Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE Review | New-ish Edition
If you're after a solid all-around smartphone with a bit of 5G future-proofing for under £400 right now, good news is you've got bugger tons of choices—at least a dozen different options out there for you. One of which is this fresh new Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE, which is hitting Blighty in October for around £250. The “NE” bit stands for “New Edition,” although very little has actually changed compared with the original Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G that emerged earlier in 2021. The only proper difference is that chipset, as this shiny fresh model is powered by the Snapdragon 778G rather than the Snapdragon 780G—probably because of supply issues.
I've had my SIM stuffed inside the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE for the last week or so; I've been using it as my full-time smartphone, so here is my in-depth review.
Design & Build
First, I've got to commend Xiaomi on the design of this thing. That glass and plastic frame is impressively skinny and much lighter than most rivals—just a shade under 160 grams. One-handed use is, of course, still a bit of a handful as that mighty screen is 6.55 inches, but the fact you've got reasonably skinny frame, quite slender bezels as well, and those lovely rounded corners means the phone is quite comfortable to clutch.
You've got a selection of colours to choose from, including vibrant blue and pink efforts, and while I personally got my hands on the fresh snowflake-white model, I'm still not really sure how I feel about it. I do find it's kind of like an emotional rollercoaster—kind of similar to watching Sunderland Football Club. Sometimes you're watching it and you're like, “Hey, this is actually pretty good; we might actually stand a chance of going up this season,” and other times you're like, “Maybe I should just stop being interested in football and throw myself off the roof instead.” Sorry, that was a really crap analogy. What I'm basically trying to say is: sometimes I really appreciate the fact that Xiaomi tried to do something so fundamentally different with the look of this phone, and other times I can't help thinking that rear end looks quite similar to a really cheap kitchen work surface that my nan used to have.
Still, on a positive note, the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE's rear seems just as hardy as said work surface, because after a week of rough handling, still no nicks or scuffs—although that might just be the case that I can't actually see the nicks and scuffs because of the outlandish design. Meanwhile, around front it's Gorilla Glass 5 quarter, not as good as the Gorilla Glass 6 quarter you had on the original Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G, unfortunately, but again, after a week of handling, absolutely no damage to speak of despite the lack of a pre-installed screen protector. Sadly, though, there's no water resistance here, so if that's a deal-breaker for you, maybe try Samsung's Galaxy A52s 5G instead.
Software & Security
As always with Xiaomi's blowers, you've got that MIUI 12 launcher to contend with. Thankfully, this behaved itself in my week with the 11 Lite 5G NE—no funny business like crashing or other quirks to speak of—just a heap of crapware that definitely needs deleting pronto, like bloody LinkedIn and Facebook. Get off my phone, boy!
I do like quite a lot of the extras that MIUI adds to the Android experience: the likes of the gaming mode, for instance; you've got those video tools—some of which are a bit crap and pointless and some of which are actually decent; and you've got the gesture support as well. Few minor grumbles: the always-on display isn't really an always-on display, as it can only be shown for 10 seconds when the screen is tapped, so that is a bit crap. But it's great to hear that Xiaomi is taking OS and security updates more seriously, so you should get a couple of years of love on this thing, so the software isn't bang out of date.
On the security side of things, we've got face-recognition support here to unlock the smartphone, but it's not exactly the most secure because it does seem to work even when I'm face-masked to the max. You can just leave that if you like and use the edge-mounted fingerprint sensor instead, which is seriously good; despite being crazy skinny, it's responsive, and you'll rarely have to double-tap your digit in order for it to recognise you.
Display & Audio
As well as the software, that 6.55-inch AMOLED screen hasn't really changed up at all from the original 11 Lite 5G phone. It's a Full HD+ panel that fires sharp, vibrant images straight into your brain, complete with Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support. Stream a bit of Netflix original content and you'll be treated to some fine-ass visuals—that is the professional term, obviously—only a slight blemish for that selfie orifice too, so going full-screen is all good. Admittedly, no, it's not the brightest screen around, but I could still work out what I was trying to do when I was outdoors in those occasional moments when the sun managed to break through that thick layer of gloom that we're experiencing here in the UK. The 90 Hz refresh rate matches most rivals, and you've also got the usual eye-comfort modes and monochrome modes and all that shenanigans to prevent your peepers from exploding when you're doom-scrolling at 3 a.m. to punish your stupid wide-awake brain.
