HIGHLIGHTS
- The Xiaomi 11T Pro performs well in terms of gaming and software.
- The camera's performance in both daylight and low-light conditions is pretty good.
- The 5,000mAh battery has a two-day battery life and charges swiftly.
In India, the pricing of the Xiaomi 11T Pro is Rs.
The Xiaomi 11T Pro is available in three different models and three different finishes. In India, the basic edition has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage and costs Rs. 39,999. This is followed by a variation with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which costs Rs. 41,999, and lastly, the top-of-the-line variant, which costs Rs. 43,999 and has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Moonlight White, Meteorite Black, and Celestial Blue are the names of the three finishes. The 12GB version is exclusively available in black and blue. I received the Celestial Blue top-of-the-line model with 12GB of RAM.
Design of the Xiaomi 11T Pro
Aside from the brilliant, multi-color back panel that comes with this finish, the Xiaomi 11T Pro's design does not stand out. It isn't as thin and light as the Vivo V23 Pro (Review), and it has a flat display. The frame of the 11T Pro does not appear as good as the metal frame of the iQoo 7 Legend (Review). It's also 204g hefty and lacks a certified IP certification, unlike its closest sister, the Mi 11X Pro.
The matte-finished glass back and polycarbonate mid-frame make this phone pleasant to handle and simple to grip, which I appreciated. During the evaluation time, the Corning Gorilla Gorilla Victus scratch-resistant glass on the front and back did not pick up fingerprints readily. The 6.67-inch AMOLED display sports a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera and minimal bezels all around.
The Xiaomi 11T Pro sports a side-mounted fingerprint reader that performed admirably in everyday use. Given the phone's bulk, it's not unexpected that the camera module, while having a 108-megapixel sensor, doesn't protrude much. A 120W charger, a USB cable, a Type-C to 3.5mm converter, and a clear TPU case are included in the box.
Specifications and software for the Xiaomi 11T Pro
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC is utilised by various smartphones in this price range, including the Xiaomi 11T Pro. The 11T Pro includes LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, but no expansion slot. The phone has dual-5G standby and supports numerous 5G bands. Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and the standard satellite navigation systems are also supported. For regulating appliances, there is an infrared transmitter. The phone is powered by a 5,000mAh battery, which charges swiftly with the included 120W charger.
The phone comes pre-installed with Xiaomi's MIUI 12 software, which is based on Android 11. The UI is characteristic of a Xiaomi phone, and there are plenty of preinstalled third-party apps, which can be deleted if necessary. There are also several Mi-branded applications — many of which cannot be deleted, but some, like as the Mi Credit app, can. Thankfully, there were no advertisements on the UI.
Given the high price of this smartphone, I expected less bloatware and Android 12 out of the box. Xiaomi has revealed a MIUI 13 software upgrade plan, with the 11T Pro expected to be among the first devices to receive the update, beginning in the first quarter of 2022.
Performance of the Xiaomi 11T Pro
The Xiaomi 11T Pro sports a full-HD+ Super AMOLED display with a peak refresh rate of 120Hz and a touch sampling rate of 480Hz, which is somewhat higher than the Mi 11X Pro (360Hz). The display is set to the 'Vivid Color' profile by default, which results in somewhat oversaturated colours. The 'Display P3' profile produced more natural-looking, realistic colour tones on screen. The display is Dolby Vision certified, and supported Netflix video looked great with deep blacks and good contrast. This, along with the stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos capabilities, created an immersive video viewing experience.
Performance was not an issue, as it is with most smartphones at this price point. In Geekbench's single-core and multi-core tests, the Xiaomi 11T Pro earned 811 and 3,391 points, respectively. It also passed the 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme GPU test with flying colours.
The Xiaomi 11T Pro handled the majority of the games I played at their default settings without breaking a sweat. I tried Asphalt 9: Legends, Honkai Impact, and Call of Duty: Mobile, and they all functioned perfectly without overheating the phone. Switching to 'Very High' graphics and 'Max' frame rate in Call of Duty: Mobile (with all effects enabled) caused the phone to warm up somewhat, but performance was unaffected.
When I was playing games, I found that the screen's refresh rate was always limited to 60Hz. This essentially implies that games are not permitted to exceed that limit, even if the hardware is capable of doing so.
The Game Turbo software allows you to optimise the hardware of the Xiaomi 11T Pro for gaming. There are per-game optimizations, and users may tune the GPU (to focus on visual quality, performance, or greater frame rates), as well as touch controls (swipe responsiveness, targeting accuracy, and so on). In comparison to the default option, I observed considerably improved responsiveness with the swiping response and aiming accuracy settings in Call of Duty: Mobile set to the maximum value. Overall, the 11T Pro is an excellent gaming smartphone.
With a 5,000mAh battery, I didn't expect the Xiaomi 11T Pro to have any issues with battery life, and it definitely delivered. I got about two days of use from a single charge with my casual use (which included some gaming and photography), and this was with the display's refresh rate set to 120Hz. The phone performed admirably in our usual HD video loop battery test, lasting 16 hours and 21 minutes, which is around the same time as Vivo's ultra-premium X70 Pro+ (Review).
