Friday, October 29, 2021

Xiaomi 11T Pro Review

Xiaomi has bolstered its 11-series of smartphones with the launch of the 11T and 11T Pro. What we have for this review is the latter. For something priced under PHP 30K, it offers a screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 888 chipset, up to 12GB of RAM, 108MP main camera, and 5,000mAh battery with 120W fast charging. So is this device worth getting? Find out below.

Design and Construction

The 11T Pro looks just like any other premium flagship smartphone. It’s got a large screen on the front with thin bezels and a hole punch at the top for the 16MP selfie camera. Just above it, in the bezel, is the earpiece.

Placed on the right side is the power/lock button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner and the volume keys. The buttons are firm, clicky, and easy to reach as they’re placed near the center of the frame.

The IR blaster, the secondary microphone, and one of the two Harman/Kardon-powered stereo speakers are up top.

Below is the dual-SIM card tray, main microphone, USB-C port, and loudspeaker.

Flip it on its back, and you will see the large camera module that houses the 108MP main, 8MP ultra-wide and 5MP telemacro lens. Also found here are the AF sensors, microphone for video recording, and triple LED flash.

The Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G is a flagship smartphone, and it definitely feels like one. It has an aluminum frame and glass back in Meteorite Gray color. The sides are curved, while the top and bottom are flatter. It’s easy to grip, but it will require both hands for easier navigation since it’s tall.

It has a decent thickness of 8.8mm and is a bit hefty at 204g. We recommend using the clear case, though, as the back panel attracts smudges and fingerprints like crazy. Overall, it’s a beautiful and well-made device.

Display and Multimedia

The 11T Pro features a large 6.67-inch screen with Full HD+ resolution equal to 395ppi, an AMOLED panel with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support, a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and a 480Hz touch sampling rate. For protection, it has Gorilla Glass Victus with a screen protector pre-installed.

The screen is sharp, vibrant, and produces punchy colors. It doesn’t have a curved screen, but it seems immersive thanks to the slim bezels. It also features anti-flicker mode to reduce eyestrain and color scheme options with adaptive colors to adjust to ambient lighting.

What we really enjoyed was the AI image engine that adds enhancement to photos and videos. There’s Super resolution that upscale the resolution of videos, AI image enhancement to identify objects and dynamically adjust display effects, AU HDR enhancement to bring out HDR effects, and MEMC (Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation) to make the content appear smoother, also known as the soap opera effect. Do note, though, that using these features will consume more power.

When it comes to audio, we have two dedicated loudspeakers, one at the top and one at the bottom. This is better than the more common secondary speaker with uneven outputs. The result is balanced audio that is loud and clear. Of course, it won’t replace your external speakers, but it’s great for gaming and streaming content. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack, though, and there’s no USB-C adapter, so you might have to purchase your own or get wireless headphones.

Camera

One of the main features of the 11T Pro is its cameras. It has a 108MP main, an 8MP ultra-wide, and a 5MP telemacro. While many smartphones have four cameras, three lenses of this configuration are more than enough. In addition, it’s got the usual features like Portrait, Pro, HDR, AI, Night mode, Slow Motion, Dual video, Time-lapse, Panorama, Long exposure, and Beauty.

Camera performance is good, has fast autofocus, and can easily adapt to different scenarios. Shots taken in bright conditions have plenty of details, a high dynamic range, and accurate colors. Even with a 5MP sensor, macro shots look sharp and have these nicely implemented blur effects. On the other hand, portrait shots are also nicely done and have the option to adjust the blur effect later in the gallery. As for Night mode, shots look like they’re naturally illuminated rather than boosted brightness. However, details are a bit muddy, and noise is still present but only visible when you zoom in.

For selfies, shots taken in bright conditions have decent sharpness and natural colors. The portrait effect also works great. When shooting indoors in artificial light, shots still look bright with good colors, although the details are not that clean when zoomed in. Shots in the dark, on the other hand, look soft and muddy with lots of noise.

