Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G: Major hardware power for a mid-range price

Xiaomi obviously and understandably has every intention of maintaining its lead in India and has already launched its second big phone to set the tone for 2022. The company likes to call the Xiaomi 11T Pro the “Hyperphone” owing to the fact that specs are all but maxed out on the device while sticking to the tried and tested formula of surprising customers with a great price. Notice the dropping of the Mi branding, which has quite gone now that we’ve become accustomed to it.

There are three variants of the Xiaomi 11T Pro based on storage and RAM, giving those interested a bit of choice there. All else remains the same except, of course, the price. There’s the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant for ₹39,999, the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage model ₹41,999 and the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage model for ₹43,999. There’s no memory card slot, so storage gobblers may like to opt for one of the 256GB storage variants, specially as the price differences between the variants is hardly extreme.

The Xiaomi 11T Pro also comes in an eye-catching “Celestial Magic” design

Celestial Magic: Xiaomi has brought out the 11T Pro in a design they call Celestial Magic. It’s one of those effects with which you see lights reflecting on a glass surface and get a spectrum of colours. But while it’s a concept many companies have played with, it happens to be well executed here, making the phone look contemporary and premium. There are black and white versions as well, but the Celestial is the eye-catcher. The back is all smooth and matte and yes, definitely slippery, specially as the phone is quite large and it is not easy to grip it firmly for a long time. In short, you could definitely drop it so using the case provided may not be a bad idea.

Speedy charge: The box this phone comes in is nice and heavy and chunky, unlike the apologetic ones you get from Samsung and Apple now. There’s a huge fat 120W charger under the phone. It’s a good thing the device charges as fast as it does because carrying that charger around won’t be much fun. The phone itself is quite substantial because it has a 5,000mAh battery in it.

This is the second phone Xiaomi has launched in India with HyperCharge. It charges fully in around 25 minutes, though it’s rated to do so in between 17 and 19 minutes. There are lots of granular battery saving options if you care to explore the settings, so this is definitely a phone meant for heavy use. Before we move on from the box, I’d like to mention that there’s also a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle so you can use wired headphones. There’s no 3.5mm jack on the phone, but the dongle is a thoughtful addition. You get a screen protector installed, which is quite generous.

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The Xiaomi 11T Pro has big specs that are rare at this price

Hardware chops: The 11T Pro has big specs, but none that we haven’t encountered before. It’s just that they’re rare at this price. The 6.67-inch 10-bit 120Hz HDR10+ AMOLED display has received several awards. It has a touch sampling rate of 480Hz. It’s protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. The display supports Dolby Vision, so feast away on movies. It doesn’t have adaptive refresh but you can manually drop the refresh to 60Hz. It also has auto brightness that works smoothly without being horribly obvious. There’s a nice set of options for an Always-On display which includes being able to write your own message. The colours on this much-awarded display are good and so are the viewing angles. Consuming movies on this phone is a nice experience, specially with its stereo Harman Kardon speakers that are not just loud but sound really good. Dolby Atmos and hi-res music is supported on these balanced speakers.

The system-on-chip used on this phone is the familiar Snapdragon 888. Pair that with the 12GB LPDDR5 RAM (that’s the variant we got to see for review) and you have an extremely powerful phone. It’s more than great for all your everyday tasks and for medium intensity gaming. For long sessions of intensive gaming, reviewers are complaining of some amount of throttling and frame drops. There’s no heating issues.

The fingerprint sensor is not under-display but mounted on the side power button. There are some murmurs of discontent over that online, but none from me as I find the physical fingerprint sensor really nice and convenient to use, apart from being very fast. There’s no IP rating, so keep it out of the rain. There are 13 5G bands offered by way of connectivity and Wifi 6 is also supported.

When you first start the 11T Pro up, you’ll probably find Android 11 but upgrades that take you right up to Android 14 are promised. Also, MIUI — Xiaomi’s own interface — will upgrade to version 13, bringing many improvements. The device does have a smattering of unwanted apps such as Moj and the usual suspects, but I quickly uninstalled them and forgot their existence. It took the blink of an eye. I didn’t bump into any ads or annoying notifications, which is a blessing.

There’s a lot going on in the Xiaomi 11T Pro camera app

The primary camera on this phone is a 108MP. These days that’s beginning to sound par for the course. Using it in good light, you’ll find a nice dynamic range, adequate sharpness and detail. There’s also an 8MP ultra-wide and, one thing everyone’s quite thrilled about, a 5MP macro lens. It works well, focusing without a fuss from really close up. The selfie shooter is a 16MP. There’s a lot going on in the camera app, You have movie effects, dual video VLOG mode, etc. There’s no OIS but you can shoot 8K video at 30fps should you really find that missing in your life.

The flagship killer or mid-range premium category is heating up with great options, giving the Xiaomi 11T Pro plenty of competition to cope with. The one it’s compared with the most is the recently launched OnePlus 9RT which has the advantage of design, ergonomics and software; Xiaomi 11T beats it on battery life, camera performance and price.

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