In the ongoing human negotiation between value and excellence, Xiaomi's Mi 11 and Mi 10T Pro arrive as two answers to the same question — how much does better actually cost? Separated by just months and £150, these two flagship-tier phones from the Chinese manufacturer reveal that progress, even incremental, has a price worth examining. The Mi 11, with its superior display, newer processor, and more refined form, edges ahead — not by making the Mi 10T Pro obsolete, but by quietly demonstrating that the next generation always carries a longer horizon.
Xiaomi Mi 11 edges out Mi 10T Pro despite £150 premium
The Mi 11 is flat out better in most of the ways that matter
Mark
Why does a £150 price difference matter so much when both phones scored the same review rating?
Mimi
Because the rating reflects their respective categories. The Mi 10T Pro is excellent for its price tier, competing with mid-range flagships. The Mi 11 is excellent as an actual flagship. They're not playing the same game.
Mark
The Mi 10T Pro has a 144Hz display. That sounds objectively better than 120Hz. Why isn't that the deciding factor?
Mimi
Refresh rate is one number. The Mi 11's display is OLED instead of LCD—that's colors, blacks, brightness. It also has 480Hz touch sampling versus 180Hz, so it actually responds faster to your finger. The Mi 10T Pro's 144Hz is impressive but impractical for most people. The Mi 11's display is balanced and genuinely superior.
Mark
The Mi 10T Pro's battery lasts noticeably longer. Isn't that more important than display quality?
Mimi
It's a real advantage, but it comes from a larger battery in a heavier phone. The Mi 11 charges faster and supports wireless charging. If you're someone who tops up daily, the Mi 11's speed matters. If you're someone who forgets to charge, the Mi 10T Pro wins. It depends on your habits.
Mark
Both have the same main camera sensor, essentially. Why pay more for the Mi 11?
Mimi
They're not the same sensor. The Mi 11 uses a newer Samsung chip that's in the Galaxy S21 Ultra. But honestly, the camera difference is the least compelling reason to pick the Mi 11. It's the processor, the display, and the design that justify the cost.
Mark
What happens in two years? Which phone is still usable?
Mimi
The Mi 11's Snapdragon 888 is a generation newer. Software will run smoother on it longer. The Mi 10T Pro will still work fine, but the Mi 11 will age better. That's worth something if you keep phones for years.
Mark
So the Mi 10T Pro is just the wrong choice?
Mimi
Not if you find it on sale. At £599, it's genuinely good value. But if you're comparing them at their launch prices, the Mi 11 is the phone to buy. You're paying for real improvements, not just a brand tax.
Der Puls
- A £150 price gap between two phones from the same brand forces buyers to confront whether newer always means meaningfully better — and here, it largely does.
- The Mi 11's OLED QHD+ display against the Mi 10T Pro's LCD panel is the sharpest point of tension, revealing a gap in visual quality that the lower-priced phone simply cannot close.
- Battery life disrupts the Mi 11's dominance — its slimmer 4,600 mAh cell struggles through heavy days, while the bulkier Mi 10T Pro outlasts it with ease.
- Faster charging, wireless power delivery, and a next-generation Snapdragon 888 chip give the Mi 11 tools to recover ground and stay relevant further into the future.
- Both phones landed identical 9/10 review scores, but the Mi 11 is pulling ahead in the longer race — its hardware generation advantage means it ages more gracefully.
In the ongoing human negotiation between value and excellence, Xiaomi's Mi 11 and Mi 10T Pro arrive as two answers to the same question — how much does better actually cost? Separated by just months and £150, these two flagship-tier phones from the Chinese manufacturer reveal that progress, even incremental, has a price worth examining. The Mi 11, with its superior display, newer processor, and more refined form, edges ahead — not by making the Mi 10T Pro obsolete, but by quietly demonstrating that the next generation always carries a longer horizon.
Xiaomi has built its reputation on phones that outperform their price tags, and both the Mi 11 and Mi 10T Pro are proof of that instinct. The Mi 10T Pro arrived in the UK in November 2020 at £599, impressing reviewers immediately. Just months later, the Mi 11 launched globally at £749 — £150 more, and carrying the weight of that expectation.
