Xiaomi 12 Lite announced – big, yet light, with flagship specs for a mid-range price

Today Xiaomi is announcing a new upper mid-ranger in its 12 series – the Xiaomi 12 Lite. The phone combines a featherweight, slim design, yet with a large 6.55-inch display.

Another two key selling points are its "studio-level" 108-megapixel main camera, along with its impressive 67W fast charging. Charger included!

Flat-edge design à la iPhone

Unlike other Xiaomi phones in the 12 series, the Xiaomi 12 Lite sports a flat-edge design, meaning flat corners, a perfectly flat display and back, reminiscent of a modern iPhone.

The back of the phone has a shimmering, light-refracting effect for extra flair, while the rest of the design is pretty minimalist and industrial.

The Xiaomi 12 Lite color options are:

• Lite Green
• Lite Pink
• Black

Xiaomi describes the phone's thin and light design in a press release as follows:

Big main camera for vloggers with big aspirations

What stands out with the Xiaomi 12 Lite, besides its color-changing back, would the the phone's camera module, that holds three sensors with metal rings around them:

• 108MP main camera (f/1.88)
• 8MP ultra-wide angle camera (f/2.2)
• 2MP macro camera (f/2.4)

Additionally, the phone has a holepunch selfie camera that is 32 megapixels.

Some of the welcome camera features include: Eye tracking focus, Motion capture, Night mode, One-click AI cinema, Vlog mode, and Portrait mode.

Vloggers and influencers appear to be a main target of this phone, or at least a main inspiration for its camera features, as hinted by the Chinese company:

Big AMOLED screen, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+

The Xiaomi 12 Lite has some impressive display specs, especially for its price:

• 6.55” AMOLED DotDisplay (2400 x 1080 FHD+)
• Up to 68 billion colors with TrueColor
• 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate
• AdaptiveSync
• Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support

Basically, the fact that its large display sports AMOLED technology as opposed to LCD means that it should have pitch blacks with zero backlight bleed, perfect viewing angles, and vibrant and gorgeous colors. HDR10+ support means supported movies will have better contrast, more well-defined bright and dark spots, as opposed to what we see on the average phone.

The 120Hz refresh rate of the display is another welcome addition, and it means Android transitions, games, and pretty much everything that happens on screen (that supports a higher refresh rate) will appear twice as smooth as it does on the average 60Hz phone display.

The 240Hz touch sampling rate means faster response time from when you tap the screen to when the phone reacts. And the phone will react pretty quickly, since besides its fast display, it's packing a fast processor inside too…

More impressive specs

The Xiaomi 12 Lite is powered by the Snapdragon 778G processor, has 5G support, and in terms of RAM and storage, it comes in the following variants:

• 6GB+128GB
• 8GB+128GB
• 8GB+256GB

UFS 2.2 + LPDDR4X memory for all three variants.

There appears to be no expandable storage, though, no headphone jack either. But, in typical Xiaomi fashion – there is an infrared blaster if you want it. This could be handy for controlling TVs, air conditioners and other tech around the house (and just as easily in bars and hotels) that uses IR.

On the software side, the Xiaomi 12 Lite is coming with Android 12, and the company's MIUI 13 on top, which has evolved to look quite like iOS, but that might actually be a bonus for people who are transitioning from iPhone to Android.

And MIUI 13 does have some handy features, like a screen recorder, screenshot editor, a screencasting shortcut, reading mode, an NFC shortcut and so on (yes, there is NFC on board).

For authentication, the phone has an in-screen fingerprint sensor. And if we go by what we've seen on past Xiaomi phones, it'll probably be a fast one.

Has 67W fast charging, comes with an included fast charger

The Xiaomi 12 Lite packs a 4,300mAh battery, which supports up to 67W, wired "turbo charging." And while some companies skimp on even giving us a slow charger to begin with, your new Xiaomi 12 Lite will be coming with a 67 watt charger out the box – nice!

According to Xiaomi, it only takes 13 minutes for the included charger to give you up to 50% of battery life.

The 12 Lite also has what's called Xiaomi AdaptiveCharge, which is supposed to keep the battery healthier for longer, by learning the user's nighttime charging routine "to optimize charging strategy throughout the night."

Xiaomi 12 Lite price and availability

The Xiaomi 12 Lite's recommended price is as follows:

• $399 for the 6GB RAM / 128GB storage variant
• $449 for the 8GB RAM / 128GB storage variant
• $499 for the 8GB RAM / 256GB storage variant

Pre-orders are starting today via any Xiaomi authorized online sellers.