Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite
Specifications
Secondary Camera: 24 MPix f2.0/1.8µm (Sony IMX 576)
Price comparison
Average of 30 scores (from 50 reviews)
Reviews for the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite
Xiaomi’s smartphone with the global ROM has finally come to the European market. The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite is a good and high-quality smartphone that does not burn a hole in your pocket. Read our review to find out what you can expect from this 270-Euro (~$307) device.
Source: Gadgetspeak Archive.org version
The Mi8 Lite is a mid-range smartphone in the portfolio of Xiaomi Corporation, a fast growing Chinese company that, despite becoming China’s largest smartphone company in 2014. is hardly known in this country. Overall the phone fits neatly in one’s hand or pocket and it just worked without any problems. There are two versions of the phone: one with 4GB RAM & 64GB ROM and the other 6MB/128MB. The former is available from Amazon at £169 while the latter is currently on offer directly from Xiaomi on mi.com for £199 and is offered in either black or blue.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 06/23/2019
Rating: Total score: 80% price: 80% performance: 80% workmanship: 80%
Source: Hitech Century Archive.org version
A competently made midrange phone that tackles everything asked of it in a fair fashion though it struggles to stand out amongst a horde of contenders. Still, it has its charms and it’s still worth a look if you’re keen on a workhorse device or if it appears on special.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 01/24/2019
Rating: Total score: 70% price: 60% performance: 70% display: 70% mobility: 70% workmanship: 70%
Source: Gadgetspeak Archive.org version
To me anyway this is a totally new Chinese phone company, I first heard of them a few weeks ago when I received an invite at short notice to their new UK store at Westfield shopping centre, which due to conflicts I could not make, however I was sent their latest phone the Mi 8 Lite. Looking at their website sees they are far more than just a phone company as they are big – like the world’s fourth largest - in Internet, Connected Homes and Software.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 01/21/2019
Rating: Total score: 80% price: 100% performance: 80% workmanship: 80%
Source: Trusted Reviews Archive.org version
The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite sets a very high standard for “affordable” phones. This is a great way to introduce Xiaomi to the UK, as well as your friends and loved ones.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 01/17/2019
Rating: Total score: 90%
Source: Trusted Reviews Archive.org version
The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite sets a very high standard for “affordable” phones. This is a great way to introduce Xiaomi to the UK, as well as your friends and loved ones.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 01/17/2019
Rating: Total score: 90%
Source: Android Authority Archive.org version
Overall the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite is a better-than-average mid-range device. It carries the “Lite” label, but it’s still a capable device. The inclusion of a depth camera is something we are seeing more and more in the mid-range and it is a welcome feature. The Snapdragon 660 offers great mid-range performance and the battery life is good. However, the lack of a headphone jack is disappointing.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 01/04/2019
Source: Tech Advisor Archive.org version
The Mi 8 Lite is an incredible-value mid-range phone, with a good all-round spec and an attractive design. There's very little separating it and the Mi A2, but we prefer the design of the Mi 8 Lite and the extra software features MIUI brings.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 11/27/2018
Rating: Total score: 90%
Source: GSM Arena Archive.org version
The lack of 3.5mm jack is another thing that might steer away some customers, especially since most of the direct rivals haven't jumped on that bandwagon yet. And if you are a fan of MIUI, the feature-rich software would be greatly appreciated. There are plenty of options to play around with, and Xiaomi has a good track record of updating its phones - old and new - to the latest MIUI software version. MIUI 10 is just around the corner.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 11/26/2018
Rating: Total score: 70%
Source: Manila Shaker Archive.org version
Definitely. This handset retails for PHP 13,990 (4GB + 64GB) and Php 16,990 (6GB + 128GB), and we can say that this is a bang for the buck. The Mi 8 Lite has great ergonomics, classy and youthful design, powerful performance for its price, fast charging, and decent cameras. Xiaomi continuously proves that consumers don’t need to splurge huge amount of cash to get the best value.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 11/17/2018
Rating: Total score: 74% price: 80% performance: 80% display: 80% mobility: 70% workmanship: 90%
Source: Tech Advisor Archive.org version
Assessing which of these three Xiaomi phones is the best really depends on what you need. The Mi 8 Pro is technically the best, with the best specification and the fastest performance and highest amount of memory and storage out of the box, but the Mi 8 Lite is significantly cheaper and has a better selfie camera, albeit sacrificing some speed and display quality. The standard Mi 8 is, as you might expect, the best all-rounder, offering the performance, cameras and display of the Mi 8 Pro at a more attractive price, and all you really lose is the in-display fingerprint sensor.
