Wired charging speeds in smartphones have reached another milestone with the 120W HyperCharge fast-charging system in the Xiaomi 11T Pro. The 5,000mAh battery in the 11T Pro is said to go from zero to 100% in just 17 minutes. The phone took around 21 minutes in my testing, but that's still very impressive. Given its fast charging speed, you'd expect the 11T Pro to get really warm while charging. But I was pleasantly surprised that it was not the case. The rest of the 11T Pro is not as amazing, but it's a good upper mid-range smartphone that only falls slightly short in the camera department.
Quick specs
- 6.67-inch AMOLED (2,400 x 1,080 pixels), 120Hz
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G chip with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage
- Triple cameras: 108MP (main), 8MP (ultrawide) and 5MP (telemacro)
- 5,000mAh battery
Xiaomi has dropped the Mi branding for the 11T Pro. But it actually shares a pedigree with the Mi 11 launched earlier this year. For starters, both come with Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 888 5G chip. Coupled with the ample memory and storage, the 11T Pro feels fast and responsive. Especially as it also has a smooth 120Hz AMOLED screen. However, the resolution has dipped from the Mi 11's 1,440p to 1,080p for the 11T Pro. I don't really mind as this display is still bright and vibrant. It also supports Dolby Vision, which is available from popular video streaming services. Another significant change is the switch from the Mi 11's in-display fingerprint sensor to a 11T Pro's side-mounted capacitive version. Again, I don't mind the change, though this is probably because of the 11T Pro's more affordable price tag.
Like the Mi 11, the 11T Pro comes with three cameras, including a similar 108MP main camera. It is very good, picking up plenty of details with little noise while retaining good contrast that is true to the scene. The ultrawide camera, though, has been downgraded from 13MP on the Mi 11 to 8MP for the 11T Pro. This means a more drastic drop-off in quality when switching to the ultrawide. There are also several Hollywood-style features for videography that are fun to play with, such as a background time freeze effect, audio zoom, and a vlog mode with special effects. Night shots were decent enough, but it could really do with optical image stabilisation. Overall, the lack of a capable telephoto camera and the mediocre ultra-wide camera hold the 11T Pro back from competing with flagship camera systems.
To my surprise, the 11T Pro performed below par for its Snapdragon 888 chip in Geekbench 5. Its single-core score of 794 was much lower than the 1,127 for the similarly-equipped Mi 11. Meanwhile, its multi-core score was 3,178 compared to 3,603 for the Mi 11. I'm not quite sure what's happening here, but to be fair, the 11T Pro doesn't feel sluggish. It still runs fast and smooth, be it opening apps or navigating the user interface. Speaking of the interface, Xiaomi's MIUI continues to take design cues from iOS, especially the look and feel of its pull-down notifications and quick settings. I liked that the latter has controls for your smart home devices, so I don't have to open my Google Home app. However, it does lead to more clutter in the quick settings.
Xiaomi walks a fine line between giving the 11T Pro a unique selling point and keeping it distinct from the other models in the series. For the Xiaomi 11T Pro, the obvious highlight is the ridiculously fast charging speed. Everything else seems to be the result of Xiaomi mixing and matching from a pool of features to reach its desired price point. In this case, the magic number is S$799, which is S$300 less than the Mi 11. Given that you only lose several features (e.g. lower screen resolution, in-display fingerprint sensor, and wireless charging) going from the Mi 11 to the 11T Pro, I think S$799 is reasonable. Get the 11T Pro now at Lazada and Shopee.
Note: Review unit provided by Xiaomi.
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