In front of us today we have the Mi 11 Ultra, which is arguably one of the most powerful
phones of 2021. And does have the largest camera sensor and probably camera bump of any phone ever.
The problem with that camera bump though is that it might provide the theoretical dotted line for
the phone to snap along during the durability test. Xiaomi phones don't have the best track
record for surviving. You know what does have a great track record though? Stamps.com. I've been
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Now let's see how durable the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra really is. Let's get started.
[Intro]
In the past, Xiaomi might have been known as more of a budget brand of smartphones,
but that's not the case with this Mi 11 Ultra. It's an ultra phone with an ultra $1000 price tag.
Inside the box we'll get our usual clear plastic silicon case. I think mine might be defective
since it's missing the whole top half. The phone's got his tender resume on the protective plastic,
with a 50 megapixel main camera, 120 hertz display, and 67 watts of fast charging.
But out of the box, holy cow is this the mothership of all camera bumps.
The rest of the box has the 67 watt fast charging brick and USB-C cable, but I'll come back to that
because this camera bump is nuts.
When compared to the Pixel 6 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which we all thought were already
large camera bumps, this Mi 11 Ultra is a giant. It's a camera attached to a phone
instead of a phone attached to a camera. For reference, the Pixel 6 Pro is one
whole spaghetti noodle thick, while the Mi 11 Ultra has two whopping noodles of clearance.
If you aren't fluent in noodle, it's 3 ½ millimeters. Pretty crazy. Other
than that though this phone does look pretty normal. Curved screen glass on all four edges,
and a shade of black so dark on the back that my camera struggles to even pick it up.
There is a cool rear display though inside that camera bump. Apparently Xiaomi took one of their
little watch displays and plopped it next to the camera lenses. It'll be a pretty fun teardown.
But first, the scratch test. As we know, plastic phones start scratching at a level 2 or 3,
like the soft flexible screens on Samsung's folding phones...And
this Mi 11 Ultra's screen protector that I forgot to take off.
Continuing on. I'll be honest, it's nice that this phone isn't rocking since the camera extends
across the whole back. It's basically thick enough to almost act as a kickstand. Glass
scratches at a 5 or 6. Sapphire would be an 8 or 9. This Mi 11 Ultra is using Gorilla Glass Victus
so we start seeing scratches at level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7. So far, so good.
The hole punch 20 megapixel front-facing 1080p camera
is also protected under that Victus glass with the super thin earpiece slit up at the top.
The sides are made from aluminum, along with the singular power button
and volume rocker – both metal. The top of the phone is where things get interesting.
It doesn't sound the same, and the razor blade of truth discovers that this Mi 11 Ultra has a
plastic top very similar to the plastic top on the Pixel 6 Pro, except for this plastic peels
away. It covers the top loudspeaker as well as the infrared channel changing remote LED, which is a
pretty cool feature. And yeah, realistically this probably won't be ever falling off on it's own
since the adhesive is extremely strong. But it is good to know what the phone is made of.
The left side is back to metal again and the bottom of the phone has our
second stereo loudspeaker. With that 67 watt fast charging USB-C port
and the IP68 water-resistant dual SIM card tray with it's rubber ring around the opening.
Another interesting thing besides the tiny display on the back is that the back panel of
this Mi 11 Ultra is supposedly made from ceramic. We've seen ceramic on a few phones in the past,
like the Essential Phone a few years ago, may it rest in peace. Ceramics are inorganic materials
that are heated up or fired at high temperatures to harden them, usually landing somewhere between
a level 7 or 8 on Mohs scale of hardness. Ceramic floor or wall tiles are very scratch resistant,
and the same goes for this back panel. Looking closely I do see faint markings at
a level 6 and 7. But that might just be the ceramic acting like sandpaper to my picks.
The only actual damage happens at a level 8 with deeper grooves at a level 9. So this back panel
is indeed ceramic and stronger than tempered glass. Thumbs up for that. Nice work, Xiaomi.
Finally, the camera lens. This behemoth is the largest camera sensor ever in a smartphone. We'll
have to measure it from the inside when we take it apart. We have the 50 megapixel main sensor,
a 48 megapixel ultra wide at 128 degrees,
and a 48 megapixel 120x digital zoom periscoping telephoto camera. Xiaomi went all out with
this thing and at two noodles thick there is definitely plenty of room for all that hardware.
The front screen on the Mi 11 Ultra is a 10 bit 1 billion color HDR 10 Plus, 120 Hertz 1700 nits,
6.8 inch 1440p AMOLED -as we can tell from the pixels going white after about 20 seconds.
I almost needed to burn a little longer there just to get through all the phone specs. But
surprisingly the pixels did recover. Last thing before the bend test is testing the fingerprint
scanner. Xiaomi plopped this optical boy under the screen which is fine. A lot of people like it
there. I find myself just giving up on my Note 10 Plus's scanner more often than not though and just
typing in my code, so to each their own. But it does look like this scanner can still scan through
an unrealistic amount of level 7 deeper grooves on the glass. So that is good news. And now it's time
to see if this Mi 11 Ultra will snap in half the same way we snapped in half the Mi 5. To be fair,
it has been a few years since we've had a Xiaomi phone break, but someone does have to keep them on
their toes. When bent from the front we get the smallest of flexes. And when bent from the back
we get the exact same results. The quad curved Gorilla Glass Victus and the dual curve ceramic
combined with the metal frame make this Mi 11 Ultra a super solid camera bump of a smartphone.
The Mi 11 Ultra survives my durability test. It's a big phone with a big price and big results. You
know what doesn't have a big price though? My red, metal, and blue JerryRigEverything knives. Plus,
if you order today they should still arrive by Christmas if you're in the USA. I'll leave a link
down next to the free trial from stamps.com. Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Come
hang out with me on Twitter and Instagram. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.