The Xiaomi 13 Lite is a style-centric mid-ranger you might’ve seen before
Previously India-only handset gets a rebrand for UK launch
The new Xiaomi 13 smartphone line-up isn’t all about top-tier tech – and the budgets to match. There’s plenty here for those on smaller budgets too: namely the Xiaomi 13 Lite, a £449 mid-ranger that keeps a few high end features including a curved glass AMOLED screen.
If you’re wondering why the 13 Lite looks nothing like the Xiaomi 13 (which itself looks nothing like the 13 Pro), it’s because it has been on sale in India for several months already as the Xiaomi Civi 2. So instead of a Leica-branded square camera bump at the rear, you get a circular lens set into a rectangular module, which itself is surrounded by glass rather than the bio-ceramic seen on the 13 Pro.
It’s all change underneath, too, with a more mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 CPU paired to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of on-board storage. A 4500mAh battery promises a day’s worth of juice, and 67W wired charging should be good for a complete top-up in about three quarters of an hour.
There’s a 6.55in, Full HD+ resolution AMOLED up front, with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’ll manage a peak 1000 nits brightness, and supports major HDR standards like Dolby Vision and HDR10+, so should be able to entertain.
Xiaomi says this is a phone for selfie addicts. There’s a pair of front-facing cameras: one 32MP sensor handles imaging, while an 8MP unit deals with depth info for what the firm says will be natural-looking bokeh blur. A dynamic framing mode also works out how many people are in the frame and auto-adjusts the field of view to match. The trio of lenses at the rear should be up to snuff too, with a 50MP main sensor and 20MP ultrawide. We’re rarely impressed by 2MP macro lenses, but maybe some people will appreciate the inclusion.
The best thing about it? There’s no wait time. While the regular Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro won’t arrive until the 14th of March, the Xiaomi 13 Lite goes on sale today, directly from the Xiaomi UK website, for £449. You can snap one up in Green, Pink or Black colours.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor