Core i9-12900HK review: Intel has the best gaming processor, for now

Intel’s 12th-gen H-series processors are the best that you can get in a gaming laptop, and the Core i9-12900HK really shows it off. It’s a 45W CPU that can go way farther, especially since it’s unlocked for overclocking. From our testing, we’ve seen in every benchmark that it outperforms the competition.

It’s worth keeping in mind, of course, that it’s also the newest thing. It comes out on par with Apple’s M1 Max in benchmarks, so when we get an M2 Max at some point, it will obviously beat this. That’s how these things work; it’s back and forth. AMD also hasn’t started offering its Ryzen 6000 H-series laptops for review yet.

But then again, you can’t play the same games on a Mac that you can on Windows. That’s why it makes it easy to say that this is absolutely the best gaming CPU right now. The only competitor is AMD.

Right now, Intel gets to just be king of the hill, especially when it comes to gaming. For creator applications, there’s still a whole family of 45W Alder Lake CPUs to choose from, and from what we’ve seen, Intel 12th-gen is a winner.

MSI Raider GE76

The MSI Raider GE76 is among the first laptops to ship with Intel's new 12th-gen processors, as well as NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics

Features:

Pros: Cons:

Navigate this review:

• MSI Raider GE76: The laptop
• Performance: Intel Core i9-12900HK, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 32GB DDR5 memory, and more
  • Intel Content Creation test
  • Geekbench 5
  • Cinebench
  • 3DMark
  • VRMark
  • PCMark 10
  • CrystalDiskMark
  • MaxxMem2
  • Video rendering
• Who should buy a laptop with an Intel Core i9-12900HK?

Check out the specs of this unit:

MSI Raider GE76 Specs

CPU	Intel Core i9-12900HK
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU 16GB GDDR6 Up to 1690MHz Boost Clock, 175W Maximum Graphics Power with Dynamic Boost. Max. 220W CPU-GPU Power with MSI OverBoost Technology. *May vary by scenario
Body	397 x 284 x 25.9 mm, 2.9kg
Display	17.3″ FHD (1920×1080), 360Hz, IPS-Level
Memory	32GB DDR5-4800 Memory Type 2 Slots Number of SO-DIMM Slot Max 64GB Max Capacity
Storage	2x 2TB M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen4)
Webcam	FHD type (30fps@1080p)
Keyboard	Per-Key RGB Backlight Keyboard
Connectivity	Killer Gb LAN (Up to 2.5G) Intel Killer AX Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth 5.2
Audio jack	1x Mic-in/Headphone-out Combo Jack
Ports	1x Type-C (USB / DP / Thunderbolt 4) 1x Type-C USB3.2 Gen2 2x Type-A USB3.2 Gen1 1x Type-A USB3.2 Gen2 1x RJ45 1x SD Express 1x (8K @ 60Hz / 4K @ 120Hz) HDMI 1x Mini-DisplayPort
Battery	4-Cell 99.9 Battery (Whr)
AC Adapter	330W adapter
Color	Titanium Blue
OS	Windows 11 Pro
Price	$3,999

MSI Raider GE76: The laptop

• The MSI Raider GE76 has a 360Hz FHD display, but is also offered with 240Hz QHD and 120Hz UHD.
• It’s a laptop that’s focused on gaming, and if you’re looking for beautiful but accurate colors, look for something more creator focused like the MSI Creator 15.
• The keyboard has per-key RGB lighting, and there’s an RGB light bar across the front.

Most of this review is going to be spent talking about performance. After all, we’re mostly here to talk about Intel’s Core i9-12900HK, along with the new RTX 3080 Ti GPU, DDR5 memory, and other internals. I do want to talk about the MSI Raider GE76 though, as it’s actually the first MSI laptop I’ve reviewed.

It’s quite nice, using a stylish design with the MSI logo on the lid. From the outside, it’s pretty straightforward for a gaming laptop.

