Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE Review - Feel-good smartphone with much to offer

A week since Xiaomi launched new handsets in the Philippines, we are now also ready to share with you our review of the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE.

Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE

As we all know, the 11 Lite 5G NE is the most affordable among the new Xiaomi phones in the Philippines. It has a sleek design, 90Hz AMOLED display, Snapdragon 778G 5G chip, among other features that make it popular.

In case you missed it, the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE starts at PHP 16,990. In the first part of our review, we mentioned that this is a promising smartphone. Did that change after exploring it deeper? Read on.

For the first part of our review: Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE Unboxing and First Impressions

Multimedia Experience

One of the best displays in this segment!

The Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE sports a Gorilla Glass-protected 6.55-inch 10-bit AMOLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate. We can't skip commending Xiaomi in this matter. The display quality of this handset is among the best in its class.

One of the best display quality in its class!

It gives us a high contrast AMOLED look, vibrant colors, deep blacks, and smooth motions. Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE has support for Dolby Vision on Netflix and is also HDR10+ certified.

These features make a difference in the viewing experience and make the phone ideal for those (like us) who consume a huge amount of content. The thin bezels are quite thin and help in the overall experience.

Perfect for binge-watching!

As expected, it supports 10-points of multitouch. The display is responsive, accurate, and quick.

To recap, Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE has no 3.5mm headphone jack. You need to use its USB-C dongle to enjoy music through your wired headphones.

It also has a bottom-firing stereo speaker with a high maximum volume. The sound is full and pleasing with unnoticeable distortion even when amped up to the highest level. 

Its two microphones gave us clear calls and voice quality. Overall we had an immersive listening experience and nice voice quality.

Cameras

Beautifully-built rear cameras

Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE has a triple rear camera made up of a 64MP f/1.8 w/ PDAF, 8MP f/2.2 119-degree ultra-wide-angle, 5MP f/2.4 3-7cm telemacro with Contrast AF, and dual-tone LED flash.

These cameras create a nice bump at the back of the phone. The primary camera has a ring around it while the two lenses also sit within the same module along with a LED flash.

The stock camera app has several modes including video, photo, portrait, long exposure, slow motion, panorama, night, dual video, time-lapse, documents, 64M (64MP), clone, movie effects, vlog, and a short video. It also has a Pro Mode that allows for control of ISO (50-6400), shutter speed (1/4000-30 seconds), white balance, focus, and lens. 

Rear Camera Samples

Daylight

Daylight wide

Daylight 2

Indoor

Indoor wide

Food

Close-up

Super macro

64MP

Night mode

Night mode wide

Low light auto

Night mode 2

In daylight, the photos have a higher saturation, vibrancy, and contrast. The auto, close-up, or wide, images have ample details and sharpness. 

The same goes for indoor photos. The images have enough details, satisfying colors, and the brightness is turned up.

Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE's telemacro lens produced great macro shots as seen in our sample image. Note that the "super macro" feature can be found on the photo mode > drop-down menu > super macro.

Impressive macro sensor!

In low light, the camera shoots nice photos as long as it has a light source around it. Using the night mode, the low light shots get brighter although some details are washed out.

20MP selfie camera

Moving on to the selfie camera, Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE features a single 20MP f/2.2 lens placed on the leftmost punch hole of the display.

It carries the same camera modes as the rear cameras'. 

Selfie Camera Samples

Daylight selfie

Daylight portrait

Indoor selfie

Indoor selfie bokeh

Low light selfie

Night mode selfie

The selfies come out great in well-lit conditions. With the beauty mode turned off, the images are sharp with ample facial details and textures. The portrait mode has brilliant subject separation. 

The beauty mode smoothens the skin a lot. Indoors, the selfies are nice too most especially with natural light coming in the room. Meanwhile, in a low-light setting, the selfie lacks some details but is decent most especially when taken with the night mode. 

Overall, the front shooter can take nice selfies most especially the ones taken on portrait mode.

For videos, the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE's ultrawide lens can shoot up to 1080p while the main sensor can go up to 2160p at 30fps.

Performance

The benchmarks

The Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE is powered by a 2.4GHz 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G octa-core processor, Adreno 642L GPU, and in our case, we're loaned with the 6GB RAM, 128GB internal storage variant. 

