Which is the better pick of the two? Realme or Xiaomi???
The premium mid-range segment has been dominated by many smartphones from Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, and Samsung, and this continues with each of their new launches. The gap between a Xiaomi and a Realme smartphone has been close and this time also both the smartphones, Xiaomi Mi 11X (Review) and the Realme X7 Max (Review) are no different.
Xiaomi Mi 11 series created a huge storm in the smartphone market where we have the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra which is all set out to take on premium flagships and then we have the Mi 11X series in which the Xiaomi Mi 11X is the perfect smartphone under Rs.30000. It boasts of some of the great specifications like a 120Hz AMOLED display, Snapdragon 870 chipset, 48MP camera, etc.
The Realme X7 Max is the flagship made by Realme to date in the X7 series where we have the Realme X7 and the X7 Pro. It is the smartphone that packs almost the best of everything which includes a 120Hz display, a powerful Mediatek Dimensity 1200 chipset, 64MP camera setup, a large 4500mAh battery with support for 50W fast charging, and much more.
Will the Realme X7 Max be the best in the mid-range segment or the Xiaomi Mi 11X continue to be the best smartphone under the Rs.30000 segment. Let’s find out in the full comparison.
Xiaomi Mi 11X vs Realme X7 Max Design:
Both the Xiaomi Mi 11X and the Realme X7 Max have completely different design strategies going for them. The Xiaomi Mi 11X has a glass sandwich design with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 both at the front as well as on the back. The Realme X7 Max, on the other hand, has the ACG DragonTrail Glass on the front whereas the back is made up of polycarbonate.
The back of the Realme X7 Max has a matte textured finish and there is also a black glossy strip running below the rectangular camera module and has a small “Dare To Leap” branding instead of large and bold ones as seen on the Realme X7 Pro. The Xiaomi Mi 11X has a glossy finish that reflects and acts as a mirror and the camera module is a squircle.
In terms of in-hand feel, the Realme X7 Max feels better to hold as it weighs 177 grams compared to 193 grams on the Xiaomi Mi 11X. Not only the weight, but the matte textured finish also provides better grip and does not catch fingerprints or smudges whereas the Xiaomi Mi 11X catches them quite often. Moving to the sides, both have a plastic frame running around.
The sides on both have a power button and volume buttons but Realme X7 Max has the dual SIM card tray on to the side whereas the Xiaomi Mi 11X gets it at the bottom. Now moving to the bottom common on both smartphones, are USB Type-C port, a primary microphone, and the loudspeaker grill. The Realme X7 Max provides a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom which the Xiaomi Mi 11X lacks.
On the top, both have a secondary noise-canceling microphone but the Xiaomi Mi 11X gets the earpiece at the top with an IR Blaster also. In terms of protection, the back of the Xiaomi Mi 11X gets an IP53 rating which makes it water and dust resistant up to some extent and Realme X7 Max has an IPX4 rating making it splashproof.
Overall, if you want a glass back and use the IR Blaster often, then the Xiaomi Mi 11X is the better one but considering the lighter weight and better material used at the back, the Realme X7 Max impresses. Plus it also has a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Xiaomi Mi 11X vs Realme X7 Max Display:
In terms of display, both smartphones are very much similar as both have large 6 inches Full HD+(1080×1920 pixels) AMOLED displays with 120Hz refresh rates. The display on the Xiaomi Mi 11X has a slightly larger display at 6.67-inches compared to the 6.43-inches on the Realme X7 Max. As both these displays are AMOLED, the viewing angles and color reproduction is good on both.
The brightness levels on both the displays were good and under direct sunlight, both had great visibility. However, the peak brightness of the Xiaomi Mi 11X was around 1300nits which is slightly higher than the 1000nits on the Realme X7 Max. Both also have a 360Hz touch sampling rate and also MEMC technology which enhances the fps of the content while watching videos.
You can set to different color tones on both smartphones. Both smartphones also have support for Widevine L1 and can stream HDR content on Youtube. However, in Netflix, only Xiaomi Mi 11X can only stream HDR content whereas the Realme X7 Max is restricted up to HD content only. The Realme X7 Max has a punch-hole sitting at the top left corner whereas it is middle at the top on Xiaomi Mi 11X.