Because of the 120W rapid charging capacity, charging the phone was a unique experience. The Xiaomi 11T Pro charged from 0 to 100% in 41 minutes, which is a fantastic time for a 5000mAh battery. Surprisingly, the 120W charger is not much larger than the more usual 33W charger included with Xiaomi's mid-range handsets.
Cameras from Xiaomi 11T Pro
The Xiaomi 11T Pro is equipped with three rear-facing cameras: a 108-megapixel primary camera that captures 12-megapixel binned images by default, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 5-megapixel macro camera. A 16-megapixel front-facing camera handles selfies. The camera software is similar to what we've seen on previous Xiaomi phones, with a well-organized design and quick access to key modes and settings. The phone is capable of 8K video recording and can also record in HDR at up to 4K resolution. The frame rate is restricted to 30fps at all accessible resolutions when the latter is enabled.
Photos taken in daylight revealed a high level of detail and dynamic range. Whether I was photographing objects or people, the sharpness was just right and not overpowering. Because of the shallow depth of field provided by the 108-megapixel camera, I rarely needed to use the 'Portrait' mode when photographing objects or people. I found myself using this mode only when I needed to intentionally blur things in the background. However, because to the sensor size and lens restrictions of the primary camera, I was unable to approach near to an object without switching to the macro camera.
The Xiaomi 11T Pro's 5-megapixel macro camera has a larger focal length than the primary camera, thereby providing a 2X zoom (50mm). It can concentrate on things between 3cm and 7cm distant and takes detailed macro photographs in daylight. The clarity of these photographs was a little on the high side, but focusing was rapid enough that I was able to record decent video clips with this camera. When filming macro films, you'll need stable hands or to set the phone on a tripod, as they might be pretty wobbly otherwise.
Selfies taken with the Mi 11T Pro indoors and outdoors were crisp and had a strong dynamic range. Portrait selfies featured decent edge recognition but limited dynamic range when photographing against light, since bright backgrounds like the sky were frequently overexposed. Even after switching to Night mode, selfies were oversharpened, lacked depth, and had poor texture information in low light.
In low light, the primary rear camera in Auto mode automatically shifts to a longer exposure of up to two seconds. The shutter speed is controlled by the quantity of available light, which you may override by rejecting the popup that displays, but the results were better when it happened. Because the main camera lacks optical image stabilisation (OIS), which the Mi 10T Pro did, this is most likely an optional feature.
When you switch to Night mode, photographs have even more detail, but you'll have to wait longer for each snap to be captured and saved. In my view, the delay was well worth it because the camera was able to extract a lot more information from dimly illuminated areas. While the overall low-light performance was fairly acceptable, the lack of OIS frequently led in shots that were not as crisp as they may have been.
In daytime, the ultra-wide-angle camera took acceptable shots with visible barrel distortion and purple fringing at the borders of things. Low-light images were fuzzy and lacking in detail.
In daytime, videos recorded with the Xiaomi 11T Pro were crisp, with decent resolution and dynamic range. At all recording resolutions, the stabilisation was fairly excellent. By using HDR, you may boost contrast and accurately expose brighter regions of videos. 8K video footage was clean but lacked stabilisation and was sometimes too wobbly to be useable, particularly when filmed while walking. The phone also has an HDR setting for 1080p 30fps selfie videos. While such film had a higher dynamic range, it lacked detail and had flat textures. 1080p films at 60 frames per second (with HDR turned off) had more detail and appeared less choppy.
In poor light, filming at 4K 30fps yielded the greatest results. HDR videos were drab and black, but exposure was more regulated, especially in brighter regions (such as billboards, streetlights etc.). In poor light, 60fps film was overly dark and lifeless. When wandering about in low light, there was a faint shimmer at all resolutions.
Turning on the camera app's AI mode, whether shooting photographs or recording videos, often resulted in exaggerated colours that appeared unnatural, so I preferred to leave it off.
Verdict
The Xiaomi 11T Pro is a strong premium smartphone that will appeal to anybody searching for under Rs. 40,000 photography performance, display quality, battery life, and sheer power.
After using the Xiaomi 11T Pro for almost a week, it's evident that this phone is on the verge of being a great all-arounder. Except for its poor low-light selfie camera performance and a slew of preloaded applications, everything else appears to be in order. The 120W charging speed is presently the quickest we've seen on a smartphone, and the AMOLED display is of the highest quality. The addition of Dolby Vision compatibility is the frosting on the cake.
However, the iQoo 7 Legend (Review), which boasts OIS in its primary camera and autofocus in its ultra-wide-angle camera, offers greater low-light photography performance. Its design is likewise much more refined, having a metal and glass body, although it suffers greatly in terms of battery life.
Unfortunately for the Xiaomi 11T Pro, Samsung's Galaxy S20 FE 5G 36,449 (Review) with all of its premium features is now available for Rs. 39,999, after the introduction of the Galaxy S21 FE (Review). It also offers features like wireless charging and an IP68 rating, which very few smartphones in this category have.
There's also the Xiaomi Mi 11X Pro (Review), which has identical hardware but lacks a few features including a larger battery and ultra-fast charging. It is presently available for Rs. 36,999 and appears to be a better deal for people on a restricted budget who yet want high performance.
