So after taking both the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra for quite a ride against each other, it’s FINALLY time to unveil which phone is truly the ULTRA smartphone.
In this article, I will compare the hardware, the displays, the cameras, audio, battery, software, gaming and give you the conclusion on which phone is better or worth the money, so stay tuned!
Build & Quality
Starting from the phone’s hardware from a design and build, saying that this is based on a personal preference may seem like I am copping out, but I can tell you that I am not.
As there is a matte glass finish on the S21 Ultra with quite a solid build and weight to the phone and surely the current best-looking smartphone that Samsung has ever made thus far.
And there is the Mi 11 Ultra, which is Xiaomi’s most extreme smartphone design with a slightly heavier weight, with a glossy ceramic finish and who could not notice that camera bump as it was a camera bump which you can actually see from out of space… okie… Maybe not.
But jokes aside, I actually personally like the camera bump where just like what Samsung has done, Xiaomi embraces the camera bump to make it a “statement piece” for the phone.
And the good news is that when it comes to typing both phones on a surface it was totally fine as it didn’t wobble at all.
In terms of dimensions it’s almost the same where the S21 Ultra is just a tad bit bigger.
Then as for the ports and buttons, what’s interesting is that both phones had the same placements for the power and the volume rockers on the right and everything below.
But what separates the phones is of course the Mi 11 Ultra’s IR Blaster and the other stereo speaker is placed on top instead of the S21 Ultra being at the earpiece area. And yes, we shall see how that translates to the overall sound quality when we do a sound test later.
As for the screen’s panel build, both have the same toughest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus.
Now speaking of the front panel, in terms of which phone unlocks faster, the S21 Ultra surely unlocks faster and I suspect it is because of that unnecessary animation on the Mi 11 Ultra.
And while I did mention that this is a personal preference, if absolutely HAVE to choose, I’d go with the Mi 11 Ultra, why? Because the glossier ceramic finish at the back will be less prone to scratches, where I have accidentally scratched the S21 Ultra when I was mounting the phone on the comparison rig’s screw and of course as you all might have known, I am a fan of white color too.
Display
As for the phone’s display, both phones come with an AMOLED panel, where Samsung has named their the Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with the same resolution of 1440 x 3200 pixels and 120-hertz refresh rate.
Out of the bat, the first thing I noticed is that the screen of the S21 Ultra surely goes really bright when it is at its maximum, where funny enough according to paper the Mi 11 Ultra is supposed to have a higher peak brightness, but it doesn’t seem to be the case when compared both side by side.
And many don’t actually see this as something worth mentioning is that I always found that Samsung’s screen always had that right amount of brightness depending on the environment, thanks to their better adaptive display, where I always felt it adjusted well if it is dark or even on a bright area, where it does a better job compared to the Mi 11 Ultra.
And yes I did experience a screen dimming issue when I was taking the photo and video comparison on the Mi 11 Ultra.
But other than that, both screens have quite a near-identical viewing experience since technically they are using the same hardware panel.
But all in all, if I had to choose, just because of its brighter screen and better overall display performance from a software’s perspective I’d go with the S21 Ultra.
And yes I am aware of that tiny screen at the back of the Mi 11 Ultra, and although it is cool to have that, but ask yourself, how many times do you put your phone face down? I don’t, do you? Let me know in the comments section below.
Camera
Now before comparing the image and video quality for both phones, let’s first check out the specs.
The Mi 11 Ultra comes with:
- a 50-megapixel f 2.0 lens,Â
- a 48-megapixel f 4.1 periscope lens with 5-times optical zoom, and
- a 48-megapixel f 2.2 12mm ultrawide angle lens
Then as for the S21 Ultra, it has:
- a massive 108-megapixel f 1.8 aperture lens,
- a 10-megapixel periscope lens but up to 10x optical zoom instead,
- a 10-megapixel f 2.4 telephoto lens, and
- a 12-megapixel f 2.2 13mm ultrawide angle lens
High Megapixel Mode
Starting from the high megapixel mode, although the S21 Ultra has a bigger megapixel mode, there is not much of a difference if you just take a shot before zooming in.
Then when you zoom in close, the S21 Ultra is just a bit more in detail compared to the Mi 11 Ultra. Not too far off to be honest but the overall colors of both images are pretty much close.
Main Lens
Next, looking at the main lens, images again looked very close to each other where the only difference is the sky area was just a bit bluer on the S21 Ultra, but the colors of the roof and building are very similar on this image.
But what’s interesting is that in this image, it was the total opposite in the sky area, where it seems to be a bit more blueish on the Mi 11 Ultra instead and a tiny bit cooler tone on the Mi 11 Ultra as well, but details on both were the same.
Zoom
For the zooming modes, although there is an advantage on the S21 Ultra to have a dedicated telephoto lens, the Mi 11 Ultra’s periscope lens does a pretty decent job keeping up, although it has half the optical zoom capabilities of the S21 Ultra.
