Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra has a monstrous camera and a rear display

Just look at that thing.
 By 
Stan Schroeder
 on 
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra has a monstrous camera and a rear display
The triple rear camera setup on the Mi 11's back is imposing even by today's smartphone standards. Credit: xiaomi

Remember ultra-compact, point and shoot cameras? The elegant, slim devices with oversized lenses aren't very popular right now, but they were all the rage a decade and a half ago, before they got largely replaced by smartphones.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, launched at an event Monday, is dangerously approaching the aesthetics of the good old ultra-compact camera. It has an absolutely massive camera bump on the back, hosting a triple-rear camera setup that the company claims is "industry-leading."

The setup consists of a 50-megapixel, wide angle main camera, with a 1/1.12-inch sensor size, a 1.4μm pixel size and a f/1.95 aperture. The large sensor, coupled with Xiaomi's Dual Pixel Pro technology, should be able to produce some crisp images even in low light scenarios.


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Then there's the 48-megapixel, ultra-wide angle camera, with a 128-degree field of view, a 1/2.0-inch sensor size and f/2.2 aperture, that doubles as a macro camera. Finally, the 48-megapixel camera, with a 1/2.0-inch sensor size and an aperture of f/4.1, is capable of 5x optical zoom and 120x, AI-enhanced digital zoom. All three cameras are capable of 8K video recording, and on the front, there's a 20-megapixel selfie camera.

As always, specs mean nothing if the cameras don't perform in real-life usage; we'll know more about that after spending some time with the device.

If you didn't look carefully, you may have missed another cool detail on that huge camera bump: A rear, AMOLED display.

Mashable Image
No longer will you have to flip over the phone to know the time. Credit: xiaomi

The additional display measures 1.1 inches diagonally, and has a 126x294 pixel resolution. It's always on, and it can display some basic info such as date, time and battery status, as well as notification alerts. It can also give you a rear selfie preview if for some reason you want to take a selfie with the rear camera.

The Mi 11 Ultra is positioned on top of Xiaomi's smartphone lineup, and as such is equipped with some very powerful hardware. Highlights include a 6.81-inch AMOLED display with a 3,200x1,440 pixel resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, dual stereo speakers tuned by Harman Kardon, 5G connectivity, a 5,000mAh battery with 67W wireless and wired fast charging, as well as 10W reverse charging, and IP68 water and dust resistance.

The phone was launched globally today; we'll update this article when we get information about the price and availability.

UPDATE: March 30, 2021, 8:26 a.m. CEST The recommended price of Mi 11 Ultra with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage in Europe is 1,199 EUR ($1,410).

Topics Xiaomi

Stan Schroeder
Stan Schroeder
Senior Editor

Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.

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