The Xiaomi Mi 11 has been causing a few wrinkles in the smartphone world, mostly due to it's
ridiculous specs at a super low price point. The Mi 11 might look good on paper, it also
might look good in real life, but today we're going to find out if it's good structurally,
and how much abuse we can expect it to survive over it's lifetime. I've had a few Mi phones
not survive my durability tests in the past, so this should be interesting. In my box I
got a rather impressive 55 watt fast charger, which is definitely something else we need
to talk about. Let's get started.
[Intro]
At first glance, the Mi 11 looks a lot like other mainstream smartphones. This color is
called the Horizon Blue – aptly named with its golden sunrise vibe. Let's start out with
the scratch test. This time around we won't get fooled by the included screen protector.
While Samsung provides two, Xiaomi only applies one. At $600 this Mi 11 could fall into the
'everything is made from plastic' category. Or it could all be glass. Plastic would start
scratching at a Mohs 2 or 3, while glass would start scratching at a level 5 or 6. And, of
course, sapphire would scratch at a level 8 or 9. I do hear rumors about another sapphire
screen smartphone coming out later this year, but this Mi 11 is not it. Using Gorilla Glass
Victus, we see scratches at a level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7. Perfectly on
par with other flagships that are twice as expensive.
The front facing camera is 20 megapixels with its little hole punch cut out. It's also got
super curved glass along the side edges and the top edge, which isn't really my thing
but I don't think it would bother me very much either. Something that does bother me
though is people not putting their shopping carts away. Like for real, it's not that hard
to do.
The sides of the Mi 11 are made from metal, which is good, along with the buttons. At
$600 the body could go either way, metal or plastic, so it's nice to have an official
verdict...Even though durability-wise we've found that plastic phones are just as structural
as metal phones. So I 'm really fine either way, I just like knowing.
The top of the phone does have it's IR blaster, along with, if we zoom in, some Harman/Kardon
speakers. Apparently Harman/Kardon is a premium speaker manufacturer who tuned Xiaomi's speakers
and then let Xiaomi slap their brand name on the phone. Normally this is annoying because
it raises the price, but it's hard to get mad at a phone that's still half the price
of other professional flagships.
There is a SIM card tray down at the bottom. No SD card slot, but there is room for two
SIM cards. The thing that's most interesting to me though about this Mi 11 is the wireless
charging. We already know that the USB-C at the bottom can do 55 watts, which is a lot
of power. Usually, in order to get numbers like that, the battery gets divided in half
and each half is charged up at the same time. But we've never seen wireless charging at
50 watts, which is what the Mi 11's claiming.
Since the back panel is made from glass, we can't see the wireless charging coil or those
split batteries, but I am looking forward to seeing how it all works from the inside.
We can see from the outside, however, the cameras. Once again Xiaomi is using the 108
megapixel sensor, usually reserved for the professional world for Ultra phones that cost
twice as much, but this is just a regular old Mi 11 using professional body parts. It
also has a 13 megapixel ultra wide camera and a 5 megapixel macro camera. One thing
I have a minor issue with is the underscreen fingerprint scanner. These have been common
now for a few years, but for me they've never totally been foolproof since my hands seem
to always be wet or dirty when I want to use it. And optical scanners aren't good in situations
like that. When I add my level 7 deeper grooves over the glass on top of the fingerprint scanner,
it does seem to struggle a little bit more reading my fingerprint, but still does work
most of the time...just not all the time. My fingers aren't perfect though so do keep
that in mind.
I would say that the biggest improvement on this phone that super nerds like us can appreciate
is the screen. The 6.8 inch OLED display checks all the boxes at 1440p, 10 bits of color,
and 120 Hertz refresh rate. And even though it's not technically a gaming phone, it has
a 480 Hertz touch sampling rate, which means it's really quick at sensing your finger and
is insanely fast. For a nonprofessional phone this guy is probably been making a lot of
professional phones nervous. And of course it lasts about 20 seconds under the heat from
my lighter before going white and not totally recovering. Xiaomi says they have a new liquid
cooling heat dissipation system inside which should be fun to check out.
Speaking of which, the insides of the phone might very well be the outsides soon since
Xiaomi doesn't always pass my bend tests. With the initial bend there was a small unnerving
pop but no major catastrophic damage. Flipping the phone over we get another small bend but
nothing permanent, no kinks or cracks. Whether bent from the back or the front, this Xiaomi
Mi 11 passes my durability test. In my opinion, judging by the specs, build quality and the
price, the Mi 11 is a professional phone that's just pretending not to be. Nice work, Xiaomi.
Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already so we can see that 50 watt wireless charging
and cooling system during the teardown video. And come hang out with me on Instagram and
Twitter. Thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.