[REVIEW] Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is the most brutal camera smartphone Xiaomi has made so far

The best smartphone from Xiaomi with an enormous rear camera module—this is the real flagship, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra. The classic Mi 11 model in the photography department brought nothing groundbreaking, so we have high expectations from the Ultra model.

Does it really have that amazing night mode, just like the manufacturer claims? In the editorial office, we tested this smartphone in detail, and that’s why we’re bringing you a detailed review.

About this review

We had the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra available in the Chinese version, with the Chinese MIUI system. At the time of testing, the latest available version for our model was MIUI V12.5.2.0RKACNXM. The phone didn’t offer the V12.5.4.0.RKACNXM version yet, which includes the announced DxOmark camera software. After receiving the update, we will update the review with photos and a comparison between the two MIUI versions.

Where did we buy the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra?

We ordered the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra from the Chinese seller TradingShenzhen. Just like with the Mi 11 and Redmi K40 Pro, delivery went completely without problems. We didn’t pay any customs fees or VAT. We also wrote about our experience ordering the Mi 11 Ultra in a detailed article.

We also ordered a wireless 80 W fast charger with a 120 W adapter.

Updated 7.5. 20201: The phone is now available with global MIUI included

One day after publishing our review of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, the seller TradingShenzhen started offering paid installation of the global MIUI version as well. This service is available for an acceptable fee of 15 €, with delivery extended by 12-15 days due to waiting for the bootloader unlock.

Thanks to this service, you won’t have to deal with installing it yourself, especially if you don’t have any experience yet. The phone will arrive ready to use immediately out of the box.

Package contents without a charger

We had the phone available without a charger, so the box is very compact and low-profile. Inside, besides the Mi 11 Ultra, you’ll only find a user manual and a silicone, transparent case.

Since we have multiple charging adapters and also ordered a wireless charger with a 120 W adapter, the charger was not missing from the package. We understand, though, that many of you would definitely welcome a fast-charging adapter in the box without any price change.

Xiaomi may say it gives customers a choice, and that the bundle with a charging adapter will be offered at the same prices as without the adapter, but this doesn’t apply to international sellers.

Build quality, design, and weight up to 234 g

The design is admittedly subjective, but we have to admit it’s truly an interesting piece. A huge rear camera module dominates the smartphone, clearly sticking out from its body. The included case, however, is even a bit higher around the rear module by a few millimeters, so the cameras are at least partially protected. When you slide the smartphone across a table, the camera module doesn’t rub against the surface.

It’s similar with the display. So if you place the smartphone screen-down, you’ll avoid unwanted scratches thanks to the raised case on all four corners of the display.

The back cover is ceramic, and it’s slightly curved at the sides, which improves grip in your hand. The left side is traditionally empty, while the right side has buttons for volume control and a power button for turning on/off, locking, or lighting up the display.

The bottom side hides a slot for 2 SIM cards, a microphone, a USB-C port, and a speaker that complements the second speaker in the top part, where you’ll also find an IR port and a secondary microphone.

The total weight of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is up to 234 g, which isn’t little. Right after picking it up, we felt the higher weight — even more so thanks to the heavy rear camera module, which makes the phone feel heavier toward the top when you hold it in your hand.

You’ll need to get used to the heavier weight, but when carrying it in your pocket we didn’t feel it as much as during the first days of using it in-hand.

A top-tier Samsung display with an in-display fingerprint reader

The display is among the very best on the market. It uses a Samsung E4 AMOLED panel with a 6.81″ diagonal, a 20:9 aspect ratio, and WQHD+ resolution of 3200 x 1440 px. It offers 515 ppi sharpness, a dynamic refresh rate with a max value of 120 Hz, a sampling rate of 480 Hz, and a maximum brightness of 1700 cd/m².

It earned a prestigious DisplayMate A+ rating and also has support for technologies like HDR 10+ or Dolby Vision. The display is truly gorgeous, and if you’ve been using a screen with a lower refresh rate or an IPS panel, you’ll be impressed. Even when you simply scroll through Facebook news, you’ll notice perfect smoothness.

