The Xiaomi 11 i focuses too much on 120 W fast charging while dismissing the basics.

Xiaomi unveiled the Mi 10 i in India back in January 2021, and the phone went to on to sell moderately well in the country. So car manufacturers did what it is known for and launched a lot of maneuvers in the mid-range category. Between the Mi 11 Lite, 11 Lite NE 5G, Mi 11 X, 11 X Pro, and the POCO F3 GT, Xiaomi has more than fairly options available.

To kick things off in 2022, Xiaomi is introducing the Xiaomi 11 i, and it is positioning 120 W fast blaming as the differentiator. Now, this isn’t the first Xiaomi phone to offer 120 W wired charging — that honor belongs to the Xiaomi 11 T Pro. But the 11 i is making an effort to delivering the aspect to a more mainstream audience, much like the Mi 10 i did with its 108 MP camera last year.

Xiaomi says the 11 i takes just 15 minutes to fully charge its 4500 mAh battery, and I’ll be putting that to the test now. As you’d imagine from a Xiaomi phone, you get reasonable internal equipment, and the 11 i is being stood as a good value. With slew of enormous alternatives to pick from in this segment, should you buy the Xiaomi 11 i for its 120 W charge? Let’s find out.

Xiaomi 11 i review:

Price and accessibility Design and flaunt Performance Battery life and charging Cameras Software The competition Should you buy ?

Xiaomi 11 i

Bottom line: The Xiaomi 11 i has 120 W fast billing, and it bills the 4500 mAh battery fully in under 20 minutes. The internal hardware is also decent for gaming and daily employ, and there’s a 120 Hz AMOLED screen, IP53 water resistance, and a 3.5 mm jack. But the phone doesn’t hold up to its contenders when it comes to low-light imagery, it runs Android 11 out of the box, and it won’t get as many software updates.

The Good

Vibrant 120 Hz AMOLED panel Good hardware for the cost Indictment faster than any other phone in India Decent cameras for daylight use IP53 water resistance and 3.5 mm jack

The Bad

Doesn’t actually accuse at 120 W Cameras struggle in low-light places Still on Android 11 Lackluster software updates

[?] 26,999 at Xiaomi India [?] 26,999 at Flipkart

About this review

I used the Xiaomi 11 i for four daylights before writing this review. The phone came with MIUI 12.5.1 out of the box and did not receive any software updates in that time. Xiaomi India furnished the unit to Android Central for review.

Xiaomi 11 i: Price and availability

Xiaomi unveiled the 11 i series in India on January 6, with the phones going up for sale from January 12. The phone is sold in two models: the basi explanation has 67 W fast accusing and a 5160 mAh battery, and the Xiaomi 11 i HyperCharge features 120 W fast billing and a 4500 mAh dual-cell battery. So you can get a larger battery or faster charging, but not both in the same phone.

The Xiaomi 11 i occur within two variants: the 6GB/ 128 GB model debuts at [?] 26,999 ($ 365) while the 8GB/ 128 GB version is at [?] 28,999 ($ 390 ). “Its for” the 120 W copy of the machine; if you’re opting for the 67 W sit, you get to shave off [?] 2,000 ($ 27) on either simulation. I’m testing the 120 W sit, but if I had to buy one for my own exert, I’d go with the 67 W discrepancy — other than the charging tech and battery length, there’s no distinction between the two.

Like all Xiaomi phones, the 11 i is sold via a twinkling auction model, with the first deep-seated of measurements selling out in under five minutes. So if you miss the sale, you will have to wait until the next one and cross your digits that you can get your hands on the phone then. Or you can always pick up one of the alternatives I’ve foreground at the end of the review — there’s no deficit of value-focused telephones in this category.

Xiaomi 11 i: Design and parade

If there’s one constant about the design of Xiaomi’s mid-range series, it’s that it forever changes. There’s no overall design aesthetic that ties different generations together, with Xiaomi swapping between various textures, finishes, and schemes each year.

The 11 i doesn’t share any resemblance to earlier Xiaomi phones, but it is just as bulky and unwieldy.

The result is that the Xiaomi 11 i has a rectangular chassis that doesn’t conform to any design language that we’ve seen in the past. That said, I like the design, if exclusively because there’s some reference to it — unlike the Xiaomi 11 T. The telephone has a glass front and back, and while you get Gorilla Glass 5 at the front, there’s no this protection at the back; you will have to use a subject if you’re interested in picking up this phone.

