Xiaomi 12 Lite Review - Surprisingly refined
We share our thoughts and experiences with the recently launched Xiaomi 12 Lite after two weeks as our daily driver.
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| Xiaomi 12 Lite |
To recap, the Xiaomi 12 Lite is the company's newest mid-ranger designed for those who wanted a sleek and slim smartphone with respectable specs and great camera specs.
It features a large 6.55-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 240Hz touch sampling rate, 2408 x 1080 resolution, and Dolby Vision support. Inside is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G octa-core processor, LPDDR4X RAM, UFS 2.2, and 4,300mAh battery with 67W turbo charging.
At the back of the phone are a 108MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP macro camera with an LED flash. While in front is a 32MP selfie camera.
In the Philippines, the Xiaomi 12 Lite is priced at PHP 20,999 (6GB/128GB) and PHP 21,999 (8GB/128GB).
Let's dive into the full review.
Multimedia Experience
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| Large display |
One of the eye-catching features of the phone is its display. It is a 6.55-inch Gorilla Glass 5 protected AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 240Hz touch sampling rate, and a 2400 x 1800 resolution. The panel supports 10-points of multi-touch, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+. It responds quickly and accurately to our taps and gestures.
The panel is Gorilla Glass 5 Protected and it comes out of the box with the screen protector pre-installed.
One of the few with Dolby Vision and HDR10+ at the same time!
Around the panel are super slim bezels. On the upper part of the panel is the punch hole that houses the front facing camera. Above the panel is the earpiece.
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| Top and Bottom |
For audio, the Xiaomi 12 Lite has speaker grills on the top and at the bottom. It produces sound with a decently high volume with good clarity and power. The sound stage is not that large but it is immersive because of the left and right speakers.
We would also recommend being careful not to cover the speaker grill as the sound becomes muffled right away.
There is no 3.5mm audio jack and no USB-C to 3.5mm audio jack dongle included.
The microphones pick up sounds from a meter away. It does a decent pick-up of sound while the noise-cancellation for calls is decent.
Cameras
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| Rear cameras |
As mentioned earlier, the back camera module is made up of a 108MP f/1.9 primary camera with PDAF, 8MP f/2.2 119-degree ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera with an LED flash.
The 108MP Samsung HM2 sensor is refined!
The stock camera app has the following modes: Photo, Video, Pro, Portrait, Night, 108MP, Short Video, Panorama, Document, VLOG, Slow Motion, Time-Lapse, Movie Effects, Long Exposure, Dual Video, and Clone.
The PRO mode allows for controls of white balance, exposure compensation (+-4), ISO (50-6400), and shutter speed (30 seconds to 1/4000s).
Rear Camera Samples
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| Rear 1x daylight |
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| Rear 2x daylight |
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| Rear ultra-wide daylight |
Xiaomi 12 Lite's rear camera take impressive daylight photos. Images are sharp and detailed with vibrant color and deep contrast. One minor gripe is the distortion across three cameras that can be observed with the buildings.
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| Rear 1x close-up |
The same can be said for close-ups. Each individual rice grain and bread flakes are defined.
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| Rear 1x indoors |
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| Rear 2x indoors |
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| Rear ultra-wide indoors |
Indoors, the images retain the quality from daylight. The colors and contrast are great while being sharp and detailed.
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| Rear 1x lowlight |
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| Rear 2x lowlight |
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| Rear ultra-wide low light |
For low light, the main camera and ultra-wide camera are able to minimize noise while retaining a large amount of sharpness, detail and color. Only the 2x digital crop was noticeably soft and grainy.
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| Rear 1x night mode |
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| Rear 2x night mode |
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| Rear ultra-wide night mode |
With the Night mode, the low light images are significantly improved. There is barely any noise while the color and sharpness have been improved.
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| Front facing camera |
On the punch hole is a 32MP f/2.45 selfie camera.
The stock camera mode comes with Photo, Video, Portrait and Night.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Selfie daylight |
The selfie camera takes good selfies. The image is decently sharp with vibrant color and good contrast. We expected it to be a little sharper given that it is a 32MP sensor.
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| Portrait mode |
The selfie Portrait mode is good. The artificial bokeh is pleasing and near natural. Our minor concern is that the edge-detection managed to detect a majority of the subject but struggled with individual hair fibers. Otherwise, it is one of the better edge-detection out there for the price.
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| Selfie indoors |
Indoors, the image quality is the same as in daylight. It is vibrant and contrasty but could be sharper for a 32MP sensor.
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| Selfie lowlight |
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| Selfie Night mode |
In low light, the camera tries hard to brighten the scene which resulted in noticeably more grain but it did maintain sharpness and color at the expense of over-exposed bright areas.
