Xiaomi Launches Mi 11 Globally: Starting at 749€

Today Xiaomi is launching their new Mi 11 flagship for the global market, following their domestic launch of the phone in China almost 6 weeks ago.

The Mi 11 is an interesting device as it really balances out its features as a affordable flagship device. The European prices for the new phone start at 749€, featuring the new Snapdragon 888 SoC, and what seems to be a top-of-the line 1440p 120Hz OLED display, all while featuring a high-end 108MP camera module, though the phone compromises on its other cameras.

The new Mi 11 is powered by the Snapdragon 888 which we had a deeper dive into earlier today. The new chip’s CPU setup is definitely more powerful, as well as its GPU, however it can also be quite power hungry. I’m expecting Xiaomi’s implementation to be more aggressive than Samsung’s, allowing for higher power dissipation levels under sustained workloads – we’ll confirm this soon enough as we prepare for a review of the phone.

The design of the Mi 11 looks to be quite attractive, and it’s definitely a sleeker phone than the Mi 10, as Xiaomi was able to thin the phone by 0.9mm and also make it 12g lighter – doesn’t sound like much, but such differences can make for a substantial change in feel.

The phone features a 6.8” 3200 x 1440 OLED display that’s able to reach 120Hz refresh rates, as well as a staggering 480Hz touch input sample rate. Xiaomi advertises extremely high brightness levels; however, the company hadn’t commented on the OLED generation of the panel so as of right now we’re not sure if this is using one of Samsung Display’s newer emitter panels or if it even has VRR/LFD capabilities – but as of right now I’m assuming that it doesn’t.

On the camera side, the Mi 11 features their signature 108MP sensor, binning down to 27MP in regular photos. This generation Xiaomi has opted for different optics, going from f/1.69 to a new f/1.85 system – which in my view is absolutely the right choice as the previous generation did suffer from optical underperformance on the part of the main camera. The module here also has OIS.

Alongside the main sensor, we see a 13MP ultra-wide with 123°V FoV and f/2.4 optics, as well as a 5MP “telemacro” module with 2x magnification. I’m curious to see what this last module does, but I think most people should treat the phone as a dual-camera phone, which is absolutely just fine as well.

749€ - A great price

The big news today was the reveal of the global/European price of the new Mi 11: 749€ for the 8+128GB variant. This is actually a pretty great price, considering it’s competing against the likes of 999€ Galaxy S21+. The Xiaomi has some drawbacks in the camera department, though we’ll have to see how they compete against each other, but also has notable advantages such as a higher quality display, and the superior Snapdragon 888 in most global markets, which outperforms the new Exynos 2100.

In that regard, Xiaomi’s pricing seems to be spot-on, and of great value. We’ll be review the Mi 11 in the coming future.

Related Reading:

• Xiaomi Announces the Mi 11: First Snapdragon 888 Device
• Xiaomi Globally Launches Mi 10, Mi 10 Pro; Snapdragon 865 & 108MP Cameras
• The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro Review - A Solid Overall Value
• Xiaomi Announces Mi 10T & Mi 10T Pro: More Budget, But With 144Hz
• Xiaomi Launches Mi Note 10 Lite, Redmi Note 9 & Note 9 Pro Globally