Redmi Note 11 review
Redmi Note 11 review . The Redmi Note 11T 5G is the latest affordable smartphone in India to boast of 5G connectivity. This new model is the successor to the Redmi Note 10T 5G, which was launched less than six months ago. However, it wouldn’t be fair to treat the Redmi Note 11T 5G as a minor upgrade. This new smartphone is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 810 SoC, which is manufactured on a 6nm process. The Note 11T 5G also boasts of a 90Hz display and support for 33W fast charging.
So, do all these features help the Redmi Note 11T 5G stand out? I put the phone to the test to find out.
The Redmi Note 11T 5G starts at Rs. 16,999 in India for the base variant which has 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage costs Rs. 17,999, and the top-end option which has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage is priced at Rs. 19,999. As an introductory offer, Xiaomi is offering a Rs 1,000 discount and ICICI Bank is offering another Rs. 1,000 discounts to its card holders. These effectively bring the price down by Rs. 2,000 for each variant. Xiaomi offers the Redmi Note 11T 5G in three colours: Stardust White, Aquamarine Blue, and Matte Black.
The Redmi Note 11T 5G carries forward the company’s EVOL design language, which makes it familiar and recognizable. It has a big display with a hole for the front camera, and fairly thin bezels at the top and sides while the chin is thicker. The frame and the back panel are made of plastic but feel sturdy.
You’ll notice the 195g weight when you pick this device up, but it is manageable. The Redmi Note 11T 5G has its power and volume buttons on the right. These are within reach when holding the device. The power button has an integrated capacitive fingerprint scanner which makes it easy to unlock this phone. On the other side, you’ll only find the hybrid dual-SIM tray. Xiaomi has gone with stereo speakers on the Redmi Note 11T 5G; the grill on the top is positioned next to the secondary microphone and the IR emitter. At the bottom, the primary speaker is accompanied by the USB Type-C port, primary microphone, and 3.5mm audio jack.
The back panel only has the camera module, and it protrudes slightly. It’s big and might give the impression of a quad-camera setup, but it only houses two cameras. This is surprising since most phone manufacturers have been adding depth sensors and macro cameras to inflate the camera count for a while now.
I liked the Stardust White color variant that I received for this review for its striking looks. I also found that the back panel hides smudges quite well. Xiaomi provides a case in the box as well as a 33W charger to top up the big 5000mAh battery quickly. The Redmi Note 11T 5G is also IP53 rated for dust and splash resistance.
The highlight of the Redmi Note 11T 5G is its MediaTek Dimensity 810 SoC. This octa-core chip has two ARM Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.4GHz as well as six ARM Cortex A55 cores clocked at 2GHz. The lower-priced variants of the Redmi Note 11T 5G get 6GB of RAM with either 64GB or 128GB of storage. The higher-end variant has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and this is the one I had for this review. Xiaomi has added a memory extension feature which claims to use up to 3GB of storage space as additional RAM. This Virtual RAM feature was enabled by default on my device. You do get expandable storage, but it comes at the cost of the second Nano-SIM, since this phone has a hybrid dual-SIM slot.
The big 6.6-inch display sports a full-HD+ resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate, and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection. The refresh rate changes dynamically between 50Hz, 60Hz, and 90Hz based on the content on screen. I found the phone set to 60Hz by default, so you’ll need to enable this manually. The Redmi Note 11T 5G is dual 5G capable, and also supports dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.1, and dual-band Wi-Fi.
In terms of software, the Redmi Note 11T 5G runs MIUI 12.5 on top of Android 11, and my unit had the November Android security patch. MIUI is customized and lets users personalize it further. You still get a fair number of preinstalled apps on the phone including Xiaomi’s own Mi Credit and Mi Pay, but many of them can be uninstalled. Xiaomi has the three-button navigation layout enabled by default, but you can switch to gestures if you like. The power button can also be configured to perform an action when double-tapped.
Redmi Note 11 reviews
The Redmi Note 11T 5G has a crisp display, and it does get bright enough when outdoors. The refresh rate was set to 60Hz by default but bumping it up to 90Hz made animations and scrolling appear smoother. There are different display modes such as Vivid, Saturated, and Standard to choose from, and you can also tweak the color temperature of the panel. The dual speaker setup isn’t balanced, and I found the bottom speaker to be considerably louder than the one on the top.
I did not notice any lag or stutter while using the phone, and multitasking between different apps was effortless. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner is convenient and quick.
I ran synthetic benchmarks on the Redmi Note 11T 5G to see where the Dimensity 810 SoC stands. In , the phone managed 355,628 points. In Geekbench 5’s single-core and multi-core tests, it scored 604 and 1,808 points respectively, and it managed 9,071 points in PCMark Work 3.0. Graphics benchmarks did not run on the Redmi Note 11T 5G Redmi Note 11 review.
