A new taste of experience with great form factor by Xiaomi.
Xiaomi’s Mi 11 series has received a lot of attention especially with the Mi 11X series that consists of the Xiaomi Mi 11X (Review) and the Mi 11X Pro. The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is the flagship smartphone from Xiaomi and is not available much in the market now. However, with the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite, the mid-range segment which was ruled by Xiaomi could turn heads again and make a bold statement.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite is the slimmest and lightest smartphone ever made by Xiaomi as it blends a good and athletic design while being very compact to hold. Not only the design, that will impress but if you look at the screen size, it is larger and does not give a small display feeling. Other specifications are quite good as you are getting the Snapdragon 732G chipset, a 90Hz display, and runs on MIUI.
Which is more important experience or specifications? So how good is this smartphone against the most popular Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max (Review) and should you consider the extra premium of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite or rather shall you spend some extra and go for other 5G smartphones and with better internals? Let’s find out in the full review.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite Design:
The biggest talking point of the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite is the build and design as it is the slimmest and lightest smartphone from Xiaomi in 2021. The smartphone has just 6.81mm thickness and weighs around 157grams which makes it very much compact and easy to hold. It can easily slip through tight pockets and also the back is made of glass which looks premium.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite is available in three different colors – Jazz Blue, Tuscany Coral, and Vinyl Black. The Jazz Blue color has a good matte finish at the back and this back shines when light strikes at different angles. If you take the Tuscany Coral, which has a nice peach color and the Vinyl Black looks good and does not have as good a presence as the other two.
There is a square camera module on the top left corner at the back that houses a triple camera setup where there is a thicker glass plate housing the main and the ultrawide camera and the glossy module has the macro camera and the LED flashlight. The camera module looks almost equivalent to the Xiaomi Mi 11 but does protrude out a bit.
Like all other Xiaomi smartphones, the back here also has an IP53 rating which means it is dust and water-resistant up to some extent and if you move towards the sides of the smartphone, there is an aluminum frame that has volume buttons and the power button on the right side whereas the left side remains empty.
At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a primary microphone, a loudspeaker grille, and a hybrid SIM card slot that accepts two SIM cards or one SIM card with a microSD card for storage expansion. The top houses the secondary noise-canceling microphone and an IR Blaster which is a good addition and has been one of the best features of Xiaomi smartphones.
The front has a punch-hole display with the punch-hole located at the top left corner and here both the front and the back glass are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 which is good. On the other hand, if you compare it with Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max, that is slightly larger and the back has a matte finish but overall, the in-hand feel and design speak high on the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite Display:
On the front, there are minimum bezels to the sides which makes it look striking as you get a 6.55-inches Full HD+(1080×2400 pixels) AMOLED display and this is an E4 AMOLED display similar to the one found on the Xiaomi Mi 11X. Since this is an AMOLED display, you are getting inky blues and blacks, and also the viewing angles are great.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite display also has a 90Hz refresh rate which makes scrolling through web pages, playing games feel responsive, and also during multi-tasking. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max has a 120Hz refresh rate which provides slightly smoother but there would not be any difference as such. But the main thing about this display is it is a 10-bit panel that produces better colors.
However, there is no Auto-Switch between refresh rates so you have either a 90Hz refresh rate or the standard 60Hz refresh rate. Combined with this, we have a 240Hz touch sampling rate also. With the AMOLED display, you can achieve 800nits of peak brightness which is good and has good visibility under direct sunlight.
But still the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max has slightly higher brightness levels as that can achieve a peak brightness of 1200nits. Like all other Xiaomi smartphones, there are three different color profiles – Auto, Saturated, and Default where Auto is set by default. With Auto mode turned on, you can set the color temperature from warmer to cooler, and switching to saturated boosts the colors.
