Xiaomi 11T Pro review: All hyped up, and raring to go

While the OnePlus phone starts at Rs 42,999, Xiaomi 11T Pro has a starting price of Rs 39,999. But is that a good price difference enough to help Xiaomi’s new phone stand out? Let’s find out in our review.

Xiaomi 11T Pro specifications: 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display, 120 Hz refresh rate | Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor | 8GB/12GB RAM + 128GB/256GB storage | 108MP+8MP+5MP rear camera + 16MP front camera| 5000 mAh battery with 120W fast charging | MIUI 12.5 with Android 11 |

Xiaomi 11T Pro sports a 120Hz display with full HD+ resolution. (Image credit:Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

Xiaomi 11T Pro price in India: Rs 39,999 for the 8GB RAM option; Rs 41,999 for the 8GB/256GB variant and Rs 43,999 for the 12GB/256GB variant

Xiaomi 11T Pro review: What’s good?

The Xiaomi 11T Pro comes in three colour options: Black, White and Celestial magic. The last one takes on light purple, blue, violet tones depending on how the light hits it. The colour might be a bit too flashy for some, but it is a striking look no doubt.
The camera unit does jut out at the back, but not too much. The back glass gets covered in fingerprint smudges very quickly. So yes, you will spend a lot of time cleaning that lovely ‘Celestial Magic’ colour to keep it spotless if you plan to use this without a cover.

The phone sports a 6.67 inch full HD+ display AMOLED display. The display refresh rate goes up to 120 Hz, which is what most users now expect in this segment. The default setting remains at 60 Hz. The display panel also supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision as well. And the display is excellent no doubt. In outdoor usage too, it was easily legible, though there’s hardly any bright sunshine these days to really put it to the test.

Xiaomi 11T Pro’s rear camera is seen here. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

The phone has dual speakers placed at the top and bottom, with audio tuned by Harman Kardon. I enjoyed gaming, watching a few episodes of a Korean drama, and some anime movies on this phone. The audio on this boosts the overall multimedia experience on the device.

The phone runs the top end Snapdragon 888 chipset, and I had the 12GB RAM+256GB storage variant for review. Xiaomi will let you crank up the RAM by another 3GB with the help of the virtual RAM feature on both variants. But 12GB should be enough for most users, including those who want to push this for gaming. And it does deliver a smooth performance. Whether it was for games like Sky or Genshin Impact or Asphalt 9, or simply scrolling for content, the phone handled it all pretty well. It did get a bit warm towards the top when I was gaming for too long. But given the Delhi weather these days, I’m not complaining.

Xiaomi 11T Pro runs the Snapdragon 888 chipset and is more than capable of heavy-duty tasks. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

The camera performance is impressive as well. It comes with a 108MP camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera and 5MP macro-camera. This one has a different Image Signal Processor (ISP) compared to the 11i series though. And it shows in most of the results.

The image quality is pleasing, they are sharper and with an improved colour range. Even those taken indoors had accurate colours for most parts. The 108MP camera mode delivered excellent results too, and details were well preserved when zooming into these high-res photos.

Xiaomi 11T Pro camera sample. Image resized for web. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

A camera sample taken from the Xiaomi 11T Pro. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

A picture recropped from the 108MP mode. The camera managed to preserve details despite the trees being at quite a distance. The image has been resized from the original 12000px resolution. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

The macro also fared surprisingly well in proper lighting conditions. There was no burning of images and it handled reds and pinks in a balanced way. In low-light too, the camera performed very well, retaining details and colour tones accurately. Just make sure there is some light source when clicking photos in this mode and stay very still.

Xiaomi 11T Pro camera sample in macro mode. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

Xiaomi 11T Pro camera sample in macro mode. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

Xiaomi 11T Pro camera sample in macro mode. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

The phone also gets the 120W fast charging and this has a 5000 mAh battery, which should be good enough for most users. I got more than a day’s usage and this was spent watching shows, gaming, browsing social media websites and taking pictures.

The fast charging is supposed to get the phone from 1 to 100 in just 17 minutes. Yes, this is great, but not the major selling point in my view. What you need to note is that when I put the phone to charge at 1 percent, it reached close to 50 per cent in just 5-6 minutes. Frankly, that’s good enough for most crunch situations.

Also, keep in mind that to get a full charge in 17 minutes, you need to put the phone in Airplane mode, and have the screen turned off. But unlike the Xiaomi 11i Hypercharge, the 120W charging is turned on by default here.

A camera sample taken in Night mode with the Xiaomi 11T Pro. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

A camera sample taken in Night mode with the Xiaomi 11T Pro. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

Xiaomi 11T Pro review: What’s not so good?

Xiaomi still needs to do a better job when handling skin tones. I noticed this while clicking pictures of my son while he sat still–a rare moment in a toddler’s life. In some pics, his skin tone appears very close to natural, while in others he is whiter than a ghost. And these are pictures taken a few seconds apart. The ultra-wide camera still feels underwhelming.

Finally, MIUI 12.5 remains far from perfect given it does not let you get rid of some unnecessary apps such as GetApps. However, Xiaomi has promised three years of software updates and four years of security updates for the device. It has also promised a faster rollout to MIUI 13 and Android 12 when that starts taking place globally.

Xiaomi 11T Pro delivers on most promises, especially around performance. (Image credit: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)

Xiaomi 11T Pro review: Verdict

Xiaomi’s 11T Pro is definitely a feature-packed phone for its starting price of Rs 39,999. The phone delivers on all key aspects: design, performance, camera and battery. Perhaps the one major aspect where it will struggle against the OnePlus 9RT is around software given OxygenOS is closer to stock Android. But if that’s not such a concern, I would say that this is the device to beat at the Rs 40,000 price mark.