Across the front is an RGB light bar, which is pretty cool. It adds a nice touch to the gaming rig. Of course, if you’re one of the many people that buy a gaming laptop for something that’s decidedly not gaming, you wouldn’t appreciate it. For those people, MSI has its Creator line of laptops.

There’s also per-key RGB lighting on the keyboard. By default, it’s set to what you see above, where it just sort of cycles through different colors. It’s definitely pretty, and you can change it if you want.

It’s also got a 360Hz display, which is awesome for gaming. The high refresh rate makes for smoother animations and most definitely better gameplay. I’ve seen the demoes, and I’ve played the exact same scenarios on a 60Hz screen and a 360Hz screen. The results are better on the latter.

The color gamut isn’t anything too exciting, with 97% sRGB, 68% NTSC, 73% Adobe RGB, and 73% P3. This isn’t uncommon for a gaming laptop, where the screen tends to be so optimized for having a high frame rate and being anti-glare that color gamut doesn’t tend to be a priority. In the past, people who edited videos and such would buy gaming laptops for their power, but now, there’s a whole range of creator laptops that focus more on that. In short, stay tuned, because I have a review of the MSI Creator 15, which has a stunning 4K OLED display, coming up.

Brightness maxed out at 287.4 nits, which isn’t very bright. I assume that outdoor use isn’t a priority for a laptop like this. Contrast maxed out at 1,150:1.

Most of the ports are on the back, including a charging port that hooks up to the 330W adapter. There’s also HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt 4. Any of those can be used for connecting high-resolution displays, making it nice and easy to take this laptop on the go, and dock it when you get home. There’s also an Ethernet port back there, which I had to make use of because Wi-Fi was tremendously unstable for me with this device. Presumably, there will be a driver update at some point before launch.

Ports on the back of gaming laptops are for those things that you’ll leave plugged in often, like monitors, docks, or the charger. On the sides, there’s where you’ll find ports that are more specifically for peripherals that you might plug and unplug frequently, like headsets, mice, and so on. You’ll find USB Type-A on both sides (two on the right side, one on the left), an SD card reader on the right side, a USB Type-C ports (not Thunderbolt) on the left side, and a 3.5mm audio jack on the left side.

Performance: Intel Core i9-12900HK, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 32GB DDR5 memory, and more

• The Core i9-12900HK currently offers the best CPU performance in a laptop.
• DDR5 is better than DDR4, but has longer latency times.
• The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the next step up.

Here’s the summary: I’ve been using this laptop for a week, and I’ve played tons of games on it, such as Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5. By default, the graphics are set to the best they can be, and I set the frame rates to the full 360fps that you can use with this display. I didn’t have any issues at all. It was phenomenal. This is just one of those situations where you’re not going to be able to get better hardware.

Intel’s new 12th-gen ‘Alder Lake’ processors use a hybrid architecture. It’s across the whole family too, and we first got to see it in our review of the Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K, which are desktop CPUs. This is our first time seeing it in a mobile processor.

It uses a process that we’ve been seeing from ARM processors for years. There are big, powerful cores (P-cores), which are used for the most resource-demanding tasks. And then there are efficiency cores (E-cores), which don’t use as much power and can be used for tasks that don’t require as many resources. This is managed by a scheduler that Intel calls Thread Director. The P-cores are Hyperthreaded, while the E-cores are not, so since the Core i9-12900HK has six P-cores and eight E-cores, it adds up to a total of 14 cores and 20 threads. That’s way more than anything we’ve seen before in a consumer PC.

The P-cores max out at 5GHz clock speed, while the E-cores max out at 3.8GHz Turbo. The TDP is 45W, but the processor has a max power of 115W. This thing can get powerful, although that’s also why Intel says it’s the most powerful mobile gaming CPU on the planet.

I started off this section just by saying that gaming performance was as smooth as can be with the most demanding settings I could find, because that about sums up what you need to know. I could also tell you video and photo editing performance is great, but really, that all kind of just goes without saying. For benchmarks, I ran almost every test I could find, so we’re just going to run through those. Spoiler: the scores are high.

