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00:00Hey, what's up? MKBHD here. So, depending on where you're at, you may have heard of
00:07a phone called the Xiaomi Mi 11. Had a big splashy launch event pretty recently and ever
00:12since then, a lot of you have been asking me, tagging me, replying on Twitter, hey,
00:16what do you think of this phone? Is it as amazing of a deal as it looks? Is it as awesome
00:20as it looks? What are your thoughts? But what you guys didn't know is I've had the Mi 11
00:25here in the studio for a little bit. Here's the thing though, this phone launched in China
00:31and they're planning on a global launch with a bunch of global versions, hopefully very
00:35soon. I might even have one by the time this video releases, but this is the Chinese version.
00:39So I'm not going to review this phone so much as I want to point out some things I noticed
00:45about the Mi 11 that I think are going to be coming a lot more often for the rest of
00:502021.
00:51So right off the bat, Mi 11 comes in a smaller box and we've seen that before, haven't we?
00:58The first big domino to fall was the iPhone 12s, but then also just this week, Galaxy
01:02S21 series dropped and all their boxes are pretty much the same thing. No charging brick,
01:07no headphones. So Mi 11 is also on this train and as much as it sucks and as much as we
01:13complain about it here on YouTube and as much noise as we make, the second people vote with
01:18their wallets and millions of people buy the iPhone and the Galaxy S21 and all these
01:23phones that don't come with a charger, there's almost no reason for this trend not to continue.
01:28So I think we can expect to see most flagships shipping this year arrive in smaller boxes
01:35with no charging brick. Now, all of that being said, let's take a moment to give Xiaomi special
01:39credit for handling it better than most. So they're actually launching two versions of
01:44the Mi 11. One will ship as the smartphone only that you just saw me unbox, the standard
01:50package, but they will also be offering a version that ships with the 55 watt fast charger
01:56in the box, a slightly bigger box for free for the same price. Now, I don't know if they're
02:03also going to be offering this for the global launch, but I hope they do. And I hope that
02:08this can become a trend looking forward. It's kind of something we suggested a while back,
02:13give people the option that I would like to see more of in 2021. Like it kind of feels
02:18like a win for everyone. Imagine, you know, dropping on one of these sites to buy a phone
02:23and the default is smartphone only because hey, apparently millions of people are cool
02:28with that. They'll use whatever charger they already have. Fine. Save some environment,
02:32save some e-waste. But then the savvy buyers who know how dope a 55 watt fast charger is
02:38can click a box to include one in their package. And I personally wouldn't mind it if it was
02:43like 10 bucks extra or something, but hey, free 99 is the best case scenario here. I
02:48think a lot about the difference between the buyer who's watching these tech videos all
02:53the time and then the everyday buyer just out in the masses buying a phone. And a lot
02:58of those differences come to light in ways you didn't realize. And I think one of those
03:01differences is people don't seem to care the difference between the chargers they use.
03:07If it plugs in and it charges fast enough, they're fine. But people like us who want
03:11to maximize their value, who know that the best charger for a phone is typically the
03:16one that it's designed alongside, that it's packaged with, we want that one. And so we'll
03:22pay a little extra for it. But if we can just check a box on the site to get it, that's
03:26fine. So, okay. The second thing I see applying as a new normal is just the overall package
03:31for the price going on here. So spoiler alert, I already gave the Galaxy S20 FE my phone
03:38of the year in the smartphone awards last year for its package for the price and how
03:44great this category is. This phone kind of drops in along those same lines, but for 2021
03:51spec. So this is a Snapdragon 888 phone, 8 to 12 gigs of RAM, a 4,600 milliamp hour battery.
03:59There's 128 or 256 gigs of fast UFS 3.1 storage and edge to edge 6.8 inch, 1440p, 100 mAh
04:08120 Hertz OLED display. And this phone is dropping in for roughly 620 bucks after conversion.
04:19That is incredible. So like this category of all you can possibly need flagship level
04:23spec phones for significantly under a thousand bucks is my favorite growing category. And
04:29I expect to see way more in this category this year. I wouldn't be shocked if we see
04:33iPhone 13 or 12 S or whatever it ends up being called launch somewhere in this price.
04:39I wouldn't be shocked if we saw a pixel also around this price again, probably something
04:44from LG also Galaxy S21 already has launched at the base price at 799. So this is a trend
04:51that's already starting. And that I think we're going to see more of. Now with the Mi
04:5411, there is a little bit of an asterisk because that $730 ish dollar price is a conversion.
05:01So when it does go global, you can kind of count on there being different prices for
05:06different regions, the way it always is. There's almost always some variety there, but the
05:11point is it's a welcome new normal that this phone with these specs, isn't 1100 bucks.
