Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro Review: One of Sixteen!
PURCHASE Price: $273.99
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees and support our channel by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Product Specs +
- 6.67 inch 1080x2400p Super AMOLED display (395 ppi)
- 120 Hz Refresh Rate
- Android 11
- Fingerprint Scanner
- Mediatek Helio G96
- 6 GB ram/ 128 GB Storage
- 5,000 mAh Battery
- MicroSD Card
Camera Specs +
Rear Cameras
- 108 MP, f/1.9, (wide)
- 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
- 2 MP, f/2.4 (depth)
- 8 MP, f/2.2, (ultrawide)
- 1080p @30fps Video Recording
Selfie Cameras
- 16 MP, f/2.5 (wide)
A long time ago, I was a huge enthusiast of a Chinese company that was dubbed the Apple of China. Back then, Lida and I would visit Hong Kong and be in awe of the products in the Mi store. It literally contained like only 3 phones. Nowadays, Xiaomi’s lineup of devices can be a bit jarring even if you follow all of their announcement events. It hit me one random day that I haven’t reviewed a Xiaomi phone since the Xiaomi Mi 9T back in 2019. It’s been way too long; so I picked up the Redmi Note 11 Pro and surprisingly, not much has changed.
One of Sixteen
Xiaomi’s Redmi brand has always been a mid-tier champion for people on a budget. As the company has matured, their lineup has ballooned to offerings at every minuscule price point difference. Just with the Redmi Note 11 line, they have 16 variant offerings with slightly different names and varying specs. It’s gotten so convoluted that I was even confused for a minute. The phone I bought is the regular Redmi Note 11 Pro. There’s a standard, lower priced Redmi Note 11 as well as a Redmi Note 11 5G. There’s also a Redmi Note 11E which I assume is a bridge between the lowest configured Note and the one I have which appears to be the fourth lowest model you can purchase. Above my phone is the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G and the Redmi Note 11 Pro+. Confusing right?
All of this means nothing to me as at the end of the day, I purchased a 4G LTE phone for $273.99 that is powered by a Mediatek Helio G96 processor. I specifically chose this phone as the one directly above this model has 5G capabilities, but did not have the proper bands to be used here with USA providers. I was also interested in exploring Mediatek chips after not using a mobile SOC from them in quite a while. Combining 6 GB of ram and 128 GB of storage with micro-SD card support, the specs seem pretty good for a lower mid-end offering. That’s to be expected from Xiaomi budget offerings. Unfortunately, the Redmi Note 11 Pro lags behind on Android version as it runs Android 11 out of the box skinned with MIUI 13. I’ve never experienced consistent Android updates from Xiaomi, so I don’t expect to see Android 12 soon, let alone the upcoming Android 13. However, I will give MIUI some credit as I’ve been pushed security patches up to the current month as of writing this review.
MIUI 13 In 2022
Speaking of MIUI, I’ve made my stance well known over the years of my disdain for many implementations of Android skins from Chinese OEMs. With that stated, MIUI 13 is dramatically different from even MIUI 12 on the 2018 Redmi 5 Plus that I had high praise for. I’d even elevate MIUI 13 into the ballpark of where Samsung is with One UI. These OEM skins aren’t as obtrusive and overbearing as they once were in the early days of Android. I think the user experience on the Redmi Note 11 Pro is perfectly acceptable and even enjoyable to an extent. A major part of this experience is always influenced by the speed in which things can get done on the phone. The Helio G96 is by no means a powerhouse chipset, but I haven’t come across anything that has hampered the performance of the phone in a manner that truly deters my patience. Yes, it is absolutely noticeably slower to load up games and apps when compared to phones like the iPhone SE and Google Pixel 5A, both of which are north of $100 more in cost. However, if $100 is a dealbreaker for you as a potential buyer, I see enough here with the Redmi Note 11 Pro to say that it can hold its own in the real world.
PErformance
While it isn’t fair to envision a mid-range phone as a powerhouse in the gaming department, everything I attempted to play worked at a playable level here on this Redmi phone. There were occasional stutters after a bit of time playing a graphically intensive game as well as some discomforting heat emitting off the battery area, but for under $300, I found myself able to enjoy just about any game on Android. That’s a huge improvement from last decade where a $300 phone, while serviceable, would still drive me crazy to some extent with certain apps in my library. People used to complain about Mediatek processors on budget phones, but those days are long gone. We really can survive and even thrive with a device a third of the price of an iPhone 13 Pro.
Weak Cameras
The one major weakness that would keep this phone from being a legitimate recommendation from me is the camera performance. There are four rear sensors that are an absolute train wreck. Sure, there’s a fancy high number with the 108 MP f/1.9 wide sensor leading the pack, but megapixel count really means nothing in today’s mobile photography era. Rounding the sensor list off, Xiaomi crammed in an 8 MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens, a 2 MP f/2.4 macro lens, and a 2 MP f/2.4 sensor for depth. The highest video resolution you can film at is 1080p at 30 fps. This is just an all around really bad photo taking phone in 2022. Image quality is comparable to mobile photography in 2016. The biggest deterrent to a competent photo taking experience here is the poor focus range. It doesn’t matter if a subject is near or far, the Note 11 Pro struggles to get it in focus. The shutter speed is also abysmally slow. I’ve missed many opportunities at obtaining memorable moments due to an unreliable automatic mode. The way Xiaomi seems to over process the photos also isn’t my cup of tea. Subjects become extremely fake looking in some pictures. I also find the photos to be overexposed in even the most ideal scenarios. On the rare occasion I had time to really plant myself down and invest effort in taking a photo with multiple attempts, I was able to accomplish acceptable results. If a phone needs to take a photo of a subject 10 times just to get one that looks okay, it isn’t suitable for everyday use.
