Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite Review

Primary camera photo and video samples

The rear camera department of Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite includes two shooters. The main combines a 12MP Sony IMX363 Exmor RS sensor and an f/1.9 lens. The image sensor has a 1/2.55-inch size and a 1.4-micron pixel microarchitecture. This camera takes photos with a resolution of 4032 x 3024 pixels and shoots 4K videos at 30 fps, 1080p videos at 60 fps, 1080p videos at 30 fps, etc. Other smartphones that use this sensor for their main cameras are the Doogee S80, Doogee S70, Xiaomi Mi 8 and Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S. The second rear camera employs a 5MP Samsung S5K5E8 sensor with a 1.12 μm pixel size and a 1/5" optical format. This sensor is largely used by Xiaomi for the front cameras on the Mi A1, Mi 5X, Mi Max 2, Redmi Note 4X, Redmi Note 4 16GB, Redmi Pro Standard Edition. Meizu m3 Note and Xiaomi Redmi S2 use it for their secondary rear camera. On the Mi 8 Lite, it works only in tandem with the main camera when you shoot in Portrait mode in order to create a depth effect. Below you can see a comparison of two identical photos - one with the Portrait mode off and one with the Portrait mode on. This effect is largely supported by the AI studio lighting effect and AI Dream Blur effect. The main camera of Mi 8 Lite is able to recognize 238 scenes and optimize the photos of such scenes thanks to AI. As long as it concerns video shooting, it is noteworthy mentioning that the handset supports EIS which does a great job but does not work on 1080p at 60 fps and 4K at 30 fps. One of the videos below demonstrates the EIS in action. The model can also shoot 1080p videos at 120 fps and 720p videos at 240 fps.

Secondary camera photo samples

The front-facing camera is equipped with a 24.8MP Sony IMX576 Exmor RS sensor and an f/2.2 lens in what Xiaoim calls Class 12 AI Selfie Scene Camera. The sensor has a 1.8 μm pixels size and uses 4-in-1 pixel binning. In professional cameras, the pixel binning, pixel skipping and overlapping technologies are not perceived as good practices. However, in mobile photography, it has become very modern to use pixel binning (think of the Huawei P20 Pro). Pixel binning is the simplest way to combine the colour information from neighbouring pixels. Xiaomi and other manufacturers refer to it as the creation of a 4-in-1 Super Pixel. The camera shoots photos with a resolution of 5760 x 4312 pixels and 1080p videos at 30 fps. It supports face unlock which is very fast. The front camera is supported by AI Smart Beauty 6.0 and HDR.

Camera app

The Camera app on Mi 8 Lite is typical for MIUI 9. The main screen contains a circular shutter button at the bottom's centre. To its left, there's a shortcut to the list of photos and videos and to its right, there's the camera switch. Above those buttons, you will see the list of shooting modes - Photo, Portrait, Video, Short Video, Square, Panorama, Manual. No zoom is available. The top of the screen is occupied by the flash and HDR options, AI on/off icon, filters icon and a hamburger menu that opens additional options depending on the type of shooting modes and a shortcut to the camera settings. One of the most interesting features here is the Portrait mode, which manages to create a good background blur for a mid-range smartphone. It is the AI technology that creates a more accurate map of the object and helps to achieve a natural-looking portrait. When it's too dark, the AI icon changes to a moon crest one. The Manual mode allows you to manually set the white balance, focal length, shutter speed, ISO. The additional camera options when you're in the default Photo mode include Timer, Tilt-Shift, Straighten, Group Selfie, Beautify and a new feature - AI Detection. This equals the functionality of Google Lens. The camera scans and the smartphone recognizes an object immediately suggesting similar objects available for sale online. When you're in Video mode, you can choose from Time-lapse and Slow-motion video shooting. Mi 8 Lite also supports real-time beautification during video recording and video calls. The camera settings also differ depending on which mode is on. From the Photo mode, you get access to the photo shooting settings such as gridline, time stamp, mirror front camera, camera frame, picture quality, exposure, saturation, contrast, and sharpness settings. From the video shooting mode, you get access to video shooting settings such as EIS, video quality, time lapse interval, etc. There are settings that are common for all modes such as location info, camera sounds, anti-binding, auto exposure, fingerprint shutter, volume buttons function. The main screen of the front camera contains the same shortcut to the list of photos and videos, a shutter button and camera switch. It lists the same shooting modes but does not support Panorama and Manual. Above all shooting modes, there's an icon for beautification and from there you can simply choose the extent of the beautification effect. On the top of the main screen, you get the flash and HDR options, the hamburger menu with additional options and camera settings and the AI on/off icon. The default shooting mode for the front camera is the Portrait one. For the Photo shooting mode, the additional options include a timer, group selfie, mirror function and age & gender info. There are no additional options for the other shooting modes. The photo and video settings are the same as the ones for the rear cameras. Photo and video editing happen only via MIUI's Gallery app as this is the original Chinese ROM. The photo editing options include adding beautification effects, cropping, adding filters, stickers, text, mosaic effect, or doodling. You can also adjust the brightness, sharpness, contrast, saturation, vignette. There's an Erase option as well for objects and lines. Video editing options include frame trimming, adding text, filters, or audio.