Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite and Mi 8 Pro announced with 24.8MP selfie camera; price starts Rs. 15,000

Back in May this year, Xiaomi unveiled the flagship Mi 8, Mi 8 SE and Mi 8 Explorer Edition smartphones in China. While these devices are yet to be launched in the global market, the company has announced new variants of the Mi 8. Well, a new device dubbed Mi 8 Lite has been launched in the company's home market China alongside the Mi 8 Pro.

As its name indicates, the Mi 8 Lite is a mid-range smartphone. It sports a notch on top of the screen to house the selfie camera, earpiece and other sensors. There is a glass panel at its rear and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor as well. The device also has a dual camera module at the top left corner with the two lenses positioned horizontally. Notably, these smartphones were speculated to be the Mi 8 Youth and Mi 8 Fingerprint Edition.

Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite specifications

Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite bestows a 6.26-inch FHD+ display and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The screen has a 2.5D curved glass layer on top. At its core, the device comes with an octa-core Snapdragon 660 SoC couple with three storage configurations - 4GB RAM + 64GB storage space, 6GB RAM + 64GB storage space and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage space.

For imaging, this device flaunts a dual camera setup with 12MP and 5MP sensors. The selfie camera is a 24.8MP sensor. Other goodies on board the device include 4G VoLTE, dual-SIM support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, USB Type-C and MIUI 9.x based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The device gets the power from a 3350mAh battery that will last for a day without any issue.

Mi 8 Pro specifications

The Mi 8 Pro takes has a pressure-sensitive in-display fingerprint sensor. Unlike other in-display fingerprint technologies that use energy constantly by pinging the screen to see if a finger is present, the dedicated pressure sensor activates the unlocking process only once you place your finger on the screen. Eventually, it is faster and more power-efficient. This smartphone will feature a Transparent Titanium back with a transparent design as the Mi 8 Explorer Edition.

Price and availability

The Mi 8 Lite has been launched in Black, Purple-Gold gradient and Blue-Violet gradient colors. On the pricing front, the base variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage space is 1399 RMB (approx. Rs. 15,000). The mid-variant with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage space is 1699 RMB (approx. Rs. 18,000). The high-end variant has 6GB RAM and 128GB storage space and is priced at 1999 RMB (approx. Rs. 21,000).

Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro has been launched in Sunset Gold, Black and Transparent Titanium and will be available in two variants - 6GB RAM +128GB storage space for RMB 3199 (approx. Rs. 34,000) and 8GB RAM + 128GB storage space for RMB 3599 (approx. Rs. 38,000).

Given that the other smartphones in the Mi 8 series are yet to be launched globally, we have no clues regarding when the Mi 8 Lite and Mi 8 Pro will be launched outside of China.