Comparison, online available, Medium, Date: 11/09/2018
Source: Pocket Lint Archive.org version
We'll bring you more on the Mi 8 Lite once we get the chance to spend more time with it, but first impressions are good. This is a good-looking phone that doesn't feel like it's lacking in build quality.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 11/08/2018
Source: Unbox Archive.org version
Xiaomi’s been teasing the two phones for quite a bit in their social media channels, though both devices are expected to make their global debut in two days’ time. We earlier reported pricing for both devices through a leaked flyer provided to us, but apparently, Xiaomi says the price isn’t final yet and is still subject to change. So there’s still a chance that the price tags for the 4GB/64GB variant (Php 14,990) and 6GB/128GB (Php 17,990 ) variant of the Mi 8 Lite, and the prices for the 8GB/128GB variant (Php 32,990) for the Mi 8 Pro can still change for the better.
Comparison, online available, Long, Date: 11/06/2018
Source: Igeekphone Archive.org version
In general , based on the price of 1399 yuan (about $203), it is difficult to find an opponent who is comparable to the camera and the face value. The low price but the flagship Smartphone configuration is still the mainstay of Xiaomi phone and this Mi 8 Lite is more promising to lose the “young” taste.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 10/03/2018
Foreign Reviews
Source: ChinaMobileMag DE→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 12/02/2018
Source: Chinahandys.net DE→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 11/13/2018
Rating: Total score: 90% performance: 90% display: 90% mobility: 90% workmanship: 100%
Source: Newesc ES→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 03/10/2019
Rating: Total score: 85% price: 90% performance: 86% display: 83% mobility: 80% workmanship: 89%
Source: Andro 4 All ES→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 01/11/2019
Rating: Total score: 95%
Source: Movil Zona ES→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 12/25/2018
Rating: Total score: 70% price: 70% performance: 70% display: 80% mobility: 80% workmanship: 70%
Source: Computerhoy ES→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 12/10/2018
Rating: Total score: 77% features: 80% display: 80% mobility: 70% workmanship: 80%
Source: Zona Movilidad ES→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Powerful processor; good price; nice dual cameras. Negative: High SAR.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 08/25/2019
Source: Zona Movilidad ES→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Compact size; light weight; attractive price; nice selfie camera; smart AI mode. Negative: High SAR.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 01/03/2019
Source: Tuexperto ES→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Compact size; light weight; powerful hardware; excellent speakers; good price. Negative: Short battery life.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 12/22/2018
Source: El Androide Libre ES→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Elegant design; compact size; large battery capacity; nice performance; good price.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 11/27/2018
Source: Pplware PT→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 02/05/2019
Rating: Total score: 90% performance: 90% display: 90% mobility: 80% workmanship: 100%
Source: AndroidPit.it IT→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 03/27/2019
Rating: Total score: 70%
Source: Chimera Revo IT→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 01/30/2019
Rating: Total score: 75%
Source: Smartphone Italia IT→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 12/27/2018
Rating: Total score: 90% price: 90% features: 80% display: 80% mobility: 80% workmanship: 90% ergonomy: 90%
Source: AndroidWorld.it IT→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 12/17/2018
Rating: Total score: 84% price: 85% features: 85% display: 80% mobility: 75% workmanship: 80% ergonomy: 80%
Source: Andrea Galeazzi IT→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 11/30/2018
Rating: Total score: 79% price: 85% display: 79% mobility: 91% workmanship: 80%
Source: Tutto Android IT→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 11/28/2018
Rating: Total score: 82% price: 89% features: 86% display: 79% mobility: 87% ergonomy: 75%
Source: Androidiani IT→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Compact size; light weight; good price.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 12/21/2018
Source: Smartphone Italia IT→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Good price; compact size; light weight; beautiful design.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 11/27/2018