But If you are looking to zoom very far, although I have no idea who would have the right frame of mind to zoom all the way up to 120 times, if compared side by side, although the S21 Ultra can go up to 100 times instead of 120, since there is a zoom lock feature to hold the viewfinder on to the subject, it’s easier to take photos on the S21 Ultra and you get even a better clarity at that.
So I personally don’t get why in the world would Xiaomi be extremely proud of the whole 120 times zoom when the images just look super unusable, which Samsung has learned to move away from that zoom branding since the S20 Ultra.
Ultrawide Lens
Then looking at the ultrawide lens, the overall image quality looks pretty much the same but the Mi 11 Ultra has a wider focal length, so you will get more into your shots.
Without zooming in, you will find the picture to be quite similar, but since the Mi 11 Ultra has a bigger megapixel sensor, if you zoom in close you will get just a tiny bit of detail on the Mi 11 Ultra but not a huge difference.
Now in this second picture, the difference is that the S21 Ultra has just a bit warmer tone, a bit more true to life as how the building actually was, and the AI processing on the Mi 11 Ultra this time made the photos look a bit more saturated, as seen in the blue sky area, so this comes down to a personal preference where I prefer the image on the S21 Ultra but I do appreciate the wider focal length once again on the Mi 11 Ultra.
Portrait Mode
As for Portrait Mode for subjects, both phones had mixed results where there were times when the Mi 11 Ultra was better on the edge detection and there were times when the S21 Ultra was better.
Then when it comes to human subjects, edge detection and background blur was really good for both images, but the shadows are a bit more apparent on the Mi 11 Ultra, with more crushed blacks as opposed to the S21 Ultra, which had a more true to life color as the t-shirt I was wearing was not as black as how the Mi 11 Ultra was, so this is surely down to your personal taste.
Night Mode
As for the night mode, once again due to the higher megapixel count, the Mi 11 Ultra has better details on the edges but in terms of the highlights and shadows, both are the same and as flagship quality as expected. And they were very identical for the main lens at the same area of shots.
But when taking the night mode shot with a very poorly lit area, the 100-megapixel main lens on the S21 Ultra starts to show not only a slightly brighter image but also more detail on the floor and the pillar on the right.
And lastly, when taking a shot at a scenario with night lights, the glare coming from the S21 Ultra seems to look a bit better than the Mi 11 Ultra.
Then looking at the front camera, the Mi 11 Ultra has a 20-megapixel f 2.2 aperture lens and the S21 Ultra has a 40-megapixel f 2.2 aperture lens.
Okie so here is where there is not a little but a HUUUUUGE difference in quality between both phones.
Regular Selfie
Starting from the regular selfie, there was never a point where I could get the background to NOT be overexposed and this picture comparison was the best that I could get on the Mi 11 Ultra, which just looks bad compared to the S21 Ultra.
Portrait Selfie
Then the results were even worse for the Portrait Selfie mode, where I posted this image on my Instagram stories and there were 3 people who joked and said that Xiaomi cut off my hair, which as you guys can see, looks pretty much true.Â
Then to try to combat this issue, I tried the Rear Screen selfie to use the rear camera with that tiny viewfinder at the back and still the images look like this.
And worth mentioning is that you can’t use this rear display selfie for Portrait Mode and video mode as well.
Night Selfie
But the good news is that the night selfie shots were better, but still can’t get close to the image quality that the S21 Ultra offers.
Video
As for the video, both can record up to a massive 8k resolution at 24 frames per second.
8K Video
Here is where I felt Xiaomi redeemed themselves by having a better 8K recording with a better image stabilization compared to the S21 Ultra, where it was just a tad bit jittery looking through the phone’s viewfinder and also in footage as well, but still very much usable footage.
4K Video
4K video on both was equally as good for the ultrawide and the main lens as well.
The Super steady mode on the S21 Ultra was as gimbal-like as usual but at 1080p, there wasn’t a night and day difference for the overall image stabilization compared with the 1080p footage when I was using the Mi 11 Ultra.
Night Video
Then I tested some night time video and here is where that although both phone’s night time stabilization was really good, the image tends to slightly fall apart with every step taken on the Xiaomi Mi 11.
Then as for the front video recording, while the S21 Ultra can record up to 4K 60 frames per second, the Mi 11 Ultra yet again ONLY gives us 1080p up to 60 frames per second….I mean come on….what year is it???Â
Front Video Recording
As you guys can see, not only the video resolution on the Mi 11 Ultra doesn’t come close to what the S21 offers but the camera doesn’t seem to understand what they are doing with the exposure, where it seems like it was contemplating what to expose, like oh…let’s expose the subject, oh no, let’s expose the background *shakes head*Â
So who would I choose between them both when it comes to overall camera performance? I’d go with the S21 Ultra as you guys have clearly seen the performance both for photo and video for the rear was almost the same but the main differentiation factor is the front camera’s performance.
Audio
In terms of the phone’s speakers, they both have stereo speakers, so was there a difference in sound quality because the Mi 11 Ultra has it on top instead of the earpiece?Â
Mi 11 Ultra is tuned by Harman Kardon, a company that belonged to Samsung in case you all didn’t know, and the S21 Ultra is tuned by AKG.