Using the AnTuTu benchmark, we got a score of 498,677. Meanwhile, we have 718 single-core and 1,881 multi-core scores from Geekbench. Furthermore, 3DMark registered a 2,393 score & 14.30 fps for this handset.

Fast performance by all means

In real-life, the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE is a fast phone by all means. It didn't manifest any struggle despite the most demanding situation (e.g. multiple apps running in the background). The overall experience was smooth and gratifying.

Mobile Legends on Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE and Gaming Turbo

Apparently, Xiaomi did not market this phone for gaming but in our experience, the 11 Lite 5G NE is comfortable with high settings on Call of Duty: Mobile and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. It would be safe for us to tell that this handset doesn't slouch on casual gaming.

In terms of security, the handset has face recognition and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that doubles as the power button. Both are responsive throughout our test.

Battery settings

Moving on to its battery, Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE packs 4,250mAh paired with 33W fast charging support. This may be judged on paper as inadequate but our experience says otherwise. But first, in PCMark Battery Test, it lasted up to 15 hours and 28 minutes.

In the real world, we were left with 25 percent at the end of the day after a moderate usage pattern covering text and calls, social media, music playbacks, and casual gaming.

Easily an all-day phone!

Moreover, the 33W charger fills up the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE in an hour. This may not be ideal for on-the-go persons but since the world is staying mostly at home, this should not be a concern.

Battery test

It doesn't have wireless charging support if you're wondering.

For connectivity, the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE has the following: WiFi 6, 5G SA/NSA, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2, OTG, NFC, GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS, BeiDou (B1I+B1C+B2a), Galileo (E1+E5a), QZSS (L1+L5), NavIC, and dual SIM.

Look at that speed!

Of course, we tried its 5G connectivity, and above is the result.

Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE runs on Android 11 with MIUI 12.5 on top. Minus the pesky pre-installed third-party apps, the MIUI on this handset delivers a premium-level experience. The overall optimization is also impressive.

MIUI 12.5

Pros - Lightweight & slim design, great display, good cameras, nice battery life, sizeable performance, stereo speakers

Cons -  No 3.5mm jack, the 8GB/256GB version is almost the same price of the better Xiaomi 11T

Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE Specs

Display: 6.55-inch Gorilla Glass 5 protected 10-bit AMOLED screen w/ 90Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, 2400 x 1800 resolution at 402 ppi

CPU: 2.4GHz 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G octa-core processor

GPU: Adreno 642L

RAM: 6GB/8GB LPDDR4X

ROM: 128GB/256GB UFS 2.2

Back Camera: 64MP f/1.8 w/ PDAF + 8MP f/2.2 119-degree ultra-wide-angle + 5MP f/2.4 3-7cm telemacro w/ Contrast AF + dual-tone LED flash

Selfie Camera: 20MP f/2.2

Battery: 4,250mAh w/ 33W fast charging

OS: Android 11 w/ MIUI 12.5

Connectivity: WiFi 6, 5G SA/NSA, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2, OTG, NFC, GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS, BeiDou (B1I+B1C+B2a), Galileo (E1+E5a), QZSS (L1+L5), NavIC, dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, face unlock, IR Blaster, stereo speakers, USB-C, Colors: Truffle Black, Bubblegum Blue, Peach Pink, and Snowflake White

Dimensions: 160.53 x 75.73 x 6.81 mm

Weight: 158 g

Price: PHP 16,990 (6GB/128GB), PHP 18,990 (8GB/128GB), PHP 20,990 (8GB/256GB)

Verdict

Feel-good smartphone!

The Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE is indeed a feel-good smartphone with much to offer most especially to those who consume a chunky amount of content.

The specs of this device are actually impressive for a slim device and it is simply a joy to use. It may not be as bang-per-buck as other thicker Xiaomi smartphones, but it has the necessary features one is looking for a handset.

At the end of the day, Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE delivers, resonates with its price, and is generally at par or better with the competition. We have no reason not to recommend this excellent all-rounder smartphone.

Do you agree with us?

Build/Design - 4.75

Multimedia Experience - 4.75

Cameras - 4.25

Performance - 4.5

Average - 4.56/5