The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra could be a parody of super-premium smartphones, given its feature set, design and huge camera.
If you told us the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra was a parody of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and iPhone 12 Pro Max -style superphones, we’d probably believe you. Its feature-set and design evoke those luxury phones, but one big ‘extra’ seems to shine a light on the ridiculousness of such high-price mobiles. This ‘extra’ is the rear camera bump, a material memo from Xiaomi telling us ‘you want more? You’ve got more’. It’s absolutely huge, and doesn’t just house three powerful cameras with giant lenses, but it also has a 1.1-inch secondary display too. Why does this phone have a second screen? Who knows, mobiles have got by without rear displays (no offense, Nubia Z20). It’s just one of many unnecessary additions that the Mi 11 Ultra has – but then again, aren’t most of the extra features this type of superphone has, equally gratuitous? The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s rear display is just the cherry on top of an all-around mega-mobile, with a top-spec display, powerful processor and top camera smarts completing the package. We’ve been playing around with the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra for a short while now – and ‘playing’ feels the right word to use, instead of ‘testing’, because that’s what using the phone feels like. We haven’t used the device for long enough to pass a decisive verdict yet. Until then, here are our initial impressions. When we wrote this hands-on Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra review, we didn’t know the price, though we do now. It costs £1,199 / AU$1,799 (roughly $1,670), and that nets you 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. That price is in the spirit of the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s $1,199 / £1,149 / AU$1,849 or the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,849. The phone went on sale in the UK on May 6, and just before then in Australia, but Xiaomi doesn’t sell its phones in the US. Sorry, Americans, you’ll have to stick with your primitive single-screen phones. Let’s start with the elephant in the room (well, the elephant on the back of the phone), the rear display. This rectangular chunk takes up about a quarter of the back of the phone, nearly matching its width but not too long, and sticks out really far.
