[REVIEW] Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G is the first Redmi smartphone with 120 W charging and JBL speakers

Xiaomi's subsidiary, Redmi, has only recently introduced models from the new series with serial number 11. Gradually, however, the popular series has seen additional models, including the most recently introduced Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G. It is particularly interesting for its extremely fast charging and speakers from JBL.

Will working with the JBL brand bring better sound and what is the processor from MediaTek? You will find the answers to not only these questions in our detailed review.

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Technical specifications

Content and quality of packaging

The package was delivered to us by a GLS courier in a traditional nylon envelope with bubble reinforcement on the inside. Inside was a box of smartphones wrapped in thin paper. Its corners have been slightly pressed, but the boxes of the smartphones are relatively stiff, so the smartphone will not be damaged.

In addition to the smartphone itself, the box also contains a silicone transparent case, charging adapter, cable and paper documentation. Nothing has changed in this respect for many years and the packaging offers a common standard.

Design, processing and layout of elements

The design of the smartphone is almost identical to the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G model, which was introduced earlier. We have a novelty available in dark gray (Graphite Gray), similar to the recently tested Redmi Note 11 and Redmi Note 11s. There are also other colors available, namely blue (Star Blue) and green (Forest Green). Black or actually dark gray is a kind of base color that won't hurt anything.

As for the quality of processing, the manufacturer does not disclose the materials from which the smartphone is made. It is probably plastic with a metal frame, but the overall impression is excellent. Its dimensions are 163.65 x 76.19 x 8.34 mm and weight 204 g. Today there are modern sharp edges, which are also present in the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G. They add elegance to the smartphone, but smartphones with rounded bezels are more comfortable to hold in the handsnami on the back side.

The individual elements are arranged in the same way as in the model of the same name without the "+" sign in the name. The left side is traditionally empty, and on the right we find two buttons for volume control together with a button for unlocking the smartphone. It has an integrated fingerprint reader, which we will talk about later.

In the lower edge there are speakers, a microphone, a USB-C port for charging and also a slot for SIM cards. It can serve 2 SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD memory card. The maximum supported capacity is 1 TB. In the upper part, you will immediately notice the JBL logo next to the second speaker grill, next to which we can also find an IR sensor, a second microphone and a 3.5 mm headphone port.

The camera module on the back cover is slightly wider compared to the Redmi Note 11 and Redmi Note 11s and its design is slightly different from the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G. It protrudes quite significantly and the use of a smartphone placed on a table is not ideal, especially when using the left part of the screen.

6.67 ″ AMOLED display

Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G boasts a large 6.67 ″ AMOLED display with FullHD + resolution of 2400 x 1080 px. The maximum brightness can climb up to 1200 rivets, which guarantees excellent readability even in direct sunlight. There is no shot at the top for a selfie camera that is discreet and does not disturb. The sampling frequency is 360 Hz and you will especially enjoy the high refresh rate of 120 Hz.

However, it is again preset to only 60 Hz, and if you want to get the most out of the display, we recommend going to the display settings immediately after turning on the smartphone and changing the refresh rate to the highest value. Support younamiyou would search in vain for a refresh rate, so you only have a choice of 60 or 120 Hz.

The display is good as standard, visibly more beautiful to look compared to the basic and cheaper models. It offers bright colors with a good level of saturation. The color scheme customization is available in the settings, so you can fine-tune the colors to your liking.

However, there is also one relatively large negative for us, which is the active display or the so-called always-on. Again, incomprehensibly there is no possibility of a always-on always-on display, even though we have AMOLED here. The active display always switches off after 10 seconds.

MediaTek namiThis is Snapdragon

Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 695, but with the improved version of Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G we have a minor change. The brain of the new model is the MediaTek Dimensity 920 processor, which is manufactured using a 6 nm process. It is an 8-core processor with a maximum clock frequency of 2.5 GHz. It consists of two ARM Cortex-A78 cores with the mentioned frequency of 2.5 GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores with the frequency of 2 GHz.

The chip also has an integrated ARM Mali-G68 MC4 graphics module, WiFi 6 modem and 5G network support. From the pair of Snapdragon 695 and Dimensity 920, MediaTek emerges better in benchmarks, which is better especially in overall performance and games. In terms of battery consumption, both processors are almost at the same level.

The processor is assisted by fast RAM type LPDDR4X, in our case with a capacity of 6 GB. The internal storage has a capacity of 128 GB and can be expanded with a microSD memory card by a maximum of another 1 TB. You can also purchase other memory versions, namely 8/128 GB and 8/256 GB.

In normal use, the performance is absolutely sufficient. It has quite fast reactions, the smartphone does not freeze and does not overheat even during games. At times, we have noticed a slight delay in opening applications, but we are still talking about a middle-class smartphone, where this is not unusual.