A high refresh rate will also please gamers and anyone who likes watching videos or movies on their smartphone. In the top-left corner of the display, there’s a front selfie camera in the form of a punch-hole. We like it in this spot more than, for example, in the middle of the display. Still, this is again a subjective impression.

The display is curved on all four sides, and the curvature looks slightly unusual in the corners when the display is on — just like the classic Mi 11 model. Still, it’s more a matter of getting used to it, so after some time we stopped noticing it.

The display also includes a fingerprint reader with a heart-rate measurement feature. However, it’s not perfectly fast, so a slight delay is visible when unlocking. That’s why we’d personally prefer a classic fingerprint reader on the side of the smartphone—it’s significantly faster.

Rear display, aka MiBand 5

Probably the most interesting feature of the smartphone is the secondary display in the rear module right next to the cameras. Essentially, it’s a display from the Mi Band 5 fitness tracker. Of course, there will be people who disagree with this solution, but it’s a very interesting feature you don’t normally find on smartphones.

What use does this display have? Isn’t it just a pointless extra that increases the smartphone’s weight? Let’s take a closer look at its functions.

It primarily shows the time, date, battery status, and notifications. In the settings, you can customize it—there are truly plenty of options. You can choose the text color, rotate it, and turn notification display or the current battery status on or off.

Instead of the time with the date, you can set any image here—plus your own text along with the date and time. There are really many options, so everyone can tailor it to their own preferences.

The secondary display can be turned on with a double tap or with the side button to light up the display. It can be active for 10, 15, or 30 seconds. It can’t be set to always-on so it keeps showing the time continuously.

With notifications turned on, though, we somehow weren’t getting alerts on the secondary display from apps like Messenger or Gmail. We only saw a notification about an incoming call, which you can also accept using this display or cancel.

A huge advantage of this display is that it’s useful for taking selfies using the main rear camera.

Cameras and the first place in DxOmark

Most of you are probably mainly curious about how the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra takes photos. High expectations are justified thanks to its first place in the DxOMark ranking.

The smartphone has a trio of main cameras that are placed in the huge rear module. Specifically, these are:

• Main 50 MPx camera (wide-angle) with an f/1.95 aperture, a 1/1.12″ Samsung GN2 sensor, and optical stabilization
• Ultra-wide 48 MPx camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 1/2.0″ sensor
• 48 MPx tele-macro lens with an f/2.4 aperture and a 1/2.0″ sensor with optical stabilization

Xiaomi says the camera should be able to shoot even in extremely low light at night with no significant noise. It has up to 64 focusing points, which should ensure better sharpness across the entire photo.

Automatic face recognition, tracking of people and animals, or HDR10+ are also included.

On the rear camera module you’ll immediately notice the 120x zoom indicator. But this is more of a marketing thing, because the 120x zoom is only digital and not very useful. What will make you happy is the 5x optical zoom and the 10x so-called hybrid zoom.

Just like the Mi 11 model, the Mi 11 Ultra can record video in 8K resolution at 30 fps. Unfortunately, as we mentioned in the review of the Mi 11 model, you can see stabilization working in the video, which blurs some parts and spoils the impression of night video — where noise is also clearly visible.

Incredible night mode

A while back, we already brought you presentation photos of night mode—a mode that should be able to take a photo even in complete darkness. This mode is called Night Owl. We didn’t really believe it, but the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra truly can capture interesting shots even in total darkness.

As a first example, let’s look at a photo of old doors in a completely dark underpass with no artificial lighting. In regular mode, it produces a photo where you can see absolutely nothing. With night mode, though, you can clearly see the entire doors, as if we had turned on the light in the underpass. Of course, such an extreme photo isn’t very sharp, but still—it’s incredible what night mode can handle.

The second example is also an unlit building, though it isn’t in total darkness because it’s outdoors. Without night mode, there’s noise visible on the building, but with night mode the photos are completely different—and if we showed someone only the second photo, they’d probably not even believe it was taken in the dark without lighting.

