Xiaomi 11T Pro review: 120W fast charging isn’t enough to save this phone

Xiaomi tweaked its flagship method in 2020: it launched the Mi 10 sequence within the summertime and adopted it up with a value-focused Mi 10T six months later. OnePlus mastered this dual-release cycle over the previous seven years, so it made sense for Xiaomi to adjust to swimsuit.

As a finish end result, Xiaomi’s flagship portfolio is stronger than ever. The Mi 11 and Mi 11 Extremely are among the many many greatest Android telephones, and Xiaomi made much-needed modifications to its software program program with MIUI 12.5. The Chinese language producer moreover turned its consideration to charging tech; it was outmatched on this area by its BBK rivals — with OnePlus and OPPO delivering 65W charging as commonplace — so Xiaomi clearly wished a win proper right here.

With the 11T sequence, it has managed to do precisely that. The Xiaomi 11T Professional affords 120W fast charging as commonplace, with the 5000mAh completely charging in merely 20 minutes flat. The phone may also be the first in a rebrand that sees the producer switch earlier its Mi roots and as a substitute swap to eponymous branding for its flagships.

With the Xiaomi 11T Professional offering the latest silicon, a 120Hz AMOLED panel, and insanely-fast charging, it has all the substances for a standout price flagship. So let’s be taught the way in which it holds up in the direction of its rivals, and whether or not or not it’s greatest to decide on up the Xiaomi 11T Professional in case you’re accessible out there for a model new price flagship.

The Xiaomi 11T Professional made its debut on September 15 alongside the Xiaomi 11 and 11 Lite NE 5G. The phone is now accessible in European markets for €649 ($760). It’s purchased in Celestial Blue, Moonlight White, and Meteorite Grey shade variants, and you might select it up in two memory configurations: the 8GB/128GB mannequin costs €649 ($760), and the 8GB/256GB variant is on the market for €699 ($820). Within the UK, the underside model goes for £549 ($747).

Xiaomi launched the 11T Professional in India on January 19, and the phone is on the market in two variants inside the nation. The 8GB/128GB mannequin costs ₹38,999 ($520), and the 8GB/256GB variant is on the market for ₹41,999 ($562).

Xiaomi 11T Professional Design and show

Whenever you take a look at Xiaomi’s current portfolio, it’s clear that the mannequin is trying out fully completely different designs. The Mi 11 had a recent aesthetic with a model new digital digicam housing that made it stand out, and the Redmi Word 10 sequence emulated a similar design language. The Mi 11X sequence (purchased globally as a result of the POCO F3, nonetheless, had a further mainstream design with just some tweaks to the digital digicam housing, and the Xiaomi 11T follows within the similar vein.

The Xiaomi 11T Professional has an underwhelming design, and it’s unwieldy to utilize.

Whereas the Mi 11 featured a glass once more, the Xiaomi 11T Professional comes with a polycarbonate finish as a substitute. This isn’t a large deal; in any case, Xiaomi wanted to avoid wasting costs someplace, and it’s wise for the mannequin to take motion with the design comparatively than hobble the inside {{hardware}}. That talked about, the design of the 11T Professional doesn’t excite me the least bit, notably the Meteorite Grey variant. The Celestial Blue and Moonlight White decisions look much more attention-grabbing, so for those who’re eyeing this phone, you’ll want to select up each of those variants.

The Meteorite Grey model has a brushed aluminum look beneath the polycarbonate once more, and there are large rings around the precept digital digicam modules. Nonetheless, the rectangular housing makes it look boxy, and it doesn’t truly switch the needle with regards to design. One other issue with the 11T Professional is the dimensions; with a width of 76.9mm, that is among the many widest telephones I’ve used — it’s 1.3mm wider than the S21 Extremely, 2.3mm wider than the Mi 11 and Mi 11 Extremely, and 0.5mm larger than the POCO F3. So although the phone has curves on the once more the place it meets the mid-frame, it’s not notably comfortable to hold and use.

