The Xiaomi Mi 11 and the Samsung Galaxy S21 are high-end smartphones with very nice promises and very convincing. There are therefore good reasons to hesitate between these two references. Here is our point by point comparison to help you decide between them according to your needs.

The year 2021 has got off to a strong start in the world of smartphones with two models that already intend to establish themselves as benchmarks. The Xiaomi Mi 11 thus faces the Samsung Galaxy S21 on a high-end price segment.

However, this is precisely the object of our comparison of the day: to know which smartphone between the Xiaomi Mi 11 and the Samsung Galaxy S21 is the best for you.

Key Specification

Design

Two schools, two philosophies… and not at all the same products. The Xiaomi Mi 11 is a large smartphone rising to a little more than 164 mm in height when the Samsung Galaxy S21 plays its true false small format with its 151.7 mm. This notable difference in terms of dimensions is confirmed in terms of weight: 196 grams for the first, 171 grams for the second. To aim bigger at Samsung, you have to look to the significantly more expensive S21+.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 and the Galaxy S21 are therefore not at all alike in terms of format and you will have to keep this in mind when making your choice. This applies to the dimensions, but also to the pure design. One of the only commonalities is the matte treatment on the back surface of both smartphones.

However, even at this level, the biases of Samsung and Xiaomi clash. The South Korean has opted for plastic to lighten his device when the Chinese remain on glass (Gorilla Glass 5 on the back). The latter material is certainly considered nobler and more pleasant to the touch, but do not denigrate too much plastic. Samsung has done a lot of work to refine the satin effect – without perfectly imitating glass.

Let’s take a closer look at the back of the two smartphones, more particularly on their respective triple photosensors. The Xiaomi Mi 11 opts for a square format module with rounded corners and a rather new appearance composed of three layers: a sensor and the flash alongside a black oval which itself is overlooked by the main sensor well highlighted.

For its part, the Galaxy S21 also plays the card of originality with an aluminium module that follows the curve of the edges of the smartphone to give the impression that it is directly integrated into the chassis. In either case, you have to deal with a certain protuberance.

On the front, the two competitors choose Gorilla Glass Victus to protect their pierced screens – in the left corner for the Mi 11, in the centre for the Galaxy S21. However, it should be noted that during our test of the Xiaomi champion, we scratched the panel without mistreating it more than reasonable. So be careful with both smartphones despite this protection.

The confrontation of the two smartphones in the field of screen quality is playing out little. We have OLED and a super smooth 120Hz display on both sides. More than that, visual comfort is superbly cared for on the Xiaomi Mi 11 as on the Samsung Galaxy S21.

Contrast, maximum brightness, the richness of colors. Everything is there! We will simply note that the Galaxy S21 is, unfortunately, a little too dull when it is set to Natural mode. Therefore prefer the Vivid mode which however requires a small temperature adjustment to avoid the over-dominance of blue.

For its part, the Mi 11 rolls mechanics offering a QHD + definition against the classic Full HD + at its rival. It’s always good to know, but it should be noted that the difference should not be particularly felt, especially since the Samsung model has a relatively small diagonal of 6.2 inches against 6.81 inches at the competitor.

The battle here, therefore, turns a priori to the advantage of the Mi 11 thanks to a more efficient calibration. However, the situation changes if you prefer the contained formats, as the S21 should then get your preference in this case.

Performance

The Xiaomi Mi 11 is the first smartphone on the European market to feature Qualcomm’s state-of-the-art Snapdragon 888. Opposite, the Galaxy S21 does not demerit with its Exynos 2100 also engraved in 5 nanometers. The first thing to remember: we are dealing here with very high end in terms of power. Neither device is overdue on any daily task. In terms of raw power, we are at the top of the basket.

However, we can award the victory to the Snapdragon 888 in this duel of titans. Be careful, as you can see in the benchmarks below, the Exynos 2100 defends itself very honourably and even outperforms its opponent in certain exercises.

However, it is on the graphics part that things get a bit sour. The Galaxy S21 lags too frequently on a game of Fortnite in Epic quality at 60 fps, while this same mission is much easier for the Xiaomi Mi 11. If mobile gaming performance is extremely important to you, then you know which smartphone to turn to.

Camera

As for the photo, the two smartphones are really very good without having the same approach. A 108-megapixel sensor accompanied by an ultra-wide-angle and a sensor for the macro equips the Xiaomi Mi 11. On the Samsung Galaxy S21, it is the main sensor of 12 megapixels which is in control with an ultra-large -angle and a third 64-megapixel sensor dedicated to full-frame photos, 8K videos and zoom.

Whatever your choice, know that you will enjoy very beautiful photos. Xiaomi however offers a slightly more neutral treatment than that of Samsung and may lack finesse in certain details. The Mi 11 like the S21 know how to manage the dynamics of immortalized scenes.

