Xiaomi’s bombastically-branded 29 March ‘mega launch’ brought a slew of new tech to the fore, including the hotly-anticipated Pro and Ultra members of the company’s Mi 11 flagship phone series.
All in all, Xiaomi introduced four new smartphones, along with the latest entry in its popular Mi Band fitness tracker series, the Mi Band 6, as well as a new WiFi 6-capable router, in the AX9000 and the Mi Smart Projector 2 Pro.
The Mi 11 Pro and Mi 11 Ultra were also accompanied by the Mi 11 Lite 5G and the Mi 11i (which wasn’t shown on stage) with the promise of more products – including the Mi Mix 4 – expected to be unveiled in part two of its spring launch event, set to take place at 19:30 local time (12:30 BST) on 30 March.
As you might expect, the Mi 11 Pro and Ultra both build on the framework of the standard Xiaomi Mi 11, which was introduced at the end of 2020 in China and more recently launched in numerous international markets.
Both new flagships come powered by Qualcomm’s top-tier Snapdragon 888 chipset and can be had with up to 12GB of RAM. 2K quad-curved 120Hz AMOLED displays complete with Dolby Vision support and protected by the latest Gorilla Glass Victus dress the front of each phone, while the demands of these high-end handsets are each met by a sizeable 5000mAh battery with support for both wired and wireless charging at an impressive 67W (Xiaomi also introduced an 80W wireless charging stand that can recharge its phones horizontally or vertically).
The main talking point in the case of both devices – and their biggest differentiating feature – has to be their rear camera setups. The Mi 11 Pro was used to introduce a new 50Mp primary camera sensor – the 1/1.12in ISOCELL GN2 – apparently co-developed with Samsung. It fronts the camera setups on both the Pro and Ultra (in place of the Mi 11’s lead 108Mp sensor) and supports OIS (optical image stabilisation).
In the case of the Pro’s, there’s also a 13Mp ultrawide (with a 123° FoV) and an 8Mp periscopic telemacro lens which also boasts OIS, optical zoom up to 5x and a maximum zoom level of 50x. The camera system also delivers 8K video capture and slow-motion capture, with support for up to 1920fps.
Those additional sensors are replaced by a pair of 48Mp Sony IMX586 snappers on the Mi 11 Ultra, which offers a 128° when shooting ultrawide images and up to a 120x zoom when shooting with the telemacro snapper.