Intel Content Creation test

This was a test that was provided by Intel, making use of Adobe Premiere Pro and Lightroom Classic. It’s essentially a script that runs through a series of operations in each app.

Both the Premiere Pro export and Lightroom import times are pretty similar to what we saw with the desktop parts that I reviewed last year, which is impressive. Lightroom export rook much longer, with a median speed of 45.7 seconds on the Core i9-12900K and 56.1 seconds with the Core i5-12600K. With the mobile chip, it was 125.9 seconds. The other two tests came out in-between the Core i5-12600K and the Core i9-12900K.

Geekbench 5

Geekbench is a test that looks at straight-up CPU performance. To be clear, this is not a snapshot of overall PC performance, as it should produce the same scores whether we have an RTX 3080 Ti GPU, or if we were using a machine with integrated graphics.

Product	Specs	Single-core	Multi-core
MSI Raider GE76	Core i9-12900HK, RTX 3080 Ti	1,774	12,630
HP OMEN 45L	Core i9-12900K, RTX 3090	1,921	15,723
MacBook Pro	M1 Pro	1,755	9,954
MacBook Pro*	M1 Max	1,780	12,720
Lenovo ThinkPad P15	Core i9-11950H, RTX A5000	1,669	9,309

*The MacBook Pro with M1 Max score was pulled from the Geekbench database.

The big improvement over previous generations is going to be in multithreaded performance. That shouldn’t be surprising, since there are more cores. Specifically referring to CPU performance, we can see that the Core i9-12900HK is just about on par with Apple’s M1 Max, which goes in top-end MacBook Pro laptops.

Cinebench

Cinebench is another test that exclusively focuses on the CPU.

Product	Specs	Single core	Multi-core
MSI Raider GE76	Core i9-12900HK, RTX 3080 Ti	1,833	14,675
HP OMEN 45L	Core i9-12900K, RTX 3090	1,894	23,659
MacBook Pro	M1 Pro	1,530	9,552
MacBook Pro*	M1 Max	1,529	12,258
Lenovo ThinkPad P15	Core i9-11950H, RTX A5000	1,606	12,264

Being that this test is still just testing the CPU, the results are similar, except for how the desktop CPU really blows away everything else in multi-core scores.

3DMark

3DMark is the first one that’s going to give us an overall score, along with both CPU and GPU scores. It provides some additional insights, as well as several tests. I ran the CPU Profile test, Time Spy, and Time Spy Extreme.

Test	Total Score	CPU Score	GPU Score
Time Spy	12,287	12,237	12,296
Time Spy Extreme	5,867	5,282	5,984

Also, according to that, this machine should get the following performance when gaming:

Game	Resolution	Frame Rate
Battlefield V	1440p Ultra	115+
	1080p Ultra	140+
Apex Legends	1440p Ultra	130+
	1080p Ultra	140+
GTA V	1440p Ultra	70+
	1080p Ultra	105+
Fortnite	1440p Ultra	125+
	1080p Ultra	170+
RDR 2	1440p Ultra	45+
	1080p Ultra	55+

Note that this is probably the biggest disparity from the desktop parts. If you’re deciding between a gaming laptop and a gaming desktop, this is something to pay attention to.

 

Finally, these are the CPU Profile results:

VRMark

VRMark is, well, it’s exactly what it sounds like. It tests virtual reality with three different tests. There’s the Orange Room, Cyan Room, and Blue Room. Orange Room is entry-level, while Blue Room is a test I’ve only seen a handful of PCs pass.

Test	Score
Orange Room	11,452
Cyan Room	11,542
Blue Room	3,815

Out of all of the tests that I’ve run over the years, this is the top laptop score for the Blue Room test. Anything above that is a desktop, all of which have Core i9 processors from ninth- through 12th-gen, and graphics of either RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 3080, and RTX 3090. In other words, we’re in pretty good shape here.

