Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Review Philippines: Mid-range Standard

Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Review Philippines: Mid-range Standard

Review verdict:The Redmi Note 11 gives fans in the Philippines a great-looking AMOLED display and powerful cameras at an attractive price point though at the cost of certain trade-offs that not many people will like.

Pros

  • AMOLED panel on a sub-10K phone
  • High-resolution primary cameras

Cons

  • No 5G
  • Plain design
  • Some gaming hiccups with the processor

Redmi Note 11 Review Philippines Specs

  • Snapdragon 680 processor
  • 4GB/6GB RAM
  • 64GB/128GBGB storage
  • 6.43-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display, 90hz refresh rate
  • 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with PDAF, 8-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera, 2-megapixel f/2.4 macro camera, 2-megapixel f/2.4 depth sensor
  • 13-megapixel f/2.2 selfie camera
  • 4G
  • WiFi, Bluetooth 5.1, side-mounted fingerprint scanner
  • Stereo speakers, IP53 rating
  • 5000mAh battery
  • 33w wired charging
  • Android 11, MIUI 13

Xiaomi’s disrupting the market yet again with their new Redmi Note 11 in the Philippines. The new phone offers a bright, vibrant AMOLED panel with a high-resolution snapper, though fans looking for more powerful innards may walk away disappointed.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Review Philippines: Affordable Premium Display

Design

The Redmi Note 11 features a new design highlighted by flat edges and round corners. Although the chassis is made out of plastic, which is expected for phones in this price range, the Note 11 doesn’t look cheap. It also doesn’t feel cheap to hold and touch. However, it looks dull and boring, especially in its plain black color. 

At the back of the phone, you can find the Redmi logo together with some CE labels. There is also a huge camera module that somehow complements the overall appearance at the back. 

Located at the right side of the phone are the volume rocker and the power button which doubles as a fingerprint sensor. There is also a 3.5mm jack at the top, a Type-C port at the bottom, and 2 speakers at both sides.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Review Philippines: Affordable Premium Display

Display

For the first time ever, the Redmi Note 11 comes equipped with a large AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. A first not just in this model series but in the whole segment as well. The display is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Review Philippines: Affordable Premium Display

As expected with every AMOLED display, the colors are bright, vibrant, and sharp. For its price, it’s actually hard to believe that it comes with such a beautiful display. However, this display is slightly ruined by the thick bezels on all four sides of the phone and the tacky punch-hole at the center-right corner which houses the 13-megapixel selfie camera.

It’s difficult not to appreciate the beautiful display on this phone, whether you’re binge-watching or just web browsing. It makes movies more entertaining and social media scrolling more engaging. The 90Hz refresh rate makes scrolling through Facebook, Instagram and TikTok a lot smoother than phones that have displays locked to just 60Hz.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Review Philippines: Affordable Premium Display

Cameras

Just like the display, the camera of the Redmi Note 11 is very impressive considering its price. In charge of taking photos at the rear is a 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with PDAF, together with an 8-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera and two additional filler cameras for both macro and depth. For selfies, there’s a 13-megapixel f/2.2 selfie camera at the front.

Safe to say, the Redmi Note 11 punches above its weight camera-wise. In fact, the photo quality is similar to that of certain mid-range phones that typically are priced double what Xiaomi is asking for with the Redmi Note 11. There is hardly a difference in terms of color reproduction, low-light performance, and amount of details even when zoomed.

Check out the samples below:


The photos don’t approach flagship levels obviously, but from what we’ve seen with the device, it’ll be more than enough for most people primarily looking to upload their snaps to social media.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Review Philippines: Affordable Premium Display

Performance, software, battery

Inside the Redmi Note 11 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor, with two RAM and storage variants: 4GB/64GB and 8GB/128GB.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 CPU, with Adreno 610 GPU, inside this Redmi Note 11 is an upgrade from the Redmi Note 10’s Snapdragon 678. It’s built on a smaller 6nm node versus the latter’s now-archaic 11nm process. Despite all this, the chip felt it lacked oomph for tasks other than social media browsing, video conferencing, video streaming, and the like. It’s likely that the said upgrade focused more on efficiency rather than performance.

Having said all that, don’t expect a smooth gaming experience in hardware demanding games such as Genshin Impact, Fortnite, and Asphalt 9 Legends. However, games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and League of Legends: Wilf Rift are very manageable, especially in the lowest graphics settings. It’s a shame, because performance-focused games like Genshin Impact, Fortnite, and Asphalt 9 Legends look great on the AMOLED display. You can always compromise and drop your graphics settings to low, but that’s a tradeoff some may not like. 

Take note too that the base model of the phone will have only 64GB of storage, a majority of which will have been consumed by the OS and other bits that keep the phone running. There is an option to further expand the storage up to 1TB via a microSD though.

Additonally, the phone also does not have 5G support, though it’s not surprising considering its pricing. 

The phone runs on MIUI 13 over Android 11. So far, there isn’t anything problematic with the OS and the UI is noticeably user-friendly.

As for the battery, the 5000mAh is nothing special by today’s standards. Battery life is also something you’d expect, it consumed 75% of the charge after 9 and a half hours of usage. Fortunately, the phone has a 33W wired charging speed which is impressive. It also scored 16 hours and 56 minutes on the PCMark battery test.

Wrap-up and verdict

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 is a good phone as we found out in our review for it in the Philippines, thanks to its beautiful display and good cameras but there are caveats. Budget gamers looking for a high-performance phone at the price point may not like the compromises to graphical fidelity we had to make with the Redmi Note 11’s processor for more graphically intense titles, but that might be a small complaint in a phone that’s brimming with value.

Redmi Note 11 Review Price Philippines

The Redmi Note 11 is priced at Php 8,999 for the 4GB/64GB variant and Php 9,999 for the 8GB/128GB variant and will be available at authorized Xiaomi stores and the brand’s official Lazada and Shopee stores. Those pre-ordering from February 11 to 18 or buying either variant during the open sale from February 19 to 20 will get a pair of Redmi Buds 3 with their purchase.

 

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