Redmi Note 11S: The Redmi Note 11S is an interesting contender in Xiaomi’s budget-focussed Note series that promises to bring premium features, while keeping the price tag accessible.
This is a product that follows the company’s philosophy of putting technology into the hands of everyone and making necessary sacrifices in order to keep costs down.
Design and Build
The aesthetics of the Redmi Note 11S is clean, contemporary – flat and minimal with rear that isn’t easy to get finger printed.
A side-mounted fingerprint sensor that also serves as a power button makes authentication quick and consistent.
Even for a budget phone, the phone is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for the display, coupled with IP53 rating for splash resistance, which is not often found at this price tag. The build is all-around impressively sturdy for something so affordably positioned.
Display Experience
On the front of the phone is a 6.43-inch AMOLED display, which provides bright colors and deep blacks that you typically don’t see at this price range with other smartphones.
The screen has great color accuracy and supports FHD+ resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels) along with a 90Hz refresh rate which is ideal for smooth scrolling and then transitions compared to a regular 60Hz display.
At a peak brightness of 1000 nits, the content is visible even outdoors, and the small punch-hole camera is quite non-intrusive when viewing content.
Performance Profile
Redmi Note 11S is backed by the MediaTek Helio G96 processor, offering good performance for everyday use and casual gaming.
That SoC provides a good mix of battery life and performance, and there’s a choice between 6GB or 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 128GB of expandable storage to complete the package.
The featured duo deals with multitasking pretty good considering the price-range they are in, but for high-requirements games you might need to run the game on low-settings for a smooth experience.
Camera Capabilities
The rectangular camera lens module allows you to capture stunning, detailed shots with great dynamic range on a 108MP Samsung ISOCELL HM2 main sensor, in good light.
The high-pixel sensor can provide digital zoom with tolerance and has high performance in low light with pixel-array binning.
Backing the primary shooter is an 8MP ultrawide lens for wide pictures, and a 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensor for macro shots and portrait mode effects, respectively. You can take clear, natural and vivid selfies with the SuperMario skin even with the 16MP front camera.
Battery and Charging
With a 5,000mAh battery, the Redmi Note 11S can easily last for a day on a single charge, and with room to spare for moderate use cases.
The efficient chipset and well-tuned software do make for some impressive standby times.
The device also comes with 33W fast charging, which can fill-up the battery from zero to 100% in around an hour, a good speed in its segment.
Software Experience
The smartphone runs MIUI 13 based on Android 11 that brings a feature-packed interface with loads of customisation options.
The UI has useful extras like Game Turbo for gaming optimisation, and extensive theme options.
Although the interface is user-friendly, the pre-loaded applications maybe a bit much for some people.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Excellent AMOLED display
Capable 108MP primary camera
Reliable battery endurance
Decent fast charging support
Splash resistance (IP53)
Expandable storage option
Stereo speakers
Cons:
Made with all plastic.
Macro camera is of little use
Ships with Android 11
Occasional software bloatware
Average gaming performance
Limited update commitment
No 5G connectivity
Redmi Note 11S: Verdict
The Redmi Note 11S does not disappoint in following up on its promise of premium features such as an AMOLED panel and a 108MP camera in the budget bandwagon.
The handset makes trade-offs in components as well as performance but one that results in a fairly balanced experience for the user, with a focus on display, battery life and camera prowess.
For people who care more about display quality and camera fidelity than chip performance and premium build materials, the Redmi Note 11S offers great value in the budget smartphone market.