchase necessary

[Arika]

Can we just make phones thicker so we don't have to have these ugly oversized camera bumps (or i guess we need to start calling them camera tables) 

[dizmo]

4 minutes ago, Arika S said:

Can we just make phones thicker so we don't have to have these ugly oversized camera bumps (or i guess we need to start calling them camera tables) 

I don't mind them, plus once you throw a case on they're not even noticeable. If you use your phone naked I could see them being a pain, but I get the feeling that percentage of people is tiny. 

[Murasaki]

Interesting idea with the small screen on the back. A viewfinder is a good usecase, other than that I don't look at my phone's backside.

2 minutes ago, Arika S said:

Can we just make phones thicker so we don't have to have these ugly oversized camera bumps (or i guess we need to start calling them camera tables) 

They're just getting bigger, great isn't it?... The hump's edges on my P20 Lite are literally stripped to chrome from grinding on surfaces.

[Arika]

3 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I don't mind them, plus once you throw a case on they're not even noticeable. If you use your phone naked I could see them being a pain, but I get the feeling that percentage of people is tiny. 

I use a case purely to hide the bump and so my phone doesn't wobble on the table. Otherwise I would gladly use my phone naked. 

[divito]

If I didn't get a discount on the S21 Ultra after my P30 Pro got damaged, this is one I'd definitely consider. Xiaomi can definitely take advantage of Huawei's unfortunate absence.

[dizmo]

1 hour ago, Murasaki said:

Interesting idea with the small screen on the back. A viewfinder is a good usecase, other than that I don't look at my phone's backside.

I like the thought of leaving it on for notifications. I'd just leave my phone face down, and it wouldn't take the power that the main always I does. 

[RejZoR]

Notifications screen on the back is rather useless. Coz it means you need to have your phone down on its display. Making it even more clumsy to use when you want the big display.

 

Can we just get LED notification lights in the front as standard now? Like, PLEASE? I had this on HTC Wildfire a decade ago and it was great. I also had it on Xiaomi Mi5. And you could adjust colors so you knew what is going on. General notifications, green light, SMS for example blue, missed call could be red etc. So you instantly knew what was waiting without having to even pick it up. One might say you just know what it arrived, but if you see it was missed call it's probably of higher importance than just a general notification from some app or whatever. It was really super useful feature.

[Drama Lama]

12 hours ago, SlidewaysZ said:

What did you expect it's a Chinese phone spyware that is not made by Google comes free no purchase necessary

fixed

[TVwazhere]

16 hours ago, dizmo said:

I can't wait to hear the cries of it lacking a headphone jack (that the majority doesn't use) and not having SD card support. Oh, and the hole punch you won't even notice after a couple of weeks

I use mine every day at work actually I think I could get away with a 256gb phone model but SD card prices for their storage are WAY cheaper than having them built into the phone, so that's more of a "cost effective" thing for me. And I've never once noticed the large knockout on my S10+ and thought "God I wish that wasnt there.

 

The only concerning thing to me about a screen on the back of the phone is the added battery drain, so it's good to see a 5000mAH battery in it. Also, I propose we just start calling it 5AH; it's like saying my CPU is at 4400mhz at this point. (Unless 1000mAH =/= 1AH and I'm just silly)

[LAwLz]

That's one massive sensor.

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

I use mine every day at work actually I think I could get away with a 256gb phone model but SD card prices for their storage are WAY cheaper than having them built into the phone, so that's more of a "cost effective" thing for me. And I've never once noticed the large knockout on my S10+ and thought "God I wish that wasnt there.

 

The only concerning thing to me about a screen on the back of the phone is the added battery drain, so it's good to see a 5000mAH battery in it. Also, I propose we just start calling it 5AH; it's like saying my CPU is at 4400mhz at this point. (Unless 1000mAH =/= 1AH and I'm just silly)

We address them in 4 digits because of wildily different capacities. Especially with iPhone sthat use funny capacities like 2942mAh. U just call it 3000 or 3Ah but oh well.

[Mr.Meerkat]

18 hours ago, dizmo said:

I can't wait until more companies make use of Samsung's sensors, as they continue to make great improvements. Watch out Sony, they're coming for you.

Don't worry, Sony is very close to releasing their 1-inch sensor for phones. If we're going for bigger is better then...

[StDragon]

1 minute ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Don't worry, Sony is very close to releasing their 1-inch sensor for phones. If we're going for bigger is better then...

So long as the sensor doesn't become a probe. Although for some people in the market, that would be a feature. 

[Mr.Meerkat]

3 minutes ago, StDragon said:

So long as the sensor doesn't become a probe. Although for some people in the market, that would be a feature. 

Imagine if Sony released their new X1/5 III with an extending zoom lens  

 

Tbf, if they released a Sony RX100-Xperia 1 III, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. 

[Doobeedoo]

Cool. How long will the Android version updates be? Samsung at least increased it by a year.

[RejZoR]

29 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

Cool. How long will the Android version updates be? Samsung at least increased it by a year.

2-3 years, but they don't have it consistently. Also often they get new MIUI for longer, but not the base OS.

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

Also, I propose we just start calling it 5AH; it's like saying my CPU is at 4400mhz at this point. (Unless 1000mAH =/= 1AH and I'm just silly)

I propose that we move away from measuring battery capacity in ampere altogether. Watt hours (Wh) would be a better way of measuring.

We already have situations like with the Z Fold2 and the Galaxy S20+ where both have 4500mAh batteries, but because of slightly different voltages the actual amount of energy stored are different between the two (17.41Wh vs 17.32Wh. So far it's only been small differences like 1-2% from what I've seen, but that might change now that we are starting to see split batteries in some phones.