Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G review: incredible charging speed

Xiaomi is kicking off the new year with the release of the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G, which is claimed to be the fastest charging smartphone in India. While several manufacturers are promoting faster charging as a selling point, Xiaomi is the first company to launch a smartphone with 120W fast charging in India. The 11i HyperCharge 5G is supposed to be fully charged in just 15 minutes. So, is this phone just a one-trick pony, or can it compete in other ways as well? I put it to the test to find out.

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G price in India

The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G is available with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM, and both have 128GB of internal storage. The basic option costs Rs. 26,999 in India and the other costs Rs 28,999. Xiaomi offers Rs. 1500 early booking discount and SBI cardholders can qualify for extra Rs. Cashback 2500 at launch.

Design Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G is a big phone with a new design with smooth sides. It’s still comfortable to hold in your hand as the corners are rounded so they don’t dig into your palms. The 11i HyperCharge’s polycarbonate frame doesn’t feel cheap, but the 204g weight is palpable.

You get a large 6.67-inch display on the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G. It has a small hole punch cutout at the top and thin bezels all around. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner is well placed, and my thumb rested naturally on it. The volume buttons are also within reach. While the right side has all the buttons, the left side is empty. The phone also has stereo speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an IR emitter, and a USB Type-C port.

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G has a matte back panel that hides fingerprints.

The back panel of Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G is made of glass, which gives it a premium look. I had the Camo Green variant with a matte finish. Color shines through when light hits a surface at the right angle. The camera module is large and sure to draw a lot of attention.

While the glass back hides fingerprints pretty well, Xiaomi ships a clear case in the box along with a large 120W charger.

Specifications Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G features a 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. It has a peak brightness of 1200 nits and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Xiaomi has chosen a MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC to power the 11i HyperCharge 5G. This is a new SoC that can also be seen on the Vivo V23 Pro in India.

Internal storage can be expanded 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 feature allowed me to add an additional 3 GB of virtual memory, and it’s enabled by default. The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G is equipped with a 4500 mAh battery, which is slightly smaller than the Xiaomi 11i 5G launched with it. The two models are identical except for the different battery capacity and maximum charging speed.

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G has a side fingerprint scanner

In terms of software, the phone runs MIUI 12.5 on top of Android 11. My device had the November Android security patch installed. MIUI has several settings and I also noticed a large number of pre-installed apps. You can uninstall these apps to help clean up the interface. When you swipe to the right from the home screen, you will see Xiaomi’s default App Storage. This can now be swapped to show the Google Discover news feed, or disabled altogether.

The 11i HyperCharge 5G is themeable so you can customize the interface to your liking. Some of the 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, manage device performance, and block calls and notifications while you play. .

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G performance and battery life

The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G AMOLED display is sharp, with good viewing angles and brightness. The high refresh rate makes scrolling and movement in supported games very smooth. However, the 120Hz setting is not enabled by default. The speakers are loud and the stereo sound adds to the overall video experience. I found the side fingerprint scanner to be fast and it only took one touch to unlock the phone. Multitasking was a breeze and I could switch between multiple apps without any problems.

I ran some synthetic benchmarks to see how the MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC performs against the competition. In AnTuTu, Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G scored 4,26,791 points. It also scored 742 and 2240 in the Geekbench 5 single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. In the GFXBench graphics benchmark in the T-Rex and Car Chase 11i scenes, the HyperCharge 5G scored 82 fps and 21 fps, respectively. The Motorola Edge 20 (Review) with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G SoC performed better in each of these tests.

Xiaomi ships a large 120W charger with 11i HyperCharge 5G.

I played Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) on a Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G which defaults to HD graphics and “High” framerate settings. The game could be played on these settings without any issues and I didn’t notice any stuttering. After playing for 26 minutes, I noticed a six percent drop in battery level, which is very good. The smartphone was also not warm to the touch.

The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G offers good battery life and easily lasted over a day in my use. In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted 15 hours and 57 minutes. Charging the phone was ridiculously quick with the included 120W charger. The 11i HyperCharge 5G scored 72 percent in just 10 minutes, but then took 20 minutes to fully charge. I had to turn on accelerated charging speed in settings to take advantage of the fastest possible charging speed with the 120W charger, which is not enabled by default.

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G cameras

The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G has a triple camera setup consisting of a 108MP main camera with f/1.89 aperture, an 8MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro camera. For selfies, it has a 16-megapixel front camera. The camera app is similar to what we have seen on other recent Xiaomi smartphones, and all the expected shooting modes are present, as well as a quick switch between HDR and AI. The macro switcher is still hidden in a submenu, so it’s easy to miss.

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G is equipped with a triple camera

Daylight photos taken with the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G were good. The phone quickly accurately measured light and locked focus, but tended to increase the sharpness and contrast of the final image. This caused a watercolor effect on objects in the shadows. The ultra-wide-angle camera offered a much wider field of view, and photos looked good on the phone’s display, but image quality was noticeably degraded compared to shots taken with the main camera.

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G sample in daylight (click to view full size)

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G ultra wide-angle sample (click to view full size)

Close-up shots were crisp and the phone rendered colors well. Objects also had good separation from the background with a soft depth effect. Portrait mode photos had good edge detection, and the phone allowed me to set the blur level before shooting. Macros are shot at only 2 megapixels, but I managed to get very close to the subject.

Close-up example of Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G (click to see full size)

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G portrait sample (click to see full size)

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G macro sample (click to see full size)

Low-light photos taken with bright lights nearby came out good, and objects in the distance were recognizable. However, the colors were off. With night mode turned on, the output had slightly better details and colors.

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G sample in low light (click to see full size)

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G Night Mode sample (click to view full size)

Selfies taken with the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G had good detail, and portrait mode provided good separation between subject and background. Selfies in low light were average.

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G selfie example in daylight (click to see full size)

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G selfie portrait example in low light (click to see full size)

Maximum video recording is 4K for the main camera and 1080p for the selfie shooter. During the day, stabilization was good, but at night there was some shaking in footage recorded while walking. In general, the cameras performed better in daylight than in low light.

Verdict

The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G has made headlines for its ultra-fast charging capability and this is the main selling point of this smartphone. It seems unrealistic that a smartphone battery, which also has a relatively large capacity, can be completely filled in just 20 minutes. I think it will be very convenient for those who travel often. The only catch here is that you need to carry a large 120W charger with you at all times.

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G offers premium 120W fast charging technology. It doesn’t have any direct competitors yet, so if you’re willing to spend some money, go for it. If this feature doesn’t really matter to your use case, you might want to take a look at the regular Xiaomi 11i 5G instead, which costs a bit less. It’s nearly identical to the HyperCharge model, but supports 67W fast charging instead (which is still pretty fast). The OnePlus Nord 2 (Review) and Poco F3 GT (Review) are worth considering if you want more performance for the price.