This places the Note 11 Pro 5G in the same ballpark as the Poco M4 Pro 5G and the Nokia X10 , and just below the likes of the Realme 8 Pro and the Moto Edge 20 Lite. Things get worse when you get to 3D testing. I’m not really sure this needs all that much commentary: it has around half the performance of every other handset in our list, and suffice to say the difference between 41fps and 22fps in a game is very noticeable. With a 6.43-inch display, the overall dimensions of the phone are 159.9 mm x 73.9 mm x 8.1 mm (that's 6.3 inches x 2.9 inches x 0.32 inches), and it weighs in at 179 grams (0.39 pounds). What you don't get – and we wouldn't expect it at this price – is full waterproofing and dust-proofing: with an IP53 rating, you get dust and splash protection but no more than that, so don't drop it in the sink. But again, the Nokia G50 has a very slight edge with a touch more detail (look at the triangular light to the right of the plant), and the increased contrast makes for an overall more pleasing shot. The Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G can still play demanding games well enough, though. But Fortnite is limited to basic graphics settings at 30fps, and titles that actually let you use settings outside the capability of your phone – ARK: Survival Evolved, for example –will chug if you make the visuals look too nice.

The Redmi Note 11 has specs befitting its price: under the hood you get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor, 4GB or 6GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. We recommend going for the 128GB option, although there is a microSDXC card slot as well for expanding the amount of room you've got for apps and files. For even less cash, the Poco X3 Pro also trashes the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G. However, in person it’s not too bad. Other parts to the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G are typical Xiaomi. The phone comes with very good stereo speakers for a budget Android. Maximum volume is strong, the tone isn’t thin, and including drivers at the bottom and above the screen is always a benefit for landscape video and gaming. It’s a similar advantage in the GPU stakes, with our suite of GFXBench tests revealing the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G to be a cut above its rivals. Its superiority is comfortable rather than night and day, but it’s definitely got more potential as a budget gaming device than most of its peers.

The camera’s ISP, image signal processor, is also inferior. As we’ll cover in the camera section, it results in far worse image quality than its predecessor and a hard limit of 1080p/30fps video recording. These factors considered, the Snapdragon 695 starts to look like a budget processor rather than a mid-range unit. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G was released on 15 March, 2022. You can browse our range of pay monthly contracts at O2 today. We don’t see this effect in the Xiaomi 11T Pro, which uses the same Samsung HM2 sensor. The ISP may be to blame. This is the image signal processor, which is part of the Snapdragon 695 chipset. Its Spectra 346T ISP is weaker than the MI 11T Pro’s and, more notably, the Spectra 350 of the Redmi Note 10 Pro — even though it has a triple ISP to the last-gen phone’s dual ISP. Beyond those features, this is largely the same phone as the Redmi Note 11 Pro - it has a big FHD+ 6.67-inch screen, three rear cameras led by a 108MP monster, and MIUI software laid over Android 12.

Like many expensive smartphones, the Redmi Note 11 Pro combines 9 pixels of its 108 MP sensor into one pixel. The result is pictures that are supposed to be better in quality than a sensor with native 12 MP, according to the manufacturer. This impression cannot be confirmed directly in reality, but the photos of the main camera still make a good impression. With sufficient light, they are crisp and look convincing with rich, but not too gaudy colours. Calls to 05, 08 and 07 special numbers including calls and texts to Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man landline or mobiles We found that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus just isn’t great as a simple point-and-shoot camera: when we treated it like one, we stumbled into issues like skies that were blown out, animals that were out of focus and details in darker areas that were completely lost. It excels in display tech, with the 6.67-inch 120Hz OLED unlikely to be significantly bettered at this price.

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It could be worse. Phones at this level often do not have software stabilization at 4K, making the entire mode of limited value. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G at least stabilizes footage at 1080p. But having a frame rate cap of 30fps rather than 60fps feels like an insult. It’s not a super-cheap phone, and has “Pro” in its name. Such titles never meant much of anything removed from the context of their own ranges, but c’mon Xiaomi. The Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G looks quite different to its predecessor – and just about every other recent budget Xiaomi phone. Last-generation comparable Androids were large, curvy slabs that felt big. Too big for some, perhaps, but largely a good fit for an audience looking for a big-screen Android offering better value than a more crowd-pleasing Samsung. The Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G’s selfie camera has a 16-megapixel sensor that, after all the above complaining, does a perfectly respectable job. It can capture a decent amount of facial detail in good lighting, and doesn’t get embarrassingly soft indoors, either. Do pay attention to the facial smoothing, though –by default our phone was set to smooth out skin and make your face look thinner. Battery Life Water/dust-resistance is IP53, sufficient to guard against a little rain – but not submersion in water. It’s typically solid stuff of the type I expect to see from a Xiaomi device at this level, and the speakers are a genuine highlight of the phone.

The undersaturation problem is present on selfies taken by the Redmi Note 11’s 13MP (f/2.4) front-facing camera too. I assure you I’m not pale in real life, and the closest representation is the picture on the left with all beauty features turned off. The middle one is the default setting, and the one on the right is the result of turning beauty all the way up (so much for being in the eye of the beholder – sorry about the nightmares.) There are two options here. In the 120Hz mode, the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G should comfortably see you through a full day of moderately enthusiastic use, with some YouTube streaming and hours of audio streaming. Plus, the Pro device has a slightly large display at 6.67 inches, whist the non-pro stands at 6.43 inches. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 695 clearly is not a perfect fit for this phone, even if its raw CPU and GPU power are perfectly okay.

Rough around the edges, but fine for its price

Redmis are relatively reserved. At their best, this can mean they look more like a legit top-end phone than the showy budget Androids. The 4,500mAh battery will last you for a day, easily, but won’t stretch to a full second day - you’ll find yourself having to power up after about a day and a half if you’re ready to run your battery all the way down to zero. Accessibility of some certain features may vary across regions. The product pictures and features shown are for reference only, the images shown on the display screen are simulated, and for demonstration purposes only. Please take actual products as standard. All the phones use Xiaomi’s Android fork called MIUI, but while the other Note 11 handsets use MIUI 13, you’re only getting MIUI 12.5 here - presumably, it’ll get updated at some point soon though.