Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
The Mi 10i went to sell well in India after it was unveiled in January of 2021. The manufacturer launched a lot of devices in the mid-range category. There are more than enough options for the Mi 11 lite, 11 lite NE 5G, Mi 11X, 11X Pro, and the POCO F3 GT.
120W fast charging will be the differentiating factor for theXiaomi 11i, which will be introduced in 2022. The firstXiaomi phone to offer 120W wired charging is the 11T Pro. The 11i hopes to bring the feature to a more mainstream audience like the Mi 10i did last year.
I'll be testing the claim that the 11i takes just 15 minutes to fully charge its battery. The 11i is being positioned as a good value because of its decent internal hardware and the fact that it's a Chinese phone. Should you buy theXiaomi 11i for its 120W charging? Let's find out.
The Xiaomi 11i has 120W fast charging and can charge the battery in under 20 minutes. The internal hardware is decent for gaming and daily use, and there's a 120Hz AMOLED screen. The phone doesn't hold up to its competitors when it comes to low-light imagery, it runs a different version of the operating system, and it won't get as many software updates.
The 120Hz panel is very bright.
Good hardware for a good price.
The phone charges faster than any other phone.
The cameras are for daylight use.
Water resistance and jack.
Doesn't charge at 120W.
The cameras struggle in low-light situations.
Still on the operating system.
Software updates are lacking.
I used the 11i for four days before writing this review. The phone came with a new version of the software, but it didn't receive any updates. The unit was given to the central for review.
The price and availability of theXiaomi 11i.
Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
The 11i series of phones were launched in India on January 6. The base version of the phone has 67W fast charging and a 5160mAh battery, while the HyperCharge version has 120W fast charging and a 5000mAh dual-cell battery. You can get a bigger battery or faster charging, but not in the same phone.
The 6GB/128GB version of the 11i is available for 26,999, while the 8GB/128GB version is available for 28,999. If you choose the 67W model, you will get to shave off 2,000 on either model. I'm testing the 120W model, but if I had to buy one for my own use, I'd go with the 67W variant.
The first set of 11i units sold out in under five minutes, which is similar to the flash sale model of the phone. If you miss the sale, you will have to wait until the next one and hope that you can get your hands on the phone. There's no shortage of value-focused phones in this category, and you can always pick up one of the alternatives I highlighted at the end of the review.
The design and display of theXiaomi 11i.
Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
The design of the mid-range series is constantly changing. There is no overall design aesthetic that ties different generations together, withXiaomi changing their designs each year.
The rectangular design of the Xiaomi 11i doesn't conform to any design language that we've seen before. I like the design because it has some character, unlike theXiaomi 11T. If you're interested in picking up the phone, you'll have to use a case because there's no protection at the back.
The mid-frame is made out of polycarbonate, and it has a nice texture. The frosted glass finish on the back looks intriguing, but you won't be able to show it off because it's under a case. The phone is available in four different colors, but availability varies based on the color you choose.
The design at the back is dominated by a large camera housing that is joined by two auxiliary modules and a grid of lights. The phone's camera housing juts out from the device's body, making it difficult to use on a flat surface.
The power button and volume rocker are on the right side of the phone. There is an option to use a MicroSD card in the secondary sim slot, which is located at the bottom next to the charging port. The IR blaster that has been added to its devices for nearly a decade is retained by the 11i.
The 11i is very heavy at 204g, and it is also very bulky, measuring 163.7 x 76.2 x 8.3mm. The phone I'm using with the S21 FE is considerably lighter at 177g than the one I had. I don't understand why the 11i gets all the extra weight, but if there's one brand that does too much bulky phones, it'sXiaomi. The 11i isn't the easiest phone to use in this category because of its weight and bulk.
You can find the same dust and water resistance on theXiaomi 11i as on the other mid-range devices. It's a good move from Xiaomi to offer some protection against dust and water, since it isn't the same as the one you get on the A52.
There are more elegant designs in this category, and the features of theXiaomi 11i make it stand out.
Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
The screen on the 11i is not talked about much. The 6.67-inch AMOLED panel has a 120Hz refresh rate and is great for color reproduction, as well as having no issues with brightness or touch polling. The cutout for the front camera is smaller this year.
When playing games or streaming videos, the panel has the latest version of the HDR10 technology. The stereo sound of the 11i makes a big difference. The phone brings back the 3.5mm jack, and I'm glad that it's back, but there doesn't seem to be any consistency around what devices or segments you'll find it in. The 11i is sold in the same category as the Mi 11X and Mi 11 lite, but the jack is not included.
There's plenty of customizability for the panel itself, and you can find a Gorilla Glass 5 layer for the screen. You can schedule dark mode with ease on the device, adjust the color balance, and set up always-on mode. I don't have any issues with the screen on the 11i.
The performance of theXiaomi 11i.
Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
More and more devices in this category are using designs powered by MediaTek, and the 11i is one of them. The phone has two Cortex A78 cores that do the heavy lifting and six Cortex A55 cores that are energy efficient.
There are some specifications.
The 11i is from Xiaomi.
There is software.
The MIUI 12.5 is based on theANDROID 11
There is a display.
The 6.67-inch is 120Hz AMOLED.
The Chipset.
2.50 GHz is the speed of the MediaTek Dimensity.
There is RAM.
6 gigabytes.
There is storage.
128 gigabytes.
The rear camera has a camera.
The primary is108MP /1.9.
The rear camera has a second camera.
8MP / 2.2 is wide-angle.
Rear camera 3.
2MP /2.4
The front camera has something on it.
16MP / 2.5
It's connected.
There is a wi-fi network.
There is a battery.
120W.
There is security.
There is a side-mounted fingerprint.
There are colors.
Black, green, and blue.
There are dimensions.
163.7 x 76.2 x 8.3mm
The weight.
204g.
The G68 isn't as powerful as the G77, but it's decent enough for gaming. I didn't see any slowdowns when I used the device for general use, and the few titles I tried out were lag-free.
The Xiaomi 11i has a good selection of 5G bands, including 1, 3, 5, 8, 28, 40, 77, and 78. With 5G not set to launch in India for another year or so, you only need to care about this feature in the future.
You get a wireless modem, a vibrating motor, and a software that gives good feedback. Most of the budget and mid-range options in India lack the feature of Near Field Communication. I don't see why the brand wouldn't add the feature, it's becoming more and more useful for connecting to wireless earbuds with fast pair, and you miss out on that with the 11i.
The base model of theXiaomi 11i has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while the 8gigabyte model has 128GB of storage. I feel like the omission of a 512GB variant is because other mid-range phones have additional storage and memory.
The side-mounted fingerprint reader works well and is fast to use, and you can set up gesture actions for the sensor, just double-pressing the sensor to pull down the notification shade.
The battery life and charging of theXiaomi 11i.
Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
I decided to focus on this area a little bit more because of the fact that 120W is the key marketing metric for theXiaomi 11i. You don't have to buy any other accessories to hit the full charging potential of the device if you have a 120W charger in the box.
At this point, the Xiaomi 11i doesn't charge at 120W. The device doesn't get the 120W that the charger can hit. I found that the maximum wattage that the charger was able to deliver was 95W.
120W fast charging is disabled from the box. The phone has a power profile that is used in the day-to-day use. To get the full charging speeds, you have to go into the phone's settings, go to the battery section, and enable boost charging mode.
It's interesting that the 11T Pro doesn't have a 120W profile, because that's the only one that goes to 20V/6A. The decision to limit the charging potential on the 11i was made to maintain thermal efficiency. It tried to make sure that the charging mode was limited because you'll be able to feel the heat, and it tried to make sure that the device didn't go over 40 degrees.
This is an underhanded way of doing things, particularly when you consider that there is no way to set up the 11i in 120W mode. Regular customers will not be aware that the phone has a boost charging mode when they walk into a retail store to pick it up. The 120W charging is used in the marketing materials of the company.
Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
The battery in theXiaomi 11i has a dual-cell design to maximize charging efficiency. It took me 18 minutes to fully charge the device after I tried it out. I didn't see the charge going beyond 95W, and after it hit 30%, it went down to 70W and maintained that wattage up to 75%.
The 11i is able to charge in less than 20 minutes. The way that charging works is that you don't get the full amount of power, even on devices with 65W charging, the full charge isn't delivered at any time.
There is a decrease in efficiency with 120W charging tech. Other factors will determine how effective the 11i is. I didn't see the phone go over 38.6 degrees Celsius when I ran the charging test in my room, which was 24 degrees. I had the screen off when I was testing the charge, and it took me longer to charge if I used the device while it was still on.
The brand notes that the phone will retain 80% of its charge level after 800 charges with boost mode enabled, and that it has 34 safeguards to manage thermals and prevent overheating.
The 11i is a decent option if you care about whether your phone takes less than 20 minutes to fully charge, because the 120W solution from Xiaomi is faster than other charging standards. The fact that the charging speeds on the phone are limited without notification is unacceptable.
The standard version of the 11i has 67W fast charging which will fully charge the battery in just over 30 minutes, so you're looking at a difference of 10 minutes between the two versions.
The cameras are on theXiaomi 11i.
Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
The Xiaomi 11i has a 12MP camera with a 9-to-1 binning and a 2.1um sensor, which is the same as the one used on most of its phones last year. If you want to take a full-res shot, there is a number of shooting modes to choose from.
The camera has an 8MP wide-angle lens with a 120-degree field of view, and a 2MP macro lens that is only there to fill out the camera housing. The camera interface is the same as last year, so if you've used a Xiaomi phone recently, you will know the layout of the buttons and the toggles.