PCMark 10

PCMark 10 is my favorite tests, because it really tests out a bit of everything. In fact, in most of my benchmark charts, I sort them by PCMark 10 score, and that’s how I decide what to compare a machine to.

Product	Specs	Score
MSI Raider GE76	Core i9-12900HK, RTX 3080 Ti	7,820
HP OMEN 45L	Core i9-12900K, RTX 3090	9,012
HP OMEN 30L	Core i9-10900K, RTX 3080	7,463
Lenovo Legion 5 Pro	Ryzen 7 5800H, RTX 3070	6,800
Lenovo ThinkPad P15	Core i9-11950H, RTX A5000	6,788

For reference, here are some details:

The scores are really impressive. It beats a desktop from 2020 with an RTX 3080, so that’s saying something.

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark is for testing storage, so out of all of the tests we’re doing, this one has the least to do with the new CPU and GPU. Really, it’s just for if you’re considering the MSI Raider GE76.

MaxxMem2

MaxxMem2 is a test for benchmarking RAM, and I haven’t used it much in the past. I’ve been using it more recently now that DDR5 is out, and more specifically, since DDR5 is too expensive to be mainstream. This test lets us see if DDR5 is worth the premium.

DDR5 is new to Intel’s 12th-gen CPUs, which is why this matters now. In my HP OMEN 45L review, it got 37,813MB/s on read, 41,851MB/s on write, and 32,440MB/s on copy, with 81.7ns latency. Right now, you could probably say that you could live without DDR5, given marginal improvements, longer latency, and higher prices. It’s something to keep an eye on though.

Video rendering

And now, it’s time for the old 8K video rendering test. That’s where we dump some video files into a video editing application, and export them. It’s about four minutes long, and I ran the same test on the Apple MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro processor.

Product	Software	Rendering Time
MSI Raider GE76	Adobe Premiere Pro	10:52
	DaVinci Resolve	6:17
MacBook Pro	Adobe Premiere Pro	29:46
	DaVinci Resolve	2:25

Apple’s laptop still does a lot better in DaVinci Resolve, but the MSI smokes it with Adobe Premiere Pro. And before anyone says otherwise, Premiere Pro does run natively on Apple Silicon.

Who should buy a laptop with an Intel Core i9-12900HK?

While we’ve seen in numerous tests now that the Intel Core i9-12900HK is best-in-class, that class isn’t for everyone.

Who should buy a laptop with a Core i9-12900HK:

• People who want the best gaming performance from a portable PC
• Creators that do a lot of video editing
• Users that want to be able to overclock their laptop

Who should not buy a laptop with a Core i9-12900HK:

• Gamers who don’t plan on bringing their PC anywhere would be better off with a tower, as we’ve seen from Core i9-12900K scores, and even Core i5-12600K scores
• Users who don’t game. Intel has a whole suite of CPUs coming from the 12th-gen family soon, which will show up in laptops like the Dell XPS 13 Plus. These laptops are way better for productivity, portability, and battery life.

There’s a certain use case that’s filled by the Intel H-series. That’s the gaming laptop space, the creator laptop space, and the mobile workstation space, although even mobile workstations often use Xeon chips. If you’re thinking about a laptop with a Core i9-12900HK, you have to fit into one of these categories, and you have to want the best.

Even if you’re a gamer, but you’re OK with a more mainstream option, there are much better alternatives for you. And as mentioned above, if you’re just looking for a great productivity laptop, take a look at the new Intel P-series that’s coming soon.

The MSI Raider GE76 should start shipping in early February, as will other Intel 12th-gen H-series laptops.

The post Core i9-12900HK review: Intel has the best gaming processor, for now appeared first on xda-developers.

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How to pair and set up your new Apple Watch Series 7

The Apple Watch is a powerful wearable that is famous for its fitness and other non-health related features. When you buy an Apple Watch, you’re investing in a device that will simplify (and potentially even save) your life. The Series 7 is the latest and most advanced model sold by the company. It comes with a larger display, longer battery life, and better durability. If you’ve just bought one, you must be wondering how and where to start. Here are the detailed steps to pair and set up your new Apple Watch Series 7.

