The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra Review: Big and Fast, but Inefficient
by Andrei Frumusanu on July 20, 2021 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Xiaomi
- Mi 11 Ultra
Battery Life - Only Average
The Mi 11 Ultra’s battery life is certainly one of the weak points of the device. Although the phone features a 5000mAh battery which is 8.6% larger than the 4600mAh unit of the Mi 11, it’s also a device that has more internal hardware, and we don’t know exactly how features such as the secondary rear display affect the phone’s power consumption.
Going forward, I’ll be presenting our battery results both in 60Hz and high refresh rate charts, in order to simplify the admittedly quite messy results over the various new HRR display phones over the last year or two.
Starting off at 60Hz, the Mi 11 Ultra really doesn’t do well at all given its hardware specs. The phone landed in nearly identically longevity as the Mi 11 sibling with a smaller battery, which is quite perplexing due to the seemingly identical display. Besides the display, the only thing that is different and should impact the Mi 11 Ultra over the Mi 11 is the different camera setup, the rear screen, and a WiFi 6E module from Qualcomm. The cameras and rear screen should be generally irrelevant in our battery test as long as power management is properly implemented. The WiFi is also hard to single out.
What’s clear is that the Mi 11 Ultra is falling in 27% behind the Galaxy S21 Ultra – or better said, the latter lasts 35% longer than the Mi 11 Ultra. While superior display of the S21 Ultra certainly gives it a unique efficiency advantage, the Mi 11 Ultra also fares worse than the S20 Ultra. We know that the Snapdragon 888 is more power hungry than the Snapdragon 865, but this is still a large discrepancy in battery life.
At 120Hz mode, the Mi 11 Ultra this time at least manages to slightly outlast the S20 Ultras, although it still falls notably behind the S21 Ultras which are still 20-27% ahead.
I’m still in the process of re-running new the PCMark 3.0 figures on various devices and missing some 60Hz figures for now, but again the important comparison is the Mi 11 Ultra against the S21 Ultras. The Mi manages to outlast the Exynos S21 Ultra due to having a more efficient SoC, but falls behind the Snapdragon S21 Ultra.
In 120Hz mode, unfortunately the Mi 11 Ultra falls back in the rankings, this time even falling below the battery life of the regular Mi 11.
As with many other non-Galaxy devices this year, there’s a very weird level of inefficiency tied to the Mi 11 Ultra. The fact that the phone barely manages to differentiate itself, and even in one test lasts less than the regular Mi 11 is perplexing, and makes you question as to what’s actually going on. The Mi 11 Ultra is certainly aggressive in its performance metrics, but it’s still somewhat disappointing in how it ends up. It’s certainly not showcasing itself as what you’d expect from a 5000mAh battery class phone.
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Silver5urfer - Tuesday, July 20, 2021 - link
That's really damn unfortunate.Samus - Wednesday, July 21, 2021 - link
It's really hard to review Sony phones here in the USA because it's hard to even get them. While AT is obviously a global-focused website, they aren't going to review products that aren't even sold in the USA, though there have been some exceptions such as Eurocom notebooks and Chinese-built reference design devices (that would become other products sold in the USA)I don't think Sony has sold a US-market phone since the Z3. That was like 5-6 years ago?
Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, July 21, 2021 - link
I'm based in Europe so that's not the primary reason, it's just that Sony isn't doing a great job and the current way the devices are, they're low priority.neothe0ne - Thursday, July 22, 2021 - link
This comment is complete FUD. Sony has sold US model phones the entire time. In the past, they had specifically disabled the side-mounted fingerprint sensors, only for devices sold in the US, because of Apple patents. (The fingerprint sensor is now enabled in the US for several generations already.)Oxford Guy - Tuesday, July 20, 2021 - link
I think it’s droll how bloated phones have become, such as overkill screen specs. I keep my phone in greyscale most of the time, as it’s much more pleasant versus a sea of clashing garish/oversaturated color.So, 10-bit panels are certainly not at the top of my list.
For photography, I have two proper cameras — a Sigma for color-critical shots and a Nikon for the big zoom. Real cameras are vastly more suited to anything beyond very mundane photography. The Sigma isn’t a large camera at all. It could be better (battery life, macro ability, night shots, fast shots/shakiness) but I’d rather have it than any phone for most things. For ‘quick and dirty but still good quality’ I have the Nikon.
heffeque - Tuesday, July 20, 2021 - link
Why are you complaining about a phone that is clearly not for you?What are you going to complain about next? Maybe that there are no 15" screen versions of the phone for people that want extra-large screens?
Wereweeb - Tuesday, July 20, 2021 - link
He's complaining about the general direction that the smartphone industry has been heading to, not about this phone in particular. There's no choice to buy a phone without a camera.I personally sympathize with his woes on the lack of choice, but economies of scale dictates that companies must chase after the abstract "general consumer".
Oxford Guy - Wednesday, July 21, 2021 - link
I’m not sure what tales of woe you detected in my post.The main gist is that superfluous spec chasing doesn’t impress me. Putting fingerprints onto an ultra-fancy screen and dealing with the terrible ergonomics of camera phones — both seem to be examples of diminishing returns taken a bit too far.
Perhaps phones really need 10-bit color but I don’t see the need for it.
Wereweeb - Tuesday, July 20, 2021 - link
The overwhelming majority of people don't care about professional cameras or "colour critical photography", they want to be able to take photos without having to plan or think about it.And the Mi 11 Ultra is a great step forward over your typical smartphone camera, at least in terms of hardware. Now they just need to make >100mm² sensors more affordable.
Wereweeb - Tuesday, July 20, 2021 - link
Think about it like this: the mass-production of sensors and development of algorithms that can extract more information from the same sensor means that there will be improvements for you DSLR people as well