Xiaomi Redmi Note 11s - Smartphone 128GB, 6GB RAM, Dual Sim, Twilight Blue

Product Information

The Redmi Note 11S retail bundle is quite familiar. The box contains the phone, a 33W power adapter, and a 3A-rated USB cable. The Redmi Note 11S is the fifth Note 11 model we are reviewing, and just when we thought our review series was finally complete, we received its 5G-enabled sibling as well. Display: 6.43" AMOLED, 90Hz, 700 nits, 1000 nits (peak), 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 409ppi, Gorilla Glass 3. Xiaomi has gone for a 6.43-inch AMOLED display with a pretty high peak brightness of up to a claimed 1000nits. However, the rest of the specs are nothing to shout about. It has a 90Hz peak refresh rate, a basic 180Hz touch sampling rate, and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for scratch protection. The full-HD+ resolution ensures sharp visuals, and colours are generally punchy. You'll have to manually enable the 90Hz refresh rate on the Note 11S, since it's set to 60Hz by default. Shooting at the full 108-megapixel resolution under good light on the Redmi Note 11S results in much better image quality

We don’t see this effect in the Xiaomi 11T Pro, which uses the same Samsung HM2 sensor. The ISP may be to blame. This is the image signal processor, which is part of the Snapdragon 695 chipset. Its Spectra 346T ISP is weaker than the MI 11T Pro’s and, more notably, the Spectra 350 of the Redmi Note 10 Pro — even though it has a triple ISP to the last-gen phone’s dual ISP. The phone can capture good daylight images, a cut above some at the price. It also has a notably fairly effective night mode that dramatically improves low-light images —it’s a proper computational mode, where some at the price have a limited effect. Redmis are relatively reserved. At their best, this can mean they look more like a legit top-end phone than the showy budget Androids. Chipset: Mediatek Helio G96 (12 nm): Octa-core (2x2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G57 MC2. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G’s 8MP ultra-wide is passable, but its images are a lot softer up close than its predecessor’s 16MP ones. No surprise there. There’s also an obvious drop in dynamic range, and you can’t use the Night mode in tandem with the ultra-wide.

Videos looked good on the phone's display but the stereo sound wasn't well balanced as the bottom speaker sounded a lot clearer than the earpiece. Games ran well enough, but some heavy onesran with restricted graphics options on this phone. For instance, Call of Duty: Mobile didn't even show the ‘High' graphics option and I wasn't able to use most of the advanced quality toggles either. Gameplay was smooth though, it's just that it didn't look as good as it normally does. The Redmi Note 11S offers enough grunt to handle basic apps and games well. Certain apps in MIUI 13, such as GetApps, can be spammy. There's a capacitive fingerprint sensor in the power button, which worked well in my experience. Thanks to the AMOLED panel, you can take advantage of a sort of always-on display feature. This could have been more useful, but it only stays active for 10 seconds at a time — so it isn't actually ‘always on'. The phone doesn't play Ark: Survival Evolved too well with everything maxed out. While there are not too many annoying dips, the frame rate is suboptimal — in the 20s with some descents into the teens. You’ll want to play it at medium graphics with the resolution slider diminished a bit for a smooth experience. We captured a few too many blown-out skies, and it frequently fumbles dusk scenes. The phone has the tools to avoid the primary issues these scenes raise, but the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro doesn’t always seem to use them. Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, IR blaster

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G has an impressive screen, even if it doesn’t set any new standards. A dynamically variable refresh rate is the missing feature, which saves battery. This phone will drop to 60Hz when an app doesn’t support 120Hz, but sits at the higher rate when sitting idle on the home screen.

The IR blaster, 3.5mm audio port, and microSD card support are relics of the past on flagship smartphones, so if these features are important to you, then you may want to consider a Redmi Note 11S or 11 Pro 5G. Specifications You have three color modes to play around with. These are vivid, saturated, and standard. Xiaomi recommends “vivid,” which changes the color saturation based on the app you’re using. We chose “standard” because it removes the radioactive red effect from your app icons. Plenty of people will love that kind of saturation, though. In typical fashion, the speaker above the screen is less bassy than the one on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G’s bottom, but there is not a huge volume disparity here. That can make the sound seem lopsided in other phones. It may also be responsible for the slight inconsistency of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G’s main camera, and its pretty poor handling of late afternoon/early evening images where the light level is mediocre but you’re not get in Night mode territory. These images often look dark and soft.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 695 clearly is not a perfect fit for this phone, even if its raw CPU and GPU power are perfectly okay. Cameras: 108MP rear f/1.9 wide-angle camera, 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera (118 degrees field-of-view), 2MP macro, and 2MP depth (Note 11S only). 16MP f/2.4 front-facing camera. How is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G for gaming? It is far from Xiaomi's best. With this sort of budget you could get the Xiaomi Poco F3. Its Snapdragon 870 5G chipset is one of the best cost-to-performance processors in years. It’s a beast. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G’s main camera is decent. Its other two cameras are not. Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 10 Pro won our hearts with three good cameras: the primary, an above average 16MP ultra-wide and a fab little 5MP telemacro that just steamrolled all other macro cameras in its class. It still does. The Redmi Note 10 Prowas tested last year, and a year later, the hardware hasn't changed much in the 11 Pro. 5G is an obvious addition, but in the US, that has a limited impact on cellular connectivity. Unfortunately, the Note 11 Pro is still currently being powered by Android 11, the same as the Note 10 Pro in early 2021, so Xiaomi needs to step up the firmware game.

User reviews

This phone is powered by the MediaTek Helio G96 SoC, which is decently powerful but not the most efficient since it's built on an older 12nm fabrication process. The Redmi Note 11S supports dual-band Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5, and all the basic satellite navigation systems. It also has a 5,000mAh battery, which should be enough to last a full day on one charge, at the very least.