There are also settings for the sRGB and DCI-P3 gamut. The display has support for HDR10 and has Widevine L1 so streaming HD contents from OTT platforms is a breeze. Though being an AMOLED display, there is no in-display fingerprint scanner. Instead, you are getting a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that is embedded on the power button just like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max.
There is also an Always-On display present that can be customized with different styles and shows all the information regarding date, time, and notifications. Overall, the display is good but the 120Hz refresh rate could have been better but since it is a 10-bit panel and is an AMOLED, it is good for media consumption.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite Performance:
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite is packed with the Snapdragon 732G chipset which is the same that is seen on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. The daily performance is good and all games run smoothly on the smartphone whether it is Call Of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9 Legends, and also BGMI. With the frame rate set to high and graphics a maximum, the gameplay was good with some micro stutters.
There are two storage variants available – 6/8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB storage with UFS 2.2 speeds. This chipset is also good in terms of battery life as it is built on an efficient 8nm process. However, there is no 5G support on this chipset and this let it down when compared to the likes of the Xiaomi Mi 10i (Review) and also Motorola Moto G 5G that have also better Snapdragon 750G chipset.
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite has a liquid cooling system also which ensures heat dissipation while playing games and the back does not feel warmer. However, the POCO X3 Pro (Review) is the best one for gaming as it has a much powerful Snapdragon 860 chipset. So performance is good and it can handle most of the games easily.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite Software:
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite runs on MIUI 12.0.4 but now Xiaomi has provided the MIUI 12.5 update which means you can now uninstall bloatware easily that comes pre-installed. The look and feel of all MIUI skins are the same as the Control Center at the left swipe from the top and Notification Center while swiping from the left side.
As usual, there is a system-wide dark mode, navigation gestures, and Digital Wellbeing. MIUI is also a lot more cleaner on Mi smartphones but the GetApps throws in a lot of notifications. You do have a lot of customizations available for the icon shape and size, Always-On display, etc. But this time there are very few Mi-specific applications present which is a good sign.
Even with MIUI 12.5, Xiaomi has improved privacy management which means you can remove location while sharing some image and all Android 11 features like Bubbles for Conversations are present. In terms of updates, MIUI is not the best but still, MIUI updates on any Xiaomi smartphone matter the most so you have the latest Android 11 ou to the box.
Still, OneUI is the best as you get faster software and security updates for all its mid-range smartphones. If you want no bloatware, the still the OxygenOS is well optimized and is a lot cleaner present on the OnePlus Nord CE. So overall, MIUI is good and has a lot of features but excessive bloatware and constant notifications let the experience a bit down.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite Cameras:
Unlike the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max that has the primary 108MP camera, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite has a triple camera setup that consists of a 64MP f/1.8 Samsung ISOCELL GW3 sensor for the main camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 5MP f/2.4 telemacro camera. On the front, there is a 16MP f/2.4 Sony IMX471 sensor for the camera which has been seen on many OnePlus smartphones also.
The main camera is the 64MP Samsung sensor that takes some really good images with sharper details and accurate colors. There is no oversharpening as such and the dynamic range is also very good. The images do have good contrast but there is some noise present. All images are saved by 16MP by default and turning on the HDR mode enables true to source colors with sharper details.
(Credits: MySmartPrice)
At night, the images come out with good color saturation and dynamic range but there is some noise present. There is an Image Enhance Quality option that helps to get the right color saturation during the night but the regular Night Mode does a good job in removing the noise and also improves the dynamic range. However, it restores the level of highlights in shadows.
Without Night Mode:
With Night Mode:
The 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera does a fair job as we have seen this camera on most mid-range smartphones. The 119-degree field of view ensures a larger field of view but there is a lot of noise and distortion around the edges. The dynamic range and the details are good but things do look slightly oversharpened.
At night, the ultrawide camera does perform well in low-lighting situations with good dynamic range but the details look much softer and there is a lot of noise present. The color saturation is slightly dull but turning on the dedicated Night Mode, the details look sharper and also it reduces noise to quite some extent and the dynamic range is slightly improved.