Around the sides, the Xiaomi Mi 11X has slightly thinner bezels compared to the Realme X7 Max. The Realme X7 Max houses an in-display optical fingerprint scanner which is fast but still, the physically located side-mounted fingerprint scanner is faster on the Xiaomi Mi 11X. So in terms of displays, both are evenly matched but with a larger display and higher brightness, the Xiaomi Mi 11X is better.
Xiaomi Mi 11X vs Realme X7 Max Performance:
Both the Xiaomi Mi 11X and the Realme X7 Max are offered by the flagship chipsets and provide great performance and gaming capabilities. The Xiaomi Mi 11X is powered by the Snapdragon 870 chipset that sits slightly lower than the Snapdragon 888 found on the Xiaomi Mi 11X Pro. The Realme X7 Max is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chipset.
The Snapdragon 870 chipset has 1×3.2 GHz Kryo 585 Cortex-A77 Prime core with another 1×2.42 GHz Kryo 585 Cortex-A77 core and there is another 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 585 Cortex-A55 cores coupled with Adreno 650 GPU. This chipset is based on a 7nm process. The Mediatek Dimesnity is the flagship chipset of the MediaTek range and is built on a more efficient 6nm process.
This chipset has 1×3.0 GHz Cortex-A78 Prime core with 3×2.6 GHz Cortex-A78 core and another 4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 cores coupled with Mali-G77 MC9 GPU. Comparing both smartphones side by side, there was no difference noticed between both the smartphones considering the app opening/closing speeds. All tasks felt smoother on each of the smartphones without any lag.
Both have 8/12GB RAM with 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage but the RAM on the Xiaomi Mi 11X is LPDDR5 whereas on the Realme X7 Max it is LPDDR4X. So technically speaking the Xiaomi Mi 11X can have better RAM management but there was no difference noticed as both could hold applications for a longer time in the memory.
In terms of gaming, both smartphones easily all the heavy titles like Call Of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9 Legends, and also Genshin Impact without any stutter or frame drops. The Xiaomi Mi 11X lets you play Call Of Duty Mobile at the max frame rate and very high graphics settings whereas on the Realme X7 Max you can only do max frame rates with high or medium graphics.
So clearly, the Qualcomm chipsets are better optimized for gaming compared to Mediatek ones. After long hours of gaming, the Xiaomi Mi 11X felt slightly warmer compared to the Realme X7 Max though both have large vapor cooling systems underneath. The Mediatek Dimensity 1200 uses Cortex-A78 cores that provide an upper leg in terms of single-core tasks and also is faster in video rendering.
In terms of connectivity, the Realme X7 Max is better as it supports 7 bands of 5G which includes N1, N28A, N40, N41, N77, N78, N79 whereas the Xiaomi Mi 11X supports only two bands of 5G which is the N77 and the N78. Both have good 4G speeds and support carrier aggregation but in terms of 5G connectivity, Realme X7 Max takes the round.
In benchmarks, the Realme X7 Max scored 695355 which was slightly higher compared to 666624 on the Xiaomi Mi 11X in Antutu v8 and moving to Geekbench 5.1, the Xiaomi Mi 11X scores 979 and 3135 compared to 977 and 3344 on the Realme X7 Max. So the overall performance feels good on both and if you want to game, Xiaomi Mi 11X is better but in other areas, the Realme X7 Max is better.
Xiaomi Mi 11X vs Realme X7 Max Software:
The Xiaomi Mi 11X runs on MIUI 12 whereas Realme X7 Max runs on RealmeUI 2.0, both have Android 11 out of the box. The software experience of RealmeUI has been better compared to the MIUI but Xiaomi has improved this by the MIUI 12.5 which is much more improved and does not have bugs like its previous versions.
Both do still come with bloatware and also have ads in the interface and you can turn them off from the settings. But MIUI 12.5 has lesser bloatware or third-party applications compared to RealmeUI which has a whole lot of third-party apps. Both have full of features like RealmeUI has a Personalization setting where you can tweak the look and feel of the smartphone’s software.