05:18Now, speaking of that Snapdragon triple eight, that's of course a high end five nanometer
05:21chip that offers great performance that we kind of take for granted, honestly, at this
05:25point, plus all that Ram and the 120 Hertz display at 1440 P this thing flies, you know,
05:32with these animations, it is super responsive as you'd expect. But the real trend I want
05:36to point out here with this chip is 5g being built into the chip. So over the past couple
05:42of years, as we've noticed 5g sort of get built up more and more, one thing we've seen
05:47is 5g being built into the chip or it being a separate piece, you have to get a separate
05:525g modem takes a bit more power. But if you've paid attention to what Qualcomm has been doing
05:56over the past couple of months, while they've been launching chips in a whole broad range
06:00of prices and performances, and they all have 5g built in. So Motorola, for example, just
06:06dropped a bunch of new budget and mid range phones and their G lineup at various prices
06:10all under 400 bucks. And every single one of them has 5g. It's beautiful. So 5g just
06:17being built into your phone without you having to think about it is new normal. Now we got
06:23to talk about this phone's build quality for a second. So there is a glass back version.
06:27And then there's also this vegan leather version, aka fake leather, which essentially means
06:33this one is coated in a complex textured plastic. But my bold take is that this use of plastic
06:41is also in this price stripe, also going to become much more common. Maybe I won't
06:47say normal, but I think a lot more common. So hear me out in this this middle range of
06:51prices here. We're obviously not talking about all of the highest end bleeding edge stuff.
06:56So they're playing with different checkboxes of what to check and what not to and where
07:01to smartly save money. So when you're talking about the finishes of like our $1,100 $1,200
07:07phones, that's where we expect premium feel whether it's phantom black or some other crazy
07:13high end options. But in this $700 price when considering metal versus glass versus plastic,
07:22I think we're actually, we're actually fine with it being plastic. I think the idea behind
07:27vegan leather is great. But the executions I've seen so far on phones, which would be
07:33the Oppo Find X2 Pro, and this guy aren't quite as convincing as they probably wanted.
07:39It's supposed to feel like leather, but because it's not like soft like leather, it just feels
07:44like cheap fake leather. So I would I would discourage that. And also, I don't know what
07:48this random piece is supposed to be like, honestly, what is this? Can anyone tell me
07:54why Xiaomi put this metallic circle here? Is it just an accent piece? Because it looks
07:59just like the thing from the iPod touch years ago that you could pop out and attach the
08:04lanyard to that was functional. But on this phone, it's just here, it doesn't move, it
08:10doesn't rotate, it doesn't seem to serve any purpose. So I guess maybe it's just an accent
08:14piece next to the text on the back of the phone, which I could also do without. Anyway,
08:19the point is, I would expect more polycarbonate finishes and versions of plastic backs to
08:26become one of the boxes checked in phones this price range and below. Old normal becoming
08:32new normal. So okay, last point I want to make about this phone is how gorgeous this
08:36display is. So like I mentioned, 6.8 inch, 120 Hertz at 1440p, OLED edge to edge, it's
08:45got an under display fingerprint scanner that doubles as a heart rate monitor. And it's
08:50got a small hole punch camera up at the top corner that we'll probably keep seeing for
08:53at least one more year. This display doesn't get quite as bright as the highest end flagships,
08:58but it's it's super usable in most situations. It's very responsive, and it's gorgeous to
09:03watch videos on. But the one thing I don't really like, as you've probably already noticed,
09:08is the curve here. Not only is it curved pretty significantly over the edges on the left and
09:12right, but the curve is kind of uneven towards the corners and folds in awkwardly at the
09:18top and bottom. And it just doesn't look that great. You get too many rogue reflections,
09:23too many accidental touches. I'm hoping this curve doesn't stay a trend. I hope I'm hoping
09:29it's an anti trend. Okay, I'm hoping we go a little bit more flat on more displays on
09:35phones this year. And we've actually started to see a little bit already. And I want to
09:38see more of that. So those are my observations about this Mi 11. And the future of phones
09:43this year. This, by the way, is a really sweet phone for people who are able to get their
09:47hands on one. And at that 700 to $750 price, I think it's pretty fantastic. It might not
09:53ever come to the United States thanks to that recent news of Xiaomi being added to the blacklist.
09:58But for anyone else included in the global launch, when it happens, it gets a thumbs
10:02up for me. But yeah, I do think we have a lot to look forward to this year. And also
10:07just out of curiosity, because I know a lot of y'all are all over the map on this one.
10:11What phones are you looking forward to most this year? And is it one of the 700 ish dollar
10:17flagship phones? Or is it something else crazy high end budget phone? Let me know in
10:21the comments. Either way, that's been it. Thanks for watching. Catch you guys the next
10:26one. Peace.