Because of the large number of mid-priced smartphones that Xiaomi has released over the past 12 to 18 months, we've become befuddled as well. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite, the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro, and the Xiaomi Poco F3 are all under $400 / £300, which puts them in the same price range as the iPhone X.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G may represent a slight premium over the Mi 11 Lite, but it could be the most aesthetically pleasing mid-ranger on the market. That is, until the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G NE was released, which was six months later. Only a better chipset, a new color, and a few more camera modes distinguish this device from the previous model - and that's about it.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite is intended to serve as a more affordable alternative to the flagship Xiaomi Mi 11 (and the luxury yacht that is the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra), while also reflecting the line's bold 2021 design refresh and making a nod to some of its technological advancements, all at a significantly lower price point.
It accomplishes this through the use of a sleek design that is both thin and light in weight. Although it has a plastic frame, the Mi 11 Lite 5G's glass back appears and feels reassuringly expensive despite its low price.
Also impressive is how quickly the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G performs in our tests and evaluations. The phone's performance approaches that of a flagship phone from 2020 thanks to the use of a new Snapdragon 780G chip. Mobile gamers on a tight budget should take note of this.
While a 90Hz display may appear to be a relic of the past, a closer look reveals that the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G is equipped with an AMOLED panel that is exceptionally vibrant. It outperforms entry-level 120Hz displays by a wide margin.
Its camera system does not perform any Pixel-like miracles, but it is powered by a capable 64MP main sensor. Xiaomi's intelligent image processing ensures bright, balanced shots in good lighting conditions, as well as passable nighttime shots. It's a shame, though, that the 8MP ultra-wide is so underwhelming.
Other than that, the Mi 11 Lite 5G's battery life is adequate rather than spectacular, and MIUI's customization options continue to impress while also frustrating users with excessive bloat.
To summarize: In three key areas: performance, design, and display, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G represents a significant improvement over the Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite and Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite, which were released last year. This automatically elevates it to the top of the list of the best phones available at the time of purchase.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G pricing and availability information
announced on March 29, 2021, and made available on April 16, 2021
Only in the United Kingdom; it is unlikely to travel to the United States or Australia.
Pricing £399 (approximately $550 / $705 AUD)
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G was announced on March 29, 2021, and it finally arrived in UK stores in April, albeit with a significant amount of delay and uncertainty.
The single model, which comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, costs £399 (approximately $550 / AU$755) and is available now.
Consequently, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G will be directly competing against devices such as the OnePlus Nord series, the Pixel 5a / Pixel 4a, the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G, and even Xiaomi's own Poco F3. It is, after all, a fiercely competitive field to say the least.
Design
Shiny plastic rims and a bold, visually appealing glass rear complement each other perfectly.
At 6.8mm/159g, it is extremely thin and light.
This phone's design has made significant improvements over the generic Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite, while it has wisely retained some of the more striking features of the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite. The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G is available in two colors: black and white.
Xiaomi has wisely abandoned the Mi 10 Lite's dated teardrop selfie camera in favor of a punch-hole alternative that is located in the left-hand corner, similar to the Xiaomi Mi 11's punch-hole camera. Its surrounding bezels are relatively small and thin, albeit slightly thicker around the chin, which is a telltale sign of a lower-priced phone.
An additional indicator of the phone's lower price tag is the thick black plastic buffer that sits between the flat screen glass and the shiny plastic rim of the phone. Given that even so-called flagship phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 and the OnePlus 9 are rediscovering the cost-cutting benefits of plastic, the latter appears to be less of a compromise than it has been in the recent past.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G, on the other hand, really comes into its own when you flip it over to its backside. We think you'll agree that the satin-finish glass rear, bright colors (our Mint Green model is particularly appealing), subtle yet reflective logo, and distinctive camera module all give the impression that this is a much more expensive phone.
This is also a phone that is extremely easy to get along with. The fact that it is only 6.8mm thick and weighs a paltry 159g makes it appear almost inconspicuous when tucked into a trouser pocket. But, don't get us wrong, it isn't a true small phone in the same vein as the iPhone 12 mini. It retains its large 6.55-inch display and the full-sized footprint that goes along with it. However, it is a welcome relief after the heft of the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite has been lifted.
You'll have to accept a fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button on the right-hand edge of the phone, just like with the latter device. Despite the fact that it's a less overtly premium solution than the in-display solutions that are typically favored for flagship and mid-range phones, this writer believes that it's preferable to the rear-mounted budget option. One advantage of using a phone is that you can use it without having to pick it up.
We prefer the recessed button found on the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite as well as Sony's Xperia line of smartphones to Xiaomi's implementation, which is suitably fast and reliable in our experience.
Display
AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels on a 6.55-inch screen
The refresh rate is 90 hertz.
