This is the globally released Xiaomi Redmi Note 11-
a value based midrange phone that has plenty of siblings with a similar name.
It’s easy to get confused, but we’re here to straighten things out.
I’m Will for GSMArena, and this is our Redmi Note 11 review.
There are a LOT of Redmi note 11 phones this year- you have the Chinese models, plus the global ones,
split into 4G and 5G variants, and these include Pro models and an
S model. And don’t even get me started on the pro plus.
Here we have the global vanilla Note 11. It’s very similar to the Redmi Note11S,
which has the same build, but a different chipset and main camera.
One thing at a time- we’ll come out with full reviews for most of these devices.
The plain Redmi Note 11 is one of the lower tier models of the bunch.
It’s a budget friendly midranger that promises quite a bit of value.
The phone has a slightly curved glass back, with a smooth matte finish.
The flat frame is made of plastic, but the phone feels overall pretty sturdy,
and one thing I like is that the Note 11 is on the lighter side in spite of its large battery.
Plus, the Redmi Note 11 has IP53 rated protection against dust and light splashes.
On the front is the same screen that you’d find on the more pricey Note11s: a 6.43 inch
AMOLED with a 1080p resolution, gorilla glass 3 protection, and a fast 90Hz refresh rate.
The fast refresh rate is an upgrade over last year’s model, the Redmi Note 10.
It makes swiping and scrolling smoother to the eye. It’s not really adaptive to save energy,
though certain apps will run at 60 rather than 90.
The display looks nice especially for a budget phone. Content looks sharp at over 400ppi,
and blacks are deep thanks to AMOLED technology. There’s no HDR10 support, but colors can be
accurate depending on the color profile and tweaks you choose in settings. The brightness of this
panel is also excellent for this price range. We were able to measure 465 nits of max brightness
with the manual slider, and this can boost to over 730 nits in auto mode, when in bright sun.
For audio, the Redmi Note 11 has a 3.5mm jack for headphones, and a pair of stereo speakers.
The speakers are well balanced, and earned a loudness score of very good on our charts.
The quality seems to be improved over last year’s model too,
with clearer and richer mids, and better defined lows.
The Redmi Note 11 has a side mounted fingerprint reader built into the power button,
and it’s very fast and responsive to your touch.
And storage is expandable on top of the 64 or 128 GB built in.
The interface of the new redmi phones is Xiaomi’s latest MIUI13 running on top of Android 11.
It’s straightforward, and actually quite similar to the previous version of MIUI.
We have a dedicated video about MIUI 13 over Android 11,
if you’d like to go more in depth with its functions and features.
The global Redmi Note 11 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chipset, and it does not support
5G connectivity like you’d get on the Chinese model. Performance wise it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
On the one hand, the Redmi Note 11’s CPU scores hold up pretty well compared to last year’s model
and other similarly priced phones. The Note 11 also does a great job with its thermal management.
But when it comes to graphics performance, this phone sits at the bottom of the charts- so it’s
not a device you’d want to use for much gaming. Still running your day-to-day tasks is no problem.
The chipset is also power efficient, and the Redmi Note 11 has great battery life. With a 5000 mAh
power pack, it was able to earn an endurance rating of 126 hours in our proprietary tests.
The phone ships with a 33 watt adapter, and charging speed isn’t blazing fast,
but it’s solid. We were able to charge the phone from 0 to 51% in half an hour.
On to cameras. The Note 11 has a 50MP main cam which is paired with an 8MP ultrawide,
a 2MP macro cam, and a depth sensor.
You don’t get the hi-res
108MP main camera that you would on most other Redmi note 11 series phones.
Photos from the main cam come out at 12.5MP by default,
and they look decent for a budget device. There’s a good amount of detail,
true to life colors, contrast isn’t bad and the photos are sharp enough.
These shots are a bit noisy though, particularly in the skies.
Dynamic range isn’t stellar, and the camera tends to underexpose.
Portrait photos are decent too, in a similar fashion.
We like the quality of the subject separation here.
There’s no telephoto zoom, but the digital zoom from the main cam is actually not too bad.
The colors, exposure, and dynamic range are similar to the unzoomed photos.
And these shots retain plenty of detail and don’t look too soft.
Photos from the ultrawide cam are a bit of a letdown, even for a budget phone.
The processing is quite aggressive, and fine detail looks blotchy,
distorted and even pixelated, especially with the objects that are further away.
At least the exposure is a bit brighter than the main cam’s.
Closeups from the 2MP maco cam are surprisingly usable.
There’s enough detail and colors look fine, too.
In low light, photos from the main cam are usable, but unimpressive. You get a decent amount
of detail and colors look true to life. There’s plenty of noise though and dynamic range is poor.
Enabling night mode doesn’t make a huge difference. It can slightly brighten up the shots,
but it doesn’t do much for the detail level and the noise.
Nighttime photos from the ultrawide cam are disappointing.
They’re quite soft and dark, and there’s no night mode available to try and help things out.
Selfies from the 13MP front facing cam are solid, with great detail and natural colors.
For some reason unlike the last year model the Redmi Note 11 doesn’t support 4K video recording.
And this is the case for all of the global redmi note 11 variants. 1080p video from the main cam is still
alright though. Detail is decent and there is very little noise.
The ultrawide’s footage is also ok for this sort of camera, with enough detail
and low noise. It struggles a bit more with dynamic range though.
Both cameras also have a little bit of always on electronic stabilization
which smoothes out a bit of shakiness and panning.
So that’s the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11. You get a solid and splash proof build, a nice 90Hz AMOLED
screen, stereo speakers, and great battery life. All nice features to have on a budget device.
The problem is, you can find alternatives which can offer you a more powerful chipset
and 4K video recording. And you would even get those things on last year’s Redmi Note 10!
Unless you’re really excited about the higher screen refresh rate here, it’s hard to recommend
the Note 11 over the previous model. Thanks for watching and see you on the next one.