An average user will most likely not appreciate the differences in practice between a phone with a mid-range processor and a high-end one with 6 GB of RAM instead of 12 GB. An average user will most likely not appreciate it. Or at least not enough to pay triple for a phone. And less with the trend imposed in the mid-range: to launch smartphones with some high-end features, especially the battery and the camera. Thus, we find a good number of models with prices around 300 euros with specifications that are more than enough for someone who does not need the best, which is the majority of users. In this environment, the Mi Note 10 Lite competes, a model that surely helps Xiaomi to remain the leader in the mobile distribution in Spain.
cameras
My Note 10 Lite takes pictures with four lenses (the module does not protrude practically anything), a 64-megapixel primary lens with a Sony IMX686 sensor, an eight-megapixel ultra-wide angle, a five-megapixel depth sensor, and a two-megapixel macro lens. The one for selfies, 16 megapixels. This equipment works well; it captures colors. Naturally, it can take good photos, although it does not convince us so much for selfies; you do not look very favored, although it captures details well. It does not have a telephoto lens. It reaches 2x at most, and this zoom is solvent. In macro mode, it sometimes loses sharpness, but in others, it has no problem and complies.
These lenses are complemented by software that offers a lot of options for editing photos, with filters and a beauty tool (even in video), as well as the possibility of activating taking the picture with the movement of the palm and using other resources such as adding a film frame or selfies to be able to change your face with aesthetic touch-ups in different areas (nose, lips, chin, face shape…) without going through the operating room.
Options with video are also extensive, from macro shots and AI beauty mode to the Vlog function that automatically and creatively edits videos for you to share with friends. Roughly, you take little snippets of video, each with a different predetermined camera movement, and then stitch them together into one piece of about 10-12 seconds, which looks great. You can choose from seven various vlogs.
And if you care a lot about privacy, when you share a photo, it first asks you if you want to remove private information from the images, such as location, among other metadata.
Design and display
The first thing that attracts the Mi Note 10 Lite is its appearance. Covered in both front and back glass, finished in gloss black (it looks more like a dark grey), it’s elegant. Does it get too dirty with fingerprints? Yes, quite a bit, and it doesn’t include a sleeve in the box. Does it slip from your hands? Also, it is even more important to protect it because as tough as Corning Gorilla Glass 5 is, it can break. My Note 10 Lite is a slightly thicker phone than usual now (57.8 x 74.2 x 9.67 mm), and it feels a bit heavy (204 grams).
Like most smartphones, it has buttons for volume control, on/off on the right side, and the SIM slot. At the bottom, it combines a USB-C port, a 3.5mm jack so you can use wired headphones, a microphone, and a speaker.
The 6.47-inch AMOLED screen is slightly curved on the sides, similar to the Huawei P30 Pro, offers an FHD + resolution (2,340 x 1,080), and is compatible with HDR 10. It shows vivid colors, with brightness and sharpness. And defends well with the glow mid-level. Xiaomi gives the option to configure the screen always active with default icons, a reading mode with a warmer light, and less aggressive with the eyes. It is an excellent screen for its price.
Performance, battery, and charging
As a mid-range competitor, it runs on perhaps the most powerful processor in this range, the Snapdragon 730G, which is optimized for gaming and which you’ll see in many other rival phones to this one from Xiaomi. It is complemented by 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage (without the possibility of expanding this capacity with memory cards). The phone is generally responsive, and you can expect it to meet your needs if you’re not looking for the ultimate.
In autonomy, this phone stands out. A 5,260 mAh battery has given us three days with average use (mainly watching the video for four hours each day, taking photos, and reading news on the Internet without turning it off at night). It is similar to other more expensive phones, like OnePlus 8T, or even well above high-end devices, such as Huawei Mate 40 Pro. Fast charging is also perfect for its price: it can reach 50 percent autonomy in thirty minutes and fills it in an hour (these are similar times to the Galaxy S10 Lite).
Software
This Xiaomi phone comes with Android 10 and the MIUI 12.0.2 layer. That offers many options to adapt the interface to our liking, for example, changing site icons, categorizing the applications in the drawer, or selecting the themes of the always active screen, among many others. It’s easy to get used to it if you haven’t used it before.
Suppose you have decided to focus your attention less time on the phone, in the Digital Wellbeing section, in addition to your daily use data. In that case, you have a rest mode so that it does not disturb you while you sleep and another to avoid distractions in which you can pause the applications you want and hide their notifications (and with the possibility of programming the time).
In the tools folder, you have the classic ones (calculator, compass…) and also FM radio, screen recorder, voice recorder, a scanner, and My Remote to use the phone as a remote control.