Should you consider this 5G mid-range device from Redmi?
Xiaomi has been very successful with its Redmi Note 10 series launched last year in 2021 as it brought some flagship specifications in the mid-range segment. Last year the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max (Review) was one of the best value for money mid-range smartphones as it has some very good specifications like a 120Hz AMOLED display, a powerful Snapdragon 732G chipset, 108MP camera, etc.
Last year Xiaomi came up with the T lineup to define the evolution of 5G on Redmi smartphones as 5G has been a mainstream even in budget smartphones other than flagships. The Redmi Note 10T was the first smartphone from the Redmi series to have the 5G badge and had the Mediatek Dimensity 700 chipset which is a good chipset for daily usage.
Now the Redmi Note 11T which is the first from Note 11 series seems to be a good upgrade over the Redmi Note 10T as it brings a Mediatek Dimensity 810 chipset, a 90Hz LCD display, a 50MP triple camera setup, a 5000mAh battery with 33W fast charging. Is the Redmi Note 11T worth buying in the mid-range segment and how good is it compared to the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max?
Let’s find out in the full review.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11T 5G Design:
With the Redmi Note 11T, Xiaomi continues to bring the EVOL design that makes it look good and interesting. The Redmi Note 11T does not impress much in terms of build and design as it sports a polycarbonate back instead of glass as found on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. The back has a smooth matte finish that provides a good grip while holding in hand and is curved around the sides.
There is a rectangular camera module that looks like a quad-camera setup but actually houses two cameras only whereas the other two have a red dot and AI trademark. The camera module is slightly protruding as you can feel the bump when kept on a flat surface. The Redmi Note 11T weighs around 195grams which is slightly on the heavier side and is around is slightly thicker at 8.7mm around the sides.
Around the sides, to the right side, we have the power button and volume buttons where the power button doubles up as a fingerprint scanner that is accurate and fast. The left side houses a hybrid slot instead of a triple card slot that accepts two nano-SIM cards or one nano-SIM card with another microSD card for storage expansion.
To the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a primary microphone, and a speaker grill. On the top, there is also a speaker grill that doubles up as stereo speakers and with them are the secondary noise-canceling microphone and an IR Blaster. The back of the Redmi Note 11T has an IP53 rating which makes it splashproof against water as well as dust.
On the front, there is a single punch-hole on the display and bezels are quite slimmer around the sides. The smartphone is available in three colors – Aquamarine Blue, Matte Black, and Stardust White. Overall, in terms of the build and design, Xiaomi has cut the corner by providing a polycarbonate back, so it would not be a problem but if you want a glass back, then you should go for the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11T 5G Display:
Though AMOLED panels have been a standard in the mid-range segment of smartphones nowadays, the Redmi Note 11T sports a larger 6.6-inches Full HD+(1080x2400pixels) IPS LCD display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. The color reproduction of the display seems good but not as good as AMOLED where you get much saturated colors and better viewing angles.
There is support for a 90Hz refresh rate on the display which does help in smooth scrolling, playing games, and also while multi-tasking. However, this display has an adaptive refresh rate wherein the refresh rate adjusts automatically while watching anything on the display or multi-tasking between different applications.
So while streaming on the OTT platform, the display switches to 60Hz, during gaming it is 90Hz, and while casual web browsing it is as low as 30Hz. You still have the standard 60Hz option to switch for more battery life. Combined with the 90Hz refresh rate, you get a faster 240Hz touch sampling rate which ensures faster touch responses in games and also while multitasking between applications.
In terms of brightness, the display can reach a maximum brightness of 533nits which is adequately good but still not as good as the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max that can reach a peak brightness of 1200nits. Still, the display is adequately bright under direct sunlight. The display has Widevine L1 so you can stream HD content from OTT platforms but sadly you cannot stream HD content on Netflix yet.