Source: Pianeta Cellulare IT→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Stylish design; beautiful screen; good price.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 11/14/2018
Source: AndroidPit.fr FR→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 03/29/2019
Rating: Total score: 70%
Source: 01Net FR→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 02/26/2019
Rating: Total score: 80% performance: 70% mobility: 80%
Source: Phonandroid FR→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 01/17/2019
Rating: Total score: 60%
Source: Frandroid FR→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 11/10/2018
Rating: Total score: 70% performance: 70% display: 80% mobility: 90% workmanship: 80%
Source: Top for Phone FR→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Compact size; light weight; beautiful design; solid workmanship; high performance; long battery life; good price.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 01/12/2019
Source: Tabletowo PL→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 12/28/2018
Rating: Total score: 68% performance: 85% display: 80% mobility: 65% workmanship: 65%
Source: Android.com.pl PL→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 11/06/2018
Rating: Total score: 70% display: 70% mobility: 70%
Source: Antyweb PL→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Compact size; nice performance; good cameras; decent hardware. Negative: No NFC chip.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 11/16/2018
Source: Chip Online TR TR→EN
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 09/30/2021
Rating: Total score: 75%
Source: Tekno Seyir TR→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 12/09/2018
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: Mega Obzor RU→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Compact size; light weight; nice display; excellent cameras; fast fingerprint sensor.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 02/14/2019
Source: Mega Obzor RU→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Compact size; light weight; decent hardware; nice selfie camera; good price.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 09/22/2018
Source: FPT shop VN→EN Archive.org version
Positive: High performance; long battery life; beautiful design; nice display; excellent cameras; attractive price.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 01/21/2019
Source: XT Mobile VN→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Good price; compact size; light weight; impressive design; nice performance; excellent cameras; big screen; decent autonomy; metal case.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 11/18/2018
Source: The Gioididong VN→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Compact size; light weight; low price; beautiful design; solid workmanship.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 11/02/2018
Source: Jagat Review ID→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Solid workmanship; excellent performance; nice cameras; fast charging; nice connectivity. Negative: No NFC; combined slot.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 01/08/2019
Source: Unlimited Tech →EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 01/28/2019
Rating: Total score: 80%
Comment
Model: The Mi 8 Lite is a 6.26-inch mid-range phone. At a reasonable price it packs capable hardware including a Snapdragon 660 and an Adreno 512 GPU.
Design and Connectivity
The 6.26-inch phone measures at 156.4 x 75.8 x 7.5 mm and weighs 169 grams. It has a glass front, a 2.5D-curved back glass and a chrome-colored aluminum side frame. It comes in three color options - Midnight Black, Sunset Gold, and Aurora Blue. The front glass is not curved and www.gsmarena.com finds you might feel its protruding edge along the sides though it doesn't cause any discomfort. They report a screen-to-body ratio of 82.5 %, lack of IPxx certification against water and dust (not to be expected at the phone’s price point) and that the glass back is not only prone to scratches and cracks, but also easy to smudge. www.techadvisor.co.uk finds that the Mi 8 Lite is a 6.26-inch-screen phone in the body of a 5.5-inch model, fitting comfortably in the hand.
The Mi 8 Lite runs Android 8.1 Oreo with Xiaomi's MIUI 9.6. www.techadvisor.co.uk thinks that MIUI is quite a departure from standard Android, removing the app tray, reorganizing and redesigning the drop-down notification bar, and reordering the Settings menu.
The Lite has horizontally-stacked camera sensors and a smaller notch than the Mi 8 SE. The narrow notch on the front side houses the earpiece, the front-facing camera, the usual sensors, and a subtle LED notification light.
