Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G Smartphone in review – the camera makes all the difference

Xiaomi has given its Lite model a new design that is closer to its Redmi sub-brand than to its own 12 Series. Under the hood, however, not much has changed; Xiaomi is relying on the same chipset and a similar storage configuration as before. The display also has the same size and resolution, although it now comes with a higher refresh rate than before.

The battery capacity has been bumped up slightly, and the camera setup gets the most comprehensive update, which, altogether, doesn’t represent an improvement across the board from last year’s model. The smartphone has a starting MSRP of around 450 Euros (US$500), although we might expect to see this price drop rather quickly, given past experience. The Xiaomi 12 Lite is available in Black, Lite Green and Lite Pink.

Our review unit is Black, which sometimes shimmers slightly blue depending on the lighting. This Xiaomi smartphone has grown in every direction since last year, especially when it comes to its weight, which is 15 g (0. 5 oz) heavier than before.

This change can’t really be attributed to the battery, which has only grown by 50 mAh; it is the camera, rather, that is the most likely culprit here, as it now sticks out an additional 2. 8 mm (0. 11″) from the case, more than its predecessor’s 1.

8 mm (0. 04″). Despite the plastic back, the smartphone has a good finish that looks high-quality and feels great.

Gaps are both tight and even throughout the device, and the display-to-surface area ratio (88%) looks great. The card tray can fit two nanoSIM cards. Additionally, the Xiaomi 12 Lite is protected from damaging amounts of dust and water by an IP53 rating.

The biggest change from the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G is the lack of microSD support. It’s easy to get over this missing feature, due to the large storage capacity, although those who need more space will miss having the 256 GB model. Unlike last year’s model, Xiaomi also got rid of the 6 GB RAM model, at least officially in Germany.

Our review unit is actually outfitted with a bit less RAM than the versions available for sale in the country. Otherwise, it’s business as usual: there’s an infrared transmitter for controlling home theaters, cameras etc. and NFC and Bluetooth are both onboard.

The USB 2. 0 port supports OTG (on-the-go) and PD (power delivery), in order to connect and charge peripherals. The Xiaomi 12 Lite comes with Google Android 12 and the Xiaomi’s own MIUI 13 user interface.

According to various internet sources the smartphone will receive two major software upgrades and three years of security patches, but Xiaomi Germany has confirmed to us that there is no update commitment for this model. At the time of this review, the latest patch is from the 1st of August 2022, which is up-to-date. The MIUI user interface proved to have very restrictive energy management in our test.

Apps in the background were often closed or notifications not displayed. As a rule, however, this could be improved in the app settings. So far, we have been spared the usual ads from Xiaomi.

The 12 Lite is anything but reserved when it comes to third-party apps that come installed on the device, but these can all be manually uninstalled. For mobile Internet access, the Xiaomi 12 Lite supports all modern communication standards, including Sub-6GHz 5G. The smartphone offered a wide frequency range, so it should be possible to establish a connection in most countries without a problem.

The Wi-Fi module supports fast Wi-Fi 6 with VHT80. Together with our reference router, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000, the 12 Lite achieves mostly stable transfer speeds, although it needs a couple of seconds to get going when receiving data, and then falls a bit short of expectations. The Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G establishes a satellite connection very quickly outdoors, but you have to be a bit more patient indoors.

The accuracy is also not particularly high when inside. We compared the Xiaomi smartphone to the Garmin Venu 2 on a short bike tour. The estimated routes were almost the same, but in a direct comparison, the smartwatch was more accurate.

Nevertheless, the 12 Lite delivers comparatively good positioning characteristics, even though it only supports single-frequency GPS. Interestingly, this is a step backwards when compared to its predecessor, which supported the full bandwidth. The Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G’s voice quality was great when held against the ear.

The user’s voice is very clear and natural, and smaller background noises are reliably suppressed. The smartphone only noticeably starts to reach its limits in loud ambient noise. There is a bit of reverberation through the speaker, but it otherwise does its job well enough.

