Weekly poll: does the Mi Note 10 Lite have a place in Xiaomi's lineup?

Allow us to be your tour guide, showing you around the family tree of Xiaomi phones. We joke, but the product lineup has gotten quite busy with the unveiling of a “lite” version of the Mi Note 10 phones while at the same time two Redmi Note 9 phones go global.

The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite is essentially a cheaper version of the previous two Mi Note 10 models. You get the same 6.47” OLED display with curved sides, same Snapdragon 730G chipset, same 5,260mAh battery with 30W fast charge and so on.

The camera is the main difference. The 108MP Samsung sensor is gone, replaced by the 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor. Sony sensor may be smaller, but both have the same pixel size (0.8µm) and support 4-in-1 pixel binning. However, the two telephoto cameras are gone completely. You get to keep the ultrawide camera, albeit with an 8MP sensor (down from 20MP). A 5MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor complete the back.

The base memory configuration now features 6GB of RAM and 64GB storage – that can be yours for €350. You can upgrade to 128GB storage for €50 more (before you answer, note that there’s no microSD card slot).

For comparison, the vanilla Mi Note 10 has 6/128GB memory and while it was pricey at launch, Xiaomi Spain currently sells it for €470 – just €70 more than the “lite” model with equivalent storage. The Pro version is still €650, which takes it out of contention (it only adds 2GB of RAM and doubles the storage, not enough to justify the price premium).

What do you think about the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite? Before you answer, you may want to read below as it has some tough competition from the Redmi line.

Meanwhile, the Redmi Note 9 and Note 9 Pro are going global – confusingly, these correspond to the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Note 9 Pro Max. They cost €183 and €250, respectively, and may offer an interesting alternative to the Mi Note 10 Lite model above.

These two have the same rear camera, 64+8+5+2MP, and the 6.67” screen is slightly larger (though the trade-off here is that it is an LCD). The 32MP selfie camera is in a punch hole instead of a notch. Also, the fingerprint reader has moved to the side.

We’ll focus on the Pro model as it comes with a Snapdragon 720G. This causes some confusion too – the chip has essentially the same CPU and GPU as the 730G, though the two “big” cores are Kryo 465 Gold at 2.3GHz vs. Kryo 470 Gold at 2.2GHz and it supports Bluetooth 5.1 (over 5.0). We’d say they are even.

The non-Pro model uses a Helio G85 and comes with only 3GB of RAM as standard (with a 4GB upgrade option), so it's not a contender in terms of performance. Also, the main camera goes down to 48MP.

The battery on both phones is slightly smaller (5,020mAh) but the Redmi Note 9 Pro supports comparable 30W fast charging (18W for the non-Pro). You even get to keep the 3.5mm headphone jack.

We know we asked you about them before, but now that we have global pricing, we thought you might take another look at those two. Also, does the Mi Note 10 Lite change your opinion about the Redmi Note 9s?