Shifting its attention from the popular Redmi lineup for once, Xiaomi is now working towards strengthening the Mi product lineup in India. Earlier last year, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer had announced to bring most of the important Mi smartphone to India, which sure was not the case before that.
Over the last one year, we have seen several Mi smartphones launch in the country, this time, across various price segments. The latest addition to the Mi smartphone lineup in India is the Mi 11 Lite, which entered the Indian market at an extremely affordable price tag of Rs 21,999. That makes Mi 11 Lite just Rs 1,000 pricier than the existing Mi 10i, which launched earlier this year.
The difference is, the Mi 11 Lite doesn’t come with 5G support. That’s right. Xiaomi for some reason decided to launch the Mi 11 4G in the country and not 5G. However, that doesn’t mean that the Mi 11 Lite 5G model will not launch in India, it will, but once the network is available in the country. The Mi 10i, on the other hand, comes with 5G support and a cheaper price tag and better specs. This can surely turn the table around for the new Mi 11 Lite!
So, is the Mi 11 Lite worth the price of Rs 21,999? Well, to answer that question, I will need to spend some more time with the new Mi smartphone. For now, here are my initial impressions of the just launched Mi 11 Lite.
Mi 11 Lite first impressions: Looks gorgeous
I am using the Mi 11 Lite since the last 24 hours and my first impressions of it is: The phone just looks gorgeous. The smartphone comes in three vibrant colours – Jazz Blue, Tuscany Coral and Vinyl Black. What I am using right now is the Tuscany Coral and it just looks so stunning. In my opinion, most of you are going to fall in love with Mi 11 Lite at first sight.
The Mi 11 Lite sports a clean design with the square camera module placed at the to-left corner of the rear panel followed by the ‘xiaomi’ brand logo at the bottom, which doesn’t interfere with the design as much and makes the phone look even more subtle.
The front design is also minimal with the punch hole at the extreme left and extremely slim bezels on all sides. It is good to see that the chin has also been cut, which led to more screen space for movie buffs, social media addicts, gamers out there. Overall, the design of the Mi 11 Lite is just about right. In fact, in my opinion, it can’t get any better than what Xiaomi is offering at this price point.
Mi 11 Lite first impressions: Just so light!
The USP of this Xiaomi phone is its weight. The Mi 11 Lite, as Xiaomi claims, is just so light weight and that makes it extremely easy to use with one hand, which isn’t the case with most of other Mi smartphones available in India, especially the big brother Mi 11 Ultra. The Mi smartphone weighs around 157g, to be specific. While the phone is light weight and easy to use in one hand, I don’t think a balloon can fly to off, ofcourse as the company claims. That’s clearly all marketing, so don’t go by such claims. It is light, yes. In fact, it is one of the lightest phones I have used in a while, but again, not as light that a balloon can fly it off.
Mi 11 Lite first impressions: Good build
The form factor also impresses me. The phone is very well built and feels sturdy. Both the front and back are made of plastic, while the side frames stick to plastic. At the price of Rs 21,999, the Mi 11 Lite looks premium and no less than a Rs 30,000 smartphone for sure.
Overall, with the weight, the sleek design and a good build, the Mi 11 Lite turns out to be a very good package if you are looking for a phone that can be used with ease all through the day. With the elder sibling, Mi 11 Ultra, that is clearly not possible.
Mi 11 Lite first impressions: Screen, a mix bag
The Mi 11 Lite comes packed with a 6.55-inch 10-bit AMOLED display with 90hz refresh rate. Well, given the Mi 10i offers 120hz refresh rate, I expected the same from the Mi 11 Lite priced slightly higher. Overall, the screen of the Mi 11 Lite looks just about fine. In indoors the screen look bright and vibrant but that’s not the case under scorching sun. The touch experience is smooth and it’s easy to switch between screens and apps. I will share more details about multimedia experience and more on this Mi smartphone in the full review.
Mi 11 Lite first impressions: Other things
The clean UI is another highlight of the Mi 11 Lite. The phone runs on Android 11 based on MIUI 12.5 out-of-the-box. While there are preloaded apps available on this one, they can be deleted when you want. Despite the affordable price tag, the Mi 11 Lite doesn’t show ads (so far) and offers a smooth user experience.
In my 24 hours with the Mi 11 Lite, the phone didn’t lag at any point. It is too early to talk about how the Mi 11 Lite performs in real life (for that wait for our review), what I can say right now is, it offered a smooth experience in my initial usage experience. I will talk more about the performance in the full review in the days to come.
The camera of the Mi 11 Lite seems decent till now. It offers triple rear cameras at the back and a single shooter on the front. The detailed camera review will be out in the days to come, but as for an initial impression, the Mi 11 Lite camera does a fairly good job. Photos clicked with the primary camera mode appear with fairly good number of details but the colours looked dull. I will have more to share about the Mi 11 Lite’s camera in the full review.
Mi 11 Lite first impressions
Overall, at the price of Rs 21,999, the Mi 11 Lite looks like a fairly good package so far in terms of design and form factor. I will talk about all the other aspects including the camera, battery, performance and more in the full review in the days to come.
To make the deal even more tempting, Xiaomi has announced a launch offer for the Mi 11 Lite. As a part of the offer, the Mi 11 Lite will be available at a price starting at Rs 18,999, which makes it cheaper than the Mi 10i 5G.