How to pair and set up your new Apple Watch Series 7

• Start by turning on your Apple Watch by holding on its side button.

• Give it a few seconds to boot. Once it does, bring your iPhone close to it and make sure you have Bluetooth and WiFi enabled.

• A pop-up should appear on your iPhone. Click on Continue.

• If you don’t see the pop-up, launch the Watch app on your iPhone and tap Set Up for Myself.

• Your Apple Watch will then display an animated sphere — scan it with your iPhone, as it instructs you. You need to position the Watch squarely in the frame.

• Allow it to download and install the latest software update available for watchOS.

• Click Set Up Apple Watch.

• Choose which wrist you will be wearing it on.

• Agree to the terms of service after reading them carefully and thoroughly.

• Enable Route Tracking to make the most out of your watch.

• Decide whether you want to share watch analytics with Apple or not.

• Adjust the text size, depending on your preferences. A live preview of the text will appear on your watch’s screen to help you decide.

• Set an optional numerical passcode on your Apple Watch.

• Set up Activity if you plan on using your watch for fitness tracking.

• Decide what your daily Move goal will be. That’s the number of active calories you have to burn per day.

• Choose how many minutes of Exercise you want your daily goal to be.

• Set up your daily Stand goal. Each hour you would have to stand up for at least one minute to earn a Stand point.

• Optionally enable Blood Oxygen monitoring.

• Choose whether you want your watch to automatically download software updates in the future.

• Click on Continue when you’re presented with the Heart Rate Notifications screen.

• Tap on Continue when the Emergency SOS explanatory screen appears.

• Click Continue after the Always On Display prompt shows up.

• Decide whether you want your Apple Watch to install all available third-party apps from your iPhone.

• Choose whether you want your apps to appear as a grid or an alphabetical list.

• Give it time to sync your data.

• A pop-up will inform you that your Apple ID is now being used for iMessage and FaceTime on the new Apple Watch. Tap OK.

• Click OK when the welcome screen pops up.

• There you will find a list of installed (Apple and third-party) apps. Click on any of them to adjust the respective settings.

• In the Face Gallery, you will get to choose between dozens of watch faces and customize them.

• The Discover tab includes tips and resources revolving around your new watch and the latest version of watchOS.

• By clicking on All Watches in the My Watch tab, you get to view the watches paired to your iPhone and set up new ones.

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The Apple Watch is a complex device, and watchOS 8 is a relatively feature-rich wearable operating system. By going through all settings, one at a time, you ensure you don’t miss out on any of the perks the watch has to offer.

Apple Watch Series 7

The Apple Watch Series 7 has a larger display and a more rugged display and frame compared to its predecessor.

View at Amazon

What’s your favorite Apple Watch feature? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post How to pair and set up your new Apple Watch Series 7 appeared first on xda-developers.

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Redmi Note 11 Hands-On: This price tag makes it really hard to nitpick

Before I begin evaluating the Redmi Note 11, which is the base model of Xiaomi’s just-announced line consisting of four phones, I must confess: it is hard for me to review mid-range phones. I have been a privileged gadget enthusiast most of my life, meaning even before I got to test smartphones for a living, I was already using only flagship phones. And so for someone like me, who regularly gets to handle the latest foldables or the most bleeding-edge glass slabs, it’s natural for me to feel a bit bored when testing phones that are clearly not using the latest and best components.

And so my first hour with the Redmi Note 11 was filled with disappointment. Out of the box, I found the dark grey color very dull, and more damningly, the phone’s haptic engine was weak — mushy and imprecise, a notable departure from every recent Xiaomi phone I’ve tested, which all have excellent, arguably best-in-class haptics, even last year’s $279 Redmi Note 10 Pro. The screen tech and refresh rate of the Note 11, LCD at 90Hz, is also a step down from the Note 10 Pro’s AMOLED at 120Hz screen. What the heck, why is the Note 11 a downgrade from last year? I thought.