In the hand, the difference is felt before it is measured. The Mi 11 is slimmer, lighter, and more refined, with curved edges and a distinctive camera module. The Mi 10T Pro is bulkier and more utilitarian in appearance. Both use glass and aluminum construction, but the Mi 11 wears it with more intention. One small irony: the Mi 11's in-display fingerprint sensor sounds more premium but performed less reliably than the Mi 10T Pro's side-mounted alternative.
The display gap is where the price premium earns its clearest justification. The Mi 11's 6.81-inch OLED panel delivers QHD+ resolution, deep blacks, and brightness peaking at 1500 nits. The Mi 10T Pro's LCD screen, while capable of a remarkable 144Hz refresh rate, offers noticeably duller colors and a fraction of the brightness. The Mi 11 counters with a 480Hz touch sampling rate, making it feel more responsive even if the raw refresh number is lower.
Cameras tell a subtler story. Both phones carry 108-megapixel Samsung main sensors, though the Mi 11 uses the newer HM3 variant. Real-world results are close — crisp, well-processed images from both, with 8K video capability shared across the lineup. The Mi 11 holds a slight edge, but not one that feels proportional to the cost difference.
Performance separates them more cleanly. The Snapdragon 888 in the Mi 11 outpaces the Mi 10T Pro's Snapdragon 865 in benchmarks, and more importantly, it positions the Mi 11 to remain capable further into its lifespan. The Mi 11 also benefits from Harman Kardon speaker tuning and 50W wireless charging — features the Mi 10T Pro simply doesn't offer.
Where the Mi 10T Pro reasserts itself is battery endurance. Its 5,000 mAh cell outlasted the Mi 11's 4,600 mAh in heavy daily use, surviving full days of gaming, photography, and streaming. The Mi 11 charges faster — reaching full in roughly 30 minutes via its included 55W charger — but it needs to more often.
Both phones earned 9 out of 10 in their reviews, a testament to how competitive Xiaomi's lineup has become within itself. The Mi 10T Pro remains a brilliant phone, especially at a discount. But the Mi 11 is the better device across most of the dimensions that matter — and its newer generation of hardware means it will stay that way for longer.
Xiaomi has built a reputation over the past few years for delivering phones that punch well above their price point. The Mi 11 is the latest proof of this formula—a device that combines flagship performance, a stunning display, and thoughtful design at a cost that makes you pause and reconsider what you're actually paying for elsewhere in the market. Yet just months before it arrived, the Mi 10T Pro had already impressed reviewers just as thoroughly, and it did so while asking for considerably less money. The question, then, is straightforward: which phone actually deserves your attention?
The two devices arrived in the market with barely any breathing room between them. Xiaomi announced the Mi 10T Pro on September 30, 2020, and just three months later, in late December, the Mi 11 followed in China. The Mi 10T Pro reached the UK in November 2020, while the Mi 11 got its global launch in February 2021. What separates them most obviously is price. The Mi 11 starts at £749 for 128GB of storage, or £799 for 256GB. The Mi 10T Pro launched at £599—a difference of £150 that immediately frames the conversation. Neither phone is sold in the United States, so buyers there would need to go through importers.
In hand, the Mi 11 feels like the more refined device. It measures 164.3 by 74.6 millimeters and weighs just 196 grams at 8.1 millimeters thick. The Mi 10T Pro, by contrast, is noticeably bulkier at 165.1 by 76.4 millimeters, 9.3 millimeters thick, and 218 grams. Both use glass front and rear panels with aluminum frames, but the Mi 11's curved edges and distinctive rounded-square camera module give it a more distinctive, premium appearance. The Mi 10T Pro's camera housing is more utilitarian—one reviewer described it as looking like a cyclops staring back. The phones also differ in how they authenticate users. The Mi 11 uses an in-display fingerprint sensor, which sounds premium but proved unreliable in testing. The Mi 10T Pro's side-mounted sensor, while less fashionable, actually worked better.
