xiaomi redmi 11 prime 5g review budget phone: As India gets closer to launching 5G, the budget smartphone market is finally getting some action as more and more phones with 5G connections become available. Xiaomi’s Redmi line of smartphones has always had great features at prices that the average phone buyer finds very appealing.
Now that people want to switch to 5G smartphones, the Redmi 11 Prime 5G, which was just released, already ranks among the most reasonably priced 5G phones at Rs 13,999. Here is our review of the Redmi 11 Prime 5G, which we used for a week and passed several tests.
Review of the Redmi 11 Prime 5G: Design and Display
For this review, we used the Chrome Silver 6GB+128GB version of the Redmi 11 Prime, which costs Rs 14,999 at the moment. The smartphone comes with a clear back cover and a 22.5W charger. Inside the box, you’ll also find a quick start guide and a sim ejector pin.
The Redmi 11 Prime is not a small phone by any means. It is 164mm long, 74.1mm wide, and 8.9mm thick. The main material here is plastic, but the back is textured, which makes it feel better to hold and makes it look a little more expensive than a smooth back. Besides how it feels, it has a better grip and doesn’t show fingerprints.
The two camera lenses and the LED flash are all in a shiny panel. This camera unit looks like a cassette tape, giving the phone a unique look different from its competitors. The fact that a 2MP depth sensor was chosen when the phone could have used an ultrawide shooter is strange. But that would have likely made the phone more expensive.
The Redmi 11 Prime has a 6.58-inch IPS LCD screen on the front, with a cutout in the shape of a dewdrop for the front camera. The screen is created of Corning Gorilla Glass 3, a nice touch for a phone in this price range. The volume rocker keyboards and the power button are on the good side, which can also be used to scan your fingerprint.
The SIM tray is all by itself on the left. The 3.5mm headphone socket and the IR blaster are at the top of the phone, while the mic, USB Type-C port, and speech grille are at the bottom. Like phones in this price range, the Redmi 11 Prime doesn’t have a second speaker.
The refresh rate of the 6.58-inch LCD screen is 90Hz, and the screen-to-body ratio is 83.6%. Up to 1080p video can be played on the full HD+ screen. Even though some people would prefer an AMOLED screen over an LCD one, the screen is perfect for watching HD videos on YouTube, Netflix, and other OTT services. The images are sharp and have a great amount of detail, and there is a good balance of colors.
Redmi 11 Prime 5G: Performance and Cameras
The Media Density 700 chipset with the Redmi 11 Prime 5G gives the device a surprising amount of power. For this review, we used the 6GB + 128GB model and didn’t notice any lags or slower speeds even though we were running multiple apps in the background and doing multiple tasks simultaneously.
It’s easy and doesn’t take long to switch between already open apps. Android 12 with MIUI 13 skin takes care of the OS. Xiaomi hasn’t said anything about subsequent installments for this device, but at the very least, it will get the Android 13 update.
The phone has many useless apps, but you won’t find another smartphone with a better software experience in this price range. The bloatware applications can be easily removed from the app drawer, which is good. We played Call of Duty on the Redmi 11 Prime, and it worked well.
The game ran smoothly, and there were no drops in the frame rate. Touch response is still a problem and takes away quite a bit from the gaming experience. It’s frustrating when some touches don’t show up in the game.
The connection quality drops significantly when connected to WiFi but far from the router. Gamers are also interested in the Game Turbo feature, which puts all the installed games in one location and offers advanced features like giving bandwidth priority to games going in the foreground, better touch controls, and several shortcuts within games.
You can also make the touch screen more sensitive for certain games, making them a little more fun to play. The Redmi 11 Prime scored 556 points on the single-core Geekbench 5 test and 1,745 on the multi-core test. A good score puts it in the same league as the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC and Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro and just behind the Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro.
The device also has a 5,000 mAh battery, which is another good thing. It worked well and could easily last a whole day with moderate to heavy use, like playing games for an hour, watching videos for two hours, and using social media for a while.
Even when the day was over, the phone still had a 30–40% charge. This is good enough to last at least another half day. If you use the phone less, it can last nearly two days. The phone comes with a 22.5W charger, but it only charges 18W, so it takes under 2 hours to go from 0% to 100%.
When the lighting is good outside, the back camera takes great pictures. The colors were nice but a little on the dull side. Many mobile phones in this category tend to boost the contrast without paying close attention to the tiny things.
But the 50MP main lens on this camera can pick up a good amount of detail outdoors. The images come out, look close to real life, and keep a good color profile. When the camera is in Portrait Mode, the 2MP depth sensor shifts.
Conclusion
The Redmi 11 Prime 5G matches the description of a low-cost 5G device focused on performance. It has something for everyone; casual users will be happy with how well the camera works and how the battery can be used differently. At the same time, gamers will love the MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset and the 90Hz refresh rate of the screen.
Even though the phone is great in many ways, the entire experience could have been much better if the touch screen had been more responsive. The Redmi 11 Prime 5G remains one of the best phones you can buy for Rs 13,999, even though 5G will soon be available.