Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite 5G Review

Starting at just £229, the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite 5G offers the perfect balance between 5G connectivity, and the proper hardware to make use of it.

For instance, you get an HDR10 compatible 6.67″ display for watching movies streamed at 5G speeds. On the other hand, you have a 120Hz panel paired with the Snapdragon 750G processor to help you rack up those “chicken dinners” in PUBG.

Related Article: What’s the best Xiaomi Phone for your budget?

#ad

#ad

#ad

#ad

You also get a modest 4820mAh battery backed by a 33W fast charger so you don’t face any downtime.

Overall, it’s hard not to fall for this amazing spec-sheet. But if you want to see how this phone performs in real life before hitting the ‘check out’ button on Amazon, then keep reading my full in-depth review of the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite 5G.

Available Now:

Pros:

• Full UK 5G Coverage
• 6.67” FHD+ IPS LCD screen, HDR10 Ready
• Gorilla Glass 5 Protection Front and Back
• 120Hz AdaptiveSync panel
• Powerful 750G Snapdragon Processor
• 64MP Sony IMX682 Sensor
• 2-day Battery Life

Cons:

• Display not bright enough, ~400nits
• 214g weight
• 9mm thickness

Display

The Mi 10T Lite boasts a large 6.67” FHD+ IPS LCD panel rocking a concentrated pixel density of 395 PPI (Pixels Per Inch).

On top of that, this phone supports HDR10, which gives you punchier colours and a high contrast ratio making it perfect for media consumption.

Another feature worth mentioning is the 360° ambient light sensor (two sensors on the front and the back) which automatically calibrates the display’s brightness and contrast ratio to deliver the optimal viewing experience.

120Hz AdaptiveSync Refresh Rate

One of the key features of the Mi 10T Lite is its 120Hz AdaptiveSync refresh rate. But what does it do?

Related Article: Best Phone For Less Than £150 – U.K. Edition

Well, a 120Hz panel renders an image 120 times per second, making animations and transition effects feel much smoother and snappier compared to the standard 60Hz displays.

But rendering an image 120 times per second will eat up the battery life. And so we have the AdaptiveSync technology which automatically adjusts the refresh rate based on the on-screen content so that the battery isn’t unnecessarily drained.

Screen Tech Specs: 6.67” IPS LCD, 120Hz AdaptiveSync Refresh rate, HDR10, 1080 x 2400 resolution, 395PPI, 450nits brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

Design & Build Quality

With its glass-sandwich build and the same old circular camera bump on the back, the Mi 10T Lite’s design feels boring and uninspired. That’s unless you pick the “Rose Gold Beach” colour which feels funky and refreshing.

Now coming to the overall build of the smartphone, you get Gorilla Glass 5 protection on both front and back. It makes the phone more robust but also ups the weight to 214g. And when you factor in the 9mm thickness, it becomes a real challenge to use this phone single-handedly.

Personally, I have big hands, but even for me, this is a two-hands device.

Colours Available: Pearl Gray, Atlantic Blue, Rose Gold Beach

Camera Review

The Mi 10T Lite comes with a quad-camera setup with the 64MP Sony IMX682 sensor at its heart. We see the same sensor on the much more expensive Realme 7 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy M51 (amazon).

As long as you give it ample lighting, the camera churns out impressive, colour-accurate images, packed with detail. The low light performance is also good as long as you enable the night mode. But do note that images will have a softer texture with noticeable noise.

Now, sadly this amazing camera is partnered with an average 8MP ultrawide lens, a 2MP depth sensor that’s just there, and a practically worthless 2MP macro lens that captures less details than a cropped photo from the main 64MP shooter.

Thankfully, flipping over the phone to the front reveals a much more potent 16MP selfie camera. It captures good-quality portraits for posting to your social media handles. The edge detection is also excellent at helping you get those DSLR-like Bokeh effects.

Video

The Mi 10T Lite is well endowed on the video front with powerful sensors, gyro-EIS (Gyroscope supported Electronic Image Stabilisation) support, and a feature-packed settings menu inside the camera app.

Right off the bat, this phone is ready for 4K recordings at 30fps. But if you want smoother footage, you can scale down to 1080p and record at up to 240fps. However, if you’re still not impressed, the Mi 10T Lite gives you the option to record ultra slow-mo 720p videos at 960fps.

The front camera is also able to record 720p slow-mo videos capped at 120fps. In standard, it’ll record 1080p@30fps.

