Xiaomi 12 Lite review

MIUI 13 over Android 12

The Xiaomi 12 Lite runs on Android 12 but with a newer, improved MIUI 13 on top. This is one of the first devices to launch with the said combo. The notification history feature, however, is still nowhere to be found, and that was an Android 11-intrinsic functionality.

Anyway, the new MIUI 13 promises some under-the-hood improvements such as better RAM management, better CPU utilization and more effective storage use.

Overall, looks haven't changed, though, and previous MIUI users will feel right at home. What we noticed right away was the unusual DPI. The phone has a standard 1080p+ resolution, but the DPI makes it look as if it's 1440p+. Text and UI elements are sharper-looking yet smaller. You can change the UI scale in settings, of course.

The split between a notification shade and Control Center is enabled by default this time, and that's probably a good thing. We found it to be quite convenient, and it's a way to educate users about MIUI's unique approach to the UI. And in case you are not a fan, you can always revert back to the standard notification shade with quick toggles in one place.

Home screen, notification shade, Control center

The home screen, recent apps and the general settings menu are business as usual. The app drawer is also enabled by default, and we like that Xiaomi has placed the search bar at the bottom of the screen for easier reach. There are custom and preset app categories for faster navigation.

Unlike the standard recent apps menu, MIUI's one lists the apps in a vertical arrangement and provides several useful shortcuts. That's where you can open up apps in floating windows. However, you can keep only one open at a time. In case you want a faster shortcut to apps that support free-form windows, just enable the Sidebar.

Recent apps, app drawer

Notably, the Sidebar is different depending on the scenario. In games, the Sidebar provides a couple of gaming-related features, while in video apps, the Sidebar becomes a Video toolbox. It lets you launch video apps in pop-up windows, Screenshot, Record screen, Cast, and Play Video with the screen off, including on YouTube without a Premium subscription. The only caveat is that the apps where you want the feature enabled need to be whitelisted in advance.

Sidebar and Video toolbox

Customization is, as always, a big part of MIUI. The system lets you choose the style of the Always-on display or the theme of the UI. Aside from the ones pre-installed on the device, there's a themes store that gives you a wide selection. The themes themselves change not only the general appearance but also ringtones and system icons.

Themes and Always-on display

Moving on to privacy and security, MIUI has come with a pre-installed system Security app. Aside from the additional malware protection layer it provides, the app holds many of the app settings and privacy features in one place. It can manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps, define the battery behavior of selected apps, and apply restrictions only to certain apps.

Xiaomi Security app

Speaking of security, the fingerprint reader seems to be fast and reliable enough. We had no issues even when outside on a bright sunny day. There's an extended functionality of the fingerprint reader, allowing you to open up an app or initiate action as soon as you unlock the device - just keep your finger on the scanner when it unlocks. It's a lot like OnePlus' OxygenOS/Oppo's ColorOS/Realme's Realme UI feature, but this one doesn't allow customization. We didn't find a way to add shortcut apps, so you are stuck with Search and QR Code scanner.

Fingerprint reader options

All in all, MIUI 13 changed little over the 12th iteration, but it's just as snappy and customizable as ever. Xiaomi has paid special attention to the haptics on this unit, and we found the motor to be crisp, strong and accurate. There's even a haptic feedback intensity if you find it obtrusive or not strong enough.

Synthetic performance

The Xiaomi 12 Lite features the exact same SoC as its 11 Lite 5G NE predecessor - the Snapdragon 778G 5G. The chip is based on TSMC's 6nm N6 manufacturing process. It uses an octa-core CPU and an Adreno 642L GPU for graphically intensive tasks. The CPU consists of three clusters 1x 2.4 GHz Kryo 670 Prime (Cortex-A78), 3x 2.4 GHz Kryo 670 Gold (Cortex-A78) and 4x 1.8 GHz Kryo 670 Silver (Cortex-A55).

The available memory variants are 6GB/128GB, 8GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB with storage being of the UFS 2.2 kind and RAM is LPDDR4X.

We ran the usual benchmarks to see how good this Snapdragon 778G implementation is and how it compares to similarly-priced phones with competing chipset solutions.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11
  3489
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  3180
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  2943
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  2909
• Snapdragon 778G average
  2849
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  2832
• OnePlus Nord 2
  2792
• Realme 9 Pro+
  2335
• OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G
  2157
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  2063
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  1891
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  1848

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11
  1085
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  1023
• OnePlus Nord 2
  814
• Realme 9 Pro+
  814
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  803
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  787
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  785
• Snapdragon 778G average
  769
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  743
• OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G
  728
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  688
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  608

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Realme GT Neo 3T
  726007
• OnePlus Nord 2
  598022
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  528905
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  527663
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  522490
• Snapdragon 778G average
  467298
• OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G
  436640
• Realme 9 Pro+
  416031
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  382902
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  379313

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme GT Neo 3T
  34
• OnePlus Nord 2
  26
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  24
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  20
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  19
• Realme 9 Pro+
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  15
• OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G
  14
• Snapdragon 778G average (1080p)
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  12
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  8.7

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11
  28
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  24
• OnePlus Nord 2
  20
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  15
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  10
• Realme 9 Pro+
  10
• Snapdragon 778G average
  10
• OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G
  9.4
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  8.8
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  8

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme GT Neo 3T
  49
• OnePlus Nord 2
  38
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  35
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  33
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  29
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  28
• Snapdragon 778G average (1080p)
  28
• Realme 9 Pro+
  23
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  19
• OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G
  19
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  17
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  13

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11
  67
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  59
• OnePlus Nord 2
  46
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  40
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  33
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  33
• Snapdragon 778G average
  33
• Realme 9 Pro+
  27
• OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G
  24
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  23
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  19
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  14

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme GT Neo 3T
  85
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  57
• OnePlus Nord 2
  57
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  57
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  50
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  49
• Snapdragon 778G average (1080p)
  45
• Realme 9 Pro+
  41
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  35
• OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G
  35
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  30
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  23

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11
  111
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  98
• OnePlus Nord 2
  75
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  65
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  56
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  54
• Snapdragon 778G average
  51
• Realme 9 Pro+
  45
• OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G
  40
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  38
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  34
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  26

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11
  5673
• Realme GT Neo 3T
  4255
• OnePlus Nord 2
  4224
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  3136
• Xiaomi 12 Lite
  2483
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  2477
• Realme 9 Pro+
  2296
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  2292
• Snapdragon 778G average
  2274
• OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G
  2036
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  1204
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  811

The Snapdragon 778G's performance is perfectly suitable for the price range and outperforms all alternatives with Snapdragon 600 series chipsets and most of MediaTek's mid-range offerings as well. It falls short only of the higher-end Snapdragon 888, 870 and the Dimensity 1200 that can also be found around that price range. Although, those phones are usually older releases from 2021.

Sustained performance

The Xiaomi 12 Lite isn't equipped with some fancy cooling solution since the Snapdragon 778G isn't all that demanding. We ran the usual 1-hour-long CPU stress test to see how the system handles long and heavy workloads.

The graphs below show excellent sustained performance with a gradual decrease in performance dipping as low as 84% and only for a short while. This is usually ideal as large fluctuations in clock speeds result in a choppy gaming experience.

CPU Throttle test: 30 min • 60 min

To our surprise, the chassis felt pretty warm, including the frame. We expected cooler surface temperatures as Xiaomi used plastic for the build, which in turn has low thermal conductivity.