Introduction
Just when we thought Xiaomi was ready to put the Mi 9 series to bed, the maker announced two new additions to the lineup - the affordable Mi 9 Lite and flagship Mi 9 Pro with a bleeding-edge chip. The Mi 9 Lite is truly the cheapest among the Mi 9 phones, but it's anything but cheaply made.
The Mi 9 Lite joins the Mi 9 SE, Mi 9T, Mi 9T Pro, Mi 9, and Mi 9 Pro, and it seems the lineup is getting overcrowded and confusing. And we certainly won't argue with that, but we won't be ruling out the Lite as the one too many yet. At least, not before we see what it is capable of.
And the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite looks quite promising with its large 6.39" 1080p+ AMOLED, a Snapdragon 710 chipset, a triple camera on the back (wide/ultrawide/depth) and a massive 32MP selfie shooter at the front.
The Mi 9 Lite also impresses with a large 4,030 mAh battery, capable of fast charging; there is Android 9 with MIUI10; and we get all kinds of connectivity options including FM radio, an audio jack, IR blaster, and you can put in a microSD as well.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite specs
- Body: Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass 5 front, glass back;
- Display: 6.39" AMOLED, 2,340x1,080px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 402ppi; HDR 10; notched.
- Triple rear camera: Wide - 48MP f/1.8, 1/2", 0.8µm pixel size, PDAF; Ultra-wide - 8MP, f/2.4; Depth sensor - 2MP; 2160p@30fps, 720p@960fps.
- Front camera: 32MP, 0.8µm pixel size, f/2.0; 1080p@30fps video recording.
- OS: Android 9 Pie; MIUI 10.
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 710: octa-core CPU (2x2.2 GHz Kryo 360 Gold & 6x1.7 GHz Kryo 360 Silver), Adreno 616 GPU.
- Memory: 6GB of RAM; 64/128GB storage; hybrid microSD slot.
- Battery: 4,030mAh Li-Po (sealed); 18W fast charging.
- Connectivity: Dual-SIM; LTE-A, Cat.15/13 (800Mbps/150Mbps); USB-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; dual-band GPS; Bluetooth 5.0, FM radio, IR blaster.
- Misc: Under-display fingerprint reader; single down-firing speaker; 3.5mm jack
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite looks beyond promising on paper, and we guess if it is priced right, it should be able to cement a spot in the market. Let's get down to business, shall we?
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite retail bundle
Our Mi 9 Lite unit arrived without a retail box, but we can still shed some light on what you will find inside. Xiaomi is shipping the phone with a USB-C cable and an 18W charger.
A soft transparent case is also part of the bundle, and some markets may even get the phone with a factory-applied screen protector.
Design
The Mi 9 Lite is the Xiaomi we all know and like but with a few extra twists. The never-ending expansion of the Mi 9 series has brought the Mi 9T and Mi 9 SE, and now we have the Pro and Lite. And while all those Mi phones had many different key selling points, one thing stayed the same across all - the design.
The Mi 9 Lite is just as good looking and well-built as the rest of them. It has a dual-glass shell secured with a metal frame - the most trending composition this year. It seems the makers have reached an unspoken consensus about what's best for a smartphone, and the dual-glass build was unanimously chosen. But we are glad some like Huawei and Xiaomi found a way to make theirs stand out and its all in the paint.
Indeed, the front of the Mi 9 Lite looks like any other midranger and even with a visible homescreen - it's hard to tell the brand, let alone the model. The 6.39" AMOLED panel, notched or not, is an integral part of more than 70 smartphones in our database, and 15 of those are Xiaomi's. So, we'd forgive anyone that's having a hard time picking the Mi 9 Lite from a crowd.
The AMOLED screen on the Mi 9 Lite has a waterdrop-shaped notch for the 32MP selfies camera. Around are hidden a couple of sensors, while the earpiece grille is almost invisibly etched slightly above the selfie shooter.
The screen bezels are quite thin, especially for the asking price. Then the entire front is shielded with a Gorilla Glass 5 - surprisingly good protection for the class. But wait, there is one more premium feature that is invisible to the naked eye - the under-screen fingerprint scanner. The optical fingerprint reader is around the bottom of the screen and works as on any other recent Xiaomi - lights up the moment you touch the screen, works pretty accurate, and fast. We can't describe its experience as stellar, but we'd settle on very good for sure.
