Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite review

Familiar triple camera

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite features the same triple camera as the Mi 11 Lite 5G - a setup that's a somewhat budget (a.k.a. lite) interpretation of the flagship Mi 11's triple-camera.

There is a 64MP primary snapper, an 8MP ultrawide shooter, and a 5MP telemacro camera. For comparison, the Mi 11 had a 108MP OIS primary, a 13MP ultrawide, and the same 5MP macro snapper.

So, Mi 11 Lite relies on a Samsung GW3 64MP sensor (S5KGW3). It is a 1/1.97" imager with 0.7µm pixels and a Tetra-cell filter (Samsung's word for Sony's Quad Bayer). This sensor sits behind a 26mm f/1.8 lens, it supports PDAF, but there is no OIS. This camera saves 16MP photos by default as a result of 4-in-1 binning.

Second is an 8MP 1/4" Sony IMX355 snapper with an ultrawide-angle 16mm f/2.2 lens. The focus is fixed.

The macro camera is the same as on the Mi 11 - it packs a 5MP Samsung S5K5E9 1/5" sensor with 1.12µm pixels and 49mm f/2.4 telemacro lens. Contrast autofocus is available, and it works at distances between 3cm and 7cm or so.

The Mi 11 Lite has a different selfie camera compared to its 5G version - here, it's a 16MP shooter vs. 20MP cam on the 5G. The front camera on the Mi 11 Lite is based on Sony IMX471 1/3" sensor with 1.0µm pixels and Quad-Bayer color filter. It still saves images at the nominal 16MP resolution, which might compromise the quality if you are examining the photos from up close. Xiaomi specifies an f/2.45 aperture. Autofocus isn't available for selfies.

The default camera app is a typical MIUI affair - switching between modes is done by swiping left and right, and all available modes are on this rolodex except Macro. The zoom shortcut on the viewfinder switches between ultrawide, regular 1x, and 2x zoom (digital).

On the opposite end of the viewfinder, you have a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, an AI toggle, Google Lens, and a magic wand with beauty effects and filters.

Behind a hamburger menu, you'll find some more options, including the missing Macro mode, plus the shortcut to the settings. What you won't find is an option to set the output resolution for any of the cameras.

The Pro mode works with the normal camera, the ultra-wide, and the macro. Manual 64MP pictures are also an option. For the main camera, you can use up to 30s shutter speed and ISO up to 6400. For the ultrawide, the slowest shutter speed goes down to 30s, while for the macro - it's 1s.

Night Mode is available, and it works on the primary and ultrawide cameras. Auto Night Mode is a new option within settings, and it is enabled by default. It works like on the iPhones - the phone decides whether to use Night Mode or not. Xiaomi does not offer exposure settings for either Night Modes.

The Mi 11 Lite camera app

Long Exposure mode is available, and it has different presets - moving crowd, neon trails, oil painting, light painting, starry sky, and star trails.

Finally, the Movie Effects mode reveals the special Hollywood modes that Xiaomi is so loud about - they include Magic Zoom, Slow Shutter, Time Freeze, Night time-lapse, and Parallel world.

Modes • Long Exposure modes • Video Effects • Video capturing

Photo quality

The main camera saves 16MP images by default, and those are outstanding! The photos are crisp, and the resolved detail is abundant. Foliage looks natural even if a bit over-sharpened and we can see well-presented grass whereas some mid-rangers smear it badly.

The noise is extremely low across all scenes.

The dynamic range is excellent but not extreme. When an occasion for HDR arises, the processing won't go over the top - it will keep the photo natural by restoring some parts of the clipped skies and revealing some detail in the shadows, but it will not flatten the entire image by restoring everything at the expense of contrast.

The white balance was spot on, and the colors were always accurate, no matter the occasion. The red tinge we observed on the photos taken by the Mi 11 Lite 5G main camera is not present on the Mi 11 Lite 4G.

Another difference with the Mi 11 Lite 5G is the sharpening level - while on the 5G, it was perfect, here on the 4G, it's a notch more excessive than we'd like. It is in no way running the quality, though.

Finally, if the accurate colors are not your cup of tea, then Xiaomi is offering an AI toggle for you. Basically, the AI is a color booster - if you want bluer (over-the-top) skies or eye-popping green grass - that's how you achieve it.

Main camera, 16MP

The Mi 11 Lite has no telephoto camera, so the 2x toggle on the viewfinder is for digital zoom. And it's not lossless, it is a simple digital magnification achieved by cropping and upscaling.