The display difference is where the price premium becomes most visible. The Mi 11 features a 6.81-inch OLED screen with QHD+ resolution (1440 by 3200 pixels), delivering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and brightness that peaks at 1500 nits. It can sustain 120Hz refresh rates at full resolution. The Mi 10T Pro, meanwhile, uses a 6.67-inch LCD panel with FHD+ resolution—noticeably less sharp, with grayer blacks and duller colors. Its brightness maxes out at 650 nits. However, the Mi 10T Pro has one surprising advantage: it can push 144Hz refresh rates, a fluidity rarely seen outside gaming phones. Yet the Mi 11 counters with a 480Hz touch sampling rate compared to the Mi 10T Pro's 180Hz, meaning it responds faster to your finger. For most users, the Mi 11's balanced, superior display technology wins the day.
The cameras tell a more complicated story. Both phones use 108-megapixel main sensors from Samsung, but they're not identical. The Mi 11 uses the newer ISOCELL HM3 chip, the same sensor found in the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. The Mi 10T Pro uses the older ISOCELL HMX. The Mi 10T Pro does have a wider f/1.7 aperture compared to the Mi 11's f/1.9, allowing more light to reach the sensor, though the practical advantage isn't always clear. Both have identical 13-megapixel ultra-wide cameras with unusually wide 123-degree fields of view, 5-megapixel macro lenses, and 20-megapixel selfie cameras. Neither has a telephoto lens. In real-world use, both produce crisp, balanced shots using Xiaomi's AI processing and pixel-binning techniques. Both can shoot 8K video at 30 frames per second or 4K at 60 frames per second. The Mi 11 has a slight edge thanks to its more advanced sensor, but the difference doesn't feel proportional to the price gap.
Performance separates the phones more decisively. The Mi 11 uses Qualcomm's 2021 Snapdragon 888 processor, while the Mi 10T Pro relies on the 2020 Snapdragon 865. In Geekbench 5 multi-core testing, the Mi 11 scores around 200 to 300 points higher—a gap you likely won't notice in everyday use, though it means the Mi 11 will stay relevant longer. The Mi 11 offers 8GB or 12GB of RAM; the Mi 10T Pro maxes out at 8GB. Both come in 128GB and 256GB storage options with no microSD slot. The Mi 11 also benefits from Harman Kardon audio tuning for its stereo speakers, while the Mi 10T Pro does not. Both run Xiaomi's MIUI software, which is functional but cluttered with bloatware and garish icons.
Battery life reveals where the Mi 10T Pro's heft actually serves a purpose. It packs a 5,000 mAh battery compared to the Mi 11's 4,600 mAh. In testing, the Mi 11 struggled to last a full day unless usage was minimal. The Mi 10T Pro, however, easily survived a full day of heavy use—gaming, photography, video, music streaming—without running dry. The Mi 11 wins back some ground on charging speed. Its 55W wired charger, included in the box, reaches full charge in roughly 30 minutes, while the Mi 10T Pro's 33W charger takes closer to an hour. The Mi 11 also supports 50W wireless charging; the Mi 10T Pro has no wireless option at all.
Both phones earned 9 out of 10 in their respective reviews, released just months apart. They're genuinely excellent devices, but they're competing in slightly different spaces. The Mi 10T Pro takes on almost-flagships like the OnePlus 8T, while the Mi 11 undercuts true flagships like the OnePlus 9 Pro. The deciding factor is that the Mi 11 is a full hardware generation ahead—newer processor, superior display, more refined design. Its display technology alone is substantially better. If you can find the Mi 10T Pro at a significant discount, it remains a brilliant phone. But the Mi 11 is the better device in nearly every way that matters, and its newer internals mean it will stay useful for longer.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
The Mi 10T Pro's camera housing looks like a cyclops staring back at you— TechRadar reviewer
The Mi 11 would only last through a full day if usage was kept to the minimum— TechRadar reviewer on battery life
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