Then I realized it was because I was testing the absolute lowest tier of the Note 11 series, which is a budget phone, not a mid-range phone. The actual successor to the mid-range Note 10 Pro I tested last year would be the Note 11 Pro. In fact, I had never tested a non-Pro Redmi device before until now. It also does not help that Xiaomi has probably the most confusing branding lineup in the smartphone space right now, making it hard even for seasoned tech journalists to keep track of their phones.

Then I watched Redmi’s launch event, and when the prices were revealed, everything about this phone made better sense. This base model Redmi Note 11 that I am testing will retail in Europe and other parts of Asia starting at that region’s equivalent of $179 (the US dollar figure is just for reference since the phone won’t actually sell officially in the US), with some markets getting early bird discounts that shave another $20 off the phone.

That makes the Redmi Note 11 available for as low as $159. Once I absorbed this price tag, then all the gripes I’ve had with the phones mostly went away (I still find the colorway of my unit dull). This is about as cheap as a functional, newly released smartphone from a reputable brand can get.

Redmi Note 11 series (global) Specifications: Click to expand

Specification	Redmi Note 11	Redmi Note 11S	Redmi Note 11 Pro	Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
Build	IP53 splash-proof Corning Gorilla Glass 3 front	IP53 splash-proof Corning Gorilla Glass 3 front	IP53 splash-proof Corning Gorilla Glass 5 front	IP53 splash-proof Corning Gorilla Glass 5 front
Dimensions & Weight	159.867 x 73.87 x 8.09mm 179g	159.867 x 73.87 x 8.09mm 179g	164.19 x 76.1 x 8.12mm 202g	164.19 x 76.1 x 8.12mm 202g
Display	6.43-inch FHD+ LCD 2400 x 1080 90Hz refresh rate 180Hz touch sampling rate DCI-P3 wide color gamut 1000nits peak brightness	6.43-inch FHD+ LCD 2400 x 1080 90Hz refresh rate 180Hz touch sampling rate DCI-P3 wide color gamut 1000nits peak brightness	6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED 2400 x 1080 120Hz refresh rate 360Hz touch sampling rate DCI-P3 wide color gamut 1200nits peak brightness	6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED 2400 x 1080 120Hz refresh rate 360Hz touch sampling rate DCI-P3 wide color gamut 1200nits peak brightness
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 Adreno 610 GPU	MediaTek Helio G96 ARM Mali-G57 MC2 GPU	MediaTek Helio G96 ARM Mali-G57 MC2 GPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 Adreno 619 GPU
RAM & Storage	4GB LPDDR4x + 64GB UFS 2.2 4GB + 128GB 6GB + 128GB	6GB LPDDR4x + 64GB UFS 2.2 6GB + 128GB 8GB + 128GB	6GB LPDDR4x + 64GB UFS 2.2 6GB + 128GB 8GB + 128GB	6GB LPDDR4x + 64GB UFS 2.2 6GB + 128GB 8GB + 128GB
Battery & Charging	5,000mAh 33W fast charging support 33W charger included	5,000mAh 33W fast charging support 33W charger included	5,000mAh 67W fast charging support 67W charger included	5,000mAh 67W fast charging support 67W charger included
Security	Side-mounted fingerprint scanner	Side-mounted fingerprint scanner	Side-mounted fingerprint scanner	Side-mounted fingerprint scanner
Rear Camera(s)	Primary: 50MP f/1.8 Ultra-wide: 8MP f/2.2, 118° FoV Macro: 2MP f/2.4 Depth: 2MP f/2.4	Primary: 108MP Samsung HM2 f/1.9 Ultra-wide: 8MP f/2.2, 118° FoV Macro: 2MP f/2.4 Depth: 2MP f/2.4	Primary: 108MP Samsung HM2 f/1.9 Ultra-wide: 8MP f/2.2, 118° FoV Macro: 2MP f/2.4 Depth: 2MP f/2.4	Primary: 108MP Samsung HM2 f/1.9 Ultra-wide: 8MP f/2.2, 118° FoV Macro: 2MP f/2.4 Depth: 2MP f/2.4
Front Camera(s)	13MP f/2.4	16MP f/2.4	16MP f/2.4	16MP f/2.4
Port(s)	USB Type-C 3.5mm headphone jack	USB Type-C 3.5mm headphone jack	USB Type-C 3.5mm headphone jack	USB Type-C 3.5mm headphone jack
Audio	Dual speakers	Dual speakers	Dual speakers	Dual speakers
Connectivity	Dual SIM + dedicated microSD card slot 4G LTE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5.0	Dual SIM + dedicated microSD card slot 4G LTE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5.0	Dual SIM + hybrid microSD card slot 4G LTE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5.1	Dual SIM + hybrid microSD card slot 4G LTE 5G 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5.1
Software	MIUI 13 based on Android 11	MIUI 13 based on Android 11	MIUI 13 based on Android 11	MIUI 13 based on Android 11
Other Features	NFC (limited regional availability) IR blaster	NFC (limited regional availability) Z-axis linear motor IR blaster	NFC Z-axis linear motor IR blaster	NFC Z-axis linear motor IR blaster

