I’ve always been a Samsung Mobile fan. Not until after Note 10. Let me tell you my story. Samsung Note 10 was released August 2019 and it was completely usable on its first year. But late 2020, the horror began! The mobile phone became ridiculously slow. It was so bad to the point that opening the camera takes more than 5 secs. It overheats and when it does, you can no longer take photos and the the battery starts to drain fast.

So, imagine how i felt a year after paying a full price of disappointment – a whooping P53k+! I am not sure if Samsung is purposely slowing down their mobile devices… there is really no way to confirm this. But in my opinion, they’re probably increasing the load of the device by making it run multiple background apps or the core app is consuming far more resources than it should. Mind you, this only happens after several updates. Causing its battery to degrade thus, making the device perform poorly. Who knows?!

This time, I am certain that I will not be purchasing another Samsung mobile device.

The search begins

First, since I love taking pictures. The mobile phone needs to  have a good camera! This has always been the the first one on my list when looking for a new mobile device. I am not so keen carrying a DSLR camera with me. Heck! I am even way too lazy to carry a handbag! Yes, true story. Second, the reviews must be reasonable may it be good or bad.

A friend of mine suggested Huawei brand. The camera is just too good to be true and you cannot install any Google Apps on most Huawei device. I was a little bit skeptic at first. But then, I ended up buying Huawei Nova 7 SE. Mainly because it’s 5G, the image quality is surprisingly great and i want to test a China brand.  No regrets! I love love love Huawei’s overall performance but unfortunately, it cannot be my main phone. Gmail is my life! No, i don’t want to use Spark. So, moving on…

After tons of research, Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra has the best overall specs. Its pricey yes, but to me – its an investment. Something that i will use on a daily basis.  So the moment I made up my mind, i went to a Xiaomi Store.  That day, I was shattered! The guy told me that “sorry, we never had Ultra here in the Philippines. The ones we had is the Pro version which is out of stock at the moment. We only have Lite and its the last unit.”

I checked the Lite. It’s literally very light!  I actually fell in love with it. But, my mind set at that time is that I need to have the Ultra and I am going to get the Ultra.

Tried my luck with Lazada. Turns out my research wasn’t enough! Xiaomi has two versions of ROM – China and Global version. The one that’s available on Lazada was a China ROM and optionally can be flashed into a Global version. Like rooting the device. Why would i want that?! That moment, I lost hope and accepted the fact that Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra GLOBAL version is impossible for me to get.

Decisions, Decisions!

I am badly in need of a new mobile device that will not cause me a high level of stress every time i use it. Since i had no other choice, I settled for Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite. Assuming that when I go back to the Xiaomi store, they wouldn’t have the stock anymore since it was the last piece when i went there. I checked Shopee. I was shocked! it was way cheaper compared to buying it from a physical store.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite GLOBAL version original price is 14,999. I purchased mine for only for 12,871 including shipping + a bonus of 1,000 Shopee coins + 1 year warranty! So technically, I only paid P11,871 for such an amazing mobile device!

Again, no regrets! I have been using it for more than a month now. I am not going to go through all the technicalities but so far, it never gave me an issue. The camera is just superb! I am highly satisfied with its photo quality! The overall performance feels like I am using a high end device.

This is the best and absolutely the most affordable mobile device with an amazing performance I’ve had in my entire life! It’s totally worth buying. Highly recommended!

This is my honest review. I am not paid to endorse Xiaomi brand nor Shopee app.

In case you are in search of a new mobile phone, consider this brand and model.  Its super lightweight and has premium-like design. Only downside is that it’s not 5G but, hey! Data works perfectly great with my Smart sim.