Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite review

Introduction

The Mi Note 10 was the first phone to be announced with a 108MP camera, back in November of last year. Nearly 6 months later, Xiaomi put out a Lite version, and that one is here with us for review.

The Mi Note 10 Lite shares the vast majority of its components with the non-Lite - the chipset is the same midrange Snapdragon 730G, the 6.47 AMOLED display is here too, the battery is the same capacity at 5,260mAh. So where's the Lite-ness coming from?

Almost exclusively the camera system. And it's a whole bunch of downgrades, too. The Mi Note 10 Lite swaps out that standout 108MP module for a more modest 64MP one while the 20MP ultra-wide has been replaced with an 8MP module. The telephotos are gone - both of them, so there's no telephoto camera on the Lite. The stripped down phone does have two more cameras, a 2MP macro and a 5MP depth sensor, but we're hardly fans of those.

Over on the front, another camera substitution awaits - the 32MP selfie shooter of the Note 10 has been replaced with a 16MP one.

And that's really it. Looking at the specsheet, the Mi Note 10 Lite is effectively a Mi Note 10 for those who don't put such a strong emphasis on photography, but who can appreciate a competent midrange package at a lower price point than what all those cameras mandated on the non-Lite. Here's that specsheet before we move on.

Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite specs

• Body: Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass 5 front and back; 157.8x74.2x9.7mm, 204g; Midnight Black, Glacier White, Nebula Purple color schemes.
• Display: 6.47" curved AMOLED, droplet notch, 2340 x 1080px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 398ppi; HDR10 compliant, DCI-P3 coverage.
• Rear cameras: Main (wide): 64MP, 1/1.72" Quad-Bayer sensor, 0.8µm pixel size, 26mm equivalent focal length, f/1.9 aperture, PDAF. Ultra wide angle: 8MP, 1/4.0", 1.12µm, f/2.2, fixed focus. Macro camera: 2MP, 1/5", 1.75µm pixel size, f/2.4, AF. Depth sensor: 5MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 16MP, 1/3.1", 1.0µm, f/2.5.
• OS/Software: Android 10; MIUI 11.
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G: octa-core CPU (2x2.2 GHz Kryo 470 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver), Adreno 618 GPU.
• Memory: 6/8GB of RAM; 64/128GB UFS 2.1 storage, no microSD slot.
• Battery: 5,260mAh Li-Po; 30W fast charging.
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM; LTE-A, 4-Band carrier aggregation, Cat.15/13 (800Mbps/150Mbps); USB-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; dual-band GPS; Bluetooth 5.0; FM radio, IR blaster.
• Misc: Under-display fingerprint reader; single down-firing speaker; 3.5mm jack.

Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite unboxing

The Mi Note 10 Lite ships in the exact same black cardboard box as the non-Lite. A few cosmetic differences can be spotted - the '10' is much bolder now, and there's a cheeky text on the side that we've seen on a few other recent Xiaomi boxes, likely a jab at Huawei - 'with easy access to the Google apps you use most'.

Anyway, inside the box you'll find a 30W charging brick that can happily saturate the phone's power input capabilities - as in, there's none of that 'phone supports 30W charging, here's an 18W adapter' nonsense, we've seen on occasion. A USB-A-to-C cable is also supplied. The Mi Note 10 Lite has a 3.5mm jack natively (yay!), so no adapter is needed for that and there isn't one bundled.

Finally, there's a smoked transparent silicone protective case in the box as well.