The mid-frame itself is made out of polycarbonate, and it has a matte texture that feels good. The back gapes intriguing thanks to the frosted glass finish, but you won’t be able to show that off because it’ll be under a speciman. Xiaomi sells the phone in four emblazon options, but accessibility diversifies based on the color you choose.

Dominating the design at the back is the large camera residence that visualizes the prime 108 MP module sit within its own island, and it’s joined by two auxiliary modules and LED flash that are housed in a grid underneath. The camera housing juts out considerably from the chassis of the invention, and it should contribute to noticeable wobble where there is the phone on a flat surface.

The phone has the dominance button and loudnes rocker on the right, and the fingerprint sensor is cooked into the power button. You’ll find the SIM card slot at the bottom next to the charging port, and it supports two SIM posters with an option to use a MicroSD card in the secondary SIM slot. Elsewhere, the Xiaomi 11 i retains the IR blaster that Xiaomi has been adding on its designs for nearly a decade now.

As for usability, the 11 i is considerably ponderous at 204 g, and it is fairly bulky as well, assessing 163.7 x 76.2 x 8.3 mm. I’m abusing the phone alongside the Galaxy S21 FE, and while it also has the same 4500 mAh battery, it is considerably lighter at 177 g. I don’t understand why the Xiaomi 11 i gets all the additional heft, but if there’s one firebrand that does needlessly bulky phones, it is Xiaomi. The develop of that weight and volume is that the 11 i isn’t the easiest telephone to use in this category.

Xiaomi proposals IP53 dust and liquid opposition as standard on its mid-range designs now, and you’ll find the same on the Xiaomi 11 i as well. While it isn’t the same as the IP68 rating that you get on the Galaxy A52, it is a good move from Xiaomi to offer some protection against dust and sea ingress.

There are more elegant motifs in this category, and what the Xiaomi 11 i shortcoming in style it originates up for in terms of features.

There’s little to talk about the screen on the Xiaomi 11 i. You get a 6.67 -inch AMOLED panel with 120 Hz refresh rate, and it ticks all the right boxes: complexion vibrancy is great, there are no issues with brightness, and it has 360 Hz touch polling. The cutout for the figurehead camera is smaller than last year as well.

The 120 Hz AMOLED and stereo announce become the Xiaomi1 1i a good option for gaming.

The panel has HDR1 0, and it comes into its own when streaming videos or playing games. The Xiaomi 11 i has stereo resonated with identical channels located at both ends, and that makes a big difference. The telephone fetches back the 3.5 mm jack, and while I’m glad that Xiaomi computed the jack now, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of consistency around what designs or segments where you’ll find it. The Mi 11 X and Mi 11 Lite/ Lite NE skipped the jack, and although the 11 i is sold in the same category, it gets the port.

You’ll find a Gorilla Glass 5 layer for the screen, and there’s plenty of customizability for the panel itself. You can adjust the shade match, set up always-on mode, and planned gloom mode with ease on the manoeuvre. All things considered, I don’t have any issues with the screen on the Xiaomi 11 i.

Xiaomi 11 i: Performance

More and more machines in this category are starting to use MediaTek-powered designs, and Xiaomi is getting on that bandwagon with the 11 i. The phone features the Dimensity 920 platform with two Cortex A7 8 cores that do the heavy lifting and six Cortex A5 5 for energy-efficient tasks.

Specs

Xiaomi 11 i

Software

MIUI 12.5 based on Android 11

Display

6.67 -inch( 2400 x1080) 120 Hz AMOLED

Chipset

2.50 GHz MediaTek Dimensity 920

RAM

6GB /8 GB

Storage

128 GB

Rear Camera 1

108 MP f/ 1.9( primary)

Rear Camera 2

8MP f/ 2.2( wide-angle)

Rear Camera 3

2MP f/ 2.4( macro)

Front Camera

16 MP f/ 2.5

Connectivity

Wi-Fi 6, BT5. 2

Battery

4500 mAh | 120 W

Security

Side-mounted fingerprint

Dyes

Green, Black, Blue

Dimensions

163.7 x 76.2 x 8.3 mm

Weight

204 g

The Mali-G6 8 isn’t quite as powerful as the G77 that’s featured in the Dimensity 1200, but it is decent enough for gaming. As for general consume, I didn’t watch any slowdowns in the four daylights I use the device, and while I didn’t game a lot, the few entitles I tried out were lag-free.