While the night mode remedies this by significantly reducing the grain while improving the color, contrast, and sharpness.
The rear camera can capture up to 4K at 30fps while the front-facing camera can capture up to 1080p at 60fps.
The footage from both the front-facing camera and the rear-facing camera captures sharp, detailed, and vibrantly colored footage.
Our concern with the video footage is that in low light the Autofocus of cameras on occasion struggled to find focus and there were instances where the footage was jittery. Depending on the available light, video footage at night can either be pleasing or full of noise and grain.
Performance
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| AnTuTu and GeekBench |
To recap, Xiaomi 12 Lite carries the following specs: 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G octa-core processor, Adreno 642L GPU, 6GB/8GB LPDDR4X RAM, and 128GB/256GB UFS 2.2.
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| 3DMark and CPDT |
Xiaomi 12 Lite benchmarks:
- AnTuTu - 518,960
- Geekbench 5 - 783 (single-core), 2980 (multi-core)
- 3D Mark WildLife - 2,486 at 14.9 average fps
- CPDT - 618.54 MB/s sequential read speeds and 391.38 sequential write speeds
The scores are consistent with smartphones equipped with the same Snapdragon 778G. What's noteworthy is the multi-core performance in GeekBench.
During the benchmark run, the phone did warm up but by a few degrees only.
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| Ni No Kuni Graphics settings |
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| Genshin Impact |
The performance is consistent with similarly priced smartphones too! It managed to unlock the low graphics settings of Genshin Impact as the default. While in Ni No Kuni, the phone managed to unlock the Very High graphics settings. The gameplay is mostly smooth until the screen fills up with objects and animations. The phone also warmed up after an extended play session.
For security, Xiaomi 12 Lite has an optical type of under-display-mounted fingerprint sensor and face unlock. Initial set-up and subsequent uses are almost instantaneous. Either Face Unlock or the fingerprint sensors failed. The sensor only struggled when our fingers were filled with dirt.
In terms of connectivity, we have the following: WiFi 6, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2, OTG, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, and dual SIM.
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| PCMark and Battery usage |
Inside the phone is a large 4,300mAh battery. It managed to last for 11 hours and 46 minutes with our usual PCMark battery benchmark.
In our daily use, it managed to last for more than 6 hours of on-screen time.
The massive battery charges via USB-C with the 67W charger. It takes around 45 minutes to charge from 0 to 100 percent.
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| MIUI13 |
It is running on MIUI 13 based on Android 12. Xiaomi continues to improve the visual and functional aspects of MIUI. And so far, we are enjoying MIUI 13 over past versions. It is more organized and some UI flows have been refined to be easier to use.
Our main concern is the increased number of preinstalled apps and services that can be uninstalled. It adds to the initial setup.
Pros - Beautiful design, lightweight and solid body, vibrant and crisp display, great rear and front cameras
Cons - Low light photo and video autofocus performance could be improved
Xiaomi 12 Lite Specs
Display: 6.55-inch Gorilla Glass 5 protected AMOLED screen w/ 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, 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: 108MP f/1.9 Samsung HM2 w/ PDAF + 8MP f/2.2 119-degree ultra-wide-angle + 2MP f/2.4 macro + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 32MP f/2.45
Battery: 4,300mAh w/ 67W turbo 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: In-Display fingerprint sensor, face unlock, IR Blaster, stereo speakers, USB-C, Colors: Black, Lite Green, Lite Pink
Dimensions: 159.3 x 73.7 x 7.29 mm
Weight: 173 g
Price: PHP 20,999 (6GB/128GB), PHP 21,999 (8GB/128GB)
Verdict
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| Web surfing |
Xiaomi 12 Lite is a pleasant surprise as it is one of the most refined mid-range smartphones in terms of hardware and software that the company has released so far.
The body is made of premium glass and polycarbonate which makes it solid and lightweight while the eye-catching design makes it unique and stands out.
In front is a bright, vibrant, and crisp 120Hz AMOLED panel that is accurate and responsive. It also comes with stereo speakers that significantly improve the audio experience.
What surprised us was the brilliant image quality from the rear and front-facing cameras. However, it did struggle with low-light video capture with the lack of OIS.
The battery's performance is average but is somewhat remedied by the fast charging.
Overall, the Xiaomi 12 Lite is not perfect but it is one of the most well-rounded mid-range Xiaomi phones in years. It could be a GREAT pick for those who are looking for a balanced smartphone with great looks and capable cameras.
What do you think guys?
Build/Design - 4.5
Multimedia Experience - 4.5
Cameras - 4.5
Performance - 4.5
Average - 4.5/5
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