Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite – The best value for money?

Posted on 28 de August de 201917 de March de 2023 by Marta Tanggora Shuthy

A simpler sibling to Xiaomi’s flagship, the Mi 8 Lite doesn’t skimp too much – delivering a premium design, decent performance and surprising front and rear cameras.

Main Specifications

6.26 inch screen – 2280 x 1080 pixels IPS LCD
Processor: Snapdragon 660 CPU
Memory: 4GB RAM
Storage: 64GB storage
Rear camera: 12/5MP
Front camera: 24MP
Operating system: Android 8.1.0 with MIUI interface

What is the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite?

Although many still don’t know it, Xiaomi is an extremely popular brand in China. It is one of the fastest growing brands globally today. Known for producing quality products at a fair price.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite should immediately make Xiaomi one of the most sought after names for an audience looking for a smartphone at an affordable price, in addition to being a quality product, it has an excellent cost benefit.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite – Design

If you told people that you paid twice as much for your Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite, they would probably believe you. Featuring a quality design, it gives the impression of being a top of the line device.

Its construction is made of metal and glass, with very thin edges on the screen and an excellent finish. The version we reviewed has a highly reflective gradient, being purple at the bottom and teal at the top.

With strong and expressive coloring, the aluminum sides are bright blue in color and fit perfectly with the backplate. If you find this color too extravagant, we also have the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite on the market in black, a solution for those looking for something more discreet.

A little over a year ago, affordable phones like this used to be made mostly of plastic to reduce manufacturing costs. For example, Samsung and LG have several mid-range models in the same price range that have this feature. This is not the case with the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite, which really does not give the impression of being a cheap product. The side buttons are metal and very functional. It has a thickness of 7.5 mm and a 6.26-inch screen, it also comes with a biometric reader on the back that works incredibly well.

This is not the case with the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite, which really does not give the impression of being a cheap product. The side buttons are metal and very functional. It has a thickness of 7.5 mm and a 6.26-inch screen, it also comes with a biometric reader on the back that works incredibly well.

There’s a very thin strip of plastic between the front glass and the aluminum sides, but several more expensive phones also have this feature, including the Pixel 3 XL.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite has 2.5D glass, which means the edges are slightly rounded. Its rear glass does not have an oleophobic coating, which means that fingerprints are easily visible in this region of the device.

A negative point is that the smartphone does not come with headphones, but on the other hand it already comes with a protective cover, a very welcome item to protect it as soon as it is removed from the box.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite also lacks official water resistance. Like most phones, the internal design prevents water from easily getting in to the point of damage, but it’s not enough to withstand being submerged in water.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite – Screen

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite has a rather large and very good screen. Measuring 6.26 inches with an IPS panel, it’s enough to make your games and video look great.

The colors are vibrant, the contrast is excellent and the maximum brightness is enough to make the screen very visible on a sunny day.

There are some display settings, you can configure the color temperature and, there are three different contrast modes. There are no color saturation settings.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite has a notch, but is quite small. An advantage of this is the microSD card slot, absent in the more expensive model. But on the other hand, neither has a headphone jack.

Performance

It is one of the best smartphones available in its price range for gaming. It is equipped with the Snapdragon 660 processor and an Adreno 512 GPU. It is a much more powerful configuration compared to Moto One, Nokia 7.1 or Samsung Galaxy A7 itself. To give you an idea, the Xiaomi Mi 8 can run the Asphalt 8 game at maximum graphics settings.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite has a surprisingly good internal speaker, too, which is one area I expected to be neglected as part of Xiaomi’s cost-saving measures. However, it’s loud, there’s some extra low-end power, and it sounds composed even at top volume.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite has a surprisingly good sound system, something I thought I wouldn’t find in this model, due to cost savings. However, it reaches high sound levels, has good power to reproduce bass, no signs of distortion were noticed even at maximum volume.

Cameras

As previously mentioned, the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite has very good hardware for its price range, and this also happens for the quality of its cameras. There are cell phones with better cameras, yes, but because it is an intermediate device, the quality of the photos was surprising!

On the back we have a main camera of 12 megapixels manufactured by Sony (IMX363) and a secondary camera manufactured by Samsung (S5K5E8) of 5 megapixels to better handle the depth. Two cameras that operate together in different factories only reinforce Xiaomi’s effort to bring the best value for money.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite is among the best in its class in terms of the simple shooting experience. There’s almost no shutter lag, focusing is fast, and it can focus on close-up subjects without any major problems.

In low lighting environments, it does not leave anything to be desired. Of course, there are smartphones that deliver a better result. However, this Xiaomi model is better than other mid-range models we tested.

It is possible to record 4K videos at 30 frames per second (FPS) with the rear camera, while the front camera shoots Full HD. In bright environments the quality is good, in darker environments a lot of noise was noticed. Audio capture isn’t as good anymore, but if you’re not filming a musical concert, you’re in good hands.

Battery

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite has a 3350mAh battery. While this sounds fairly impressive, battery life is one of the few areas where the Xiaomi is decent, as opposed to trampling most rivals.

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite comes with a 3350mAh battery that offers good autonomy. If you’re going to spend the whole day away from home, you don’t have to worry about taking the charger, it will survive peacefully if its use is moderate.

Wireless charging is not possible on Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite. However, it charges via the USB-C connector and has fast charging mode.

Conclusion

The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite is one of the best cost-effective smartphones of the year so far.

With smart design, it is a beautiful phone. It has cameras capable of surprising and a screen that displays images with great sharpness and clarity. Its processing capacity is superior to that of its competitors.

If you are looking for an intermediate cell phone in the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite price range, I strongly advise you to consider this model.