I don’t truly understand why the phone wanted to be so broad; it makes using it merely that little bit further tedious, and the thickness of 8.8mm and weight of 204g don’t make points any easier. The 11T Professional makes use of a dual-cell design to facilitate 120W fast charging, nevertheless so do the Discover X3 and OnePlus 9, and other people devices aren’t wherever as unwieldy as Xiaomi’s offering.

The mid-frame itself is made out of aluminum, with a matte finish making it significantly easier to grab the phone on the perimeters. The port format and button configuration is unchanged: you’ll uncover the ability and amount buttons on the proper, USB-C port on the bottom, dual-SIM housing to the left of the charging port, and stereo sound with balanced channels at each end of the phone.

As for ingress security, the 11T Professional will get a splash-proof IP53 rating, similar to the Redmi Word 10 sequence. With Xiaomi offering IP68 water resistance on the Mi 11 Professional and Mi 11 Extremely, I figured this is perhaps a daily operate all through all premium devices going forward. However that isn’t to be, and the 11T Professional is restricted on this area. Equally, you miss out on an in-screen fingerprint reader, with the phone as a substitute using a side-mounted module that’s baked into the ability button — as soon as extra, similar to the Redmi Word 10 sequence.

For a phone that costs this loads, the Xiaomi 11T Professional’s design selections are baffling. It isn’t easy to hold or use, the design itself is comparatively boring, there isn’t any IP68 water resistance, and you don’t get an in-screen fingerprint sensor.

Whereas the design itself is underwhelming, that’s luckily not the case with the present. You get a 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED show with 120Hz refresh price and Dolby Imaginative and prescient, with skinny bezels and a centered cutout for the doorway digital digicam module.

The panel itself is among the many best on this class; Xiaomi has made a habits of offering high-quality AMOLED panels that are calibrated successfully, and that’s no fully completely different with the 11T Professional. You get rich colors with superb distinction ranges, good viewing angles, and I had zero factors with visibility beneath daylight.

Fortunately, Xiaomi nailed the transient proper right here — the 11T Professional has top-of-the-line 120Hz AMOLED panels spherical.

As is the case with most Xiaomi telephones, you get an trustworthy amount of customizability: the anti-flicker mode permits DC dimming, there’s a devoted Studying Mode, you’ll be capable of regulate the color stability to your tastes (there are three preset modes), and you will discover an AI image engine that reinforces distinction and brightness for locally-stored photos and streaming films. Oh, and likewise you get motion smoothing as successfully.

You may even organize AOD, with Xiaomi supplying you with a great deal of customization decisions proper right here as successfully. It’s nice to stream films and play video video games on the system, with the extremely efficient stereo sound making a large distinction. That is among the many best panels you’ll uncover inside the price flagship part, and the show itself is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass Victus.

Whereas Xiaomi nailed the basics, the one issue that continues to hassle me with its telephones is that they’re set to 60Hz refresh out of the sphere. Xiaomi is the one mannequin that does this; all completely different telephones I’ve used with 90Hz or 120Hz present the higher refresh price as a result of the default chance. It’s understandable why Xiaomi opted to take motion — it must maximise battery life, and it’s easy enough to enter the settings to change the show refresh. But it surely’s solely attainable that some prospects will miss seeing the selection altogether, and Xiaomi should make it easier to change to 120Hz whereas organising MIUI.

Xiaomi launched a scaling mode for itsMi 10T sequence closing 12 months that allowed the show to dynamically alter refresh based totally on the use case, nevertheless that operate is however to make its technique to the mannequin’s AMOLED-powered telephones. On the 11T Professional, you get the flexibleness to change between 60Hz and 120Hz.

Xiaomi 11T Professional Efficiency and battery

Coming over to the {{hardware}} side of points, it’s a acquainted story: the 11T Professional is powered by the beastly Snapdragon 888, and as you’ll have the opportunity to consider, it delivers glorious effectivity. I’ve by no means truly had any factors with any of the Snapdragon 888 telephones I’ve used so far, and that’s the case with the 11T Professional as successfully. The diploma of power on present is overkill for a lot of day-to-day duties, and even all through demanding video video games, there isn’t any throttling or lag.

Equally, I didn’t uncover any factors in day-to-day use. With 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage as commonplace, there’s larger than enough memory and storage out of the sphere, and there may be moreover a 256GB model if the underside variant doesn’t pretty scale back it to your use case.

The 11T Professional did an trustworthy job with the basics; I didn’t have any factors with Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, and I paired the system with the perfect wi-fi earbuds and it maintained a reliable connection over Bluetooth 5.2. Name top quality was equally good, and the phone held up merely fantastic the few situations I turned off Wi-Fi to verify the cell connectivity.

On that discover, the 11T Professional has 5G connectivity, and it has an trustworthy set of Sub-6 bands: n1/3/5/7/8/20/28/38/40/41/66/77/78. A variety of firms have been stingy on this regard — looking at you, OnePlus — nevertheless that isn’t the case with Xiaomi proper right here, so it’s greatest to get first price 5G safety in markets the place the phone is formally purchased.

There truly shouldn’t be quite loads missing proper right here, and at least with regards to the {{hardware}}, the 11T Professional ticks all the proper containers. The indisputable fact that it’s working the Snapdragon 888 means you shouldn’t see any slowdowns for the foreseeable future. The Snapdragon 865-powered devices proceed to ship unimaginable effectivity in most utilization eventualities, and it’s solely seemingly that I’ll be saying the similar think about a 12 months’s time regarding the Snapdragon 888.

The marquee operate on the Xiaomi 11T Professional is the short charging tech. The phone has a giant 5000mAh battery with a dual-cell design that options two 2500mAh cells that price concurrently. The battery life by itself is unbelievable; I averaged successfully over a day’s value of use from a full price.

In the event you want the fastest-charging phone proper now, it would be best to choose up the 11T Professional.

However what makes the phone actually stand out is the 120W HyperCharge charging tech. Xiaomi bundles the 120W charger inside the area, and whereas it’s gigantic by proper now’s GaN necessities, it does a terrific job delivering as a lot as a 120W price to the phone at 20V/6A. You would possibly need to use the bundled charger and USB-A to USB-C cable to have the power to hit 120W, and while you do, you will note an animation on the show to level that the phone is charging on the quickest velocity.

The phone itself doesn’t get too scorching whereas charging, and the dual-cell configuration means it takes merely 20 minutes for the battery to fully price. If you’re using the phone whereas charging, it’s going to fall once more to 24W to verify it doesn’t overheat. Not like the Xiaomi 11i, the charging tech shouldn’t be hobbled out of the sphere; you get the entire 120W proper right here.

That talked about, although the charging tech is marketed as 120W, a bulk of the charging is completed at 70W to 80W. What makes Xiaomi’s 120W tech stand out from the 65W VOOC 2.0 commonplace is just far into the price cycle it is able to ship a greater current; whereas the Discover X3 Professional falls once more to 24W or 20W after hitting 60%, the 11T Professional maintains 70W for longer. Finally, that’s what permits the 11T Professional to take merely 20 minutes to fully price the battery.

The stellar battery life blended with the insane 120W charging means the Xiaomi 11T Professional is the outright winner on this class. Xiaomi says even with 120W charging, there is not going to be any noticeable battery degradation as a lot as 800 price cycles, and given how successfully telephones with 65W charging tech have held up over the previous two years, I’ll give Xiaomi the benefit of the doubt on this area.

Xiaomi 11T Professional Cameras

It seems to be like Xiaomi has used the 108MP digital digicam in most of its telephones, with the 11T Professional that features the Samsung HM2 sensor for the primary lens. There’s moreover an 8MP f/2.2 wide-angle lens, a 5MP macro with autofocus, and a 16MP f/2.45 digital digicam on the doorway.

