Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge, Xiaomi 11i go on sale today: 5 pointers before you buy

The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge and Xiaomi 11i go on sale and before you buy, know these pointers.

The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge starts at a price of ₹26,999.  (Amritanshu / HT Tech)

The Xiaomi 11i and Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge go on sale from January 12. Xiaomi's first smartphone launch for 2022 impressed us with the 120W charging tech (on the HyperCharge only) and as we head towards our full review, the phone has left us fascinated with its charging speeds. At the moment, the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge is the fastest charging smartphone selling in the country.

Prices for the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge start at ₹26,999 for the base model with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The 8GB RAM variant costs ₹28,999. Both the models come with the 120W charging adapter in the box. The regular Xiaomi 11i with a larger 5000mAh battery and a slower 67W wired charging solution starts at ₹24,999 for the 6GB variant, and goes up to ₹26,999 for the 8GB variant.

If you are planning to get the HyperCharge variant, here are a few things to note before you buy.

Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge: 5 things before you buy

1. The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge gets a smaller 4500mAh battery when compared to the Xiaomi 11i's 5000mAh battery. However, the battery gets the more sophisticated technologies toa chive the faster charging speeds. 
2. Although Xiaomi claims a 15-minute full charge time, you should note that it depends on external factors such as room temperature. Our review sample of the Xiaomi 11i Hypercharge takes up to 17 minutes to go from 16 percent to 100 percent. Additionally, you have to enable the Boost Charging mode to get the fast 120W speeds.
3. Both the Xiaomi 11i models run on the MIUI 12.5 Enhanced Edition but the underlying Android version is Android 11. Xiaomi India does not specify when an Android 12 update is coming to the phone but a MIUI 13 upgrade is on the cards as soon as the global variant goes live. 
4. The Dimensity 920 chip makes its India debut with the Xiaomi 11i series. So far, the phone appears to offer the same levels of performance as the Snapdragon 778G chipset. Note that most multiplayer titles such as BGMI and PUBG New State aren't optimized for this chip and hence, they run on Medium graphics only. There's support for 5G networks as well with 8 5G bands.
5. Both the Xiaomi 11i variant get a 108MP main camera and an 8MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro camera. Initial testing reveals the 2MP macro camera is not on the same levels as the previous 5 MP macro shooters on the Redmi Note 10 Pro. The phone also gets a dedicated dual speaker setup.