The MIUI 12.5 is very versatile and gentle to use and one area where it holds an advantage over RealmeUI is in terms of custom ROMs support which RealmeUI still does not much support. In terms of software updates, both are not the best as we get only 2 years of OS updates and security patches. With the MIUI 12.5, Xiaomi has come very close, and going with either would not be an issue.
Xiaomi Mi 11X vs Realme X7 Max Cameras:
In terms of cameras, both the Xiaomi Mi 11X and the Realme X7 Max have a triple camera setup where the Realme X7 Max uses the 64MP f/1.8 Sony IMX682 sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 2MP depth camera whereas the Xiaomi Mi 11X gets the older 48MP f/1.8 Sony IMX582 sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera with a 5MP macro camera that also doubles up as a telephoto camera.
If you compare both images side by side taken from both smartphones, there are a lot of differences and slight similarities. The images from the Realme X7 Max have much better details and dynamic range compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X but when it comes to sharper details the Xiaomi Mi 11X is slightly better. The Realme X7 Max has lesser noise and better contrast compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X.
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
At night, the images from the Realme X7 Max come out with better details, lower noise, and a much better dynamic range compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X. The details in shadows are slightly better on the Xiaomi Mi 11X and it has also natural colors compared to the images from the Realme X7 Max as they look overexposed most of the time.
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
The dedicated Night Mode works extremely well on both smartphones with Realme X7 Max producing more oversharpening in the background and the Xiaomi Mi 11X having much better details. Still, the dynamic range is better on the Realme X7 Max compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X. So in terms of details, Xiaomi Mi 11X can be better but on an overall basis, the Realme X7 Max is better.
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
Both also have 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide cameras with a 119-degree field of view and the images here look good on both. The details look sharper and the dynamic range is good on both. The Realme X7 Max slightly oversharpens the background and has slightly lower noise compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X. Both have a lot of distortion around the edges and when you zoom in, the details look softer on both.
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
At night, the images come out with average details and the dynamic range is also average on both. The Xiaomi Mi 11X has lesser noise compared to the Realme X7 Max though Realme has provided a dedicated Night Mode on the ultrawide camera. The details look softer on both but still here in terms of details Xiaomi Mi 11X is better but in terms of colors, Realme X7 Max is better.
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
The third camera on the Realme X7 Max is a 2MP depth sensor whereas the Xiaomi Mi 11X has a 5MP macro camera that also doubles up as a telephoto camera with 2x zoom. As a result, the fixed focus macro camera on the Realme X7 Max has more noise, poor dynamic range and details look softer compared to that of Xiaomi Mi 11X as it can go very close to a subject and provides better details.
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
The portraits come out better on the Realme X7 Max with much better details and dynamic range compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X. The edge detection is better on the Xiaomi Mi 11X as it has more natural-looking colors whereas, on the other hand, there is a lot of oversharpening on the Realme X7 Max. The background blur level can be adjusted on both smartphones and Realme provides filters also.
In terms of selfies, the Xiaomi Mi 11X houses a 20MP f/2.5 camera whereas the Realme X7 Max gets a 16MP f/2.5 camera. The details look sharper on the Xiaomi Mi 11X with more natural-looking skin tones whereas the Realme X7 Max applies skin smoothening but the dynamic range is much better on the Realme X7 Max. The selfie portraits come out better on the Xiaomi Mi 11X with better edge detection.
At night, the selfies come out with average dynamic range on both but the Realme X7 Max does get a night mode for selfie camera which the Xiaomi Mi 11X lacks. As a result, the noise is lower on the Realme X7 Max and also better dynamic range compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X. However, the colors look more accurate on the Xiaomi Mi 11X.
In terms of videos, the Realme X7 Max can record 4K videos at 60fps whereas the Xiaomi Mi 11X can record videos at 4K at 30fps and cannot do 60fps as the Sony IMX582 is restricted up to 4K at 30fps. The video footage has better details and dynamic range on the Realme X7 Max compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X, but Xiaomi Mi 11X has lesser distortion in videos due to EIS compared to that of Realme X7 Max.