The camera in low-light situations is adversely affected by the lack of OIS here. Like most devices in this category, you don't get 4K video at 60 frames per second, and video recording itself isn't as detailed as its immediate rivals.
The camera takes good photos in daylight, with accurate colors and good range without any noise. The phone is able to dial in on a subject without any issues, and it generally delivers a usable shot in the first go.
In low-light situations, shots taken in less than ideal lighting conditions tend to have a lot of visible noise. Shadows are reduced to minimize noise levels in images with little to no lighting, and that means you miss out on details in the photo. Night mode does a better job of preserving details, but for a device in this category, theXiaomi 11i needs to do a lot more.
The wide-angle lens isn't able to deliver the same color balance as the primary module. The device is almost useless at night, and the macro module is not needed on it. Other brands are replacing auxiliary modules that serve little to no use, butXiaomi isn't going to do that just yet.
The software is from theXiaomi 11i.
Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
TheXiaomi 11i runs a version of MIUI that is based on theANDROID 11. I don't trust the brand when it comes to software updates because it has made too many mistakes. You need to know that the device will only be updated to the newer version of the OS after the launch of Android 11.
The ability to uninstall system apps is welcome, and there is a lot to like in MIUI 12.5. There are a lot of customization options in the interface. I don't like the new Control Center that follows a split system for notifications, and this is the default option. You can switch back to the standard style by going into the settings.
For the most part, it feels good to use the Xiaomi 11i, because it has been cut down on bloatware and ads. I disabled notifications for all of them because they got so annoying after a while, and the first-party apps bombard you with notifications constantly.
At times,Xiaomi is obstinate in that it doesn't want to fix long-standing issues in MIUI, and that's mostly because it doesn't see them as problems. The brand continues to set 60Hz as the default refresh out of the box, despite the fact that most phones now come with 90 or 120Hz screens.
There is no way to choose high refresh while setting up a device, so you have to go into settings later on. I don't understand why the only brand that does this is Xiaomi.
When it comes to software updates,Xiaomi lags behind. The mid-range phones of bothXiaomi andSamsung have better platform and security updates than their Chinese rivals.
The competition is for theXiaomi 11i.
Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
There are many choices in the mid-range category. TheNord 2 was one of the best phones in this segment last year, and it will be a great choice in 2022. The Dimensity 1200 is the beefier of the two, and it comes with a 120Hz panel, cleaner software, 65W fast charging, decent cameras, and Gorilla Glass 5 at the front and back. You get more powerful internals and a sleeker design in the 8GB/128GB version of the Nord 2, but it's still 29,999.
The Mi 11X is a good alternative. The POCO F3 is a phone that's sold in India and other global markets and it comes with a 120Hz AMOLED screen, a 48MP camera, and a quad-core processor. The 4520mAh battery lasts all day, but 33W fast charging isn't as fast as what you get on the 11i. The Mi 11X is a good value at 27,999 for the 6GB/128GB model.
The POCO F3 GT uses a lot of the same hardware as theNord 2, but it has a more aggressive design and a 5020mAh battery that lasts a little longer. There's also 67W fast charging and unique triggers on the side that allow you to modify in-game actions. It's a steal at 28,999 for the 8GB/128GB version.
Should you buy it?
Apoorva Bhardwaj is a source.
You want the fastest phone in India.
The fastest-charging phone in India at the start of 2022, is theXiaomi 11i. The battery life is good enough for a day's worth of use, and you can fully charge the battery in under 20 minutes.
You need a phone to play games.
The combination of a vibrant 120Hz AMOLED screen and stereo sound is what makes theXiaomi 11i stand out in this category.
If you buy this, you should not.
You want the latest software.
The Xiaomi 11i is the first device to launch with the new version of the operating system. The 11T series will get three updates, but the phone will get two platform updates.
You need cameras that are consistent.
The primary module of the 11i doesn't have the best mid-range camera, and it struggles with balancing highlights in low-light scenarios. The auxiliary modules aren't as good as what you'll find on other phones.
Between the Mi 11 Ultra, the Mi 12 and the X/T/i series of devices, there is a branched out range of offerings. A lot of the 8x increase in sales was due to its efforts in the sub-$400 market, according to the brand.
Last year's Mi 10i was a big hit with the public, and the new 11i is trying to keep that going. The 120W fast charging makes the phone an easy sell. The camera isn't good, the auxiliary sensors aren't up to date, and it comes with a version of the operating system out of the box.
The general state of the software updates is not good. The brand mentioned that it will roll out the update to the 11i soon, but it didn't give any information on when it will be available. The 11i isn't on the list of phones that get three years of platform updates.
The 11i doesn't deliver in the areas that matter, and that makes it a poor recommendation in a category that fields dozens of great products.
The 11i is trying to differentiate itself with its 120W fast charging, but that alone doesn't make up for the omissions in other areas. The phone runs out of the box, the cameras aren't as good as its immediate rivals, and it has other options in this category that deliver better value.
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