Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G review – excellent display, great battery life but slightly pricey

• Xiaomi unveiled its latest smartphone in the popular Redmi Note series earlier this month.
• The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G is priced starting at ₹20,999, making it the most expensive Redmi Note device so far.
• If you are in the market for an upgrade, read our review of the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G to help you decide if you should buy the device or not.

Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G, the company’s latest offering in the Redmi Note series earlier this month. The company also launched a more affordable Redmi Note 11 Pro and the Redmi Watch 2 Lite at the event.

The feature-packed device from Xiaomi is the premium offering in the Redmi Note series and continues the company’s formula of offering certain higher end features coupled with other mid-range hardware at a price that seems competitive at first sight.

The highlights of the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G – as mouthful as the name is – include a 120Hz AMOLED display, 108MP rear camera and a 5,000mAh battery with 67W fast charging support.

I’ve been using the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G for a couple of weeks now and here’s my full review of the latest mid-range smartphone from Xiaomi.

Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G – Price and availability

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G is priced at ₹20,999 for the 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant, ₹22,999 for the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant and ₹24,999 for the 8GB RAM and 256GB internal storage variant.

It is available in Mirage Blue, Stealth Black and Phantom White colour options from Amazon India, Xiaomi online store and the company’s offline stores across the country.

As part of the launch offer, buyers can avail an instant discount of ₹1,000 using HDFC Bank debit and credit cards.

Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G – Design

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G features a glass back, a flat plastic frame and squared-off edges that give it an iPhone 13-like look. The device features a frosted glass back design that gives it a premium look and protects it from fingerprint smudges.


The device sports the 3.5mm headphone jack and the speaker grille on the top. It features a second speaker grille, USB Type-C port and the SIM tray on the bottom.


On the right side, the device has the volume rocker and the power button, which doubles up as a fingerprint sensor. While the power button has a good, tactile feel to it, the volume buttons aren’t as clicky. However, I realised it’s possible to get used to it.

Overall, the flat finish – both on the front as well as the back – makes the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G seem a little boxy. The edges aren’t as sharp, though, so that helps in gripping the device.

Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G – Display

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G features a 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The display comes with a punch-hole notch that houses the selfie camera.

I found the display to be vivid, with excellent colour reproduction and adequate brightness. The contents are easily visible even under direct sunlight, with the phone hitting the 700 nits level thanks to a feature called sunlight boost.

The phone supports two refresh rates – 60Hz and 120Hz. I set the phone at 120Hz throughout my testing, and the overall experience was smooth across apps.

Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G – Performance and battery

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G is equipped with the Snapdragon 695 chipset coupled with up to 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 internal storage. While the memory and storage are fast, the chipset might seem slow – however, in day-to-day usage, it is pretty fast, even with a 120Hz refresh rate display.

One of the two areas where the chipset shows its weakness is in games – while titles like Battlegrounds Mobile India play well enough for the most part, there were some noticeable stutters at times. The other is the fact that the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G does not support HDR10 videos, nor can it record 1080p videos at 60 frames per second (fps).

Moving on to power efficiency, the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G is powered by a 5,000mAh battery with 67W fast charge support. The device can be fully charged from 0 to 100% in just 42 minutes, according to the company. My real-world experience was close enough at 47 minutes.

In regular usage, with over an hour of calling – voice and video, plenty of texting, multitasking, a few pictures and streaming videos, the phone lasted me an entire day comfortably.

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G also supports seven 5G bands, so in terms of future-proofing, this phone is well-equipped. Even though 5G is not live in India yet, the government has revealed it intends to auction 5G spectrum some time this year.

MIUI 13 is a refreshing update

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G comes with MIUI 13 and Android 11 out of the box. Although Xiaomi missed the bus on launching the phone with Android 12, it might not be that big of a deal considering the fact that this update has been relatively buggy on other Android phones.

That brings me to MIUI 13 – it is the latest version of Xiaomi’s custom skin, and as a fan of minimal Android skins like Google’s flavour for Pixel phones, or OnePlus’ OxygenOS, MIUI 13 looked and felt surprisingly fresh.

Xiaomi has been known for offering a wide range of customisation options with its MIUI custom skin, but optimisation and refinement were two areas where the company had its task cut out. A lot of work has gone into those aspects with MIUI 13 and the result is surprisingly good.

MIUI 13 addresses some of my pet peeves with Xiaomi phones in the past, which includes the recent apps screen. You can finally choose between the card layout or grid, and get rid of the memory information if you want an even cleaner experience.

In my experience, Xiaomi seems to have also scaled back significantly in regards to notifications and advertisements – while I did come across a random app notification occasionally, I have not seen ads in system apps yet.

Overall, MIUI 13 is refined and while there’s still some scope for improvement, Xiaomi has done a good job in enhancing the user experience.

Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G – Camera

Coming to the camera department, the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G features a triple camera setup at the back consisting of a 108MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera and a 2MP macro camera.


The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G performs well in daylight conditions, even with challenging sources of light. Colours are slightly punchy, but well within balance at default settings. The portrait mode results were also very good, with good edge detection.


The phone struggles a bit when it comes to low light conditions, though, with noise fairly noticeable, with both the primary 108MP camera as well as the 8MP ultrawide angle snapper.


The 2MP macro camera is serviceable, but Xiaomi could have opted for a telephoto sensor instead. You need really steady hands to snap a usable photo when using the macro mode.

On the front, the device sports a 16MP selfie camera. It does its job well, but just like the primary cameras, it tends to be a little noisy in challenging lighting conditions.

Wrapping up

The Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G finds itself in a more challenging spot when compared to the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max last year. The ₹20,000 price segment is more crowded and competitive than ever before, and features like the slightly weaker chipset make things a little difficult for the smartphone.

With that said, though, there are hardly any phones that offer a premium design and a high quality 120Hz Super AMOLED display in this price range. Overall, this is a good package, with room for improvement in gaming and video recording. However, if your current phone is from last year, you might want to wait for now.
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