Xiaomi nonetheless makes it inconvenient to entry the macro mode (it’s tucked away inside the settings), and the digital digicam interface itself is unchanged from the Mi 11 sequence. You’ll uncover the capturing modes laid out on the bottom, and you might change the place or add modes as wished. There’s a Professional mode that provides you handbook controls, and you will discover Xiaomi’s Film Results mode that provides you a set of six attention-grabbing outcomes to take a look at for video recording.

Xiaomi makes use of 12-to-1 pixel binning to ship a 12MP {photograph} with the 108MP sensor, and there may be moreover a full-res mode. Whereas the Mi 10T sequence missed out on video recording, that’s luckily not the case this time — the 11T Professional will get the flexibleness to shoot 8K at 30fps, and 4K at 60fps. There’s moreover an Audio Zoom mode that enhances the audio from the subject in focus.

The 108MP sensor is a acknowledged quantity at this degree, and the Xiaomi 11T Professional takes first price enough photos in its private correct. Photographs taken in daylight have a saturated look with a great deal of particulars and good dynamic differ, nevertheless there’s an extreme quantity of processing taking place, and that in the long run makes foliage look overly straightforward.

As for low-light images, there’s a night mode that robotically kicks in as a rule, and it does an excellent job eking out highlights and minimizing noise from images. That talked about, dynamic differ is restricted in most low-light eventualities, and more often than not, the first shot you end up taking will in all probability be blurry. The devoted Evening Mode makes a large distinction in delivering usable images at night, and luckily, Xiaomi has added this mode to the wide-angle lens as successfully.

Total, the 11T Professional does a fairly good job considering there isn’t any OIS, nevertheless for what it costs, you’ll uncover a great deal of telephones that take greater photos. The commonplace Mi 11 continues to be a unbelievable choice on this class, and the reality that it’s now on sale makes it a considerably higher varied to the 11T Professional in case you desire a phone for taking photos and recording video.

Xiaomi 11T Professional Software program

The Xiaomi 11T Professional ran MIUI 12.5.3 based totally on Android 11 out of the sphere, and it purchased an substitute to MIUI 12.5.4 with stability and bug fixes. In regular, I similar to the trail Xiaomi has taken with MIUI 12.5; the under-the-hood optimizations have made the interface actually really feel further fluid, Xiaomi mounted long-standing bugs spherical push notifications, and the flexibleness to uninstall all nevertheless seven system apps is a daring step forward.

With three assured updates, the 11T Professional will make the swap to Android 14 as quickly as that turns into accessible.

And with the 11T sequence, Xiaomi is changing into a member of Samsung and completely different principal Android producers in offering three assured Android platform updates along with 4 years of security updates. It is a big deal, notably considering Xiaomi’s efforts on this area have lagged behind its rivals. The draw again is that older Xiaomi telephones aren’t assured the similar, nevertheless Xiaomi is inclined to elongate the protection to at least the Mi 11 sequence.

Because of longer-term updates and the modifications in MIUI 12.5, the 11T is a gorgeous chance on this class. Whereas Xiaomi continues to roll out adverts on some value vary devices, that’s luckily not the case on the 11T Professional. That talked about, there are only a few software program program quirks — I’ve encountered bugs on every Xiaomi phone I used over the previous six years, so it was an extreme quantity of to think about that points may very well be any fully completely different with the 11T Professional.

First up is the situation with the app drawer. Though MIUI now comes with an app drawer and likewise you get the selection to permit it whereas organising the phone, the UI gives icons for all the put in apps to the home show. Then there’s notification badges; they might not current up for Newton Mail even thought I manually enabled the operate. There was moreover some wonkiness spherical scaling and darkish mode, and whereas I didn’t face any factors with push notifications or see any evident faults inside the interface, know that MIUI 12.5 nonetheless has just some bugs.