About this hands-on: Xiaomi provided a Redmi Note 11 for testing and review. It did not have any input in this article.

Redmi Note 11: Hardware

Okay, so I started the article by criticizing the Redmi Note 11’s haptics and color. The former can’t be helped (but can be excused given the price tag), but the latter can be fixed: you can just choose another color. The Redmi Note 11 comes in a variety of colors, and from renders, the other colors look much better in my opinion.

To Xiaomi’s credit, the Redmi Note 11 is solidly constructed: buttons are firm and clicky, the back material is plastic but coated to resemble glass and it is convincing. The polycarbonate mid-frame also has flat-ish sides, although contrary to some reports, the sides are not hard and angular like the iPhone 13 series (or the Vivo V23); the edges are chamfered. The back of the phone also has subtle curvature instead of the hard flat sides like an iPhone. The Redmi Note 11 doesn’t feel like it’s aiming for that iPhone 13 look; in fact, Xiaomi had already used this design last year.

Yes, that is a headphone jack you see in the above photo, along with prominent speaker grills at the top and bottom of the phone. The Redmi Note 11 has excellent outward-facing speakers when the device is in landscape mode. On the right side of the frame are the volume rocker and a power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor.

I mentioned that initially, in the first hour of use, I was disappointed by the Redmi Note 11’s 90Hz display. Well that was when I thought the phone was in the $275-$300 range, pushing its scope onto early mid-range territory. Now that we know the phone can be had for well under $200, I can’t complain. It’s an FHD+ IPS LCD panel, the 90Hz is still reasonably smooth, and colors and viewing angles are still visually appealing. The screen gets up to 1,000 nits of max brightness, which, again, isn’t great compared to flagships I’ve been using, but for a budget phone? It’s fine, even when used next to a large window with bright sunlight, I can see the screen.

Cameras

The hole punch houses a 13MP selfie camera, while the main camera system consists of a “quad-camera” setup. I use quote marks because two of these are the 2MP sensors that don’t do much. This is more like a dual-camera system, with a 50MP, f/1.8 main lens, and an 8MP, f/2,2 ultra-wide.

If the lighting condition is optimal, you can get some solid images with the 50MP main camera. It actually produces a pleasing bokeh effect when shooting objects up close, and colors are accurate — although the dynamic range is lacking. In the below samples, the same scene went from looking relatively sharp and dynamic to a bit dull because the sun shifted and shadows covered more of the city streets.

The ultra-wide doesn’t fare as well, obviously, suffering from poor exposure if shooting bright lights and looking generally soft. The problem is worse at night.