The maximum brightness is 800 nits, and the average brightness is 500 nits.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G features a 6.55-inch display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and a refresh rate of 90 frames per second.
That's smaller and technically less fluid than the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite that came before it (which had a 6.67-inch display and 120Hz), not to mention the significantly less expensive Poco X3 NFC, which was previously available. The Mi 11 Lite, on the other hand, has the advantage of having an AMOLED display. AMOLED display, and not just any AMOLED display, but one that supports 10-bit color depth and is capable of outputting 1.07 billion colors (64 times more than its predecessor).
You also get the usual AMOLED benefit of being able to produce true blacks, which comes in particularly handy when using the always-on display and subtle edge notification lighting animations to communicate important information.
On the whole, we prefer this more comprehensive combination to the supposedly faster LCD alternative. If you have a 120Hz phone nearby for a direct comparison, you won't even notice the difference in smoothness because 90Hz is still plenty smooth. In fact, when comparing the Mi 11 Lite and the 10T Lite, we found that the Mi 11 Lite's display felt more responsive than the 10T Lite's, which we believe is due to the Mi 11 Lite's 240Hz touch sampling rate.
Even though the peak brightness of 800 nits indicates that this isn't a top-tier OLED (you can almost double that with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra), the average brightness of 500 nits provides sufficient brightness for comfortable viewing in most situations. It is also compatible with HDR10+ content.
This is a dead flat display, which once again suggests a lower price tag, but it does benefit from Corning Gorilla Glass 6, which provides additional toughness to the device. Some significantly more expensive phones, such as the Oppo Find X3 Neo, are still equipped with Gorilla Glass 5 protection.
Camera
The main 64MP sensor captures high-quality images in daylight.
8MP ultra-wide is a mediocre resolution.
The 2x zoom shots are cropped, but they still look quite good.
When compared to the predecessor, night mode is a mixed bag.
There are three cameras on the back of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G, which is one less than the Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite and Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite, which were both released prior to the Mi 11 Lite 5G.
Not that we're complaining - in both cases, the depth and macro sensors were nearly useless, and one of them was even worse. You only have a single 5MP macro sensor to deal with in this situation.
The 1/1.97-inch 64MP wide sensor with an f/1.79 aperture and a 6-element lens system will be the focus of your attention, as will the f/1.79 aperture and the 6-element lens system. By default, this captures 16MP images using a 4-in-1 pixel binning technique, which results in high-resolution images.
When taken in proper lighting, these photographs can be quite impressive. On a couple of bright spring days, we were able to capture some truly stunning images of flowers bursting with vibrant color, thanks to the wide aperture, which produced a plethora of natural bokeh in the background.
When it comes to selecting the appropriate scene profile, Xiaomi's AI assistant does a good job. The color balance, while on the punchier side of natural, is rarely off-putting. The company's image processing capabilities are impressive.
If you're looking for detail levels or color balance, the 8MP 1/4-inch ultra-wide sensor simply isn't up to the same standards as the 16MP full-frame sensor. Generally speaking, shots taken with this secondary sensor tend to be murky and lacking in detail, with large amounts of mushy noise visible near the edges.
If you zoom in, the image will be cropped entirely from the main sensor because there is no dedicated telephoto lens to speak of. 2x shots, on the other hand, are actually quite good in this case, thanks to the large number of pixels at its disposal.
Even though there is a portrait mode, it is not the most convincing demonstration we have ever seen. The defocused background effect appears ever so slightly strange, almost like a painting, and our subjects failed to stand out as they do on more expensive smartphones with better optics.
Xiaomi's 20MP selfie camera, on the other hand, isn't too bad, capturing a good amount of detail in good lighting.
A mixed bag of results can be found in the night mode. We weren't expecting spectacular results from a budget phone, but when we compared a handful of identical low-light shots taken on the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G and the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite, we found that the cooler results of the latter were frequently preferable. In comparison, the Mi 11 Lite's images appeared sickeningly yellow.
The brightest and best-exposed shot of the bunch was taken with the Mi 11 Lite, whereas the darkest and most challenging shot was taken with the Mi 11. You can make whatever you want of that.
The phone's video capabilities are impressive for such a low-cost device, with 4K video at 30 frames per second and 1080p video at up to 120 frames per second. The 4K footage we captured appeared to be smooth and stable, with electronic image stabilization (EIS) easily applied, in contrast to the footage captured by the Mi 10T Lite.
Samples taken with a camera
It's an excellent gaming phone at an affordable price, especially when combined with stereo speakers.
Whereas the 4G-only model, such as the Poco X3 NFC, is powered by a Snapdragon 732G, this 5G model that we're testing is powered by the new Snapdragon 780G. Despite what the name might imply, this is a significantly more capable chip that has been built using the same processing technology and architecture as the flagship Snapdragon 888. It is also significantly more affordable.