Like other mid-range phones, the Xiaomi 11 i has a decent selection of 5G circles: 1, 3, 5, 8, 28, 40, 77, and 78. You get dual 5G connectivity as well, but with 5G not set to kick off in India for another year or so, this is a feature you’ll only need to care about in the future.

As for other connectivity, you get a Wi-Fi 6 modem, Bluetooth 5.2, and a hum motor that delivers good feedback. What I find bothering about Xiaomi’s telephones in India is that most of the budget and mid-range alternatives need NFC, and that’s the subject here as well. I don’t realize why the label refuses to add the feature; while NFC isn’t used as widely in the country for payments, it is increasingly seeing utility for connecting to wireless earbuds with fast duet, and you miss out on that with the 11 i.

In expressions of recall, the Xiaomi 11 i offers 6GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage for the base model, and there’s an 8GB model that also has 128 GB of storage. There’s no 256 GB variant, and I feel like that’s an carelessnes considering other mid-range phones are configurable with additional storage and memory.

The side-mounted fingerprint reader manipulates unerringly well and is fast to authenticate, and you get the ability to set up gesture activities for the sensor; merely double-press the sensor to pull down the notification shade.

Xiaomi 11 i: Battery life and charging

Because Xiaomi is using 120 W as the key marketing metric for the Xiaomi 11 i, I decided to focus on this area a little bit more. Xiaomi offers a charger in the box that goes up to 120 W, so you don’t have to buy any other supplements to touch the full blame capability of the device.

One thing to note at this point is that the Xiaomi 11 i doesn’t actually bill at 120 W. Although the charger itself enables us to punched 120 W( 20 V/ 6A ), it does not deliver that to the device. Xiaomi clarified this during the briefing, and in my testing, I found that the maximum wattage that the charger was able to deliver was 95 W.

Xiaomi doesn’t even let you charge at 120 W out of the box — “youve got to” manually enable the feature.

In fact, 120 W fast billing is incapacitated out of the box. The phone defaults to a 102 W power profile that’s pioneered with the charger( 17 V/ 6A ), and it relies on that in day-to-day use. To unlock the full blame fasts, you will have to go into the phone’s sets, go to the battery section, and enable Boost charging mode.

It’s interesting that Xiaomi lent a 102 W profile to the charger, because that’s missing on the charger for the 11 T Pro, which by default goes to 120 W at 20 V/ 6A. Xiaomi says it established the decision to limit the blaming possible on the 11 i to maintain thermal efficiency and not overheat the maneuver. Mostly, it tried to make sure the maneuver doesn’t go over 40 units Celsius when you’re charging it — because you’ll be able to feel that heat — and so it limited the accuse state out of the box.

This is a emphatically underhanded action of doing things, peculiarly when you consider that there’s no way to enable the 120 W mode when setting up the 11 i. And while Xiaomi says it is compiling it clear on social media that the phone has a boost charging state, regular customers walking into a sales outlet to pick up the phone will be unaware of the limitation. Basically, Xiaomi is using 120 W charging in its marketing textiles because the charger goes up to that wattage.

As for the battery itself, the Xiaomi 11 i has a 4500 mAh battery with a dual-cell design to maximize charging efficiency. The symbol quotes a 15 -minute time for accusing the 4500 mAh battery, but when I tried it out, it made precisely over 18 minutes to fully charge the manoeuvre. I didn’t participate the charger go beyond 95 W, and after it hit 30% it went down to 70 W and maintained that wattage up to 75%.

You can get close to the 15 -minute advertised flesh, but there are a few caveats.

Although I didn’t get close to Xiaomi’s 15 -minute figure, the 11 i is able to charge in under 20 minutes. The inherent acces that accusing undertakings is that you don’t get the entire wattage; even on designs with 65 W charge, the full bill isn’t delivered at any time, instead levitating at the 55 W figure.

With 120 W charging tech, there’s a more pronounced decrease in efficiency. Of course, there are other factors that will determine how effectively the 11 i is able to handle the charge. My room was at 24 degrees Celsius when running the charging test, and to Xiaomi’s credit I didn’t examine the phone go over 38.5 measures Celsius. I had the screen off when testing the charge, and it will make longer if you’re working the device while blaming; it essentially falls back to a lower wattage to ensure it doesn’t heat up too much.