JBL speakers surprised

Xiaomi recently collaborated with Harman Kardon, but we had the opportunity to see these speakers mainly with flagship models. Honestly, we have to say that there was no "wow" effect and it was more of a marketing lure. How is it this time?

In the novelty from Redmi, we can try speakers from another well-known audio brand, this time JBL, for the first time. You will know many companies mainly thanks to their portable speakers, which are characterized by sound with stronger bass.

So how do Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G speakers play? In a word, excellent. The collaboration with JBL is bearing fruit and the speakers provide a really well-balanced and clear sound with good maximum volume and a noticeable improvement over older models in this class.

Extremely fast fingerprint reader

The Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G has a fingerprint reader integrated in the side button to turn the display on / off. Personally, we prefer a smartphone to have such a reader than it should have a poor quality display on the screen, despite today's trends.

The one you find in Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G works great. It is fast, accurate and our attempts to unblock were successful in 99% of cases. There is also a face unlock, which is slightly slower and there is also the possibility of unlocking via a bluetooth device such as a smart watch.

Endurance and charging

The reviewed novelty is the first smartphone from the Redmi brand to receive support for ultra-fast, up to 120 W charging. In the package you will find a relatively large, 120 W charging adapter together with a 1 m long cable.

Charging is a bit slower compared to flagship models, which also support 120 W charging, but the difference is not big. Having a smartphone charged to 100% in 22 minutes is still an extreme speed. In the table below you can see how the charging works from 20 to 100%.

As for stamina, it's surprisingly good. Although we charged the smartphone every day during intensive testing, we also managed to reach the level of two days during normal use.

Three cameras

The novelty from the Redmi workshop offers 3 cameras at the back and a 16 MPx selfie camera. The main camera has 108 MPx and is again a Samsung S5KHM2 sensor, which has recently been often used mainly in the middle class of smartphones from Xiaomi and its subsidiaries.

If you read our review of the Redmi Note 11s or POCO X4 Pro 5G smartphones, you know that these smartphones have the same main sensor from Samsung. Its output is therefore very similar in this case as well. Photos taken in good light are nice, full of detail and offer realistic colors with pretty good dynamitechnical scope.

As the light diminishes, the quality of the photos deteriorates. We can see slight noise in the photos, underexposed areas, and overall the photos are darker than we would like. As for the ultra-wide camera, it only has 8 MPx, which means you don't have to have too high expectations.

The ultra-wide-angle lens has worse dynamick range, photos are less sharp and offer understandably less detail and a slightly different color presentation, which tends more towards warmer shades.

There is also a 2x zoom, which is created by cropping a 108 MPx photo taken with the main sensor. The output is therefore very similar to the photos from the main camera.

Macro is a common average. Shooting takes a fixed focus, which if you don't hit it, the photo won't be sharp. In addition, the resolution of only 2 MPx is low, it causes noise even in good light, so it can be used at most on the smartphone screen.

Night mode, selfie and video

In this case, the night mode brightens the photo, which can be seen, for example, in the sky in the following photos, where when using the night mode, we also see the clouds, the tree in the background and also the lawn in the front. These objects are almost invisible without night mode. It also handles a strong glow from banners and brings more detail to the photo, even if the sharpness is not the best.

The quality of selfie photos is quite good, but the camera application automatically applies a filter that smoothes the face too unnaturally. When it is turned off, the skin is natural and the colors are realistic.

For video, a maximum resolution of 4K at 30 fps or lower 1080p at 30 or 60 fps and 720p at 30 fps is available. The video quality is good, but the sound in the recorded video is relatively weak even at maximum volume.

Android 11 and MIUI extension

Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G runs on Android 11 with MIUI superstructure. Here, however, we were slightly surprised when the smartphone came with MIUI version 12.5. Since all other versions of the Redmi Note 11 series had an MIUI 13, we expected it to be in the latest model as well. We did not receive an update to a newer version until the review was published.

The environment was smooth throughout the testing and, despite the older version, offers a number of customizations and options. There is a popular dark mode, reading mode, dual applications and floating windows. Notifications did not work properly at first, but after turning off battery saving and enabling auto-start, the problems disappeared.

Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G: Final evaluation

The latest model called Pro + from the Redmi Note 11 series expands the already relatively rich family of middle-class smartphones. Compared to other models in the series, however, it brings improvements, thanks to which it has a great opportunity to become one of the best-selling models from the Redmi brand.

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The smartphone impresses with a 6.67 ″ AMOLED display with a high refresh rate of 120 Hz, speakers from the JBL brand and extremely fast up to 120 W charging, which we have so far only been able to see on significantly more expensive models.

Snapdragon replaced this time with a processor from the MediaTek brand, Dimensity 920, for which it will surely find its enemies. However, the worries are out of place and despite the less popular processor, it is an excellent smartphone that has a lot to offer.