At night, the two smartphones do very well with their main sensor, even if the Xiaomi Mi 11 falls a little more easily into the lens flare effect trap, without this having too much of an impact on the proposed rendering.

Note also that, by default, each device can automatically activate night mode when it considers it necessary. Regarding the ultra-wide-angle, there are colourimetric inconsistencies on both sides in most conditions, while this shooting mode is generally disappointing in low light. The Galaxy S21 has the small advantage of avoiding the distortion effect on the edges a little more effectively.

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Battery Life

Xiaomi is renowned for the battery life of its smartphones. However, with a 120 Hz screen with QHD + definition by default, the Mi 11 has advantages that can compromise its endurance. Result: the product is a little less effective than the other models of the brand to last a long time without being recharged. Nothing prohibitive, it remains quite able to withstand long active days. Just remember to check your battery level before going to bed to be sure to avoid unpleasant surprises.

On the opposite, the Galaxy S21 does not have the same heritage. Its recent predecessors have not dazzled by their autonomy and it was precisely up to him to restore Samsung’s image in this area. The good news, he’s doing it pretty well. Without working a miracle, its 4000 mAh battery withstands the throes of active use well, enough to aim for a day and a half of use.

The real difference between the two smartphones on the battery is played on the efficiency of the recharge. By not supporting a power beyond 25 W, the Galaxy S21 is far too slow to regain 100%. A problem that the Mi 11 does not suffer from, which only needs three-quarters of an hour to refuel with its 55 W block. Xiaomi also delivers the charger, which Samsung does not.

Connectivity

All 4G frequency bands are supported by these two devices, as is the 5G network. Regarding the calls, the quality is always excellent to have pleasant conversations.

It may happen that the Xiaomi Mi 11 compresses your voice a bit to better eliminate the noise around you, but it does not have to be ashamed of the almost flawless Samsung Galaxy S21 in this exercise.

Which is better!

The Galaxy S21 is an excellent smartphone that will certainly appeal to people looking for a smartphone with a content and light format. It is packed with qualities in all aspects and does not usurp its place in the high-end segment. However, the Xiaomi Mi 11 has formidable weapons in the face and is on par with its opponent and even outperforms them in in-game performance or speed of charging.

Above all, the Xiaomi Mi 11 is significantly cheaper. So, if the MIUI experience doesn’t put you off, pay attention to IP68 certification, and aren’t bored with relatively large smartphones, you’ve undoubtedly found your champion. For others, the Galaxy S21 will be a great companion.

With the iPhone 12 mini and the Pixel 5, Apple and Google are delighting avid users of compact smartphones that have become so rare on the market. Here is a point-by-point comparison of these two models to find out which one suits you best.

Apple and Google are two of the most iconic companies in the tech world. We’re going to compare the iPhone 12 mini and the Pixel 5.

Today’s two opponents go against the trend of ever-higher smartphones. The iPhone 12 mini and the Google Pixel 5 want to please your little hands with a compact size. The table is set, it would now be a question of which one is the most suitable for you. Here is our point by point comparison.

Key Specification

The phones we’re looking at today don’t care about the trend that has been around for a very long time in the market. Gone are the formats that are difficult to use with one hand, heavy, difficult to store in a tight pocket, the iPhone 12 mini and the Google Pixel 5 sign the return of the adjective “compact”. We hadn’t come across this term much since Sony abandoned this format.

Judge for yourself, with the iPhone 12 mini first. Apple’s baby has not stolen its suffix, it is indeed rickety with a height of only 131.5 mm. Same story for its featherweight of 133 grams. Opposite, Pixel 5 is considerably larger, reaching 144.7mm. In comparison, it would seem almost excessive, but understand that this smartphone is still very easy to use with one hand. Its weight is also quite contained with 151 grams when the vast majority of devices today vary from 180 to 210 grams.

In short, Pixel 5 is a small smartphone, the iPhone 12 mini is a VERY small smartphone.

Aesthetically, the two smartphones do not have the same approach. Like the other versions of its series, the iPhone 12 mini adopts a design very inspired by the iPhone 5 with flat edges that can surprise during the first manipulations, but you get used to it quite quickly. The writing of Frandroid considers it a real crush. However, do not expect to escape the large notch at the top of the screen.

The Google Pixel 5, for its part, has more rounded edges to better fit the palm of the hand. On the front, he opts for a hole in the screen housing the front photosensor. At the rear too, the differences are obvious.

When the iPhone 12 mini is adorned with a glass back “Ceramic Shield” – very resistant to shocks, fewer scratches – the Pixel 5 makes the choice of a very successful matte recycled aluminium coating. In addition, the slightly grainy feel is out of the ordinary.