However, there is support for HDR which is a big disappointment considering all other mid-range smartphones have. Overall, this display is not as good as on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max but will be fine for media consumption but is good for playing games and multitasking thanks to the faster touch response and variable refresh rate.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11T 5G Performance:
This is one area where the Redmi Note 11T 5G makes more sense as there is support for 5G which comes with the Mediatek Dimensity 810 chipset underneath the smartphone. The Mediatek Dimensity 810 has an octa-core setup that consists of:2×2.4GHz Cortex-A76 cores and other 6×2.0GHz Cortex-A55 cores combined with a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU.
All tasks like scrolling through webpages, rendering videos, or multi-tasking between applications felt very smooth and the chipset could handle everything without breaking a sweat. Many games like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI, etc. ran smoothly but Call Of Duty Mobile could run only at Medium graphics and High frame rate. In BGMI, the graphics were set to HD and the frame rate achieved was High by default.
All games played smoothly without any stutter or lag but Mediatek needs to work with game developers to run most of the games at higher graphics settings. After long hours of gaming, the back did feel slightly warmer as the heat dissipation was done quite fast due to the presence of a dedicated cooling system underneath. In terms of benchmarks, the Mediatek Dimensity 810 scored well.
Even in CPU throttling tests, the Mediatek Dimensity 810 did throttle less and could maintain good sustained performance. The Redmi Note 11T 5G is available in three different variants- 4GB RAM with 64GB storage, 6GB RAM with 128GB storage, and 8GB RAM with 128GB storage where RAM is LPDDR4X and storage speeds is UFS 2.2 for all variants. Overall, the performance is good.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11T Software:
The Redmi Note 11T 5G runs MIUI 12.5 built on Android 11 out of the box. The MIUI 12.5 running here is by far one of the cleanest versions where there is considerably less amount of bloatware and no ads were present throughout the software experience. There are very few applications present and MIUI 12.5 allows you to uninstall all of them.
You get a lot of customizations from icon shape size, changing of standard notification tray or Control Centre, new styles for Always-On display, etc. but however, there are quite a few bugs that need to be fixed through a software update. However, despite the less bloatware, there is the GetApps application that throws in a lot of notifications which is simply jarring.
The RAM management remains good as the smartphone could easily hold apps in memory for a longer amount of time. Talking about RAM, like some smartphones, you do have the virtual RAM where you can add an extra 3GB RAM where the smartphone uses 3GB of unused memory and convert it to RAM which results in 11GB RAM if you consider the top variant and this helps in faster multi-tasking.
In terms of software updates, Xiaomi claims that the smartphone will receive another two years of Android OS updates and security patches. Overall, the software experience is good but still if you want a bloatware-free experience, then OxygenOS or Stock Android are better options.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11T 5G Cameras:
The Redmi Note 11T 5G sports a dual-camera setup which is quite unique when compared to other Redmi Note series smartphones like the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max that has a quad-camera setup. The main camera is a 50MP f/1.8 one and the secondary camera is an 8MP f/2.2 one. The front has a 16MP f/2.5 camera. Xiaomi seems to enhance the AI for the cameras.
The images taken from the main camera come out with good details that look sharper and have quite a good dynamic range but need to be improved. There is a large amount of noise present but the colors look close to natural. There is no oversharpening taking place as such. However, when compared with the 108MP camera on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max, the details look soft and the dynamic range is not good.
At night, there is a considerable amount of noise and the details look softer. The dynamic range is average and the contrast is not so good. There is a lot of oversharpening taking place but once you turn on the dedicated Night Mode, things improve quite a bit as the oversharpening reduces, the noise gets reduced to quite some extent but still, the dynamic range remains average.
The images from the 8MP ultrawide camera come out with slightly softer details and the dynamic range is just above average. There is a lot of distortion around the edges and when you zoom into the image, there is a large amount of noise. The same is the situation during the night where images suffer from a lot of noise and details look softer. Xiaomi could have provided a night mode which is missing.