It also represents a significant improvement over the Snapdragon 750G processor used by the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite. The Mi 11 Lite 5G achieves an average Geekbench 5 multi-core score of 2,922, which easily outperforms both the Mi 10T Lite (1,931) and the Poco X3 NFC (both at 1,931). (1,755).
In fact, it comes very close to the Oppo Find X3 Neo (3,147), which is a much more expensive contemporary device that also runs on the Snapdragon 865 processor. That was the de facto flagship chip for the year 2020.
One thing that causes us to begin to doubt the value proposition of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G in terms of performance is when we compare it to the Poco F3, which offers the superior Snapdragon 870 (as well as a 120Hz display) for a lower price than the Mi 11. However, the difference isn't significant, and the Xiaomi outperforms the competition in other areas, such as its sleek design.
When combined with a generous 6 or 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, the Snapdragon 780G delivers a responsive and fluid user experience. Everything about this experience, from the home screen navigation to the app switching, is on par with a flagship experience.
Aside from the Adreno 642 GPU in the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G, the Snapdragon 780G appears to be the only significant difference between it and Qualcomm's flagship chipsets, which are the Adreno 650 in the Snapdragon 865 and the Adreno 650 in the Snapdragon 870. The Xiaomi Mi 11's 3DMark score of 3,120 is approximately 2,500 points below the scores achieved by phones running the Snapdragon 888, such as the OnePlus 9 and the Mi 11.
Despite this, gaming performance is excellent. Even with the graphical settings turned up to the extremes, League of Legends: Wild Rift maintains a steady 60 frames per second with only the occasional dip. PUBG Mobile also performs admirably at HDR Graphics and Extreme Frame Rate, which are the same maximum settings that we used to test the OnePlus 9.
Speaking of gaming, you'll be able to enjoy proper stereo sound in this room thanks to the presence of a pair of speakers. All of your games, music, and movies will be able to be stored on the standard 128GB of internal storage, and there is also a microSD card slot for additional storage.
Software
Interface that is bloated and at times unintuitive
There are numerous useful customization options.
As with its bigger brother, the Xiaomi Mi 11, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G runs MIUI 12 on top of Android 11, just like the Xiaomi Mi 11. And, while it's still not the most aesthetically pleasing custom Android skin available, it's one of the better all-around performers on the market.
The bloat, on the other hand, is still way too much for it. If we have to write about our disbelief at the presence of Xiaomi's Mi Browser alongside Google Chrome yet again, let's face it: we're going to have to write about it sooner or later. It's finally here, and it's just as pointless as it's always been.
Its own Music, Video, Gallery, Security, and Themes applications are all part of Xiaomi's own suite of apps, which also includes its own Music Player. You also get a Cleaner, which is useful for cleaning up memory-hogging apps and files. However, we don't like the fact that every time we use it, we are presented with a full-page advertisement. When you're installing apps, those pesky advertisements pop up as well.
When it comes to apps, Amazon Shopping, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn are just a few of the ones that come pre-installed, whether you want them or not, regardless of whether you use them. More Apps, on the other hand, is an umbrella term for a collection of questionable games that Xiaomi attempts to push through your phone's More Apps folder.
Aside from the bloatware, MIUI has evolved into a powerful user interface. Both the ability to divide the notification pane into two separate drag-down menus - one for notifications and another for control shortcuts - as well as the fact that it is completely optional, are welcome additions.
Battery life While the 4,250mAh battery isn't the largest, it lasts for an entire day. a 33-watt charger is included
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G is equipped with a battery that has a capacity of 4,250mAh. That isn't a small battery by any means, but it is significantly more compact than the 4,820mAh Mi 10T Lite battery and significantly less than the 5,160mAh battery found in the Poco X3 NFC smartphone.
It goes without saying that the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G won't have any issues keeping up with a flat-out 120Hz LCD display. In theory, its AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate is a far more cost-effective component.
Fortunately, the phone's battery life is adequate in practice as well. A light day with three hours of screen time would typically leave us with a healthy 50 percent of our energy reserves left over the course of the day. With four hours of screen time, the percentage dropped to 35% during a more intensive period.
Consumption of media will, of course, cause the battery to drain more quickly. A 90-minute 720p looping video played with the screen brightness set to the maximum drains 11 percent of a fully charged battery in our standard battery test, according to the manufacturer. That's significantly better than the average 120Hz phone, but it's still not particularly impressive.
You'll receive a 33W charger in the box, which isn't particularly noteworthy, but it's still significantly better than the best that Samsung and Apple have to offer. We went from 20 percent to 82 percent in half an hour of charging, which bodes well for those times when you need to top up your battery on the fly.