The Xiaomi 11T & 11T Pro Review: Two Chips, With a Battery Focus
by Andrei Frumusanu on September 15, 2021 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Xiaomi
- Xiaomi 11T
- Xiaomi 11T Pro
Battery Life
Battery comparisons between the 11T and the 11T Pro are again very interesting given the fact that we have to identical devices, only differing between each other in terms of SoC employed.
As noted in the earlier sections, there are a few differences in CPU behaviour, particularly the 11T Pro really not using the Cortex-X1 cores of the Snapdragon 888 too much. However, the 2.41GHz A78’s of the Snapdragon 888 are only 5% slower than the 3GHz A78 of the Dimensity 1200 – due to Qualcomm’s larger CPU and system caches, and better memory latency. So in terms of performance, as we noted before, the Snapdragon 888 11T Pro should still exceed that of the 11T, so it’ll be still somewhat valid comparison even without the X1 cores.
Update September 17th: Our 11T sample received a software update the day of the review embargo – we retested our initial battery life results and have seen significant improvements over the initial review firmware. We’re in the process of redoing all the battery life tests and will update the review to reflect the updated experience.
In the web browsing tests, the results couldn’t be more different, and the discrepancy between both phones frankly shocked me.
The 11T with the MediaTek SoC only managed to get 57-60% of the battery life of the Snapdragon 11T Pro. Again, I have to emphasise that these two devices are otherwise identical – same battery capacity, and same screen, and I haven’t been able to measure any difference in power between the two phones at the same screen brightness. What this means, is that the delta here seems to be related to the SoC.
In PCMark as well, the 11T is only showcasing 58-61% of the longevity of the 11T Pro, all whilst showcasing worse performance numbers.
The results for the 11T both in the web test and in PCMark are just abysmal. I did run power analysis on all the CPUs in SPEC, and yes, the Snapdragon 888 is quite a lot more energy efficient than the Dimensity 1200, however not to a degree to actually end up with such a large battery life discrepancy – at least not that I would assume.
The 11T was noticeably warmer than the 11T Pro in the battery tests, which is kind of obvious given that it evidently uses more power. For me, the MediaTek powered 11T is dead in the water, as the results here are just too bad.
The 11T Pro’s battery life was good, and what surprised me the most is that it’s the only non-Samsung Snapdragon 888 phone that didn’t exhibit terrible baseline power consumption. I’m not sure what to attribute this to, but it ends up with quite good results, though still lagging behind the S21 Ultra with its much more efficient display.
Update September 17th: Our 11T sample received a software update the day of the review embargo – we retested our initial battery life results and have seen significant improvements over the initial review firmware. We’re in the process of redoing all the battery life tests and will update the review to reflect the updated experience.
Update September 22nd: The new battery tests have been completed and updated. The 11T with the MediaTek SoC now represents the expected battery life results out of the chip, showcasing slightly longer battery life compared to the Snapdragon 11T Pro. In terms of absolute results, they’re very good compared to other comparative 120Hz powered devices, and both 11T and the 11T Pro showcase excellent longevity.
41 Comments
View All Comments
mingogomes - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - link
Hey Andrei,On your battery test of PCMark, can you tell me what brightness settings you were using?
Max, 50% or low?
Thanks
5j3rul3 - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - link
Hope there's more info and review about those extremely fast cahrge system, such as:Oppo
125W / 65W
40W / 30W WL
vivo (iQOO)
120W / 55W / 44W
50W WL
Xiaomi (RedMi, POCO, Blackshark) 120W / 67W / 65W / 50W
80W / 67W / 50W WL
Lenovo
100W
RedMagic
100W / 55W
Qualcomm
100W
HUAWEI
66W / 40W
66W / 40W / 27W WL
RealMe
65W
50W WL
5j3rul3 - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - link
Adjustment:OnePlus
65W
50W WL
Honor
100W / 66W
50W WL
RedMagic
120W / 100W
ASUS
65W
5j3rul3 - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - link
Is there any Mi 11T series' camera review?Or just wait iPhone 13 and other smartphones to have a 21H2 smartphone cam battle?
Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - link
I didn't have time to do camera, in general expect lacklustre results worse than the Mi 11.Wereweeb - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - link
IMO a 108MP camera that gets binned down to 27MP is no better than a 48MP camera that gets binned down to 12MP (8.3MP for 4K image + EIS margin). Massive waste of sensor area.(And no, it's not for 8K photo/video, that would require a sensor that gets resolved to at least 33MP)
Plumplum - Monday, September 20, 2021 - link
It's nona-binning...108MP to 12MP...With binning, pixel's size is 2.1microns (3x0.7)
On 48MP, pixel's size is 1.6microns (2x0.8)
Light received by pixel is (2.1/1.6)^2=1.72.
Pixels received +72% light compared to 48MP
I use 50MP IMX766 on Nord 2. Binned Pixel's size is 2.0microns...in low light conditions, it has nothing to do with most 48MP sensors.
Lack of OIS is the weakness on these devices, not sensor.
pfactor - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - link
From the label, it looks like this charger only achieves 120w output when it is connected to a 220~240V AC supply. (Otherwise, the max output at when connected to 120V AC is only 96W) Was this tested in the US or in Europe?The output rating on the label should be a true output rating, and not a measurement of input power consumed.
ArcadeEngineer - Thursday, September 16, 2021 - link
Andrei lives in Luxembourg, so 230v.Andrei Frumusanu - Thursday, September 16, 2021 - link
I measured 115W on the AC side.