At night, the videos on the Realme X7 Max have better details and dynamic range compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X but the latter one has less noise and the colors look much more natural compared to the Realme X7 Max which tends to oversharpen the background. With the dedicated Night Mode, the videos are better on the Realme X7 Max.
The ultrawide camera is restricted to 1080p at 30fps on both smartphones. The videos on the Xiaomi Mi 11X have lower noise and the colors look more natural compared to that of the Realme X7 Max. There is a lot of oversharpening of colors in videos on the Realme X7 Max and the same is the case at night, where both underperform in terms of videos.
On the front, both can record 1080p videos at 30/60fps and the footage is much better on the Xiaomi Mi 11X with natural-looking colors and better dynamic range compared to that of Realme X7 Max. The videos have better stabilization compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X and even at night, the Xiaomi Mi 11X does better compared to the Realme X7 Max. Both cameras are good, but still, the Realme X7 Max holds the edge.
Xiaomi Mi 11X vs Realme X7 Max Battery Life:
The Xiaomi Mi 11X has a slightly larger 4520mAh battery compared to a 4500mAh battery on the Realme X7 Max. Both smartphones can easily last for two days with normal usage and the display set to 120Hz. With heavy usage, both can easily last for a single day and the average screen-on time was around 6-6.5 hours on the Xiaomi Mi 11X which was slightly better than 6 hours on the Realme X7 Max.
Technically, the Realme X7 Max seems the more efficient as the Mediatek Dimensity 1200 chipset is built on a 6nm process compared to 7nm process Snapdragon 870 chipset on the Xiaomi Mi 11X but due to MIUI 12.5 aggressive battery optimizations, the battery life is slightly better compared to the Realme X7 Max. Both do get dedicated power-saving modes to preserve the battery.
When it comes to charging, the Realme X7 Max takes the edge as it supports 50W fast charging compared to 33W fast charging on the Xiaomi Mi 11X. The Realme X7 Max comes bundled with a 65W fast charger though but still the 0 to 100 percent takes around 55 minutes on the Realme X7 Max compared to 1 hour 15minutes on the Xiaomi Mi 11X which is slightly on the slower side.
Xiaomi Mi 11X vs Realme X7 Max Audio Quality:
Both the Xiaomi Mi 11X and the Realme X7 Max have a stereo speaker setup where the sound is adequately loud on both. The Xiaomi Mi 11X has a slightly better sound experience and the bass level is also higher compared to the Realme X7 Max. The Realme X7 Max, on the other hand, has a 3.5mm headphone jack and the sound output through it is very good and this is something that the Xiaomi Mi 11X lacks.
Verdict:
Both the Xiaomi Mi 11X and the Realme X7 Max come out to be one of the best premium mid-range smartphones as they are priced half of the flagships and provide features that are present on higher flagships at n affordable price. Both have a lot of similarities like a 120Hz AMOLED display, powerful chipsets, large 4500mAh batteries with faster charging, and also triple camera setup.
However, there are certain differences. The Realme X7 Max offers a good 120Hz AMOLED display, top-level/flagship gaming and day-to-day performance, a good set of cameras, good battery life with faster-charging speeds at 50W, and has the RealmeUI 2.0 running which provides a great software experience. Plus this smartphone also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack and has more 5G bands.
But there are certain shortcomings like instead of glass, there is a polycarbonate body, there is no IP certification, and no Gorilla Glass protection on the front. This is where the Xiaomi Mi 11X steps in and provides a much better build quality with Gorilla Glass 5 for protection, has an IP53 rating and even the Snapdragon 870 is slightly better optimized for gaming when compared to the Mediatek Dimensity 1200.
However, the cameras are not so good on the Xiaomi Mi 11X but if you want natural images then you can go for the Xiaomi Mi 11X. The battery life is very good but the charging speeds are still slower compared to others that offer 50/65W fast charging solutions. The MIUI 12.5 though being a big improvement still needs some refinement and improvements.
So on an overall basis, the Realme X7 Max seems to be the right value for money option compared to the Xiaomi Mi 11X because it is also cheaper than the two which gives that slight edge above the Xiaomi Mi 11X. Otherwise still, the Xiaomi Mi 11X is a great premium mid-range smartphone. It all depends on your personal preference which one would you choose.