These photos are very interesting, but on the other hand, we have to admit that in some cases they’re almost unrealistic and lack sharpness. In the comparison below, you can see that the photo without night mode captures the dark underpass again, from which you can see the lit street.

With night mode, however, the photo is way too overexposed and looks as if the sun were shining down the street. Personally, we’d like something between the first and second photo, because in this case the night mode photo is simply too “burnt out” (“pre-piled”).

Regular city photos with street lighting are very nice, and night mode adds lots of details that you can’t see without night mode.

Night mode turns on automatically when the smartphone detects poor lighting conditions. You can easily turn it off, or switch it on manually as well. It does an excellent job suppressing strong light sources—for example, the glowing shop logo in the photo below. Without night mode, you can see a strong white glare that night mode nicely reduces.

Main camera, telephoto lens, and macro

The main 50 MPx camera module takes beautiful photos full of detail, especially outdoors. The colors are slightly more contrasty than we’re used to with Xiaomi, but the photo still keeps its atmosphere and the colors are mostly not overly oversaturated—except for a few cases.

It also handles a tougher discipline well—for example, a strongly lit street shot from the shadow of the adjacent building. Here you can see a dynamic range that’s quite decent. On the shaded building, you’ll find spots that are too dark and lose a bit of sharpness, but overall the photo is well balanced and the colors are pleasant.

As we mentioned in the opening section dedicated to cameras, you get a 5-x optical and 10-x hybrid zoom. Let’s now look at a series of photos taken with no zoom, with 5-x zoom, with 10-x zoom, and finally with 120-x digital zoom.

All photos in full quality you can find in this gallery.

The 10-x zoom is very high quality and it’s possible to use it for even tighter crops in post-processing without any issues. The 120-x zoom doesn’t produce a very usable output, because sharpness is at a rather low level—we must remember though that this is only digital zoom. Despite the less crisp photos, it’s impressive that, for example, the text on advertising banners is still fairly readable even with such a massive zoom.

If we compare the photos taken with the main sensor and with the telephoto lens, we can see that the telephoto photos have slightly warmer colors with a touch of yellow. However, the telephoto distortion is minimal, and the output is still high quality.

Macro is a bit weaker, because you don’t have a dedicated macro lens here. It’s not really super macro, but the photos still have very nice colors and sharpness. Capturing sharp macro shots isn’t that easy, though, because we couldn’t get too close to the subject—otherwise the photos would be blurry.

This is caused by the sensor size, which, thanks to its natural bokeh effect, creates the impression of blur. Hopefully Xiaomi will fine-tune this in a new update.

There are also weaker spots

In our view, the biggest weakness is shooting indoors with strong sunlight coming from a window, or generally shooting indoors in tough lighting conditions. Here, similarly to other Xiaomi smartphones, the shadows are way too prominent and go all the way to a saturated black. If you look at the next photo, you’ll see this for example on the subwoofer—it’s too dark and blends in with the shadow behind the TV.

You can see a similar effect in some other outdoor photos, where the shadows are sometimes too dark. Mi 11 Ultra handles shooting against the sun quite well, especially with the primary camera. With the ultrawide, however, you can occasionally see unwanted sun flares in the photo.

The same issue with overly dark shadows was also something we could see on the Mi 11 model. We believe the latest software update—used when the smartphone was tested in DxOmark—will bring improvements in this regard.

A new level of selfie photos

As we mentioned above, the secondary display on the back is also usable for taking selfies. During shooting, you can clearly see on the back display, which means you get much better selfie photos. If you take photos like this often, or go on trips where nobody is there to take your picture, this feature will definitely please you. The display is small, but it’s also very crisp and bright, since it’s also AMOLED.

We really like this kind of solution and appreciate any effort by manufacturers to use the main cameras for selfies as well (e.g. Asus Zenphone 7), because the main cameras are far better than selfies from the front. Below, you can check the difference between a selfie taken with the front camera and one taken with the rear camera using the secondary display.