Unfortunately, I am substantially less impressed with the audio chops of the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE. Yeah, it's got a stereo-speaker arrangement for media, but on top volume that output is weaker than a ferret's fart, and even worse, there's bugger-all headphone jack here on the 11 Lite 5G NE. So it is a good thing that at least the Bluetooth 5.2 streaming was absolutely perfect—strong and stable whether I was streaming to headphones, speakers, whatever.
Storage & Performance
Good news if you want to download loads of movies and tunes, though, because you get a minimum 128 GB of storage, expandable via microSD in that second SIM slot.
As I mentioned before, one of the only proper changes here on the 11 Lite 5G NE—the “new edition” over the original smartphone—is the fact that you've got that Snapdragon 778G chipset powering proceedings. My review model was the lesser six-gig RAM version, and I did notice that the performance definitely wasn't quite as strong as some other 778G smartphones like the Samsung A52s 5G. Games like Genshin Impact are playable, but they also do judder and stumble occasionally when things get intense. All the same, though, the 11 Lite 5G NE is capable enough for this price point, remaining cool even if you dedicate a couple of hours to arguing with irritating fairies and bashing trolls on the Bonds. And if you're not really into gaming, well, everyday shenanigans absolutely fine here on the 11 Lite 5G NE—your apps will load up quickly and you can do a bit of multitasking, all that good stuff. And, of course, you've got that 5G support built into the 778G as well, spread across both SIMs, so connectivity not an issue.
Battery Life
I've got no complaints for the battery life on this new-edition model either. I've found that I very rarely run it into the power-saver mode even at the end of a very long, intensive day with plenty of music streaming, a bit of video action, occasionally a little bit of light gaming, and using it as a sat-nav as well. So even at the end of a very heavy day, I still tended to have around 15 to 20 % of charge left. As for recharging, you've got 33 W support here on the 11 Lite 5G NE, which ain't too bad at all.
Cameras
Last up, the optics, and the camera hardware again hasn't been tinkered with for this 5G NE model. The 64-megapixel primary sensor can grab 16-meg snaps, and while the picture quality can't quite touch rivals such as the Pixel 4a and again that A52s 5G, it's not half bad. Shoot something in decent light and you'll enjoy realistic colours and fine detail in your photo—as long as you leave that AI mode well alone. Even in more ambient light, the results are decent if you're not trying to shoot anything in motion, so kittens and sugared-up kids are right out. Now, the night mode doesn't do a huge amount to boost the brightness when the lighting is crap, but it does make a small difference. And as usual with Xiaomi smartphones, you've got plenty of other bonus modes to play around with here, including good old Pro mode—of course—if you want to tinker with the white balance, all that shenanigans—and a portrait mode that does a great job with living subjects and disembodied mannequin heads, smearing out all of that background clutter so they really stand out.
The Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE also serves up an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle shooter that, like most ultra-wide-angle lenses, sacrifices tonal accuracy for a broader score, and yes, you've got a 5-megapixel telemacro lens if you want to shoot weird close-ups. For all your video needs, this mobile can record up to 4K-resolution footage at 30 frames per second, and again I was happy enough with the results; as long as that lighting holds up, the visuals are sharp enough so you can enjoy your footage on a big screen, while the audio capture is also nice and clear. And the 20-megapixel selfie shooter will do a decent enough job as long as you do two things: turn off that stupid beautify bollocks and avoid strong light, as you'll just end up with oversaturated results. Otherwise, it's perfectly fine, with excellent portrait smarts.
Verdict
That right there is my full, final, frank review of the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE after using it as my personal smartphone for a week or so, and I've gotta say I did enjoy using it. Though coming from the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G, I've gotta say the gaming performance on that was better, the camera was slightly better as well, and you've got that water resistance. So if you can afford just that little bit of extra outlay, I definitely recommend upgrading to that one. But if you're not really bothered about gaming, you're not going to be ever, you know, de-stressing in a nice sudsy, bubbly bath with a good bit of anime on your smartphone, well, the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE should definitely satisfy. It's a decent software experience, strong bit of hardware overall—love this stuff.
It should be hitting the UK in the next few weeks for around £350; we don't have the final UK price just yet, but when we do, I'll bung it in the description below. Be great to hear your thoughts on the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE and also the original 5G as well if you ever happen to have your SIMs slotted into that bad boy.