Features like VoLTE and Wi-Fi calls are supported, and it’s also possible to manage SIP accounts. The front camera in the Xiaomi 12 Lite’s display has been upgraded to 32 MP but does not use pixel binning, despite the large pixel count. Photos taken with it are heavily post-processed in photo mode.

In portrait mode, the background can be blurred out by the user and a beauty mode can also be used to customize the image further. Selfies taken in good lighting leave a good impression and videos can, in best-case scenarios, be recorded in full HD with up to 60 FPS. The main camera in the back now has a 108 MP sensor (Samsung HM2), which provided high quality images in our test.

Despite that, the color of the houses in the background of our panorama shot, which look bluish, isn’t quite right. The zoom also remains rather weak, despite the high pixel count; everything above 2x magnification doesn’t look great, although a maximum of 10x zoom is possible digitally. The utrawide-angle camera doesn’t have a particularly high resolution, and the sensor is rather small.

This has a clearly negative effect on the depth of field, and the sharpness at the edge of the images also decreases noticeably. The macro lens has gone through a downgrade, and now only has a resolution of 2 MP. Pictures taken with it are very unbalanced and have noticeable distortions.

Videos are recorded in Ultra HD with up to 30 FPS in the best cases; if Full HD is good enough, a higher refresh rate of 60 FPS can be selected as well. The image sensor could definitely be better, but the Qualcomm Spectra 570L-ISP reaches its limits here. Under controlled light conditions, the Xiaomi 12 Lite’s camera shows some visible color deviations.

Dark green, dark brown, blue and cyan tones in particular are unnaturally bright or over-saturated. The white balance, however, is good. The test chart is characterized by a very sharp and detailed display in the middle, but becomes a bit blurry towards the edges.

The bottom line, however, is that the camera performs very respectably. The Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G comes with a transparent silicone protective case, SIM tool, modular 67 W brick, and a USB cable (type A to Type C). In Germany, the warranty covers 12 months, which doesn’t affect the retailer’s warranty.

Optional insurance or warranty extensions are not available. The Xiaomi 12 Lite’s capacitive touchscreen meets our expectations and proves to be very reliable in our test, with inputs being both quickly and precisely registered. There’s a screen protector already applied to the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 screen’s surface, which isn’t too thick but doesn’t have quite the same gliding properties as the glass surface.

System navigation can take place using the on-screen buttons or alternatively through gestures, as usual. A one-handed mode is also available. The optical fingerprint sensor can be used not only for unlocking the phone, but also for taking heart rate measurements, although unfortunately, this feature is somewhat hidden.

The measurement takes about 15 seconds, although it is likely more precise, and was between 10 and 12 beats faster than the Apple Watch Series 7’s sensor in our direct comparison. The Xiaomi 12 Lite’s AMOLED display is very similar to its predecessor’s, with a diagonal screen size of 6. 55″ (16.

64 cm), although it now has a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. A 60 Hz-only mode can also be chosen in the settings; if the higher refresh rate is chosen, the system modulates the refresh rate between 60 and 120 Hz on its own. The brightness level is comparable to that of the 11 Lite 5G NE, although maximum brightness is a bit higher at up to 917 cd/m 2 , with an even distribution of bright and dark spots (APL18).

Those who prefer to regulate the brightness themselves have up to 490 cd/m 2 available. This Xiaomi smartphone suppports all current HDR standards (HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and DolbyVision), which is great. Xiaomi uses a particularly eye-friendly DC dimming process for the display, with a frequency of 1,920 Hz.

Our oscilloscope only detected a bit of flickering in the refresh rate, with a constant 120 Hz over the entire brightness spectrum. We were also not able to observe any temporal dithering, which we measured by looking at the display with a microscope and using a 240 FPS slow-motion video (dark grey and at full brightness). We examined the accuracy of the colors with a photo spectrometer and the analysis software CalMAN.

At factory settings, the Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G displays somewhat cooler colors but does use the larger DCI-P3 color space. The most natural imaging performance was achieved when the Original color scheme is selected in the settings, but the smartphone then only makes use of the smaller sRGB color space, which it then covers almost completely. The Xiaomi 12 Lite’s screen remains quite easy to view in most light situations outdoors, and the environmental light sensor reacts quickly and appropriately to changing light conditions.