In terms of sound output, the Mi 11 Ultra beats the S21 Ultra with a higher dB value of 96 compared to 94.1 on the S21 Ultra.
Then in terms of sound quality, it is great to know that this whole “tuned by Harmon Kardon” surely gives a difference when it comes to the overall audio quality, because not only the phone was louder but the overall clarity when it comes to the vocal and also the mids were surely better on the Mi 11 Ultra.
Battery
As for the phone’s battery, both has the same battery capacity of 5,000 milliamps of battery, and using both phones separately daily, the S21 Ultra got me a whopping 6 hours and 39 minutes at the WQHD+ resolution with the adaptive refresh rate of 10% battery with dark mode on.
The Mi 11 Ultra not only drained its battery very quickly after it reached the 50% mark but it got me only an average of 3 and a half hours of screen on time at 9 percent battery with the same settings. So I believe this could be because of a better adaptive display and of course the software battery optimization that the One UI has compared to the MI UI.
However, where the Mi 11 Ultra does better is through the massive 67-watts fast wired charging, and another 67-watt fast wireless charging, which was quite mind-blowing compared to Samsung only being able to charge up to 25-watts fast charging and 15-watts wireless charging.
And also worth mentioning is the fact that the 65-watts charging brick does come inside of the box where the S21 Ultra was the first Samsung phone which didn’t have a charger inside of the box.
So this does come down to what type of smartphone user you are to know which is better for you.
If you are the kind of person who charges the phone overnight and prefers to only charge the phone once a day then the S21 Ultra will be the phone for you.
But if you are the kind of person who prefers not to charge your phone overnight to save the battery lifespan by charging it quickly on the fast charger then the Mi 11 Ultra should be your choice.
Software
As for software, the overall experience as of the making of this video, the Mi 11 Ultra is currently at version 12.0.1.0 and the S21 Ultra is at One UI version 3.1.
Now for this, I am totally not going to beat around the bush and cop-out of this too as I am going to tell you all straight that I just prefer how the One UI version 3.1 is.
Because we have seen how much Samsung has evolved starting from their old Samsung Experience was till this day where the One UI version 3.1 has improved drastically with better software optimization for apps, and currently is the only smartphone which is NOT an iPhone that has no compression when it comes to posting videos or photos on Instagram.
Navigating through the menu and settings are also easier compared to the not so straight forward MIUI 12, for example, to access the rear screen I was talking about, instead of maybe putting it under the main display settings…you will need to “Special Features” and “Rear Display” instead.
Then the dark mode integration on the Mi 11 Ultra is still not great like apps for YouTube Studio, Canva, and even Facebook.
And there is more to this, and while the light at the end of the tunnel is that the way cheaper Poco F3 has already gotten the MIUI 12.0.5.0, which does solve this Dark mode issues, I still think it is time for a revamp of UI as I mentioned in my one month review of the Poco F3.Â
So that’s my take on comparing both of the phone’s software.
And also worth mentioning is that the Mi 11 Ultra’s Snapdragon 888 seriously overheats like crazy, even sometimes just watching videos and a bit of heavier apps and multitasking, where the S21 Ultra’s Exynos 2100 seems to run cool if not only just slightly warm to the touch no matter what you throw at it.
Speaking of apps and multitasking, although both phones has UFS 3.1 storage, the USB port on the Mi 11 Ultra is slower at version 2.0 and the S21 Ultra has a faster speed of USB 3.2, so the S21 Ultra will give you faster transfer speeds when it comes to copying files via the USB-C port.
Gaming
In terms of gaming for both of the phones, as usual we tested Genshin Impact.
First, using the S21 Ultra with Genshin Impact, it was adjusted to the highest settings with Motion Blur turned off and it ran smoothly without any issues for the first 10 minutes. But right after that, we did experience some small frame rate drops but it didn’t really affect the overall experience and it was just a bit warm to the touch.
Then when I was gaming on the Mi 11 Ultra on similar settings, the graphic quality and frame rate overall was better compared to the S21 Ultra but the phone was extremely hot after about 10 minutes where there was a severe battery drain after that.
So if I had to choose between both phones when it comes to gaming, I would obviously prefer the S21 Ultra even though I am not much of a gamer, but yes keep in mind of this, for those of you who game a lot on your smartphone.
Conclusion
All right guys, so that’s my overall review and comparison for both phones, and as the conclusion, I would just say this – while I know I might be upsetting some Mi 11 Ultra users in this video, I just honestly want to give my feedback to help you make a purchase decision because I felt that Xiaomi rushed it too quickly to get this phone out and should have taken the time to release a potential beast of a phone or just stuck to the non-Ultra Mi 11 as their best.
Yes, there were some great things about the phone, especially a very impressive Spec Sheet and a good set of cameras, but it also comes with a not so good software experience and overheating issues that ALMOST makes the phone a Jack of all trades and a Master of….FEW?Â
But who cares what I think? What matters the most is what YOU guys think so do let me know which phone that you would choose and is the S21 Ultra worth the extra money? Let’s discuss in the comments section below!
