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Making sense of Xiaomi’s confusing new Redmi Note 11 range

There is not just one new Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 smartphone, but four of them, and all are being given an international release. The flagship Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G is the top model, and it’s joined by the Redmi Note 11 Pro, Redmi Note 11S, and basic Redmi Note 11. As always, the range is a little confusing, so let’s start out by examining the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G, and working our way down from there.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 series.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G and Note 11 Pro

The Note 11 Pro 5G is the biggest and most technically impressive model in the Redmi Note 11 lineup. You look at a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and take pictures with a triple-lens camera on the back. This is headed up by a 108-megapixel main camera, along with an 8MP wide-angle camera and a 2MP macro camera. The screen contains a 16MP selfie camera. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 695 processor provides the power with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM.

A large 5,000mAh battery should provide plenty of standby time, and the 67-watt fast charging system will add 50% charge to it in just 15 minutes. There’s a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and face unlock for security, dual speakers, a 3.5mm headphone socket, NFC, and a choice of 64GB or 128GB internal storage. The Redmi Note 11 Pro is very similar to the 5G version, but swaps the processor to a MediaTek Helio G96 chip and adds another 2MP depth camera to the module.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G color range.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G color range. Image used with permission by copyright holder

Redmi Note 11 and Note 11S

The Redmi Note 11 and Note 11S both have a 6.43-inch AMOLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and the same security and audio features as the Pro models, but the 5,000mAh batteries get slower 33W fast charging. To make sure you’re really confused, the Note 11S gets the same camera system and processor as the Note 11 Pro (but not the 5G version), while the ordinary Note 11 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chip and different cameras. Here, you get a 50MP main camera, along with the 8MP wide-angle and dual 2MP depth and macro cameras seen on the Note 11 Pro and Note 11S. The front camera has 13MP.

The Redmi Note 11 and Redmi Note 11S will be available in January, followed by the Note 11 Pro and Note 11 Pro 5G in February. Prices have not been confirmed at the time of writing, and we will update here when they are announced.

Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 11 series replaces the Redmi Note 10 series, which came out in mid-2021. We tried the Redmi Note 10S but were disappointed by its lack of 5G connectivity.

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Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
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