Xiaomi says it has 34 precautions to manage thermals and impede overheating, and as for artillery longevity, the symbol notes that the phone will retain 80% of its price height after 800 bills with elevate procedure enabled.

At the end of the day, Xiaomi’s 120 W solution is faster than other accuse standards, so if you care about whether your telephone makes under 20 minutes to fully charge, the 11 i is a decent option. That said, the fact that Xiaomi intentionally limits the charging rapidity on the phone without apprise users is inexcusable.

The standard Xiaomi 11 i has 67 W fast billing will perfectly bill the battery in precisely over 30 instants, so you’re looking at a difference of 10 instants between the two variants.

Xiaomi 11 i: Cameras

Xiaomi has use the 108 MP camera module on most of its telephones last year, and the Xiaomi 11 i gets the Samsung HM2 sensor with 2.1 um pixel size and 9-to-1 pixel binning that delivers 12 MP photos. There is the option to make full-res 108 MP shots if you wishing to so, and you get a decent number of shooting modes.

The 108 MP camera is flanked by an 8MP wide-angle lens with a 120 -degree field of view, and a 2MP macro lens that’s simply there to fill out the camera housing. The camera interface itself is unchanged from last year, so if you’ve expended a Xiaomi phone recently, you will be very familiar with the layout of the buttons and toggles.

There’s no OIS here, and that adversely affects the camera in low-light situations. Like most devices in this category, you don’t get 4K video at 60 fps either, and video recording itself isn’t as detailed as its immediate rivals.

The camera makes good photos in daylight states, delivering accurate complexions and good dynamic compas without any conspicuous interference. The phone is able to dial in on a topic without any issues, and it generally manages to deliver a usable shot in the first go.

Where it clashes is in low-light places; shots taken in less than ideal lighting ailments tend to have a lot of discernible racket. Shadows are reduced to minimize noise levels in epitomes with little to no lighting, and that means you miss out on finer items in the photo. Night mode does a little better in terms of preserving details, but for a machine in this category, the Xiaomi 11 i needs to do a lot more.

The wide-angle lens is a frustration as well, with the lens not able to deliver the same color balance as the primary module. It is practically unusable at night, and as for the macro module, it certainly shouldn’t exist on this device. Other symbols are ditching auxiliary modules that serve little to no operation, but Xiaomi isn’t going to do that just yet.

Xiaomi 11 i: Software

The Xiaomi 11 i ranges MIUI 12.5 based on Android 11 out of the box. Xiaomi says the 11 i is part of the first maneuvers to get MIUI 13, but I’ve realized to not rely the label when it comes to software updates — it has represented far too many mistakes in this area. What you need to know for now is that you get Android 11 at open, and with Xiaomi not guaranteeing three Android version informs, the device is only going to be updated to Android 13.

MIUI 12.5 is cleaner and better optimized, but the Xiaomi 11 i continues to deliver annoying notifications.

Now, “theres a lot” to like in MIUI 12.5, and the ability to uninstall system apps is welcome. The interface itself gazes smoothed, and there are a lot of customization options. I don’t like the brand-new Control Center that follows a split arrangement for toggles and notifications — like iOS — and this is now the default option. You can switch back to the standard Android-style pane by going into the settings.

Xiaomi has also cut down on bloatware and ads on its maneuvers, and for the best part, it feels good to use the Xiaomi 11 i. But a few cases hassles still linger; Xiaomi’s first-party apps attack you with notifications persistently, and it went so annoying after a while that I precisely disabled notifications for all of them.

At ages, Xiaomi is obstinate in that it doesn’t want to fix long-standing issues in MIUI, and that’s chiefly because it doesn’t investigate them as problems. One of those issues is the screen refresh; most Xiaomi phones now come with 90 Hz or 120 Hz screens, but the label continues to set 60 Hz as the default value refresh out of the box.

What’s especially ruffling about this system is that there’s no way to choose high-pitched freshen while setting up a device; you will have to go into settings later on and adopt the 90 Hz or 120 Hz mode. Xiaomi is the only brand that does this, and I merely don’t understand the reason for the same.

Then there’s the fact that Xiaomi slows behind when it comes to software updates. Samsung does a much better job with both scaffold and safety updates on its mid-range phones, and Xiaomi’s Chinese competitors are also starting to roll out timely updates.