The left side houses the SIM/microSD card tray, while volume rocker and power button are on the right side. A SIM/microSD ejection tool (included) is needed to open the card tray. The USB-C connector is on the top side. Unfortunately, the Mi 8 does not have an audio jack, but Xiaomi has included a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter. www.gsmarena.com says the buttons are delightfully clicky and feel quite firm without any noticeable wobble. The phone comes with a rear-mounted fingerprint reader, which is ideally positioned and works flawlessly according to www.gsmarena.com. www.trustedreviews.com says the fingerprint reader is fast.
For connectivity the phone supports GSM, 3G and LTE, Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi a, b, g, n and ac, but lacks support for NFC, which is necessary for making mobile payments. In our review, we compared the Mi 8 Lite to the Garmin Edge 500 navigator and found that the phone can only be used as an occasional navigator.
Display
The 6.26-inch IPS display features a 19:9 aspect ratio, a resolution of 1,080 x 2,280 pixels, and a pixel density of 403 ppi. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 5. www.gsmarena.com complains about poor uniformity of the backlight around the notch and the top bezel. They report a maximum brightness of 468 cd/m², a black value of 0.322 cd/m² and a contrast ratio of 1,453. Furthermore, this online-magazine recommends switching over to the "Standard" mode (average DeltaE of 0.9, maximum DeltaE of 2) in the display calibration menu as it renders colors way more accurately than "Automatic" mode (average DeltaE of 5, maximum DeltaE of 10.1). However, they observed that the maximum brightness will go down to 415 cd/m2 in "Standard" mode and find that the sunlight legibility is satisfactory in default mode. www.trustedreviews.com says, “Colours are vibrant, contrast only perceptibly worse than the best LCDs at an angle in a dim room, and maximum brightness is high enough to make the display readable on a sunny day.”. In www.techadvisor.co.uk’s opinion, the display produces realistic colors, good contrast and strong viewing angles.
Hardware and Performance
The Mi 8 Lite uses a slightly older Snapdragon 660 chipset, which came out in 2017. The 14 nm processor features an octa-core CPU with four 2.2 GHz Kryo 260 cores and four 1.8 GHz Kryo 260 cores. www.gsmarena.com did not notice any thermal throttling or overheating even after a few consecutive benchmark tests and say that the performance was as expected from a Snapdragon 660-powered smartphone in view of their benchmark results (GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core): 5894; GeekBench 4.1 (single-core): 1628, AnTuTu 7: 143257; Basemark OS 2.0: 2338; GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen): 22; GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen): 20; GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen): 9, GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen): 8, Basemark X: 21269). www.trustedreviews.com thinks, “This is one of the best phones available in its class for gaming.”. www.vienna.at reports that the processor gets warm quickly under high load, but the phone never became uncomfortably hot since the processor throttles to constant 80 % after about 2,5 minutes under full load.
As for RAM and storage, there are two variants, which are 4GB + 64GB, 6GB + 128GB. Storage can be expanded with a microSD card by up to 128 GB. In our storage benchmarks, the Mi 8 Lite with 128 GB performs as well as the rest of the competition.
Battery Life
The phone comes with a 3,350 mAh built-in battery and supports Quick Charge 3.0. However, the included brick and USB-A to USB-C cable only support 5V/2A charging speeds (10 W). Hence, you might want to get a QC 3.0-compliant charger for faster charging. www.gsmarena.com calls the 3G talk (29.59 h) and standby times respectable and reports web browsing and video playback times of 10:24h and 10.15 h, respectively. They summarizes that the Mi 8 Lite sacrifices power efficiency for performance and performs worse than most of its competitors in battery life, but only a few of them feature a powerful chipset like the Snapdragon 660. According to www.trustedreviews.com the device will survive a full day of solid mid-to-heavy use. www.techadvisor.co.uk ran the Geekbench 4 battery test and the Mi 8 Lite recorded 6 hours 22 minutes.
