Xiaomi 12 Lite review

Design and ergonomics

This year's Xiaomi 12 Lite design is a noticeable departure from last year's iteration while borrowing some of the more expensive Xiaomi 12, 12X and 12 Pro design traits. The Lite option has a boxier design and ditches the oval-shaped camera module. It's almost entirely made of glass - the frame is what remains plastic. To our surprise, that hasn't bumped up the weight all that much - it weighs about 173g and has a somewhat thin profile (7.29mm). Then again, the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE from last year was lighter and thinner.

We have a Gorilla Glass 5 protective sheet on the front while the back imitates frosted glass. We can say it gets pretty close to the real thing. The device comes in three fresh color options - Lite Green, Lite Pink and Black. We have the first one, and smudges are hardly visible. They can be spotted only if the light hits the surface at the right angle.

Xiaomi 12, 12 Lite, 12X

Proper ingress protection is no more. The official IP53 rating has been replaced with a promise from Xiaomi that it can withstand a few sprinkles of water and dust.

The camera island sticks out quite a bit and looks identical to the rest of the Xiaomi 12 phones in the series. Each camera is separated by metal rings. All that protrusion causes the phone to wobble when placed on a flat surface.

As we already mentioned, the handset features a flat and boxy design. The lack of curvatures makes the device feel a tad bigger than it actually is, but it's in no way a deal-breaker. Also, Xiaomi managed to put it together without forming any unpleasant ridges or protrusions. The front and the back panels transition into the side frame rather seamlessly.

The left side of the phone is completely free of any buttons, while the right houses the volume rocker and power button. Both are positioned adequately, but we can't say the same for the fingerprint reader. It's too close to the bottom edge of the screen, requiring some awkward finger gymnastics. The top houses an IR blaster and a grille for the top speaker, acting as an echo chamber. The bottom is business as usual - USB-C connector, the main loudspeaker and the dual SIM card tray.

And although the front looks the same as before, there are some minor changes for the better. All bezels seem slightly trimmed, except for the bottom one. It's still thicker than the rest. The top one is big enough to house a loudspeaker that doubles as an earpiece.

Xiaomi has skipped the real hardware proximity sensor once again, so you might experience issues with accidental touches during phone calls. We've come to the conclusion that the experience with the virtual proximity sensors varies from user to user, depending on how you hold the handset to your head during calls.

The punch-hole for the selfie camera is now centered and looks a bit bigger than you'd expect from an OLED panel but arguably takes less space than the off-centered one.

This year's design is hardly an upgrade as it's thicker and heavier than before and downgrades the display protection from Gorilla Glass 6 to 5 this time around. On the other hand, the boxier design looks nicer and still feels good in the hand. We give it a good overall score. The only noticeable annoyance is the fingerprint scanner placement, which is too close to the bottom edge of the screen.