For night shots, the ultra-wide is virtually unusable, as the Redmi Note 11 can’t even use night mode to fix some of the hardware shortcomings (you can’t use night mode at all in ultra-wide mode). This is a shame because Xiaomi’s night mode is pretty good and can fix the main camera’s faults.

Video recording maxes out at 1080p/60 and there is no stabilization at all, so any walk and talk footage is jerky. Selfies are fine in ideal lighting conditions, but shoot against backlight and it simply can’t expose properly.

Processor & Memory

The Redmi Note 11 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680, a relatively new budget Qualcomm SoC with 8-cores and built on 6nm architecture. There’s either 4GB or 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. These are obviously not the highest-end components, but I had no issues with basic smartphone performance on my 6GB RAM model; in fact, the Note 11 handled games like Marvel Contest of Champions and 32 Seconds without any noticeable performance lags or frame drops. The Redmi Note 11 scored 1,670 and 388 on Geekbench’s multi- and single-core tests respectively.

And for a budget phone, the Redmi Note 11 boasts very impressive stereo speakers, as well as an IP53 rating against water splashes. The screen is also coated in Gorilla Glass 3.

Finally, to wrap up the hardware package is a 5,000 mAh battery that can be fast-charged at 33W speeds, and the charging brick is included with the packaging. I have only been testing the phone for a day and I’ve been stuck in quarantine in a hotel room so I have not really tested battery life, but rest assured, with a 5,000 mAh cell and 90Hz screen, this should easily be an all-day phone.

Redmi Note 11: Software

The Redmi Note 11 ships with MIUI 13 over Android 11. MIUI 13 supposedly brings a lot of performance boosts such as smoother animations and better battery and memory management, but in my short time testing, I haven’t noticed any major upgrades — this isn’t a bad thing as I have had no problems with MIUI’s performance over the past couple of years. Visually too, it looks very similar to MIUI 12.5, with the only new feature added that I could spot during my short time is a new fingerprint sensor shortcut gesture that allows double-tapping the sensor to launch apps. This feature, obviously, will not work with Xiaomi’s flagships as they use in-display fingerprint sensors.

Out of the box, MIUI 13 splits the traditional Android pull-down notification panel into two parts: there’s the panel for notifications and a panel for just the shortcut toggle buttons. These are accessed similarly to iOS, with the shortcut toggle buttons being accessed by pulling from the upper right corner of the screen. I hate this setup, and the good news is MIUI allows me to change back to the traditional Android method. So Xiaomi has covered its bases with this.

Redmi Note 11: Early Impressions

As I said, I had to learn to put aside my personal feelings and privileges to test the Redmi Note 11. Because for example, as someone who gets to test all the newest flagship cameras, there was absolutely no chance the Redmi Note 11’s cameras were going to impress me. I actually scoffed when I saw how bad the Redmi Note 11’s ultra-wide shots looked at night.

But I am spoiled by my privilege of getting to use $1,000 (heck, even $2,700) phones. If I take a step back and look at the Redmi Note 11 from the perspective of its target demographic: people who either cannot or will not pay more than a couple of hundred dollars, then the Redmi Note 11 offers a whole lot. You get an immersive screen, all-day battery life, good build quality for its price tag, excellent speakers that can stand up to more expensive phones, and fluid and responsive software. There’s enough processing power to run crucial everyday apps without hiccups.

You get an immersive screen, all-day battery life, good build quality for its price tag, excellent speakers that can stand up to more expensive phones, and fluid and responsive software.

Sure, you won’t be able to film walk and talk videos without looking like you’re tumbling down the stairs, and ultra-wide photos at night will look like an impressionist painting, but there’s only so much you can reasonably expect for $180. For people who don’t want to pay more than $200, the Redmi Note 11 is about as good as they’re going to get.

Redmi Note 11

The Redmi Note 11 is a very affordable smartphone under $180 that offers a large battery, immersive 90Hz screen, and solid performance.

View at Xiaomi

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