There is no dedicated macro camera as you get on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. However, you can achieve 2x digital zoom from the main camera and can go very close to a subject but the camera cannot lock focus properly. The images come out with good details but they do have noise and oversharpening takes place.
In terms of portraits, the edge detection is good with proper background blur. The dynamic range is average and quite an amount of noise is present. The skin tones look natural and there is no such oversharpening. On the front, there is a 16MP camera that does a good job in terms of details but the images do crop in a bit, and also the colors look oversaturated. The noise is quite low though.
The portrait selfies have good edge detection but do suffer from oversharpening and noise in the background. In terms of videos, you are getting only 1080p at 60fps as the highest resolution which is a big disappointment as the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max can shoot up to 4K videos at 30fps. The videos come out with good details, decent dynamic range, and EIS is enabled by default here.
The noise is also very low but there are some issues in focussing when moved closer to an object. The videos from the ultrawide camera come out with a decent dynamic range and the details look softer here. There is no EIS present here but you do have Ultra Steady Mode that helps in stabilized videos with less noise. The videos from the front camera are restricted to 1080p at 30fps.
The videos come out with good details but there is a lot of oversharpening and noise in the background. You cannot take portrait videos from the front camera yet. Talking about portrait videos from the main camera, they have good edge detection and decent dynamic range. Overall, the cameras are quite good on the Redmi Note 11T 5G but if you want better cameras, then the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is much better.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11T 5G Battery Life:
The Redmi Note 11T 5G has a larger 5000mAh battery which can easily last for two days with normal usage and with heavy usage that includes playing games for 3-4 hours, streaming social media and taking images and recording videos from the camera with the display is set to 90Hz, the smartphones easily lasted for one and a half days with some charge left.
The standard screen-on time was around 7-8 hours which is really good and such good battery life is achieved by the Mediatek Dimensity 810 chipset which is built on an efficient 6nm process and other than this MIUI provides better optimizations for enhanced battery life. This chipset provides even better battery life than the Snapdragon 732G chipset that is a 4G chipset found on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max.
In terms of charging, you are getting a 33W fast charger that does use dual split technology which means it equally charges two 2500mAh batteries simultaneously thus achieving faster charging, and the Redmi Note 11T 5G charges from 0 to 100 percent in under an hour. The 0 to 50 percent also comes up in just 30 minutes. Overall, the battery life is great and the faster charging is an added bonus.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11T 5G Audio Quality:
The Redmi Note 11T 5G like the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max has a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds quite good and is very loud and clear. There is support for Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound and also there is a 3.5mm headphone jack that has good sound and makes up for a great multimedia experience.
Verdict:
The Redmi Note 11T 5G is a good mid-range smartphone that does try to impress the buyers in most areas like it has support for 5G with multiple bands, a good 90Hz display with 240Hz touch sampling rate, a powerful Mediatek Dimensity 810 chipset, a larger 5000mAh battery which provides great battery life with support for fast charging.
It also has a dual stereo speaker setup for a great audio experience during multimedia consumption. MIUI 12.5 compared to its previous versions has quite been improved with less bloatware on this smartphone. However, with the taste of 5G and to price the smartphone aggressively, Xiaomi has made certain compromises that do let it down.
Though it is a mid-range smartphone, you do miss out on an AMOLED display, the cameras are not as good and the videos taken are restricted to 1080p as there is no support for 4K and if you consider the build and design, there is a polycarbonate back instead of glass and though MIUI experience has improved still you get some bloatware when compared to Stock Android or OxygenOS.
If you compare this smartphone with the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max, the latter one has a much better 120Hz AMOLED display, a 108MP quad-camera setup, a glass design and comes with good battery life with fast charging but lacks support for 5G and the Snapdragon 732G chipset is not as powerful as the Mediatek Dimensity 810 chipset.
So if build and design, display, and cameras are not your priority and looking for a 5G smartphone with good performance and a good display, then the Redmi Note 11T 5G is a great buy but if you want an all-rounder package this sacrificing for 5G, then the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is a great buy.