And one more thing we noticed and then confirmed with the official specs - the Mi 9 Lite has fingerprint- and oil-resistant coating applied on its screen. While it won't keep smudges away forever, such take longer to appear and are easier to clean.
The back of our blue Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite is simply captivating, hypnotizing if you will. It looks blue at first, but after it catches and traps some light between the different layers of paint, you will notice some subtle S-shapes top to bottom. The best way to describe this effect is like two oceans meeting in the middle and yet managing to stay calm.
The rear glass is not specified to be Gorilla glass or similar, and it's very glossy, but thanks to the eye-catchy paint, you'd barely notice smudges or fingerprints. The glass is bent towards the longer edges as it often happens - and while this indeed adds points for looks, it undermins the grip a lot. Xiaomi is shipping the Mi 9 Lite with a transparent case in the box, so you can can have the unspoilt looks with some added grippiness.
The three cameras share a single long hump at the back. Even though it is quite thin, the wobbling on a desk is rather insignificant.
At the top is the ultrawide shooter, followed by the 48MP primary cam, and the 2MP depth sensor is last. The LED flash is outside of this arrangement.
There is one more feature at the back that we noticed a few days after we were using the Mi 9 Lite. See that XIAOMI inscription around the bottom? It's a notification LED light! The whole thing flashes in different colors upon new notifications, calls, even when playing music. Its placement is surely awkward as few people keep their phones lying on their screens, but it is undeniably cool.
The frame is quite thin, made of metal, and with a very glossy finish on top of its blue paint. It has the hybrid SIM slot on its right, and the usual volume and power keys on the left.
On top of that frame are the 3.5mm audio jack and the IR blaster, while the bottom houses the usual - the speaker, the mouthpiece, and the USB-C port.
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite measures 156.8 x 74.5 x 8.7 mm, and this is the same footprint as the Mi 9T's. The Lite weighs 179g, 12g lighter than the 9T.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite has flagship looks and premium build in line with the most current trends. It doesn't offer a secure grip, and yet it is still a pleasure to handle, and we appreciate the slim profile. We were also happy to find smudge-resistant coating on the screen, which is still not that common these days. Overall, the Lite is one well-executed smartphone, in line with the rest of the Mi 9 series.
Display
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite features one of the most popular screens on the market throughout the past year - a 6.39" Super AMOLED with a waterdrop-shaped notch and extended 1080p resolution. The actual pixel count is 1,080 x 2,340 that makes for 403ppi density and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The panel is protected by a flat piece of Gorilla Glass 5.
Some units, probably not the global models, may come with pre-applied screen protectors, but we can't confirm this as ours lacked such thing.
The screen has an excellent brightness for an OLED panel of 440 nits - that's in line with what Xiaomi promises (430 nits). And it can go as high as 600 nits in bright light if you leave it on Auto, also matching Xiaomi's official promise.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
| 0 | 444 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 597 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 449 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 646 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 428 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 620 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 424 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 551 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 407 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 607 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 447 | ∞ | |
| 0.347 | 460 | 1326 | |
| 0.486 | 640 | 1317 | |
Xiaomi offers three different Contrast settings. With the Automatic contrast set to on, the screen output is tuned for accuracy in the DCI-P3 color space, and we measured an average deltaE of 3.8. Only in this mode, you can choose the color saturation (default, warm, cool) and the Delta E of 3.8 was measured with the Default preset. Choosing warm will offer an even more accurate presentation with an average deltaE of 2.5.
The Standard Contrast setting corresponds to the sRGB color space, and we also recorded an average deltaE of 3.0 for color accuracy, meaning it's a pretty great one.
Finally, the Increased Contrast makes the colors pop at the expense of reproduction accuracy.
Battery life
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite is powered by a 4,030mAh Li-ion battery. It supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge, and the supplied 18W charger fills 40% of the entirely depleted battery in 30 mins.
The Mi 9 Lite posted an excellent endurance rating of 106 hours and great scores across the board. The screen-on times are excellent - we measured 13 and a half hours runtime in our web browsing test and north of 17 hours in our video playback test. The standby performance was on par with the Mi 9T phones and overall - a very good one.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Speaker
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite has a single bottom-firing speaker. It scored a Very Good mark in our loudness test, though some high-pitched tones are common. When playing music from YouTube, the speaker sounds (subjectively) quieter than suggested by the score.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing |
Overall score | |
| 64.8 | 71.2 | 82.2 | Good | |
| 68.5 | 69.5 | 81.7 | Very Good | |
| 68.9 | 71.3 | 82.7 | Very Good | |
| 67.7 | 72.7 | 83.6 | Very Good | |
| 70.1 | 74.2 | 81.6 | Very Good | |
| 70.6 | 74.8 | 81.2 | Very Good | |
| 68.9 | 74.3 | 89.8 | Excellent | |
| 86.2 | 79.0 | 87.0 | Excellent |
Audio quality
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite delivered the expected perfect accuracy with an active external amplifier, but even here its loudness was below average.