Rear Camera:

• Primary 64MP Camera – The Sony IMX682 Sensor
• 8MP UItrawide Sensor with 120° Field-of-View
• 2MP Macro Lens
• 2MP Depth Lens

Front Camera:

• 16MP Selfie Shooter

Performance & Gaming

For performance and 5G connectivity, Xiaomi went with the Snapdragon 750G 5G chipset. It’s an upper mid-range processor designed for the next-gen 5G handsets.

In terms of gaming, I was able to run Call of Duty Mobile at Max settings with buttery-smooth frame rates. And this might lead you to think – “surely, this phone will breeze through casual workloads.” But surprisingly, the performance isn’t as clean as I would’ve liked it.

Now don’t worry, it runs all the PlayStore apps, and there’s no app crashes or sudden freeze-ups either. But bizarrely enough, I experienced some occasional UI stutters, and frame drops that jolted me out of an otherwise immersive experience.

I believe it’s caused by the AdaptiveSync technology that keeps changing the refresh rate on the fly. However, Xiaomi should have it fixed with an update.

MIUI

MIUI is Xiaomi’s very own feature-packed custom skin on top of Android. It gives you tons of useful settings and options that stock Android willfully skips out.

But all these features weigh down the OS, eat up system memory, and hold back from optimal performance.

Thankfully, the Snapdragon 750G provides some relief by slicing through this obese UI to enable a smooth user experience. But you’ll have to make your peace with the intrusive ads baked into the interface as well as the pre-installed bloatware.

Performance Specs:

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G 5G
RAM: 6GB
Storage: 64GB/128GB

Battery Life

The 4820mAh battery seems concerning when you’ve got to power 5G connectivity and a 120Hz display. But I’m happy to say that the AdaptiveSync display, and Xiaomi’s amazing optimisation, ensure that you get around 2-days of battery backup on the Mi 10T Lite.

With a bit of social media browsing, streaming YouTube, and a few video calls, I am consistently getting up to 13 hours of screen-on-time spread across two days. Whereas, under heavy workloads involving hours-long gaming sessions and some slow-mo video recording, this phone can still last for a solid 5-6 hours back-to-back.

And equally as impressive as the battery is the 33W charger. In 55 Minutes, it’s able to take this phone from 5-100%.

Battery Specs: 4820mAh, 33W Fast Charging

Connectivity

The Mi 10T Lite covers all the 5G bandwidths currently used by UK network providers.

Now, you do get dual-SIM support, but only one SIM slot is configured for 5G. Also, currently, the Mi 10T Lite works with either 5G+no-SIM or 4G+4G setups. Xiaomi will eventually enable 5G+4G support via an OTA update.

Speakers

The Mi 10T Lite offers one of the best sets of stereo speakers in this segment. You’ll experience thumping bass and pitch-perfect clarity, without any distortions even at max volume. However, this phone doesn’t get all that loud.

Alexa Integration

For what it’s worth, the Mi 10T Lite allows you to set up Amazon’s Alexa as the default voice assistant. It’ll then function like an Amazon Echo device, listening to your commands and reacting accordingly.

Face ID & Fingerprint Unlock

For both locking and unlocking your Mi 10T Lite, you’ve got the side-mounted fingerprint reader on top of the power button. It’s super quick and will barely take a second to unlock the phone.

You also have face unlock support which is equally fast and accurate. But with our faces constantly covered up by N95 masks, it’s better to fall back to the fingerprint scanner, which is also a much more secure option.

UK Network Support: Full 5G Network Coverage
NFC: Yes
WiFi: WiFi 5 (ac)
Headphone Jack: Yes
SIM Support: 2x Nano SIM or Nano SIM + MicroSD
GPS Module: GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo
Bluetooth: v5
USB: Type-C

Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite 5G – The Verdict

The Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite offers the complete package to let you enjoy the blazing fast speeds of 5G technology.

Sure the design might feel a bit dull and uninspired, but under the hood, this phone packs in powerful hardware including the Snapdragon 750G, an HDR10 compatible 120Hz panel, and much more.

You also get a few quality of life features like an LED notification light, IR Blaster, and not to mention Alexa Integration.

And if you’re shopping in the UK, then there’s hardly any option that offers a similar or better 5G experience at this price point.

Do we recommend Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite?

Just going by the specs, the Mi 10T Lite gets an easy recommendation. However, it does come with one caveat – MIUI.

But if you’re only holding back because of MIUI, then I’ll suggest not to. The mild annoyances that come with the custom skin are negligible when you consider the value you’re getting in terms of sheer hardware.

Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite 5G – Full Tech Specs