Do not buy the Xiaomi Mi 11 expecting a flagship-level camera experience

Xiaomi emphasises how great the camera experience is on the Mi 11, and even goes say far as to claim that they are 'studio-level'. We disagreed in our review, and now so does DxOMark. In February, we remarked that the Mi 11 was sorely missing a telephoto lens, which Xiaomi has put right in the Mi 11 Pro and Mi 11 Ultra. In our opinion, the 108 MP main camera doubled poorly as a telephoto lens, with cropped or zoomed shots often looking blurry. 

DxOMark considers the Mi 11 to have a balanced camera set overall, but it also complains about the lack of a dedicated telephoto camera. Accordingly, the Mi 11 does not capture much detail at telephoto levels. Additionally, the website claims that the Mi 11 often struggles to focus correctly or chooses the incorrect subject altogether.

In its opinion, the Mi 11's cameras are on par with those of the Mate 30 Pro and the Pixel 5. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it means that the Mi 11 falls short of the Mi 10 Pro. Similarly, the Mi 11 is quite a way behind the Mi 11 Ultra, which currently sits atop of DxOMark's leaderboard.

Overall, there is no doubting that the Mi 11 takes decent shots in most lighting conditions. It is not the most versatile flagship smartphone out there when it comes to cameras though, especially if you like to take telephoto shots. If that is more your thing, then the older Mi 10 Pro could be a superior option over the Mi 11.

Purchase the Xiaomi Mi 10T on Amazon