Design

Performance

In terms of performance, Google Pixel 5 is doing very well on everyday tasks and almost without problems on a game like Fortnite, its Snapdragon 765G remains behind compared to the Apple A14 Bionic which the iPhone 12 mini is adorned with.

The apple chip is indeed particularly powerful which makes the device ultra-responsive and fast to run. However, it is impossible to see what that gives on Fortnite because the game from Epic Games is currently banned from the App Store.

Remember also that at this level of performance, the differences between the two smartphones will not be obvious to the user at the slightest opportunity.

iOS 14 vs Android 11. The two operating systems have been compared, confronted, opposed since the dawn of time. Overall, on iOS, Apple still strongly regulates the user experience to offer great ecosystem cohesion, enhanced security and very long software monitoring.

For its part, Android rather highlights its open side and conducive to many customizations. In addition, for Google-branded devices, you can also count on regular updates and quite spread out over time.

Although: we can highlight the fact that the iPhone 12 mini, in its basic version, only offers 64 GB of storage, against 128 GB for the Pixel 5.

Camera

For the photo, the iPhone 12 mini and the Google Pixel 5 each have a main sensor of 12 megapixels and an ultra-wide angle of 12 and 16 megapixels respectively. No overbidding, no superfluous multiplication of sensors and that has something refreshing.

The battle on the field of the photo is really interesting. Indeed, the Pixel 5 lives up to its lineage and has already established itself as one of the benchmarks in the field, but it cannot really claim the title of king of photography this year as the competition has refined its weapons. And as much to say that the iPhone 12 mini has enough to oppose it a beautiful competition.

The two smartphones thus offer excellent images when the light conditions are good, including well-balanced colors. At night, they lose quality – less fine details, less well-managed light sources – but the overall rendering is still very effective and pleasant.

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Battery Life

Without being an incredible champion in the matter, Google Pixel 5 manages to easily last a day and a half, or even two full days, with just a little care. In other words, it’s a pretty serene device at this level, but don’t expect incredible stamina either. In itself, we especially appreciate the progress made in this area compared to the previous generation, really weak at this level. The arrival of Android 11 has also helped a lot.

Battery life is the main weakness of the iPhone 12 mini, however. The latter, however, is not up for grabs either. Let’s say it will be more difficult to exceed 24 hours on battery, but a full day with heavy use is still very much within reach. To put it another way, we don’t buy this small smartphone for its autonomy, far from it, but for the intended users – who only have moderate use of their phone – it should not be a prohibitive element.

Don’t rely on super-fast charging on both smartphones. The iPhone 12 mini needs 1h 15 to reach 100% with a 20 W charger (no AC adapter is supplied with the product). Considering the size of the smartphone, it is quite long. The Pixel 5’s 18W charger is also very slow: 1h 40 to recover a full battery.

Connectivity

Both devices are IP68 certified. Among the common points, let’s also mention the lack of jack and microSD drawer. On the other hand, when the Pixel 5 makes the choice of universal USB-C, the iPhone 12 mini remains faithful to the proprietary Lightning connection.

Conclusion!

Whatever your choice, if you like small smartphones, you will be perfectly served with these two models. Easy to the pocket with their cute size, they are perfect for one-handed use. Granted, the iPhone 12 mini is definitely the more compact and lightweight of the two, but the grip of the Pixel 5 is clearly worth its weight in peanuts.

You will especially have to ask yourself which operating system you want to turn to. iOS or Android? Beyond that, the difference is mainly in small details. For a fluid screen and a fairly solid battery life, prefer the Pixel 5. For high performance (but not Fortnite), choose the iPhone 12 mini instead. Also, Google’s smartphone has a fingerprint reader, Apple’s has the Face ID solution.

The Redmi Note 9T is the cheapest 5G smartphone on the market, but for a few euros more you can also find the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite. So between the two smartphones, which one to choose? Design, performances, photos, here is our complete comparison.

Xiaomi offered with the Mi 10T Lite one of the first 5G smartphones under 490 USD. With the Redmi Note 9T, the brand is starting again by offering a 5G smartphone for less than 300 dollars. Except that, in the meantime, the Mi 10T has seen its price drop sharply, to the point where it can now be found at prices close to the Redmi Note 9T.

So, is it worth increasing your budget and choosing the Mi 10T Lite, or is it smarter to take the Redmi Note 9T and save money? Let’s see the strengths and weaknesses of each smartphone.

Key Specification

Design

The two smartphones we are comparing here were developed by Xiaomi over the same period. So we are not really surprised to see them adopt the same design in general. In both cases, we have a large borderless flat screen, with a punch for the front camera. The Redmi Note 9T places it at the top left, and the integration is less fine than on the Mi 10T Lite where it is at the top center.

