Mid-range Phone for a Mid-range Price

    

The Redmi line was introduced in 2013 as a budget-oriented line of phones owned by Xiaomi, with their Note series following the Samsung trend of larger phones (albeit with no stylus) but for those on a budget. Now Redmi is up to the Note 11 Pro 5G, and that’s what we’ll be looking at today. With a 6.67” 120hz AMOLED screen, a Snapdragon 695G, up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G is a mid-range phone for those on a budget but are still looking for a large sized phone with enough performance for the occasional games. Detailed below you’ll find detailed specs for the device, and then we’ll get started with the review.

Specifications

• Screen: 6.67” 120hz AMOLED HDR10 compatible, 1080x2400p
• CPU: Octa-core Snapdragon 695G, 2x 2.2ghz Kyro Gold cores & 6x 1.7ghz Kyro Silver cores
• GPU: Adreno 619
• RAM: 6GB, 8GB
• Storage: 64GB, 128GB
• Rear Cameras: 108 MP wide, 8 MP 118˚ ultrawide, 2 MP macro lens
• Front Camera: 16 MP wide
• Android Version: MIUI 13, Android 11
• Sensors: Fingerprint scanner, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity sensor, Compass, IR Blaster
• Battery: 5000mah
• Charger: up to 67W Fast 
• Color: Graphite Gray, Polar White, Atlantic Blue
• Price: $329.99 (64GB/6GB), $349.99 (128GB/6GB), $379.99 (128GB, 8GB)

Redmi handily provided me with the 8GB 128GB version in Graphite Gray (which will MSRP at $379.99), so that is mainly what we’ll be looking at today. Opening the box will give you your first look at the face of the device, and the first thing you’ll notice is just how big a phone you’ll be getting for sub-$400. At 6.67” diagonally, the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G comes in at the same size and resolution as a Samsung Note 20 which is pretty impressive for a mid-range device. Underneath the phone you’ll find some documentation, the included 67W charger and USB-A to USB-C cable, and a nice little clear silicone case for the device itself (both a godsend and a curse, but more on that later). Design-wise, the outside of the phone is very reminiscent of the iPhone 12/13 series with rounded corners and flat sides, which in my opinion is pretty decent looking all things considered. I’m not a huge fan of the relatively large camera bump on the back of the phone, but given the design of most phones the last couple years I’m not too surprised by it either. Booting up for the first time will give you the standard Android first time setup, and after a few minutes of Google syncing I was ready to tear right into the phone. The Note 11 Pro 5G runs Xiaomi’s MIUI, their usual flavor of Android, with Android 11 being the base, which was a little disappointing given Android 13’s recent announcement but Xiaomi has promised Android 12 will be coming sometime in the next few months. 

     

So how is it as a daily driver, everyday usage device? All in all, the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G is about as standard as you can get for a smartphone. General performance is as good as any other similarly priced device (we’ll get into more intensive tasks a bit later), with no weird lagginess or mishaps to really speak of in terms of software. MIUI’s stock launcher is a little under-featured, in my opinion, but this is easily solved by installing whatever launcher you like (with Nova Launcher being my preferred). As for the display, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the Note 11 Pro 5G’s 120hz, HDR10 AMOLED screen. For a sub-$400 device that’s fairly impressive, and while HDR content doesn’t look as good as say a modern iPhone or Samsung device, it’s still good enough for what you’re paying for. Battery life, if all you tend to do with your phone is chat with friends, take a few selfies, maybe browse the web a bit or play a couple casual games/watch a Youtube video or two, I was averaging around 25 hours total (with about 9 hours of screen-on time) before hitting 10% and deciding to throw it on the charger. With more intense usage, like say watching long HDR content, emulating your favorite retro games or hopping on some PUBG or Fortnite, you’ll be looking at a more conservative 14-ish hours from 100%-10% at around 40% brightness and adaptive 120hz, which still covers a fair chunk of the day. PCMark’s Work Battery Life test made it ~12½ hours from 100% to 20%, which lines up pretty much exactly with my 14-ish hours mark for gaming. 

    

But this is GBAtemp, and I think what we really want to know is…how’s that emulation and gaming performance? Well, for everything PS1/N64/DS/PSP and older, you’ll of course have no problems, as those will run on even the most modest devices these days. But what about the higher end stuff? For my tests, Dolphin seemed to run most games pretty ok so long as you avoid most enhancements. Twilight Princess (GC) for example was able to maintain a pretty steady 30fps, with only occasional dips in Hyrule Field and during most intense particle effects, but only at 1x internal res and no AA. Mario Kart Wii ran well enough, mostly hovering around 50-60fps but playable enough if you wanted to. Citra runs well enough, with no real frame dips in Pokemon X/Y or Mario Kart 7…although I did experience a lot of random crashing for some reason, whether that’s an issue with the phone or Citra I couldn’t say, just keep in mind your mileage may vary. And what about Aether SX, the exciting new PS2 emulator for Android? Unfortunately, not great. I tested a variety of games, Rogue Galaxy, Dragon Quest VIII, Soul Calibur 2, and even Seek and Destroy (a relatively easy PS2 game to emulate) all ran pretty poorly, almost never running above 80% speed. Not surprising, given the lower end SoC in the Note 11 Pro 5G, but something to keep in mind if you’re interested in emulation. Typical Android games like Fortnite, Genshin, and PUBG, these all run ok, for the most part I was getting around 30fps with medium settings. Nothing to write home about, but if you want to hop on the occasional Battle Royale for a bit it’s certainly doable. As for cooling, surprisingly the Note 11 Pro 5G actually stays relatively cool during gaming and performance-based tasks, with only a little bit of a warmup during the more intense CPU-based tasks like GC/PS2 emulation. For the most part, the majority of the heat you'll feel coming out of this device is when it's charging, especially with that 67W charger that comes in the box. I'll just say straight up, I do not trust this 67W charger, especially for a smartphone. This will certainly kill your battery life over time with consistent use, and in my opinion should only ever be used as an "emergency" when you really need your phone charged up quickly. When I left the phone on the 67W charger, it got so hot that it became uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of time! Granted, I don't think this poses a significant danger like the Galaxy Note 7's magical exploding battery, I'd still keep your old "slow" charger around anyways just to be safe.

          

Given my current profession as an electronics repair tech, I figured you’d also like to see what the phone looks like on the inside, so do enjoy. Repair-wise, if you happen to break your screen or your charge port, the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G should be fairly simple to work on if you have the right tools and knowledge. Like most Android phones, the best way to get into the device will be going from the back. Keeping the device on a heatmat at 70C for around 10-15 minutes will help loosen the adhesive on the back, and then it’s as simple as using plastic tools like a guitar pick to separate the adhesive from the mid frame and off she’ll pop (just be careful not to crack it :P). After unscrewing 18 phillips head screws (and popping out the sim tray), you can separate the mid-frame from the device and get your first view of the true internals of the device. At the bottom you’ll find the ear speaker, vibration motor, and secondary PCB that houses the charge port. The main motherboard is at the top of the device, housing the cameras, headphone jack, ear speaker, and the SoC itself.  You can also certainly see why the back of the phone gets fairly warm during charging, with a simple aluminum cover with copper tape serving as the main heatsink for the device that then sinks into the plastic midframe and glass back. All in all, a fairly standard design for modern smartphones and certainly about as repairable as any other phone made these days.