Xiaomi has announced their new flagship for 2021: the Mi 11. The Chinese variant of the phone has a custom design and upgraded specifications that give a good look at the kind of top features that Android phones will deliver in the coming year, According to AnandTech. The European and global versions of the Mi 11 are likely to change, but for now, it’s an early look at what will likely be the first major Android flagship of 2021.
The changes to the design of the Mi 11 compared to the Mi 10 seem minor. From the front, the screen is slightly larger at 6.81 inches compared to the Mi 10’s 6.67 inch screen. The extra space seems to come from the shrinkage of the edge of the device (always welcome), while increasing the height and retaining the curved sides and the hole camera at the front.
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What’s more exciting is the resolution of 3200×1440 and the refresh rate of 120Hz on the new OLED screen, two features that quickly became popular on modern flagships, although they are obviously greatly missed on the latest iPhones. In another notable difference, the Mi 11 also includes a fingerprint sensor that is not displayed.
The rear of the Mi 11 holds the more visible changes. The iPhone X-like vertical camera “pill” of the Mi 10 is gone, and in its place is a thin “layer cake” of glass. The Mi 11 has three rear cameras: a 108-megapixel main sensor, a five-megapixel telephoto and an ultra-wide 13-megapixel. The Mi 11 also has faster 50W wireless charging (previously on the Mi 10 Pro) to match its 4600mAh battery.
From the battery to the rest of the internal devices, the Mi 11 is powered by the Snapdragon 888 and offers 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM. Storage starts at 128 GB or 256 GB, which is unfortunately still generous in the smartphone world. Like most new smartphones, the Mi 11 also has Wi-Fi 6 and 5G support. The Mi 11 in particular lacks a loading brick. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has confirmed that the Mi 11 will follow in Apple’s (allegedly) footsteps to get the boot out of the box for environmental and cost-saving reasons.
The Chinese version of the Xiaomi Mi 11 is available for pre-order today and launches on January 1st. The price for the entry-level 8 GB RAM / 128 GB storage model is listed at ¥ 3999.00 (approximately $ 611). Details on the prices and features of the other versions of the Mi 11 will be available later.