Plugging in our standard 32oHm headset caused a rather big increase in stereo crosstalk, and we also recorded some intermodulation distortion. The frequency response got slightly shaky, and the loudness dropped even further. All in all, the Mi 9 Lite certainly won’t be the audiophiles’ first choice.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| +0.07, -0.02 | -90.3 | 90.2 | 0.0053 | 0.015 | -93.1 | |
| +0.45, -0.19 | -92.1 | 91.8 | 0.0075 | 0.302 | -51.2 | |
| +0.02, -0.01 | -93.7 | 90.7 | 0.0015 | 0.0098 | -93.0 | |
| +0.53, -0.22 | -90.6 | 88.8 | 0.0048 | 0.302 | -50.8 | |
| +0.07, -0.07 | -93.6 | 93.9 | 0.0022 | 0.0068 | -91.9 | |
| +0.26, -0.29 | -92.7 | 93.2 | 0.027 | 0.413 | -48.5 | |
| +0.04, -0.16 | -93.6 | 93.3 | 0.0011 | 0.010 | -94.1 | |
| +0.05, -0.16 | -93.5 | 93.0 | 0.0031 | 0.020 | -69.9 | |
| +0.08, -0.08 | -92.2 | 92.1 | 0.0012 | 0.0081 | -91.4 | |
| +0.50, -0.16 | -92.1 | 91.9 | 0.007 | 0.363 | -48.9 | |
| +0.02, -0.01 | -93.7 | 90.7 | 0.0015 | 0.0098 | -93.0 | |
| +0.53, -0.22 | -90.6 | 88.8 | 0.0048 | 0.302 | -50.8 |
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite frequency response
You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
Android 9 underneath MIUI 10
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite boots the MIUI 10 ROM based on Android 9 Pie. While lightweight and intuitive, MIUI is no vanilla Android, so it will take a couple of hours for the purists to get the handle of it.
The Mi Lite supports Always-on display, and you can schedule it or leave it on/off all the time. There are various themes you can choose from and make it yours.
Always-on screen
You can unlock the screen via the snappy under-display fingerprint scanner. The reader is easy to set up and works surprisingly fast. The accuracy is very good, too, and overall it's great for your daily unlocking.
You can also set up face unlock in addition to it - it's even faster as the Mi Lite wakes up the moment you pick it up. Note that the face unlock option may not be available in all regions and is far less secure than the fingerprint scanner.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite has a Dark mode - it will switch all system colors from white to black, and this way, you can save some battery juice by making the best use of the power-efficient AMOLED screen. Note that not all apps support the dark mode, but the majority do.
Dark mode
There is no app drawer in MIUI, so all your apps are just sitting there on your homescreen, but you can still add them to folders. Of course, you can always install a third-party launcher if you miss the app drawer.
Here are the default home screens on Mi 9 Lite. There's a weather widget in the upper right corner across from a large clock widget. There is a Quick Card pane, the leftmost one. It contains different cards with relevant information - recent apps, step counter, notes, calendar events, the weather, and favorites, among others. You can configure what shows up here, or you can disable this altogether.
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Homescreen • Tools • Quick Card • Settings
The task switcher felt a bit awkward at first, but we've grown to like it. It shows all of your recent apps in two columns. Tap and hold on a card for the split-screen shortcut, or just swipe it left or right to close it.
Recents and Split Screen
Themes are supported on the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite, but the app appears only when the phone is set to a supported region, say India.
MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps and allows you to define the battery behavior of selected apps and applies restrictions only to the apps you choose.
MIUI also offers proprietary Gallery, Music, and Video player. In some regions, the music and video apps include paid streaming options. An FM radio app is available, too.
The Mi 9 Lite has an IR blaster on its top, and you can install the Mi Remote app from the Play Store and configure your phone as the one remote to rule them all.
