Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra camera display is another example of blatant spec creep

What is this supposed to help us do?

Xiaomi is working on a premium version of its new Mi 11, and if an early hands-on leak from YouTuber Tech Buff PH is authentic (and it sure looks to be) the Mi 11 Ultra is all about the camera.

That's nothing to be surprised about. All of the best Android phones get a big update in the camera department from the previous year's model, and camera features are one of those things you can see in any sort of release presentation. It can often feel like the phone is secondary, and companies are trying to sell us cameras that can connect to the internet.

But nobody in their right mind has ever asked for what we see in the camera department in the Mi 11 Ultra hands-on: a giant camera bump with three high-megapixel cameras, a trio of what looks to be camera flashes, and a 1-inch AMOLED display that mirrors the front screen (or launches its own app, if you're into that).

Why? I understand the triple-lens part. One is said to be periscopic with up to 120x zoom and one is probably wide-angle or macro or something, while the third is meant to be the good regular camera that's used when you don't want to peep into windows.

No longer the camera bump king.

But that rear display is just silly. I can think of plenty of bad things to say about it, but I'll stick to the first two that came to mind instantly when I first saw it: the display is going to increase the cost of the device a lot, and the best part of the Mi 11 is its sub-$1000 price. And at arm's length — like when you're taking a selfie — you aren't going to be able to see anything on that postage-stamp-sized display, reducing its usefulness.

When the Mi 11 Ultra is announced Xiaomi gets a chance to tell us why we need this.

I can't think of any reason why it would even be a thing other than to use to frame a selfie taken through the back camera lens instead of the really good 20MP selfie camera the original Mi 11 comes with. Maybe you could take a 120x zoom photo of your fillings to send to your dentist or something, but I'm thinking that the front-facing camera and a display you can see is going to take better selfies than any of the back lenses through a teeny viewfinder.

I'm sure Xiaomi will tell us all the use cases for this thing once the company makes the phone official. But I'll bet most people are going to be left scratching their heads wondering how much this display added to the cost of the phone.

It's a shame, really, because the rest of the phone specs look great. 67W charging, 4K HDR recording, night mode for video, and a 5,000mAh battery. It even has a QHD+ 120Hz display. Too bad it all has to be attached to some sort of a parasitic hump on the back with a uselessly small mirror of the actual screen you'll end up using.