Main camera 2x zoom, 16MP

The 64MP photos are okay, but nothing spectacular. First - it takes a couple of seconds to capture such an image, and the file size will be huge - between 25MP and 40MB!

The high-res photos aren't that sharp and a bit noisy, while the colors are a bit warmer than they should. We tried downsizing a bunch of these to 16MP, but we did not notice more resolved detail, just less sharpening, especially in areas of high complexity (meaning they are better looking).

The way we see it - you should use the 64MP mode and then resize these results down to 16MP if you want to avoid the camera processing. But that'll come at the expense of color accuracy and some megabytes.

Main camera, 64MP

The 8MP photos shot on the ultrawide-angle camera are likable. The images are offering good contrast and mostly accurate colors. The dynamic range is okay. The automatic distortion correction does a properly nice straightening, too.

The noise is kept reasonably low.

The captured detail isn't that great, and the photos are a bit soft. But this is probably the only issue we had with this camera, and it isn't a major one. If you won't be pixel-peeping these photos, then you'd be very happy with them.

Ultrawide camera, 8MP

The 5MP telemacro camera is the same as on the Mi 11 and Mi 11 Lite 5G. It has a 49mm f/2.4 lens, and its focus distance is between 3cm and 7cm. Allowing for a longer distance from the subject than the widespread macro cams with fixed focus at about 3-4cm helps a lot - you won't cast a shadow with your subject, and you won't scare the occasional ladybug or bee that easily.

And thanks to the nature of the telephoto lens, the subject might even look better thanks to the slightly compressed perspective that a zoom lens provides.

So, the 5MP photos we shot on this camera are quite pleasing - they are detailed, with excellent colors and good contrast. These could benefit from some additional sharpness, but it's not a big issue, really.

Our only advice is to shoot a couple of shots as this camera has a telephoto lens but lacks stabilization, and the focus is a bit tricky to lock and burred and/or out of focus shots are occasional.

Macro camera, 5MP

The main camera of the Xiaomi Mi Lite 11 can do portraits even without a dedicated depth sensor. And if the lighting is perfect, so will be the portrait photos. We observed proficient (for the class) separation, pleasant simulated bokeh and good detail and sharpness on the subjects. We aren't that hopeful for persons with more complex haircuts, though.

If the light isn't enough, the camera shoots at high ISO settings, and the photos often turn up noisy and/or blurry.

Portraits, 16MP

The Mi 11 Lite has a 16MP selfies camera, while the Mi Lite 5G offers a 20MP shooters. Despite the difference in the sensors and resolutions, these are both Quad-Bayer snappers and offer similar output.

The front camera saves natural-looking and balanced selfie. If there is enough light, the subjects are always detailed, the contrast and colors are great, while the dynamic range was above average even when the Auto HDR did not trigger.

Because of the Quad-Bayer filter, the photos should have been 4MP, but they seem to be proficiently upscaled back to 16MP. That's why the photos aren't the sharpest around, but few people zoom in on selfies, so we'd say these are excellent for most occasions. And you can also always downsize the selfies to 4MP and get some nicely sharp images.

If the light isn't ideal, the subjects will come out rather soft.

Selfies, 16MP

The portrait selfies are excellent. The blur is pleasing, the subject is detailed, colors and contrast are superb. Some complex backgrounds may throw the separation algorithm out of gear, but this occurs even in flagships with depth sensors, so we'd say the Mi 11 Lite is doing very well here.

Selfie portraits, 16MP

Let's look through some low-light photos. The Mi 11 Lite 4G doesn't have Auto Night Mode like the Mi 11 Lite 5G. But it has Enhance Image Quality option replacing Auto Night Mode, which uses frame multi-stacking and improves both daylight and low-light image quality, obviously. It also says it will trigger Night Scene upon detecting low-light shooting, but in Xiaomi's terms, this means just that - Night Scene with some minor improvements and not Night Mode with simulated long exposure.

This Auto Enhance option is enabled by default, and all photos were shot with it.

So, the default low-light images are pretty good - the detail is enough for such scenes, the sharpness is okay, and we can see important details when pixel peeping. Sure, it's not flagship-grade sharpness, but the Mi 11 Lite is no flagship.

The noise is within reasonable levels as the reduction process isn't excessive.

We are also happy with the balanced exposure and the good color saturation.

The camera doesn't benefit from optical stabilization, so we'd suggest taking a bunch of photos to ensure you have a keeper. That's valid for any non-OIS camera at night, of course.