Security app • Security • Gallery • File Manager • FM radio • Mi Remote
In some markets, the pre-installed applications by Xiaomi will show ads, which is how Xiaomi is compensating for the relatively low prices of its devices. We're reviewing a global version of the Mi 9 Lite, and we noticed a couple of ads in some apps (like File Manager), but not as aggressive as if you were running on an Indian or Chinese version of MIUI.
Performance and benchmarks
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite is powered by the Snapdragon 710 chip - a recent and powerful midrange SoC from Qualcomm. It's built on a 10nm production process and features an octa-core CPU in a 2x2.2 GHz Kryo 360 Gold (Cortex-A75 based) & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 360 Silver (Cortex-A55 based) configuration plus an Adreno 616 GPU. There's a single memory tier of 6GB of RAM.
The Snapdragon 710 may have just two high-performance A75-derived cores, but those were not only enough to keep it afloat, but they also put a fierce fight against the competition and do win on a few occasions. Sure, the Snapdragon 730 within the Mi 9T is faster, but then it's not that much faster.
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 9T
6863 - Samsung Galaxy A70
6584 - Realme XT
6102 - Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
6017 - Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
5989 - Motorola One Macro
5763 - Xiaomi Mi A3
5686 - Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
5549 - Samsung Galaxy A50
5396 - Motorola One Action
5271
The single-core score is great, but not chart topping.
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 9T
2537 - Samsung Galaxy A70
2391 - Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
1905 - Realme XT
1899 - Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
1851 - Samsung Galaxy A50
1715 - Motorola One Action
1604 - Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
1576 - Xiaomi Mi A3
1531 - Motorola One Macro
1393
The Snapdragon 710's Adreno 616 GPU is powerful, but if you thought the Adreno 618 in the Snapdragon 730 (Mi 9T) would be more powerful - the difference is rather insignificant. And for its price tag, the Mi 9 Lite is just acing these graphics benchmarks, pretty much on par with the other Mi 9 peers.
Note that the Mi A3 has a 720p display hence the better than expected scores.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola One Macro
29 - Xiaomi Mi A3
27 - Xiaomi Mi 9T
24 - Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
24 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
24 - Realme XT
23 - Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
21 - Samsung Galaxy A70
13 - Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
13 - Samsung Galaxy A50
13 - Motorola One Action
13
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola One Macro
17 - Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
14 - Redmi Note 8 Pro
14 - Xiaomi Mi 9T
13 - Realme XT
13 - Xiaomi Mi A3
13 - Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
12 - Samsung Galaxy A50
8 - Samsung Galaxy A70
7 - Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
6.9
3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited
Higher is better
- Redmi Note 8 Pro
2439 - Xiaomi Mi 9T
2329 - Realme XT
2284 - Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
2218 - Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
1959 - Samsung Galaxy A50
1353 - Motorola One Macro
1257 - Xiaomi Mi A3
1131 - Samsung Galaxy A70
1112 - Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
988
In the compound AnTuTu test, the Mi 9 Lite shows that it is not as powerful as the Mi 9T, but is on par with the Mi 9 SE. The ones to take it down are the Mi 9T and Redmi Note 8 Pro, both featuring more powerful chips.
AnTuTu 7
Higher is better
- Redmi Note 8 Pro
224759 - Xiaomi Mi 9T
211915 - Realme XT
185193 - Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
180057 - Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
175478 - Samsung Galaxy A70
167750
148748
144574
141600
140633
139869
We are delighted with the Snapdragon 710 as a daily runner. The Mi 9 Lite has more than enough oomph for both day-to-day tasks and gaming and going for the 730-powered Mi 9T on the grounds of performance alone doesn't seem warranted if that's your dilemma.
A triple camera
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite has a triple-camera on its back but only two of those snappers produce images and videos. The main camera (in the middle) has a huge Sony IMX 586 1/2" 48MP sensor behind f/1.8 25mm lens that spits out 12MP images. On top of it is the 8MP (1/4") ultrawide-angle snapper behind f/2.2 13mm lens. And the bottom cam is a 2MP depth sensor.
The 48MP sensor sits is behind an f/1.8 lens and is not stabilized. None of the snappers features optical stabilization. The primary sensor has 0.8µm pixels, while the ultra-wide snapper has 1.12µm pixels.
The camera app is the same as on any recent MIUI10 ROM. Swiping left and right will shuffle through the camera modes, and you will find additional settings in the tab above the viewfinder. Beautifications are available, as well as HDR, AI, video mode, and picture quality.