Only on really bright days did we wish we had a little extra brightness from the screen. This Xiaomi smartphone’s viewing angles were quite good, and only showed a slight turquoise tint at flat viewing angles, which is hardly noticeable in everyday use. The Xiaomi 12 Lite uses the Adreno 642L integrated on the Snapdragon chip for graphics acceleration, which is in the upper mid-range.

There are no surprises here either, and the GPU delivers significantly more power than those used in the Galaxy A53 (ARM Mali-G68 MP4) or Xperia 10 IV (Adreno 619). The Xiaomi 12 Lite performs very well in terms of browser performance, and only bows out to competitors with newer or stronger chips in our comparison, even outperforming the Pixel 6a in WebXPRT 4. The UFS 2.

2 storage delivers high data transfer rates, although it is significantly slower than in the predecessor, particularly when writing sequentially. The Adreno 642L provides good gaming performance that is perfectly adequate for most games. When analyzed with GameBench, PUBG Mobile achieves a stable 40 FPS in the HD setting.

If you want greater graphical detail, the HDR setting still has serviceable performance, although most texture-rich Ultra HD level is out of the question. Things are different with League of Legends, which still delivers a smooth 60 frames per second even with the best possible settings, although it cannot utilize the optional 90 or 120 FPS. Aside from these limitations, the Xiaomi 12 Lite provides no cause for criticism, and performs well with its responsive touchscreen and stereo speakers.

The Xiaomi 12 Lite’s surface temperatures are nice and low when idle and never become uncomfortable, even when under constant load. The phone only gets a bit warm on the front. The phone didn’t display any evident weaknesses in our stress test either, and was able to provide consistent performance.

The Xiaomi’s two speakers deliver decent quality sound, as long as they don’t have to play too loudly. Aside from that the highs are very present, which gives the sound a shallow character, and the lows are too weak. Wired headphones can be connected to the USB-C port, which would however require an adapter.

Wireless Bluetooth is available with all common audio codecs (SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX TWS+, LDAC, LHDC V1-4). The Xiaomi 12 Lite’s power consumption is rather frugal, similarly to its predecessor. Measurements taken with medium display brightness (150 cd/m²) in particular show clear advantages over the Galaxy A53 while under load, even though the the Xiaomi smartphone’s chip is more powerful.

The fast charging technology has received a nice boost, and the smartphone can now be charged at 67 W. A full charge only takes 54 minutes, and the 50 percent mark is already reached after 16 minutes, with 85 percent being reached within 29 minutes. The Xiaomi 12 Lite’s battery life is no better than that of its predecessor, and it is even quite a bit shorter, especially when playing videos; in fact, the phone brings up the rear in the comparison field.

Despite that, it offers good endurance and more than enough battery power to easily get through the day. With the 12 Lite, Xiaomi has once again made a good mid-range smartphone that stands out from its predecessors, particularly in visual terms. The greater weight and less slim build of the device no longer provide the wow-factor we got as a first impression of the 11 Lite 5G and 11 Lite 5G NE, although the phone is still comparatively light.

The Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G wants to win us over with its 108 MP camera above all else, despite losing some of its predecessors’ features. The high-resolution 108 MP camera sensor is definitely a highlight of this phone. Additionally, the 120 Hz display has a somewhat higher refresh rate, and charging speeds have improved even further.

Unfortunately, Xiaomi got rid of several features: the positioning system now only works via single-frequency GPS, which was very noticeable in our indoor test, while the microSD slot has been removed. Strong competitors in this category include the Samsung Galaxy A53 and the Sony Xperia 10 IV, both of which benefit from well-defined software update schedules from their manufacturers. The Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G can be found in the manufacturer’s Online-Shop itself.

Cheaper alternatives exist at notebooksbilliger. de in Germany and on Amazon , where it is available with a longer warranty. The phone can be found in the US for around US$499.

99. .