Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra camera bump is huge – for a reason

We have been warned. But as is often the case, our weak minds couldn’t fully grasp him until he looked us in the face. We saw the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s camera bump in an unboxing video before the announcement, so we knew what was likely in store: an absolutely massive bump with three rear-facing cameras next to a screen of 1 inch. But now that the phone has officially launched and we’ve seen it from more angles, we can confirm that this is, in fact, the death star of camera shots.

What is most striking is the flawless thickness of the bump. It’s not a design that tries to downplay its appearance or merge it with other elements of the phone, like the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Instead, it’s a major contributor to the device’s overall 8.38mm thickness. It’s practically halfway through a Sony Cybershot 2008 point-and-shoot stuck to the back of your phone.

Imaginee: Xiaomi

The outstanding feature of the bump – that tiny 1-inch OLED – undoubtedly requires a design that’s thicker than your average screen-less matrix. And let’s not forget the cameras themselves, starting with a 50-megapixel wide-angle with a super-large 1 / 1.2-inch sensor that’s just a shade smaller than the 1-inch sensor you’ll find in dedicated cameras like the Sony RX100 VII. This large sensor potentially offers better light collecting capabilities than a more conventional sized sensor, especially since it is combined with a relatively fast f / 1.95 lens.

Image: Xiaomi

There’s also a 48-megapixel f / 2.2 ultra-wide optical zoom and a 48-megapixel f / 4.1 periscope-style 5x optical zoom. It’s not quite on par with the S21 Ultra’s four rear cameras (plus an autofocus sensor), but there’s still plenty of gear to house.

The camera bump is, without a doubt, huge. But it’s not just big to be big, however. Its screen and unusually large main camera are potentially very useful. Will we ever see a more mainstream device with a camera bump this, for lack of a better term, chonky? Probably not. This 6.8-inch device is probably the best place to kick off these features, as users already know they have a big device. The rest of us can just marvel at the astonishing technological prowess that this represents. Really more machine than man.