at that price, it’s hard to do better!
This is the “star” smartphone Xiaomi! It is sold annually by the whole pallet, and has allowed the Chinese manufacturer to become, within a few years, one of the most important players in France. The Redmi Note recipe is simple: explosive value for money, and technology integration usually found in much more expensive smartphones.
The Redmi Note 11 is no exception to the rule. From a design standpoint, there aren’t any major surprises: it uses the format and lines of its predecessors. The screen is still 6.43 inches, the back is still plastic, the selfie camera is still united in the form of bangs… Let’s just pay attention, on the back, the photo block is slightly modified compared to the previous generation.
Ergonomics: a very complete smartphone
Good news, Xiaomi isn’t cutting corners on smartphone equipment either, which is pretty solid for a terminal at this price. We really appreciate the presence of two SIM bays and a MicroSD port, especially ideal for adding rather weak memory (64GB on our test model). The jack, which has sadly disappeared from most high-end terminals, is also welcome. We are also entitled to a fingerprint sensor located on the edge, on the lock button, which also works well. We even end up with a few gadgets whose branding has secrets, like an infrared emitter tied to a remote control app. On the other hand, we’ll do without wireless charging here and of course… 5G. The Snapdragon 680 powering the device is a 4G chip only.
The set is however a success from a design and conception standpoint: despite the price, the smartphones are thin, well finished, and can easily pass through much more expensive terminals!
Screen: the joy of contrast from AMOLED 90 Hz
Xiaomi has brought the AMOLED screen and its infinite contrast with the previous generation. This time around, it’s another technology that’s making its first appearance on budget phones: fast-refreshing panels.
Admittedly, we didn’t reach the 120 Hz of a high-end smartphone, but the 90 Hz screen of the Redmi Note 11 is already very tolerable. This option is not enabled by default – obviously consumes more battery -, but provides undeniable visual comfort once enabled. It remains to be seen whether you will choose to take advantage of these minor improvements or make the most of the autonomy. On our side, we definitely like the second option.
For the rest, the plates are quite correct. The infinite contrast provided by OLED technology certainly deserves a thumbs up, especially for viewing videos. We clocked the Delta E – which measures color fidelity – at 5.55, which is far from outstanding, but not surprising in use. Brightness, measured by our lab at 695 cd/m22 is on average entry-level phones: we’re far from high-end smartphones of course, but it’s more than enough to view the screen properly, even in direct sunlight, provided you push the backlight to the background.
Performance: telephoto, but we’re used to it
Very nice. As can be said from the start, the Redmi Note 11 is not a beast of power. Our results are different seat prove it, as you can see in the table below, which compares it to much more powerful (and more expensive) smartphones.
The culprit was all found: it’s the Snapdragon 680, the chip that powers it. Newest and etched in 6nm, this entry-level SoC is more modern and clocked slightly better than the Snapdragon 678 that powers the Redmi Note 10 (2.4 GHz versus 2.2 GHz). On the other hand, the architecture is a bit different and the GPU (Adreno 610) is oddly less efficient than last year’s model (Adreno 612). This may explain the slightly lower performance we saw on certain scores.
But relying solely on numbers would be a mistake here. Because every day, the Redmi Note 11 offers completely honest copies. Navigating Android’s interface is often fluid, though we definitely felt some distraction, especially when you want to take advantage of the multitasking view or quickly switch from one program to another. Launching the app also takes a while, but is waiting any longer to see the Twitter or Google Maps interface open? In reality, not really.
What’s more annoying, and one we noticed after only a few minutes of use, is the lack of RAM and the ruthless management of programs in memory. The Redmi Note 11 that we tried only has 4 GB. It doesn’t do much in the Android and OS world, it no doubt supports smartphone autonomy (amazing, see below), it tends to “kill” apps in the background very quickly.
Result: those long loading times we mentioned above are very, very often part of the game when switching from one app to another. Again, this doesn’t get in the way, we’re used to it, but we’re definitely far from a more complete smartphone performance.
MIUI and bloatware issues
Let’s pause for a moment on the Xiaomi OS and the MIUI overlay. The Redmi Note 11 runs Android 11 and MIUI 13, the latest version of its overlay. The first thing to do after configuring your smartphone is to update it (we tested it on version 13.0.5) to remove some bugs and make navigation smoother.
After all, MIUI is a clean and well-optimized overlay. It’s less confusing when you’re used to “pure” Android, and looks a lot more like an iOS copy than before. Much better.
What we don’t like is the suite of integrated software that all prompts you to submit data sharing with Xiaomi or partners to benefit from it. This is for example the case of Weather, Xiaomi Video, note-taking apps… and so on. Worse, some applications, as they are called Security, for example, integrating ads that were a priori impossible to cut.
When configuring your smartphone, we therefore advise you to be careful about what you receive, and, in most cases, decline services that will, however, be of no use to you, or even taint your experience. This is especially the case of executable functions Carousel, who use Taboola’s services to offer you photos (usually of cats) and links to (generally) low-quality content. While collecting your personal data along the way. yuck. This is probably the ransom for a good phone for 200 euros…
No photo magic, but the right score in broad daylight
There are four photo modules on the back of the smartphone, but two of them are anecdotal. Firstly there is the depth sensor (2 Mpix) which is mainly used to enhance portraits, and the macro sensor, also 2 Mpix, which is of less interest every day.
Let’s be clear: photos are not the Redmi Note 11’s strong point, even if you can get an honest shot in good light conditions.
The main module has a very small (1/2.76 inch) 50 Mpix (f/1.8, 26 mm) sensor which gives very precise results in bright light, moderately well-exposed shots, surprising detail, with successful colorimetry…regardless of certain aberrations related to brutal digital processing.
The smallness of the sensor makes things very difficult at night: the shots then become very noisy, they lose a lot of detail: the smartphone struggles to get sharp.
As for the ultra wide angle, it’s not great, day or night, with significant image distortion in the corners, very noticeable noise, including with perfect light. In low light, the shot is very difficult to use.
In the video, the copy is also far from perfect. It’s even a bit of a disaster. The smartphone is content with 1080p recording at 30 frames per second. It’s hard to ask for better at this price, and we were delighted. On the other hand, we encountered a lot of problems during shooting, in particular the crash repeated as soon as we wanted to take a panorama, for example.
Great autonomy!
We end with what we believe to be the advantage, even the overwhelming advantage of this smartphone: its autonomy. According to our measurements, the Redmi Note 11, armed with a large 5000 mAh battery, ranks among the best smartphones from this point of view, with a versatile autonomy of 18:59, a benchmark that mimics the use of classic smartphones.
Our two weeks with the phone in our pocket confirm this remarkable observation. If we are satisfied with reasonable use (surfing, consulting e-mails, browsing, social networks, a few photos), the Redmi Note 11 can easily last more than two days without going through the charging box. This is very good, especially since Xiaomi hasn’t forgotten about fast charging, with a full charge in 1h07 and a 50% charge in 25 minutes. On !
