1. Ultra Design
In terms of design, the MI 11 Ultra stands out from the crowd thanks to its huge camera module on the rear which we shall talk about in detail in the subsequent sections. While the materials used in the construction may be similar to most flagship smartphones, the MI 11 Ultra is recognizable from a distance due to the fact that the camera module covers the entire top portion of the phone, something that we’ve seen before on the OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk Edition and the Poco M3. The Mi 11 Ultra will be available in two color variants – White Ceramic and Black.
2. Ultra Display
The front of the Mi Ultra houses a 6.7-inch curved E4 AMOLED display that refreshes at 120Hz and has a QHD+ resolution, meaning it’s a 2K panel. Xiaomi claims that the display on the Mi 11 Ultra is DisplayMate A+ certified and has Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus protection. The display is HDR10 certified and also has support for Dolby Vision (comes back to Android after a long time). The display on the Mi 11 Ultra seems to be right up there with some of the best displays on a smartphone and well, it’s not the only display on the phone.
3. Unique Secondary Display
The concept of having a secondary display on the rear of a smartphone is not new. Meizu was one of the first brands to implement a secondary display below the camera module and there were multiple other brands like ZTE and Vivo that have done it in the past. This year, Xiaomi has decided to include it on the Mi 11 Ultra with a primary motive to allow users to click high-quality selfies from the rear-facing cameras instead of using the one on the front. Not just for selfies, but the OLED display on the rear can also be used to see alerts and notifications, answer/reject calls, check the time and battery percentage, etc.
4. Ultra Cameras
Surprisingly, Xiaomi has decided to drop the 108MP primary camera from the Mi 11 in favor of the Samsung GN2 which is a 50MP sensor on the Mi 11 Ultra. This might go on to show that megapixel count is not everything and the sensor size along with the size of each individual pixel matters more. For the ultra-wide camera, Xiaomi is using a 48MP IMX586 sensor with a 128-degree field-of-view. The same IMX586 is also being used for the telephoto camera that offers 5X optical zoom and up to 120X digital zoom.
5. Ultra Performance
The Mi Ultra undoubtedly gets the best smartphone processor on the Android side of things which is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, same as the one found on the Mi 11 and several other Android flagships including the Galaxy S21 Ultra from Samsung in the US. The SD 888 is accompanied by UFS 3.1 storage along with LPDDR5 RAM.
6. Ultra Battery
The Mi 11 Ultra does not compromise in the battery department either and comes with a 5000mAh cell that should ideally get you through a day’s usage. Given the large pixel-dense display and the 120Hz refresh rate, the big battery would surely come in handy. Not to forget, there’s even a secondary screen on the back.
7. Ultra-fast Charging
Along with a big 5000mAh battery, the Mi 11 Ultra has support for 67W fast charging and Xiaomi claims that the charger can top-up the phone from 0-100% in under 36 minutes, which given the size of the battery seems commendable. The good news is that the charger comes along with the phone and you don’t have to purchase it separately.
8. True Flagship Features
The Mi 11 Ultra does not skimp out on some minor flagship features like IP68 dust and water resistance, something that was absent on previous Xiaomi flagships. Also, the Mi 11 Ultra gets wireless charging support up to 67W which is one of the fastest we have seen on any smartphone.
9. Ultra Entertainment
In terms of content consumption, the Mi 11 Ultra offers an immersive experience not just with a large AMOLED HDR certified display, but Xiaomi has also focused on the speaker performance of the phone. The Mi 11 Ultra gets stereo speakers that are tuned by Harman Kardon and if you decide to go the wired earphones route, the phone is also high-res audio certified via the Type-C port.
10. High on Ratings!
The Mi 11 Ultra, as stated earlier, scores high in terms of its display, and as per DisplayMate’s testing, it gets an A+ certification indicating that it’s one of the best displays on a smartphone. Furthermore, DxOMark, the company known to certify phones based on-camera performance has given the Mi 11 Ultra a score of 143 which is the best that any smartphone has got until now. While they are just numbers, it shows that Xiaomi has gone all-in with the Mi 11 Ultra to stand true to the Ultra moniker.
11. Mi 11 Ultra Pricing and Availability
The Mi 11 Ultra is a complete powerhouse and Xiaomi has thrown in the kitchen sink this time which means the Mi 11 Ultra does not come cheap, at least compared to the pricing of most Xiaomi smartphones. The Mi 11 Ultra starts at 5999 Yuan ($915/INR 66,500) for the base 8+256GB variant and goes up to 6999 Yuan ($1,065/INR 77,500) for the top-of-the-line 12+512GB option. The phone will go on sale in China starting April 2nd while the availability outside China still remains unannounced. Would you like to see Mi 11 Ultra launch in India and other countries? Let us know through the comments section below.