When it comes to video recording, it can shoot up to 8K at 30fps or 4K at 60fps and has image stabilization. There’s also an option to optimize colors for 4K HDR10+ for devices that support the format. Watch the sample below.

OS and Apps

The 11T Pro is running on MIUI 12.5.5 based on Android 11. It’s a clean UI that is easy in the eyes and easy to use. It has a Security app, Storage cleaner, Memory cleaner, Facebook cleaner, App Lock, its own diagnostic tool, Dual apps, Second space, Network tester, Privacy, and Game Turbo.

Pre-installed apps are available, like Amazon, Facebook, TikTok, WPS Office, iQIYI, LinkedIn, 92, and Booking.com, but these can be easily uninstalled.

We’re getting 256GB UFS 3.1, which is more than enough for most users when it comes to storage. There’s no support for microSD cards, though, which is now rare in flagships.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the Xiaomi 11T Pro is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC with Adreno 660 GPU and 8GB or 12GB of RAM. Performance, as expected of a flagship device, is great. No lags or choking when launching apps and multitasking. Gaming is not an issue as well as we can play our favorite games, including demanding ones like Genshin Impact in its highest graphics settings at 60fps. Warming can be felt in the area beside the camera but not to the point of being uncomfortable. We can even game without the need for a case. Check out the benchmark scores below:

• AnTuTu v9.1.7 – 654,358
• AnTuTu v9.1.7 Storage Test – 57,688 (1,995.7 MB/s Seq. Read, 785.7 MB/s Seq. Write)
• Geekbench 5 – 802 (Single-Core), 3,184 (Multi-Core), 4,733 (OpenCL), 4,565 (Vulkan)
• PCMark – 11,477 (Work 3.0)
• 3DMark – 5,880, 35.20 FPS (Wild Life), 1,513, 9.10 FPS (Wild Life Extreme)
• AndroBench – 1,943.97 MB/s Seq. Read, 777.38 MB/s Seq. Write

Connectivity and Battery Life

The 11T Pro has all your connectivity features Dual-SIM with 5G, fast WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, GPS, and IR Blaster. The battery is also large at 5,000mAh, which can provide a whole day of use even with heavy gaming or a 120Hz refresh rate.

PC Mark’s Work 3.0 battery benchmark rated it at 14 hours and 22 minutes, while our video loop test which involves playing a 1080p video on loop at 50% brightness and volume in Airplane mode with headset plugged in and refresh rate set to 60Hz, and we got 27 hours of playback.

Conclusion

Powerful smartphones are common nowadays. We get a handful of flagships with great performance, excellent cameras, and big batteries every year. And most of the time, they’re expensive. This is where Xiaomi stands out — offering powerful premium devices at prices that won’t break the bank. The Xiaomi 11T Pro is another good example considering that you can get the 8GB + 256GB for PHP 27,990, and the 12GB + 256GB for PHP 29,990. As of writing, it’s the most affordable Snapdragon 888-powered smartphone in the Philippines. And for that budget, this is one of the best phones you can buy.

Xiaomi 11T Pro specs:
6.67-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) AMOLED DotDisplay
120Hz refresh rate (Adaptive sync)
480Hz touch sampling rate
HDR10+, Dolby Vision
Corning Gorilla Glass Victus (front)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC
Adreno 660 GPU
8GB, 12GB LPDDR5 RAM
256GB UFS 3.1 storage
Triple rear cameras:
• 108MP F1.75 (wide)
• 8MP F2.2 (ultra-wide)
• 5MP F2.4 (telemacro)
16MP F2.45 front camera
5G, 4G LTE
Dual-SIM, Dual-5G (nano)
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou
NFC
Dedicated Dual Speakers
Sound by Harman Kardon
Dolby Atmos
IR Blaster
Fingerprint scanner (side)
MIUI 12.5 (Android 11)
USB Type-C
5,000mAh battery w/ 120W fast charging
LiquidCool technology
164.1 x 76.9 x 8.8mm
204g
Meteorite Gray, Moonlight White, Celestial Blue