The usual 0.6x/1x/2x toggles are on the viewfinder itself, but since there is no zoom camera, the 2X toggle is digital zoom relying on the output of the main camera. A full-res 48MP mode is available from the hamburger menu at the top.
Camera app
Night Mode is also available on the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite for those long-exposure hand-held shots when light is limited.
Image quality
The primary camera saves 12MP images by default and those impress with a great level of detail, excellent contrast, and true-to-life colors. The dynamic range is notably wide, and we never had to use HDR. The images are sharp but not over-sharpened, and we are left with nothing but positive impressions from these daylight snaps.
We are delighted to see Xiaomi delivers on image quality across the entire Mi 9 series and the Mi 9 Lite did not turn to be an exception.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 12MP photos
There is a dedicated 48MP mode if you want to save 48MP stills and it indeed keeps the picture in full resolution, but the detail is nothing that special and you can notice various smudged areas and artefacts.
There isn't a benefit of shooting in 48MP and then manually resizing down to 12MP either - you won't get more detail or a sharper image. And saving in 48MP is a time- and space-consuming task - one image will take up north of 20MB of your storage.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 48MP samples
The Mi 9 Lite does not have a zoom camera even though it offers a 2X toggle. The digitally zoomed photos are nothing to phone home about, but we guess nobody will ever see them in full resolution anyway. Most people usually upload such images on social networks, and they arrive there downsized, so we guess the toggle may be handy after all as it allows the camera to pick the right exposure for the specific part of the scene that interest you.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 2x zoomed photos
The 8MP ultrawide camera captures a surprisingly good level of detail. It has brilliant contrast and excellent dynamic range. Sure, the per-pixel quality is not a match to the main snapper, but it was never meant to be. The 8MP stills we got from this shooter are far superior to many of the 8MP or even 13MP photos we've seen from other midrangers, so we'd call it a win.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 8MP ultrawide photos
You can opt for lens correction, and you will get less distorted edges of the frame at the expense of some softer output there.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 8MP ultrawide photos with distortion correction
Moving on to the low-light shots, then. The 12MP photos from the main camera turned pretty good, they are bright enough and quite detailed, and the noise levels are perfectly tolerable thanks to a less aggressive noise reduction process. Those are not the best 12MP night stills we've seen, but we'd say they are overqualified for the class.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 12MP low-light photos
You can use the 48MP mode in low-light, too, but even if you shoot in this high-resolution and then resize the image to 12MP, the benefit in the resolved detail would be minor, if any. And it's just not worth the hassle.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite low-light 48MP photos
The Night mode is present on the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite and works as on any recent Xiaomi phone. It takes about a second or two to shoot, and it's the place you go to for good low-light photos. It makes a big difference by being able to get proper exposure even in the darkest environments. The result is a nicely balanced and bright image, and subjects still look detailed enough.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 12MP low-light photos with Night Mode
The low-light images from the ultrawide-angle camera are not impressive at all. The noise reduction is very aggressive and smears much of the fine detail, while the exposure is often quite dark.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 8MP ultrawide low-light photos
You can't use the Night Mode with the ultrawide camera.
You can shoot digitally zoomed photos at night with the 2X toggle, and Night Mode is available for this type of pictures as well.
2X photo • 2X photo • 2X photo • 2X photo with Night Mode
And once you're done with the samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite stacks up against the competition.
12MP: Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite against the Mi 9T and the Galaxy A70 in our Photo compare tool
Portraits
The quality of the portraits taken with the rear camera of the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite is highly dependent on the light conditions as the resolved detail would drastically drop when the light is not ideal.
So, when the light is right you will be rewarded with some very nice portrait shots - detailed, with good subject separation and convincing faux blur.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 12MP portraits
You can also apply various background effects or choose the blur's strength.
Portrait effects
Selfies
The 32MP selfie camera turned out to be an excellent shooter. There is enough detail, the colors are nice, and the images are sharp enough. Sure, you have a limited range for the focus sweet spot, but with enough leeway to cover the different arm lengths and those who prefer closeup shots.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 32MP selfies
The front cam also takes blurred background selfies, and the separation is good enough even though there isn't a depth sensor. There is a drop in the sharpness, though.
Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite 32MP portrait selfies
Video recording
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite captures videos up to 4K @ 30fps, and all other common modes are available - 1080@30fps and 1080p@60fps. It seems at first that you can capture in these resolutions with both cameras, but you can't. The ultrawide-angle snapper records only 1080p clips at 30fps, no matter what resolution you've picked up from the selector.