Xiaomi 11 i: The race

There’s an abundance of choice in the mid-range category. The Nord 2 endure out as one of the best Android telephones in this segment last year, and it continues to be a stellar selection in 2022. The Nord 2 pieces the beefier Dimensity 1200, and you get a great 120 Hz AMOLED panel, cleaner software( yes, even with the ColorOS integration ), 4500 mAh battery with 65 W fast accusing, nice cameras, and Gorilla Glass 5 at the figurehead and back. The Nord 2 is costlier at [?] 29,999 ($ 405) for the 8GB/ 128 GB model, but you get more powerful internals and a sleeker layout that’s easier to hold and use.

The Mi 11 X is a solid alternative as well. The phone is a rebranded POCO F3 that’s sold in India and select world markets, and it comes with a 120 Hz AMOLED, Snapdragon 870, and a 48 MP camera that is good enough for most situations. The 4520 mAh battery previous the working day, but 33 W fast blaming isn’t quite as fast as what you get on the Xiaomi 11 i. That said, the Mi 11 X is a good value all things considered at [?] 27,999 ($ 380) for the 6GB/ 128 GB model.

If you miss a gaming phone, the POCO F3 GT consumes a lot of the same hardware as the Nord 2, but you get a more aggressive design, and the 5020 mAh battery ensures the design previous a bit longer. There’s likewise 67 W fast charging, and unique prompts on the side that let you customize in-game activities. It’s a steal at [?] 28,999 ($ 393) for the 8GB/ 128 GB version.

Xiaomi 11 i: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if …

You require the fastest-charging phone in India

I’m sure another invention will come along and claim this name, but during the early stages of 2022, the Xiaomi 11 i is the fastest-charging phone in India. You can get the 4500 mAh battery to fully charge in under 20 minutes, and the battery life itself is good enough for a day’s worth of use.

You need a phone for gaming

Xiaomi knows how to deliver a good hardware pack, and the combination of MediaTek’s Dimensity 920 along with a colourful 120 Hz AMOLED screen and stereo hubbub makes the Xiaomi 11 “i m holding” its own in this category.

You should not buy this if …

You requirement the most recent software and fast updates

Xiaomi isn’t the fastest at delivering software updates, and the Xiaomi 11 i propels with Android 11 out of the box. Furthermore, the phone is slated to get two programme modernizes, although other mid-rangers like the 11 T streaks looked forward to receiving three updates.

You need consistent cameras

The Xiaomi 11 i doesn’t necessarily have the best mid-range camera, and while the primary 108 MP module manages to take good photos most of the time, it strives with poising highlights in low-light scenarios. The auxiliary modules aren’t on equivalence with what you’ll find on other telephones in this category.

Between the Mi 11 Ultra, Xiaomi 12, and the value-focused X/ T/ i series of inventions, Xiaomi has disciplined out its renders in the high-end and mid-tier lists. The symbol notes that it watched an 8x further increase sales from 2020 to 2021, and a lot of that was down to its efforts in the sub- $400 market.

With the Xiaomi 11 i, Xiaomi is trying to continue the momentum of last year’s Mi 10 i. The telephone has a good AMOLED screen, robust internals, and the 120 W fast accusing stirs for an easy sell. However, it isn’t without its shortcomings: the camera isn’t chanted well, the auxiliary sensors are not up to scratch, and it comes with Android 11 out of the box.

3.5

out of 5

The general government of Xiaomi’s software updates isn’t ideal. The brand mentioned it will roll out MIUI 13 to the 11 i soon, but it didn’t share any details as to how soon the update will be available. And while Xiaomi’s high-end phones and value flagships now get three years of platform revises, the Xiaomi 11 i isn’t on that list.

So while there is a lot that the 11 i just got right on the equipment figurehead and charging tech, it doesn’t deliver in the areas that matter, and that are likely attains it a good recommendation in a category that environments dozens of enormous products.

Xiaomi 11 i

Bottom line: Xiaomi is trying to differentiate the 11 i with its 120 W fast blaming, but that alone doesn’t make up for omissions in other areas. The telephone guides Android 11 out of the box, the cameras aren’t quite as good as its immediate contenders, and Xiaomi itself has other options in this category that deliver better value.

[?] 26,999 at Xiaomi India [?] 26,999 at Flipkart

Read more: androidcentral.com