Main camera, 16MP

The Night Mode on the main camera requires about 2 or 3 seconds to complete, and it's doing a wonderful job - it cleans some noise and often reveals more detail underneath instead of just smearing things.

The Night Mode also restores some clipped highlights and reveals a bit more detail in some shadows.

Finally, this mode improves the color saturation but won't go over the top.

Xiaomi's Night Mode has always been conservative, and it improves the photos in a subtle yet meaningful way - and that's why it is one of our favorites.

Main camera with Night Mode, 16MP

The regular photos from the ultrawide camera are quite poor - they are soft and dark. There is excessive noise reduction at play, which destroys a lot of the fine detail. The only good thing about these images is probably the preserved colors.

Ultrawide camera, 8MP

That's why you should always use Night Mode if you want to use the ultrawide-camera at night. It does a marvelous job at brighten the photo, reveals more detail, offers much better exposure, and even improves the color saturation.

The Night Mode ultrawide photos aren't just usable, they are, in fact, good.

Ultrawide Night Mode, 8MP

We also snapped some photos without the automatic quality enhancements. The single unprocessed shots from the main camera are a bit sharper than the default ones but also noisier.

The ones from the ultrawide camera are identical to the default shots, which probably means these auto enhancements are applied only on the main camera.

No enhancements

And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite. Here's how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite against the Realme 8 Pro and the Poco X3 Pro in our Photo compare tool

Video recording and quality

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite supports a lot of video capturing modes and effects. The main camera can do 4K recording at 30fps, as well as 1080p at 30fps and 60fps. The ultrawide and the macro snapper max out at 1080p at 30fps.

There is optional electronic stabilization available for all resolution, frame rates across all cameras but the macro. It comes at the expense of minor FoV loss and a tiny bit of added softness.

Then there's the Super steady Mode shot with the main camera - it focuses more on stabilization rather than quality, as an action camera would do. Various video modes and enhancements are available, too.

Just like with a bunch of recent Xiaomi phones, the Mi 11 Lite captures the audio in all videos at 96Kbps, stereo. Yet, despite the low bitrate the sound is surprisingly deep and rich.

The 4K videos from the primary camera are great, especially considering this mid-range class. The resolved detail is outstanding, there is no noise at all, the contrast and the color accuracy are praiseworthy.

The dynamic range is nice and makes for pleasant-looking videos. The sharpness could go a notch down and reach perfection, but it's also fine the way it is.

The video bitrate is about 40 Mbps, in case some of you were wondering.

The 4K video taken at night are okay - they have enough detail and retain good color saturation. The dynamic range is rather low, and the footage is a bit noisy.

There is no AI video on the Mi 11 Lite.

The 1080p videos from the ultrawide camera are satisfying - the captured detail is enough, and the noise is kept reasonably low. The sharpening seems a bit excessive, while the colors are somewhat washed out.

The macro camera can do 1080p videos, but those are ruined by the lack of electronic stabilization and the non-stop focus hunting.

There are a few exclusive Video Modes for the Xiaomi Mi 11 series, including the Lite models - Magic Zoom, Slow Shutter, Time Freeze, Night-mode timelapse, and Parallel World. There is no Night Mode Video here - that's reserved for the Mi 11.

The Night Timelapse is probably among the most useful - it takes Night Mode photos, which are then stitched into a video. That's the reason while 1s of NTL takes 5+ minutes to capture and the 12sec clip, that you are about to watch, took more than an hour to make. But the waiting is worth it. NTL are shot in 4K and are amazing! If you find the right scene, you have enough juice in the phone, and it's not freezing cold out there, you will have a video you can really look the part.

Parallel world recreates the Inception effect we saw in this popular movie a while back. It shoots in 1080p, splits the frame in half, mirrors the bottom part at the top, and slowly zooms in. There is a limit of 10 seconds for each clip.

Magic Zoom keeps your subjects steady at the center of the frame while slowly zooms in on the background.

Time Freeze freezes parts on your frame while keeping the other parts moving. And when you decide, you can unfreeze said parts, and things will continue to move from the moment they were paused.

Slow Shutter blurs the background (mostly used at night) and is a good effect to focus on your subject at night and blur everything else (suitable for moving subjects and if the phone is not on a tripod, you could recreate dizziness or sickness).

We've already shown some of these as part of our Mi 11 review, so you can check the samples below.

And here is the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite in our video comparison database.

2160p: Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite against the Realme 8 Pro and the Poco X3 Pro in our Video compare tool