From September 24, 2021, sales of the iPhone 13 series began worldwide. The big highlight is the "Cinematic Mode", which allows you to freely manipulate the bokeh even in movies, so you can easily shoot movie-like movies. Smartphone companies are competing to improve camera performance, but Apple is trying to greatly lead other companies with video functions.
On the other hand, Xiaomi announced two models of the “Xiaomi 11T” series on September 15, the day after the announcement of the iPhone 13. These models, which are Xiaomi's flagship smartphones, actually have features that seem to be conscious of the iPhone 13. Xiaomi 11T is scheduled to be released in Japan, and there are great expectations.
The biggest feature of Xiaomi 11T is the enhancement of the video shooting function. The tagline "Cinemagic" is used in the product introduction of Xiaomi 11T. Xiaomi's camera already has a well-established performance, such as adopting 108 million pixels for the first time in the industry, but finally started to focus on video functions.
Xiaomi 11T has two models by chipset. Xiaomi 11T Pro with Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ starts at 649 euros (about 84,000 yen), and Xiaomi 11T with Mediatek Dimensity 1200 starts at 499 euros (about 65,000 yen). Both have the same performance other than the chipset and the same camera. It is believed that Xiaomi has created two models this time due to the recent shortage of semiconductors. Under such circumstances, Xiaomi did not change the camera performance between the "Pro" and "Mujirushi" models like other manufacturers because Xiaomi wants to provide the best cinema experience.
Although each manufacturer is focusing on the video performance of smartphones, most product introductions focus on the image quality of photos. Xiaomi is no longer able to take beautiful pictures, and most of the functions of the Xiaomi 11T are introduced in videos.
Xiaomi 11T's movie performance is magic zoom that can zoom only the background, time freeze that stops some subjects during movie shooting, short-distance movie shooting using a tele macro lens, and also identifies the direction of the microphone while shooting. Various functions such as matching to the subject. Although it doesn't have a cinematic mode like the iPhone 13, it has a lot of features that other smartphones don't have.
I'm worried about the battery running out when shooting videos, but the Xiaomi 11T has 7 hours of video playback, 11 hours of talking, 5 hours of navigation, and 2 hours of video recording (with 10 minutes of charging). 1080p) is possible. It appeals that it can be sufficiently charged even in a short gap time.
The reason why Xiaomi has strengthened the video shooting so far with the Xiaomi 11T is that it is difficult to differentiate it from other companies with just the still camera performance. Two years ago, in 2019, Xiaomi was the first smartphone company to install a 108-megapixel camera. At that time, the world was astonished. Two years later, however, 100-megapixel cameras are no longer a rarity. Also, although the adoption of 108 million pixel cameras is limited to some manufacturers such as Samsung and Motorola, other manufacturers like OPPO's "Find X3 Pro" with two 50 million pixel cameras We are moving in the direction of improving the performance of multiple cameras instead of cameras.
Xiaomi surpassed Apple in the second quarter of 2021 to become the world's second largest smartphone market shareholder. In the second quarter, although Apple's shipments will decrease every year before the announcement of Apple's new products, the difference with Samsung, which is the first place, is not large, and it seems that the day when Xiaomi will become the world's number one market share is not far away. increase. However, it is difficult to differentiate ourselves from other companies with the same smartphone development policy as before.
Now, short movies such as TikTok are also very popular, not just YouTube. Also, smartphone cameras can already take beautiful pictures if they are high-end models of each company. The reason why Apple has installed a cinematic mode is probably because smartphone cameras will focus on video functions from now on. Xiaomi also wants to impress consumers with the image that "movies are synonymous with Xiaomi" by enhancing video functions ahead of other companies for such a "post-still image" era. By doing so, rather than surpassing Apple, it must be thinking that it will surpass Samsung and become the world's number one manufacturer.