Slow-mo video is available in the following modes: 1080p @120fps and 720p @960fps.
Let's talk about the main camera. The video bitrate is 40-42Mbps in 4K and about 20Mbps in 1080p at 30fps or 60fps. Audio is recorded in stereo with a 192Kbps bitrate.
The 4K videos are sharp and detailed, pretty great for the class when you examine them from close. The noise is kept reasonably low. Contrast is excellent, color rendition is quite nice and accurate, and the dynamic range is decent. Overall, we are happy with the 4K footage.
The 1080p capture at 30fps is excellent across the board - resolved detail, contrast, colors, dynamic range.
Unfortunately, the detail in the 1080p videos shot at 60fps takes a huge hit making those looked jaggy, if not pixelated.
The videos from the ultrawide snapper have a bit warmer color rendition, and the detail isn't as impressive. The contrast and the dynamic range are still great.
The 2X toggle is also available in video recording. In 4K, you will get apparent digital zooming with a soft image and unimpressive detail. If you are shooting in 1080p, however, the zoomed videos are as excellent as shooting at normal range, a benefit of having such a high-res sensor.
EIS is available only when shooting in 1080p at 30fps. The digital stabilization does a great job smoothing the camera shake at the expense of minor loss of FoV.
Finally, here is a slow-mo sample shot at 960fps.
Here's a glimpse of how the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite compares to other smartphones in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.
2160p: Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite against the Mi 9T and the Galaxy A70 in our Video compare tool
Wrap-up
With the latest Mi 9 lineup expansion, the series is already getting a bit overcrowded, and the names are starting to get confusing, especially when you throw those Pro variants in the mix. So, was the Mi 9 Lite really necessary?
Well, let's start by saying the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite delivers a stellar presentation across the board - it is a beautiful smartphone, with a large OLED screen, a fast and modern chipset, one beefy battery, and of course, the cameras impress with great photos and videos.
Indeed, once again Xiaomi has lived up to its promise and the Mi 9 Lite is a well-executed phone with a thoughtful pick of features and competitive price. So far, so good. But...
The alternatives
The Mi 9 Lite is a lighter version of both the Mi 9 and Mi 9T. And that's great and was probably a good idea on paper before you realize it costs as much as a Mi 9 or Mi 9T. And that's the issue - both of these Mi 9 phones offer faster chips and additional zoom cameras on their backs. Oh, and the Mi 9T screen is notch-less. It's hard to pass on either of these for the Lite.
Then we have the Redmi Note 8 and Note 8 Pro, which are both cheaper than the Mi 9 Lite but offer a similar feature set. Except their screens are LCD instead of OLED. The Redmi Note 8 is half the Mi 9 Lite price, but even its Pro version is still at least €60 cheaper than the Lite.
Xiaomi Mi 9 • Xiaomi Mi 9T • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro
Xiaomi has so many phones to offer and they pretty much suffocate the Mi 9 Lite and we have a hard time imagining it will win many customers over the existing offers.
Outside Xiaomi's own series, the Realme XT is a real treat with a dual Gorilla Glass 5 body, a large OLED screen, same chip, and a similar large battery. The Realme XT is priced closely to the Mi 9 Lite but has a more versatile camera with its 64MP primary cam and a fourth camera for macro shooting.
The Samsung Galaxy A70 has an even larger Super AMOLED screen, packs a similar punch under the hood, and its triple-camera is more or less the same as on the Mi 9 Lite. The A70 boasts a larger battery with faster charging, and One UI is a pleasure to work with.
Realme XT • Samsung Galaxy A70
The verdict
The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite is a great smartphone which few will buy. Even if it were cheaper, the Redmi series would have still been the better choice. We think Xiaomi has gone too far with its Mi 9 series saturation and the Mi 9 Lite will be the first, and we hope the last, to fall into the oblivion because of that.
But if you happen to be among those few that discover enough reasons to buy a Lite - we're sure it won't disappoint you for a second.
Pros
- Excellent and large OLED screen
- Stunning design, Gorilla Glass 5 on top
- Dependable battery
- Snappy and sustained performance
- Excellent photo quality day and night
- Excellent video quality
- FM radio, IR blaster, NFC, microSD
Cons
- It costs as much as Mi 9T/Mi 9 and is the 'one too many' in the lineup
- Poor grip without a case on
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