The 11T Professional debuted in India in January, nonetheless it doesn’t run Android 12 out of the sphere. Xiaomi shouldn’t be acknowledged for delivering nicely timed updates to its telephones, so whereas I like the reality that the system will get further updates, the timeliness of the updates are moreover merely as essential.

Xiaomi 11T Professional The opponents

The obvious varied to the 11T Professional is the Mi 11. The phone launched at first of 2021, nonetheless it has the similar inside {{hardware}}, a higher-res QHD+ show with the similar 120Hz refresh, and cameras that are unimaginable. The battery life shouldn’t be almost pretty much as good as a result of the 11T Professional and likewise you solely get 55W fast charging, nevertheless there’s 50W wi-fi charging as successfully, and the phone has a considerably higher design and is simpler to hold and use. The Mi 11 launched for €799 ($940) nevertheless is now selling for €699 ($820), making it a standout deal. Within the UK, it’s all the way in which all the way down to £579 ($787), or the equal of $40 larger than the 11T Professional.

After all, there’s moreover the OnePlus 9 to ponder. OnePlus’ chance on this class has a surprising design, extremely efficient {{hardware}} with a 120Hz AMOLED panel, clear software program program with a great deal of customizability, and Hasselblad-tuned cameras. It moreover has 65W fast charging and 15W wi-fi charging, and may get three Android updates. Just like the Mi 11, the OnePlus 9 costs €699 ($820) inside the space, and over in India, you’ll be capable of select it up for merely ₹44,999 ($600).

If you’re making an attempt to keep away from losing cash, the standard Xiaomi 11T has most of the related choices as a result of the 11T Professional, nevertheless is as a substitute powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1200, and has 67W fast charging. On the upside, it’s accessible for €549 ($645), a full €100 decrease than the 11T Professional.

Xiaomi 11T Professional Do you have to buy it?

You should purchase this if …

You want a price flagship with high-end {{hardware}}

The Xiaomi 11T Professional delivers an elegant 120Hz AMOLED panel with the latest Qualcomm silicon, 5G connectivity, and the latest memory and storage modules. There’s nothing missing proper right here from an {{hardware}} standpoint, and the high-end internals blended with extremely efficient stereo sound makes this a unbelievable gaming phone.

You want the latest charging tech

The 120W fast charging tech locations the 11T Professional in a league of its private. The battery life by itself is unbelievable — lasting successfully over a day — and when you consider the reality that you’ll get a full price in merely 20 minutes, the 11T Professional is a battery monster like no completely different.

You desire a phone which will get long-term updates

With the 11T Professional, Xiaomi is lastly offering three Android platform updates as commonplace. This has been a really very long time coming, and whereas it might need made further sense for Xiaomi to kick off long-term updates with its flagships, it’s nonetheless a terrific start.

You shouldn’t buy this if …

You want a waterproof phone

The Xiaomi 11T Professional comes with an IP53 rating, and whereas it may stand as much as the occasional splash of water, it’s not waterproof. So for those who’d like a phone that you could use on the pool or in a shower, you have to to strive the Mi 11 Extremely or completely different flagships.

You desire a standout digital digicam

You’re getting first price cameras proper right here, nevertheless the Xiaomi 11T Professional doesn’t pretty keep its private in the direction of the Mi 11 sequence. So in case you desire a phone that takes fantastic photos in any lighting scenario, you’re greater off with the Mi 11.

The Xiaomi 11T Professional is a puzzling launch from Xiaomi. Positive, the {{hardware}} itself is phenomenal and likewise you’re getting 120W fast charging and three platform updates, nonetheless it doesn’t stand out enough in the direction of its siblings inside the Mi 11 sequence.

3.5
out of 5

Mix that with the reality that the cameras don’t measure as a lot because the Mi 11 and it’s missing IP68 water resistance, and the 11T Professional shouldn’t be an excellent price. You might be paying a premium proper right here for that 120W fast charging and three assured Android platform updates.