Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra 5G in for review

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra may be the ultimate smartphone. Looking at it from all angles, we can't really see a flaw or shortcoming. Better yet, it's hard to see one phone matching the Mi 11 Ultra spec for spec, well, except maybe that other Ultra.

But first thing's first - let's do an unboxing. Xiaomi ship the Mi 11 Ultra with a potent 67W charger that can top the phone up in under 40 minutes, a USB cable, 3.5mm to USB-C dongle and a case.

The back of the phone is where things get really interesting. As far as camera islands go, this one is the daddy! It's huge and is able to topple the device you leave it upright unattended (we do that sometimes).

The camera island has good reason for its size. It houses three large camera sensors and a small display, reportedly straight off a Mi Band 5 smart band.

Camera-wise you get a 50MP main camera with a wide 24mm field of view and the current-biggest camera sensor in a smartphone - Samsung's 1/1.12-inch GN2, complete with dual-pixel PDAF, laser-assisted AF and optical stabilization. Moving to the 48MP ultrawide - it a properly wide field of view at 12mm and sits in front of a big 1/2.0-inch sensor with PDAF. Then there's the periscope camera with a the same resolution and sensor size as the ultrawide. It provides 5x optical zoom (120mm equivalent).

The tiny secondary display may look a gimmick, but it enables selfies with all three of the Mi 11 Ultra's potent main cameras. It is a bit tricky to get a correct hold so that you can snap a photo with the volume button, but the end result is well worth it.

Moving away from the cameras for a minute, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is a complete smartphone in all other regards as well. It has a 6.81-inch AMOLED display with all the bells and whistles - 1440p resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and a searing 900 nits of brightness.

There's a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip with 8GB or 12GB of RAM, a 5,000mAh battery with 67W charging both with or without a wire. You get two speakers on each side of the Mi 11 Ultra and an infrared sensor on the top. And you can rely on IP68 protection against water and dust.

Stay tuned for more content with the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra coming soon.