Xiaomi is launching the Mi 11 soon; Should the Galaxy S21 be worried?

It was in December that Xiaomi unveiled the Mi 11 in China. While it was confirmed that the phone will soon make it to other markets, an official launch date was still a mystery. Not any more. Xiaomi, earlier today, revealed on its European Twitter channels that the Mi 11 will be officially launched at its "Spotlight On," event scheduled for February 8 at, 1 PM CET.

As Antoine wrote in December, the Mi 11 will feature a 108-megapixel main camera, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 5-megapixel macro camera. While impressive, this is on par with what the Galaxy S21 Ultra has on offer.

Snapdragon 888, a possible trump card?

However, where the Xiaomi smartphone will have an edge over the Galaxy S21 series will be in the processor department. The Snapdragon 888 SoC lets the Mi 11 record 8K videos in 24 or 30 frames per second. More exciting, however, would almost be the new HDR stacking that the SD 888 theoretically enables for videos. 

The Mi 11 also gets a 120hZ QHD+ AMOLED display. With this, the manufacturer catches up with the Galaxy S21 Ultra in terms of resolution and refresh rate. What will be interesting, however, would be the launch price of the Mi 11. While the Galaxy S21 Ultra retails for around €1,249 in Europe, the converted price of the Mi 11 (for the base version) is just under €500. Even with the taxes and import duties, the Mi 11 could end up being significantly cheaper than the Galaxy S21