Taken on Redmi Note 11 Pro
Lastly, the low light performance on the Redmi Note 11 Pro is an abomination. Focus, clarity, exposure, and just about anything that matters in photo quality goes out the window when you're in a low light scenario. It’s quite disappointing. I had a film premiere at a film festival last month that I wanted to document after years of hard work. I thought about popping that sim out to bring the iPhone 13 Pro with me, but remained dedicated to a consistent review experience with this phone. Many people who will buy this phone, do not have access to other forms of photo taking methods. The results speak for themselves. I’m not going to swap over to manual Pro mode to frame every picture I pull out my phone to take. That’s not feasible as a daily driver. There’s just such a lack of sharpness and effective functionality here that I haven’t seen at such a low level in quite a long time. If you couldn’t tell, I’m very disappointed.
Big Battery
Fortunately, there is a saving grace as at least the battery life on the Note 11 Pro exceeded my expectations. I pushed the 5,000 mAh pack to the limit by essentially running the phone nonstop during a workday. You’ll easily exceed 12-15 hours off a charge with heavy usage. Average users will plug the Note 11 Pro in to charge through the USB-C port once every couple days. It’s fantastic. Xiaomi and a lot of Chinese OEM skins exhibit terrific battery longevity through aggressive background app management. That’s the case here as MIUI will hunt and kill off battery draining culprits. If you’re reliant on a lot of Bluetooth peripherals like smartwatches and digital keys, it can get a bit frustrating in the long run. My Tesla digital key is as reliable as it gets in the automobile industry. On most of my phones, it’s about a 90% success rate to unlock my car for me without needing to wake the phone. Since switching to the Redmi Note 11 Pro, I’ve frustratingly had to pull out my phone and wake it before the car would let me in. My smartwatch also faced a similar connectivity drop issue at various points of the day.
Super AMOLED Goodness
Rounding off the rest of the review, this mid-ranger has a side power button embedded fingerprint scanner. It’s quick and recognizes my finger correctly. Audio is spread evenly on the top and bottom frames. It does get rather loud, but the sound quality is just average. That’s absolutely fine as it sounds just fine for entertainment purposes. Speaking of entertainment, Xiaomi has included a 6.67 inch Super AMOLED display that has a pixel density of 395 ppi. That’s a 1080 x 2400 p screen with pitch dark blacks stretching through a 20:9 aspect ratio. This is all pretty normal by modern smartphone standards. It’s also a refresh rate of 120Hz which is rather interesting to see on a sub-$300 phone. I think the viewing experience here is solid. Thanks to AMOLED technology, budget phones can punch a little heavier than the MSRP of the phone suggests they can display. Darker shades are well saturated, while lighter tones pop off the display. The viewing angles aren’t as clear in certain positions as I’ve noticed quite a lot of glare reflections. The view is still plenty acceptable for everyday usage. I was a bit taken back by the aggressive auto brightness adjustments on the Redmi. This is the first phone in years that I’ve constantly had to manually adjust the brightness because it’s under dimmed. I have to pull brightness all the way up when under sunlight just to see the display. Regardless of these little quirks, it’s a fine screen to look at for $300.
Should You Buy It?
Lastly, I just wanted to touch on the build quality a bit. The phone is put together really well. That’s to be expected from a company of Xiaomi’s stature. Even though the whole phone, from frame to back panel is completely plastic, it’s crafted and designed cleanly. The only branding on the phone is a small Redmi print on the rear corner. It’s a simple font that makes the phone look elegant. The only thing that I don’t really like is the glittery gradient design used for this blue variant I purchased. I’ve seen OEMs pull it off before like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 that I adored, but that requires a glass back to make it not look forced. This odd pairing, in person, resembles an elementary school art project to me. It just contradicts the classy business design Redmi has been stacking up towards the last couple of years. If the back material was aluminum or even a brushed matte plastic, this color scheme may have worked better, but I just don’t see the appeal here.
While it sounds like I have a lot of critical things to say for the Redmi Note 11 Pro, I don’t dislike the phone. In fact, I see a lot of maturity and growth in Xiaomi’s budget offerings now compared to the mid-2010’s. The major difference between that generation of Xiaomi and today’s world is that the competition has skyrocketed in the mid-range market. In 2016, I could easily recommend Xiaomi as a high quality budget device for just about anyone. You’d be hard pressed to find a phone with better materials and specs at the price Xiaomi was selling their phones for. Now, I hold the Apple iPhone SE and Google Pixel A phones as the standard bearers of this mid-ranger category. Yes, this particular phone is about $100 cheaper than those two, but once again, if you really can’t save up a little more to get a significantly better tiered phone like those two, the Redmi Note 11 Pro is serviceable in its own right. The market factor just makes it a bit harder to recommend outright.
Related
Alex
Caught in between the conundrum of his fascination with retro and the future, Alex has a very unique taste in technology. Never one to follow trends like his millennial peers yet constantly desiring to get ahead of the curve, he sees technology like he does his other love: comic books. Always looking for the best value or a hidden gem, his collector mindset reflects on some of his favorite gadgets: the Moto X (2015), HTC U11 and the Google Pixelbook. If there’s a good tech deal out there, Alex is on the hunt!