Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite Review

Battery Tests

Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite is powered by a 3350 mAh Li-Pol battery paired with a 5V/2A fast charger and Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 support. All battery tests we run on the devices we review are developed by us and performed with the screen of the device being calibrated to 200 cd/m². Battery saving features are disabled. The battery of our review unit charged in full for 1 hour and 48 minutes with the provided USB Type-C data cable and 5V/2A charger. The charging speed is steady until the battery reaches 80% of its capacity - that's 1 hour and 9 minutes from the start. From that moment on, charging slows down and even more so, after 90% is reached. The last 10% needs 28 minutes to be charged. The battery temperature starts at 25°C and reaches 30°C in 14 minutes. After another 25 minutes, it reaches its peak of 32°C and remains at this level for almost 40 minutes. After that, the temperature starts decreasing and at the end measures at 27°C. During our intensive browsing test, the battery of our review unit lasted for 7 hours and 49 minutes. The discharging process develops with almost one and the same speed from the start until the end. The battery temperature starts at 32°C, in 10 minutes reaches 33°C and maintains this level until the end. The video test for battery life uses a 1080p video at 30 fps with a ~20Mbps rate is used. Our review unit's score from this test is 9 hours and 37 minutes. Again, the discharging process maintains a relatively steady speed throughout. The battery temperature starts at 27°C and reaches 31°C in 40 minutes. It maintains this level for 1 hour and 20 minutes, after which it goes up a degree to 32°C and remains at this level until the end. We have also run a 4K video playback battery test for which we use a 2160p video at 30 fps with a ~55 Mbps rate. In this test, the battery of the Mi 8 Lite lasted for 8 hours and 3 minutes. The discharging pattern is steady from the start until the end. The battery temperature starts at 27°C and gradually increases to 35°C after 1 hour and 8 minutes remaining at this level until the end. For the 3D Graphics/Gaming test, the YEBIS OpenGL ES 3.0 3D Tech Demo is used. The battery of our review unit lasted for 5 hours and 9 minutes. The discharging is almost linear from the start until the end. The battery temperature starts at 27°C and gradually increases, reaching 39°C in 1 hour and 40 minutes. It stays at this level for almost 40 minutes, drops down to 37°C maintaining it for 53 minutes, and goes back to 40°C after half an hour. This top level is maintained for half an hour and after that the temperature decreases, measuring 38°C at the end. The above photos of our sample of Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite are taken with a FLIR thermal camera. The left photo shows the device's temperature during charging. The hottest area of the smartphone is the centre of the upper middle where the temperature measures 26.9°C. The charging cable gets warm too with a temperature at the port of 35.4°C. The second photo depicts the device's temperature during our 3D battery life test. In this case, the hottest part of the device is the top half of the body, where the peak temperature measures 34.1°C. The second hottest areas are the top left and the chin, where the temperature measures 32.9°C.

Battery Software

Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite arrives with advanced battery management settings as part of the Security app which is an integral part of MIUI. The corresponding section from the Security application shows the battery status with suggestions for its optimization and contains a number of power saving settings such as battery drain and heating notifications, toggles for clearing cache and turning off mobile data when the device is locked. It also includes a Schedule power on & off menu, Battery indicator settings, Battery saver, Usage data according to apps and hardware, and an App battery saver, which manages individual battery usage by apps. The Battery & performance menu from the Settings contains shortcuts to those features of the Security application and several additional ones, including battery optimization of apps running in the background and smart scenes with a sleep mode and a non-interactive mode. If the Sleep Mode is on, MIUI will know that you're sleeping and will not light up the screen for notifications, will restrict Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, mobile data and GPS usage, and will close all background apps. With the Non-interactive mode on, MIUI detects you're not using the smartphone and doesn't light up the screen for notifications, turns off the LED notification light, fingerprint sensor and touch controls.