The 5MP telemacro camera has been one of the best macro cameras out there as it can also double up as a telephoto camera and can do a 2x zoom and we have seen this on the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. So here it does a good job in terms of dynamic range and color saturation. There is no noise and the level of details is excellent and this is achieved by close focusing which can go as close as 2cm.
In terms of portraits, though there is no dedicated depth sensor, the images have good dynamic range and also edge detection. The background blur could have been improved ut still when you zoom into the images, the level of details captured remains good but there is a fair bit of noise.
On the front, the 16MP camera does a good job in terms of details and dynamic range. The images have good natural colors especially the selfies where there is no skin smoothening and the contrast is good. But still, there is some noise present in the background. In terms of selfie portraits, the edge detection is good and but there is a lot of oversharpening present in the background.
The rear camera can record 4K videos at 30fps and the footage comes out with good dynamic range and the color saturation is good. The details look sharper and the noise is very low. Since there is no OIS, the videos come out with a lot of jitteriness and if you switch to 1080p videos, then EIS kicks in and the videos come out with better dynamic range and also are stabilized.
The ultrawide camera can do 1080p videos at 30fps and the videos come out with good details but they do look softer and you do get Ultra Stable Mode for stabilization for the videos taken from the ultrawide camera. The front camera can do 1080p at 60fps which results in sharper details and very little noise in the background. The selfie portrait videos could do with better edge detection.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite Battery Life:
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite packs a larger 4250mAh battery which is slightly lesser compared to the 5000mAh battery on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. This smaller size capacity battery was used to make the body slimmer and Xiaomi has achieved it very well. With normal usage and display is set to 90Hz, the smartphone can easily last for two days.
With moderate to heavy usage, the smartphone can last for a single day with some battery left. The standard screen-on time was around 6-7 hours which is good considering the size of the battery. With the display set to standard 60Hz, the smartphone does a very good job and MIUI battery customizations ensure optimizations to the battery and there are also power-saving modes.
With the 4250mAh battery, you can easily charge it fast with the 33W fast charger that is supplied within the box and can charge the smartphone from 0 to 100 percent within 1 hour 10 minutes which is fast but still slower compared to some other 30W fast chargers with other smartphones.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite Audio Quality:
There is a set of stereo speakers present on the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite. The sound output is great and the level of loudness is also good. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack which is a sore miss as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max had it. However, Xiaomi bundles a 3.5mm headphone jack to a USB Type-C connector inside the box. Using earphones, the sound experience feels good.
Verdict:
The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite is a great smartphone to buy and is made for the consumers which want an experience over specifications as the design makes it very unique and is the lightest smartphone made by Xiaomi in 2021. By giving the compact feeling, Xiaomi also well put together a 10-bit 90Hz display and stereo speakers which is great for media consumption.
The performance is good as it can handle most of the tasks easily but gaming is still better on the POCO X3 Pro that has a slightly powerful chipset. The optics seem to be good as you are getting good images and videos but still the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max has better low-light images due to the 108MP camera. The battery life is good and support for fast charging is an added benefit. But there are certain shortcomings.
Since this has a Snapdragon 732G chipset instead of the Snapdragon 750G chipset found on other smartphones, there is no 5G support. Then compared to the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max that has a 120Hz display, you are getting a 90Hz display, the charging speeds could have been faster as other smartphones have slightly better faster-charging speeds.
So overall, if you can pay that extra premium over the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max just for the compact and great design. then the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite is a good buy, otherwise with the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max you are getting slightly better cameras and also a larger battery considering if 5G and gaming are not your important choices.
But if you want 5G, then we have other smartphones that would fit well and if gaming is the biggest concern, then POCO X3 Pro is a great choice. So overall, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite is for the consumers that want the best stylish smartphone in the market because here they are buying the whole experience over the specifications. Xiaomi has indeed made a great product that will win many hearts.