Xiaomi is kicking off the new year with the launch of the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G, which it claims is India’s fastest charging smartphone. While many manufacturers are pushing faster charging as a selling point, Xiaomi is the first company to launch a smartphone with 120W fast charging capability in India. The 11i HyperCharge 5G is said to fully charge in just 15 minutes. So, is this phone just a one-trick pony or can it compete in other respects? I put it to the test to find out.
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G price in India
The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G available with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM, and both variants have 128GB of internal storage. The base variant is priced at Rs. 26,999 in India, while the other is priced at Rs 28,999. Xiaomi is offering a Rs. 1,500 discount on pre-booking and SBI cardholders can claim an additional Rs. 2,500 cashback at time of launch.
Design Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G is a big phone and has a new design with flattened edges. It’s still comfortable in the hand because the corners are rounded so it doesn’t dig into your palm. The 11i HyperCharge’s polycarbonate frame isn’t cheap, but the 204g weight is remarkable.
You will have a large 6.67-inch screen on the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G. It has a small perforated cutout near the top and thin bezels all around. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner is well placed and my thumb rests on it naturally. The volume buttons are also within reach. While the right side has all the buttons, the left side is bare. The phone also has stereo speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an IR transmitter, and a USB Type-C port.
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G has a matte finish on the back to hide fingerprints
The back of the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G is made of glass giving it a premium look. I had the Camo Green variant, which has a matte finish. Color shines through when light hits a surface at the right angle. The camera module is large and sure to attract a lot of attention.
While the glass back helps hide fingerprints quite well, Xiaomi includes a transparent case in the box, along with a large 120W charger.
Specifications of Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G
The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G features a 6.67-inch full-HD+ AMOLED display with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. It has a maximum brightness of 1200nits and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Xiaomi chose the MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC to power the 11i HyperCharge 5G. This is a new SoC and can also be seen powering Vivo V23 Pro in India.
The internal storage is expandable using a microSD card in the hybrid dual-SIM tray. Xiaomi also offers a memory expansion feature that uses part of the internal memory as RAM. On my device this allows me to add 3GB of virtual RAM and it is enabled by default. Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G packs in a 4,500mAh battery, slightly lower capacity than the internal battery Xiaomi 11i 5G released with it. These two models are identical in terms of battery capacity and maximum charging speed.
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G with side-mounted fingerprint scanner
In terms of software, the phone runs MIUI 12.5 on top of Android 11. My unit already has the Android 11 security patch. MIUI has a lot of customization and I also noticed a large number of pre-installed apps. You can uninstall these apps to help improve the look and feel. When swiping right from the home screen, you will see Xiaomi’s ‘App Vault’ by default. This can now be swapped out to show the Google Discover news feed, or turned off completely.
Themes are available on the 11i HyperCharge 5G, so you can customize the look and feel to your liking. Some other features include Dual Apps, which lets you run two instances of the same app, and Game Turbo, which lets you access all your games in one place, device performance management as well. like blocking calls and notifications while playing games.
Performance and battery life of Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G
The AMOLED screen of the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G is sharp, with good viewing angles and brightness. The high refresh rate makes scrolling and movement in supported games super smooth. Even so, the 120Hz setting is not enabled by default. Loud speakers and stereo sound are added to the overall video viewing experience. I found the side-mounted fingerprint scanner to be quick, and it only took a single tap to unlock the phone. Multitasking was easy, and I was able to switch between multiple apps without any hiccups.
I ran synthetic benchmarks to see how the MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC compares to the competition. In AnTuTu, Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G scored 4,26,791 points. It also scored 742 and 2240 points in Geekbench 5’s single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. In the T-Rex and Car Chase scenes of GFXBench’s graphics benchmark app, the 11i HyperCharge 5G scored twice. are 82 fps and 21 fps respectively. The Motorola Edge 20’s (Review), with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G SoC, scored higher in each of these tests.
Xiaomi bundles a large 120W charger with 11i HyperCharge 5G
I played Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) on Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G with default settings for HD graphics and ‘High’ frame rate setting. The game was playable at these settings without any issues, and I didn’t notice any stuttering. After playing the game for 26 minutes, I noticed a six percent drop in battery level, which is good. The smartphone is also not warm to the touch.
The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G offers good battery life and easily lasted more than a day with my usage. In our HD video loop test, the phone ran for 15 hours and 57 minutes. Charge your phone very quickly with the included 120W charger. The 11i HyperCharge 5G hit 72% in just 10 minutes but then took a total of 20 minutes to fully charge. I had to toggle Charge Speed Boost in Settings to take advantage of the fastest possible charging speeds with the 120W charger, which isn’t enabled by default.
Xiaomi Camera 11i HyperCharge 5G
The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G has a triple camera setup that includes a 108-megapixel main camera with f/1.89 aperture, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 2-megapixel macro camera. For selfies, it has a 16-megapixel front camera. The camera app is similar to what we’ve seen on other recent Xiaomi smartphones and all the expected shooting modes are present, along with quick toggles for HDR and AI . The Macro toggle button is still hidden in the submenu so it’s easy to miss.
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G has a triple camera setup
Daytime photos taken with the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G are very good. The phone is quick to measure light and lock focus accurately, however, it tends to increase sharpness and contrast in the final image. This causes a watercolor-like effect on subjects in the dark. The ultra-wide-angle camera offers a much wider field of view, and the phone’s screen shots look good, but there’s a noticeable drop in image quality compared to photos taken with the main camera.
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G daytime running light sample (tap to see full size)
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G ultra-wide-angle model (tap to see full size)
Close-ups are sharp, and the phone manages colors well. Subjects also have good separation from the background with a soft depth effect. Portrait mode shots have good edge detection, and the phone lets me set the level of blur before taking the shot. Macros were only captured at 2 megapixels, but I was able to get very close to the subject.
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G close-up sample (tap to see full size)
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G portrait sample (tap to see full size)
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G macro sample (tap to see full size)
Low-light shots taken with nearby light sources turned out well and were able to recognize distant objects. However, the colors are off. With Night mode enabled, the output has slightly better details and colors.
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G backlight sample (tap to see full size)
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G Model Night Mode (tap to see full size)
Selfies taken with the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G had good detail, and the Portrait mode managed well the separation between the subject and the background. Low-light selfies are average.
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G daylight selfie sample (tap to see full size)
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G low-light selfie portrait sample (tap to see full size)
Video recording maxes out at 4K for the main camera and 1080p for the selfie camera. The system stabilizes well during the day, but at night there is stutter in clips recorded while walking around. Overall, the cameras shoot better in daylight than in low light.
Identify
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G has caught the eye with its super fast charging and this is the biggest selling point of this smartphone. It seems impractical that the battery of a smartphone, which has a relatively high capacity, can be fully charged in just 20 minutes. I think this will be extremely handy for people who travel often. The only catch here is that you will always have to carry a large 120W charger with you.
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G claims high end for its 120W fast charging technology. It doesn’t have any direct competition yet, so if you’re willing to spend some money, go for it. If a feature is not really important to your use, you can consider instead Xiaomi 11i 5G which cost a little less. It’s almost identical to the HyperCharge model, but instead supports 67W fast charging (which is still pretty fast). The OnePlus Nord 2 (Review) and Poco F3 GT (Review) is worth considering if you want more performance for the price.
