So this Redmi Note 11S currently has a starting price of ONLY RM899! It has a 90 Hertz AMOLED Screen, 5000 mAh battery, and above all, a massive 108-Megapixel main camera! But are all of these just numbers? Are there any limitations? Is this phone too GOOD to be TRUE?

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Specs

Now since I have already done the unboxing in my first impressions video, as a recap, here are the specs of the phone.

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Build & Design

Next, let’s talk about the build and the design.

First of all, I have to say I am really loving this new approach that Redmi is doing by giving us an all matte finish smartphone, not only for the back and also the sides.

And because of these all around matte finish all around the smartphone, it is a great phone to use daily, especially when it comes to watching videos on the phone for a very long time and also gaming as well.

Since the phone has a plastic finish, expect a light 179 grams but not the lightest compared to the likes of the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE since it has a way bigger battery.

As a recap, the phone is also IP53 splash-proof rated, so we are looking at a very decent durable phone, besides having good looks and what’s extra sweet as mentioned in my first impressions video is how the phone not only has a microSD card slot expansion, but it also has a headphones jack as well! And once again, call me old school or whatever, but for me, I still do love having these two features in any smartphone.

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Display

As for the phone’s screen, it comes with a 6.43-inch AMOLED FHD+ DotDisplay, with up to a 90 Hertz non-adaptive display, and it has an FHD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels.

I still stand by my words during my first impressions video that the phone has a great-looking screen, surely surpassing the previous generations Redmi Notes.

The screen was quite bright outdoors during the day but I wouldn’t count it to be superbly visible during a very strong harsh afternoon sunlight.

From daily driving the phone, using it both during the day even without dark mode turned on was really nice and so it was during the night as well.

Watching YouTube and playing back Netflix on the phone was really pleasant from a display point of view, but I am not a huge fan of the phone’s speakers because although it has stereo speakers, the speakers on the earpiece weren’t loud, but considering the price, I am willing to let that go.

Also worth mentioning is that the playback on Netflix was at Widevine L1 Full HD playback and there is the SGS Eye Care Display Certification as well, very beneficial especially if you are the kind of person who looks at your phone’s screen for a very long time.

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Cameras

Now in terms of the cameras:

• the main rear camera is a massive 108-megapixel lens as mentioned,
• an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens,
• a 2-megapixel macro camera, and;
• a 2-megapixel depth camera lens

Then the front camera comes with a 16-megapixel f 2.2 camera.

So, are there any compromises with the cameras? And is the 108-megapixel lens just a gimmick as some might say?

High Megapixel Mode
In terms of the image quality for the High Megapixel Mode and the overall colors produced, it was really good and of course, since it has a huge resolution up to 12000 pixels, this is still perfect if you wanna crop into the images.

Ultrawide Lens
As for the ultrawide lenses, the colors were very consistent with the high megapixel mode, so that was nice and the focal length was pretty wide, not too extreme which I liked as there was no barrel distortion on the edges.

Main Lens
And to keep the consistency of colors going, it was also the same for the main lenses, where it had just the right amount of saturation and the dynamic range was also really good especially during very brightly exposed skies.

Zoom
Now you can zoom in digitally at 2x which is pretty nice and the camera app also allows a digital zoom up to 10x as well, and while the images are somewhat OK but I personally wouldn’t use them at all.

Portrait Mode
Portrait Mode on a human is really amazing with nice subject to background blur and edge detection as well. And the same can be said for objects as well, as it did look as though it came out of a flagship phone.

Macro Mode
However, the same CANNOT be said for the phone’s macro mode shots, because not only it was extremely difficult to get a good focus in the Macro Mode but there was quite a number of times where the colors were totally off as well, so I would totally look elsewhere if you really want a phone to get really good Macro Mode shots.

Night Mode – Ultrawide
So the Night Mode shots on the phone were a little peculiar over here, because there is no Night Mode for the Ultrawide lens, so you will need to take a non Night Mode shot in order to use the ultrawide lenses.

Night Mode – Main Lens
However I really loved how the Night Mode was on the main lenses, where it had great highlights and amazing dynamic range for the shadows as well.

Regular Selfie
Now speaking of looking like a flagship photo, the selfie shots on the phone are surely one of the best I have seen of a smartphone within this price range, with amazing skin tones and great dynamic range both for the regular and the portrait selfie shots.