Cameras
Mi 8 Lite features a primary 12 MP camera with f/1.9 aperture, 1.4 µm pixel size, dual pixel phase detection autofocus and 5 MP sensor for depth sensing only. The camera lacks optical image stabilization. Additional settings like HDR, AI camera mode, beautify effect for the portrait shots filters are available. A pro mode allows more control over the camera. www.gsmarena.com finds HDR's Auto mode did not use HDR in most scenes it should, AI covers the very basic and is not as capable as in flagships, and the camera struggles to produce good shots under low-light. www.trustedreviews.com confirms that the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite isn’t a low-light master with any configuration of modes, but think that it is better than some in this class. In contrast, www.techadvisor.co.uk thinks that the camera’s large 1.4um pixels were able to do a decent job lighting the scene without turning to the flash in low-light.
Videos can be recorded in up to 4K at 30 fps. www.trustedreviews.com find that 4K stabilization isn’t very effective, but 1080p stabilization is, dramatically reducing hand judder.
The 24 MP front camera uses fixed focus. According to www.gsmarena.com some of your selfies may not come up as sharp as they should be.
www.trustedreviews.com summarizes, “Considering everything from shooting speed to selfie quality, video capture options and the image quality you can get using the right modes, the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite is one of the very best sub-£250 phone cameras you can get.” vulcanpost.com thinks that as a point and shoot camera, the Mi 8 Lite actually produced images they would consider very good for what you pay for.
Sound
According to www.gsmarena.com, the bottom-firing single speaker gets pretty loud. They say that the phone delivers very loud output with perfect accuracy with an active external amplifier. With headphones they experienced a slightly above average degradation with a noticeable spike in stereo crosstalk, some intermodulation distortion and some frequency response shakiness.
According to our review the Mi 8 Lite provides a very good call quality.
Summary
The Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite delivers good system performance and big storage capacity, but its battery life is only average, and it lacks a 3,5 mm headphone jack. In view of its price point, the cameras are good.
In www.trustedreviews.com’s opinion, the Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite has unusually good hardware considering its price.
Competitors include the Mi 8 SE and the Mi A2, Samsung’s Galaxy A7 (2018), the Motorola One, the Nokia 7 Plus, the Honor Play, the Honor 8X, and HTC’s U12 Life.
Sources
- mobile.mi.com/uk/mi-8-lite/
- www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_8_lite-review-1859.php
- www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/xiaomi-mi-8-lite
- www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/android-smartphones/xiaomi-mi8-lite-3686190/
- www.vienna.at/xiaomi-mi-8-lite-test-und-fazit-zum-selfie-handy/6011783
- www.giztop.com/blog/Xiaomi-Mi-8-Lite-Review/
- vulcanpost.com/651649/xiaomi-mi-8-lite-review-malaysia/
- www.china-gadgets.de/xiaomi-mi-8-lite-smartphone-test/
- www.notebookcheck.net/Xiaomi-Mi-8-Lite-Smartphone-Review.400796.0.html
Press Review by Martina Osztovits
Qualcomm Adreno 512: Integrated graphics card based on the Adreno 500 architecture, like the Adreno 520 in the Snapdragon 820. According to Qualcomm up to 30% faster than the previous generation (Adreno 510?). Supports DirectX12, OpenCL 2.0, OpenGL ES 3.1 + AE.
Only some 3D games with very low demands are playable with these cards.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
SD 660: Fast mid-range ARM SoC with 8 CPU Kryo 260 cores (four fast 2.2 GHz cores in a cluster and two power saving 1.8 GHz cores) and a rather slow Adreno 512 GPU. Manufactured in a 14 nm process.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
6.26":
It is a small display format for smartphones. You shouldn't be severely defective in vision, and you won't see much detail on the screen and only have a small resolution available. For that, the device should be small and handy, easy to transport.
» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.Xiaomi:
Founded in 2010, Xiaomi Corporation is a Chinese multinational electronics company and produces consumer electronics and related products, including smartphones, televisions, fitness bands, power banks, headphones, smart devices and accessories. Xiaomi offers its products under the Mi, Redmi and POCO brands.
78.96%: This rating is not earth-shattering. This rating must actually be seen as average, since there are about as many devices with worse ratings as better ones. A purchase recommendation can only be seen with a lot of goodwill, unless it is about websites that generally rate strictly.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.