Redmi Note 11 First Impression: Can be it as Good as Redmi Note 10?

Xiaomi has launched the Redmi Note 11 in Nepal. It is an incremental upgrade of the Redmi Note 10.

Redmi Note 11 price in Nepal is Rs. 22,999 (4/64GB), Rs. 24,999 (4/128GB), and Rs. 26,999 (6/128GB).

I have used this device for 5-6 hours and I’ve got a mixed reaction. Let me tell you about it in this impressions article of the Redmi Note 11.

Redmi Note 11 Impressions

Design

• 159.9 x 73.9 x 8.1 mm
• 179g
• IP53
• Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Redmi Note 11 doesn’t steer away from the design of its sibling Redmi Note 10. The overall aesthetics looks similar to the Redmi Note 10 with slight changes.

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The rear panel has a cool finish with glitters spread around the whole panel. Our review unit is a star blue variant that doesn’t seem to catch fingerprints. The Note 11 also retains the IP53 water resistance that we have already seen on the Redmi Note 10.

Xiaomi has made the Note 11 slightly thinner than the Note 10 at 8.09mm but both of them weigh around 179 g.

Overall design aesthetics of the Redmi Note 11 is similar to the Note 10.

For ports and buttons, the volume and fingerprint integrated power buttons are on the right side. On the left, it has a dual sim slot and a dedicated micro sd slot. The bottom of the phone houses a mic, a Type-C port, and a speaker. On the top, it has a headphone jack, a second speaker, and an IR blaster.

Display

• 6.43 inches AMOLED
• 90Hz
• 1080 x 2400 pixels
• 20:9
• 700 nits

Redmi Note 11 gets an upgrade in terms of display with a 6.43 inches 90Hz AMOLED panel with a screen resolution of 1080 X 2400 pixels.

The 90Hz refresh rate panel looks smooth so far.

The color reproduction is good which is what we expect from an AMOLED panel. On top of that, the added 90Hz smoothness makes this a good upgrade over the Redmi Note 10’s 60Hz AMOLED panel.

Camera

• Rear Camera: 50 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), PDAF
  • 8 MP, f/2.2, 118° (ultrawide)
  • 2MP, f/2.4 (macro)
  • 2MP, f/2.4, (depth)
  • Video: 1080p@30fps

• Front Camera: 13MP, f/2.4

Note 11 gets a 50MP main sensor which is a minimal upgrade over the 48MP main sensor of the Redmi Note 10. Except that, it gets the same 8MP Ultrawide sensor, 2MP Macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor.

MAIN + ULTRAWIDE CAMERA

The photos from the main sensor and ultrawide sensor have a saturated color profile and the dynamic range also looks fine. The level of detail is good on the main sensor but the same cannot be said about the ultrawide sensor.

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We’ll take a deeper look in our full review.

FRONT CAMERA

On the front, there is a 13MP Selfie camera. I like the face tone of the selfies and the exposure also looks good.

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VIDEOS

Unlike the Redmi Note 10, the Note 11 doesn’t support 4K video recording. It is capped at 1080p 60fps. However, this limitation is due to the Spectra 346 ISP used on the Snapdragon 680 chipset.

Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G (6nm)
• Octa-core (4×2.4 GHz Kryo 265 Gold & 4×1.9 GHz Kryo 265 Silver)
• Adreno 610
• 128GB 6GB RAM

Redmi Note 11 is using the all-new Snapdragon 680 4G chipset. It features an Octa-core CPU with 4X Cortex-A73 cores and 4X Cortex-A53 cores.

The new chipset may look like a direct upgrade over the older Snapdragon 678 chipset used on the Redmi Note 10 but that’s not true. Snapdragon 678 uses 2X Cortex-A76 cores and 6X Cortex-A55 cores which provides better CPU performance. Along with that, it also has an Adreno 612 GPU which is better than the Adreno 610 GPU of the Snapdragon 680 chipset.

With that out of the way, the Redmi Note 11 still feels smooth in normal usage. The device sails through normal tasks like opening apps, app switching, and multi-tasking. I haven’t tested any games on this device but I’m guessing that it might not be as good as the Redmi Note 10.

We’ll test its full performance along with gaming performance in our full review.

Battery and OS

• Non-removable Li-Po 5000mAh battery
• 33W fast charging
• Android 11

Redmi Note 11 has a 5000mAh battery and comes with a 33W fast charger.

The battery capacity and the charging capacity remain the same as the Redmi Note 10. However, the Snapdragon 680 is a 6nm chipset which is much more efficient than the Snapdragon 678. So, we should see a better battery life than the Redmi Note 10.

I was expecting Redmi Note 11 to come with Android 12 out of the box but sadly it doesn’t. It uses MIUI 13 on top of Android 11.

We get the same MIUI experience with a split notification control panel. Xiaomi also claims that MIUI 13 offers better app fluency with 15% fewer dropped frames in third-party applications. Xiaomi’s native apps also run better on the new release, with 23% fewer dropped frames.

Follow Up

Redmi Note 11 is no doubt a good device but is it a good upgrade over the Redmi Note 10?

It gets a decent upgrade interms of display with 90Hz support but the Note 11 has lost 4k video support. And on top of that, the Snapdragon 680 looks like a downgrade over the Snapdragon 678 used on Redmi Note 10.

While it feels like a good device, it doesn’t seem to be a good upgrade over the Redmi Note 10. We’ll take a deeper look in our review.

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What do you think about the Redmi Note 11? If you have any questions or aspects of the device you want me to test for the full review, please let me know in the comments!

Also, watch our impressions of the Redmi Note 11 in Nepali.