The downside is that when shooting using the rear display, only the main sensor is available. That means you can’t use it with the ultrawide lens, nor in other shooting modes such as Portrait, 50 MPx mode, or video. Switching to the rear display is only possible from the main camera menu with the primary lens. We hope the manufacturer will change this in some update in the near future.

Runtime and charging

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra comes with a 5000 mAh battery that uses the second generation of nano-silicon anode technology. Thanks to that, it supports fast charging up to 67 W—also wirelessly. So you can charge the phone in the same time using a fast charger with a USB-C cable, but also with a wireless charger.

Since we also bought a powerful 80 W wireless charger with a 120 W adapter, we tested both charging methods. The wireless charger is very elegant and also features active cooling.

If it’s quiet in the room, you can hear fan noise during wireless charging, but the charger only warms up very slightly on the back part. Cooling is therefore extremely effective.

Below you can check the charging time using a wireless charger from 19 to 50, 75, 90 and 100 %. Wired charging takes the same amount of time, since it uses the same power.

• at 50 % for 11 min 30 sec
• at 75 % for 21 min 45 sec
• at 90 % for 28 min 20 sec
• at 100 % for 34 min 20 sec

As you can see, charging is unbelievably fast. The great thing is that the smartphone only heats up slightly during this type of charging.

As for battery life on a single charge, we used the smartphone with the always-on display constantly enabled and a 120 Hz display frequency. Without any issues, we managed a full day of use. Hour-long YouTube video playback at half volume took roughly 11 % off the battery. Half an hour of playing Call of Duty took almost 10 % from the battery.

Performance, connectivity, and speakers

The flagship model got the best on the market: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G processor. It’s a 8-core processor clocked at 2.84 GHz. It’s paired with the Adreno 660 graphics chip, 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Fast UFS 3.1 storage with a capacity of 256 GB. In AnTuTu, we scored as high as 815 204.

During gaming, the camera area warms up slightly, but we can’t really talk about any excessive overheating. Cooling is therefore quite effective. However, the rear camera module slightly gets in the way while gaming, since our fingers were placed directly on it.

For wireless connectivity, you get support for the latest WiFi 6e standard, coming with a new 6 GHz band. There are also GPS location systems: L1+L5, Galileo E1 + E5a, Glonass G and Beidou. You’ll also find Bluetooth 5.2, plus support for IR and NFC.

IP68 certification will also please you, so the smartphone can be submerged up to 1.5 m below the water surface for 30 minutes.

When it comes to the speakers, you’ll also find stereo speakers from Harman Kardon. They’re extremely loud and play cleanly, but they still lack a stronger bass component.

MIUI version 12.5.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra runs Android 11 with the MIUI interface. At the time of writing the review, it’s version 12.5.2.0 in the China version. We’re very happy with the interface. It’s highly refined, offering plenty of customization, animations, and from both the design and functional sides it’s excellent.

Even though we have the phone in the China version, we didn’t run into any problems related to that version. Everything is available in English and all notifications worked for us too, including the Viber app, which had issues on the Mi 11 and Redmi K40 Pro.

The seller installed Google services directly on the phone, so right after unboxing we could use it. If you prefer Slovak or Czech, there’s no problem switching the phone to the modified ROM from the Miuios.cz community. A complete guide you can find on their forum.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra: Final verdict

King of Androids – this is how Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun referred to the Mi 11 Ultra smartphone during its presentation. It’s truly a full-fledged flagship with everything that comes with it. The phone offers innovation in the form of a secondary display on the back, a beautiful AMOLED display, massive performance, and excellent cameras that finally pushed Xiaomi smartphones a bit further.

The night mode is great too—it can effectively eliminate the glare from strong lighting sources at night. It brings more pleasing colors to your photos, more detail, and it can even capture objects in complete darkness.

A smaller downside is the phone’s higher overall weight, which may bother some people. We got used to this weight pretty quickly, and it doesn’t really bother us. Still, there are things that could be improved—like, for example, the macro lens, taking photos indoors in weaker light, or speakers that could have slightly stronger bass.

Overall, we rate this flagship model very positively, and testing the Mi 11 Ultra was a pleasure for us.