The similarities do not end there, in both cases, we have a fingerprint reader on the edge that falls under the thumb of the right hand and a circular photo module on the back in the center. The template is also very close, although the Mi 10T Lite is a little bulkier: 165.4 x 76.8 mm compared to 161.2 x 77.3 mm for the Redmi Note 9T.

So how do you decide between the two smartphones? Born in a more high-end segment, the Mi 10T Lite offers better finishes than its little brother, especially with its glass back protected in Gorilla Glass. The Redmi Note 9T has to be content with a fully plastic chassis with a more unpleasant texture to the touch.

Design is not the strong point of our two smartphones, but the Mi 10T Lite does better in this exercise.

Here appears the first big difference between our two competitors. The Redmi Note 9T is equipped with a 6.53 inch Full HD IPS LCD panel (2340 x 1080 pixels) which rather disappointed us during our test. The screen calibration leaves something to be desired, and the displayed color gamut is below our expectations. It is ultimately a rather average screen.

This is not the case with the Mi 10T Lite which benefits from a 6.67-inch Full HD + (2400 x 1080 pixels) IPS LCD display with better color calibration, a wider DCI-P3 spectrum display, and better brightness. Above all, the screen is distinguished by a refresh rate of 120 Hz which allows the phone to offer an ultra-fluid interface, where the Redmi Note 9T blocks at 60 Hz.

If we put aside a slightly better contrast ratio on the Redmi Note 9T, the screen of the Mi 10T Lite is better on all criteria.

Performance

Xiaomi has made a specialty of offering excellent performance/price ratios in the smartphone market. This is exactly what we find here thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G of the Mi 10T Lite, and to the MediaTek Dimensity 800U of the Redmi Note. In both cases, we will have amply sufficient performance on a daily basis to browse the web smoothly, switch from one app to another and do photo processing efficiently.

Even in video games, the two smartphones offer fairly similar levels of performance. Note, however, that Fortnite did not install on the Redmi Note 9T, while the Mi 10T Lite ran the game at around 30 frames per second, with a few scenes at 20 frames per second. We are therefore more than satisfied with the performance offered by our two smartphones.

In our benchmarks, the MediaTek chip seems to slightly dominate its rival from Qualcomm, which pushes us to give the Redmi Note 9T an advantage on this criterion. However, this incompatibility should be kept in mind if you are a fan of Fortnite.

Camera

The Redmi Note 9T is equipped with a photo module with three devices:

• wide angle 48 Mpx, 1/2 inch, 0.8 µm and aperture f / 1.79;
• macro 4 cm 2 Mpx 1.75 µm f / 2.4;
• 2 Mpx 1.75 µm “depth sensor”, f / 2.4.

Let’s be frank, the two additional devices are not useful and simply allow Xiaomi to display a large photo module on the back of the phone to attract the barge. In reality it is therefore necessary above all to evaluate the main camera of the smartphone.

The Mi 10T Lite for its part offers 4 devices:

• 64 megapixel main sensor (f / 1.89);
• 8 megapixel ultra wide-angle, 120 degrees (f / 2.2);
• 2 megapixel depth sensor (f / 2.4);
• sensor with 2 megapixel macro lens (f / 2.4).

We find the same two additional sensors that we can do without, but here Xiaomi still plays the game of multi-camera with an interesting ultra-wide-angle option. This is already a good point for the Mi 10T Lite. The latter also has the right to a better defined main sensor, even if we lose the focal aperture.

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Battery Life

Here we have two excellent smartphones in terms of battery. The Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite with its 4820 mAh battery, and the Redmi Note 9T with its 5000 mAh battery can both easily take several days away from an electrical outlet. Even with very intensive use of the smartphone, you will last without any worries until the end of the day.

If a winner had to be selected, we would rather go for the Mi 10T Lite thanks to its 33W charger allowing the battery to be recharged to 75% in less than 30 minutes. In this period of time, the Redmi Note 9T simply rises to 39%, with its 18W fast charge, which is sufficient, but still not as good.

Connectivity

Which is better!

Unsurprisingly, as we might expect, the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite is more interesting than the Redmi Note 9T in our point by point comparison. Obviously, this makes sense since the Mi 10T Lite sits above the Redmi Note in the large range of Xiaomi smartphones. What we have to ask ourselves is whether this quality gap is worth investing in the first rather than the second? If we resume, the two phones are equal on performance and autonomy, but the Mi 10T Lite stands out from the crowd thanks to a more versatile camera, a better quality screen, and a better-controlled design.

If we reduce this gap to the 60 USD of theoretical differences between the two smartphones, we may be tempted to turn to the Redmi Note 9T. However, the Mi 10T Lite has already seen its price drop, while the Redmi Note 9T is still recent at the time of this writing, which reduces the price gap between the products. Under these conditions, we advise you to invest in the Mi 10T Lite instead. The budget is a little higher, but you will have significant additional comfort on a daily basis.