Portrait Selfie
And I actually put this particular Portrait Selfie image up on my IG Stories and did a Poll on getting people to guess what phone took this shot and 99% of them answered that it was taken on Samsung’s new S22 Ultra. Yeap, true story!

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Video Recording

Then as for video recording, there is just a single shortcoming over here but understandable because of the price range once again, as it only records up to 1080p 30 fps for the rear and for the front as well.

Do check out my YouTube video for the video sample shots and also a vlogging test (audio and video recording test) on the phone!

But I have to say that the quality was still great, with nice dynamic range and it is nice that the image stabilization for the ultrawide and the main lens was really good too.

What’s interesting is that there is Macro Video mode, which for the life of me, I don’t know why it exists because it can only record up to 720p, video footage was shaky, with inconsistent exposure as well.

Then, while the front camera records at the same resolution, I was very impressed from a dynamic range point of view and of course the image stabilization as well because it was really nice.

So with these guys, what do you think of the camera’s performance? Is it good or just a gimmick?

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Software

So the Redmi Note 11 series was the first from Xiaomi that came shipped with MIUI 13 but currently still on Android 11. During my review period I was at MIUI version 13.0.4

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that there was almost no visual or menu or any aesthetic change made to this new skin, except for the Side Bar, which was indeed handy but I wouldn’t consider that as a major change or upgrade.

However, I did feel that the overall experience of using this skin seems like it is totally not buggy, from opening a bunch of apps, multi tasking, load websites was indeed very smooth and this is also could be because of the additional 3GB RAM on top of the 8GB that is inside of the phone.

What also surprised me was my initial worry about the 12nm MediaTek Helio G96 Chipset, is something that didn’t under perform at all, and I am happy to NOTE (pun intended) that I didn’t come across any software related issues when I was using the phone daily.

So I guess we all have to wait probably for another year for another UI or menu update, I don’t know but it’s nice to know that from a performance level, everything is great and there has been no issues thus far.

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Battery

In terms of the battery capacity, the Redmi Note 11S has a pretty big 5000 milliamps of battery. And I honestly found it extremely hard to drain the phone’s battery, where the phone barely moved down to 10% battery with an hour plus of usage.

I even intentionally left the phone at Light Mode instead of Dark Mode when I used the phone daily, simply because I had that sort of confidence that the battery would last way longer than expected, an average of one and a half to two days, or perhaps even more depending on daily usage.

So yes the battery life alone is a highly recommended reason on why you should really get the phone.

And what’s extra sweet is the fast charging performance, because not only the box comes with 33 watts charging, which is the highest level that this particular phone can charge, but the claimed faster charge up to 26% more is indeed true as I tried using the charging brick of the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE and it was surely faster on this new MMT Technology charging included in this Redmi Note 11S.

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Gaming

Next let’s talk about gaming, because here is where I found that there was some limitations and probably not a smartphone that is really catered for a “hardcore mobile gamer”.

PUBG Mobile

Starting with PUBG Mobile, while everything ran very nice and smooth and there were absolutely no overheating issues when playing the game for close to 2 hours straight, there is a slight compromise over here because the graphics could go to a maximum settings of HD and the framerate also only maxes out at High.

So if that’s fine with you, then yes, you will enjoy a stutter and lag free experience when playing PUBG Mobile.

Genshin Impact

Now, while I know this 12nm Chipset is not meant for games like Genshin Impact but just for the sake of testing it out. With medium settings, at 60fps and motion blur turned off, the initial gameplay up to about 20 minutes was totally fine and then you might experience the occasional micro lag, but not too frequent.

So my advice is to set the game to the lower settings on Genshin Impact, if you want to have a proper experience on the phone.

And as mentioned in the build quality segment, earlier on in this video, the phone was such a pleasure to play games on for a very long time, due to the slight curved edges and the overall matte finish as well.

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Conclusion

So if your question still remains about IF you should get the Redmi Note 11S…

While there are certain compromises, like video resolution recording limits, graphic limits during gameplay, which honestly might only be something a huge tech nerd like me (or probably some of you!) would matter more, compared to the average Joe or the ordinary Jane, as these limitations would NOT worry them, since the starting price for the phone is only from RM899 for the 6+64GB version and just RM999 for the exact variant that I have with me, which is the 8+128GB variant.

And with that I humbly believe that THIS is the smartphone to get if you are looking for a perfect smartphone under RM1000 as of now!

Now speaking of the Redmi Note 11 series, I already got my hands on the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G with me, so if you haven’t and I will see you in my next review!