Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite Review - Notch Smartphone with Android One

Foreword: Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite

At the end of July, Xiaomi presented two Android One smartphones. The Mi A2 Lite is intended for sale outside of China, but is based on the Chinese Redmi 6 Pro. Instead of Xiaomi's MIUI user interface, users receive an unchanged Stock Android with a 2-year update guarantee. At the same time, the smartphone offers extended cellular support, including the local LTE bands 3, 7, 8 and 20.

Design, workmanship and delivery

The smartphone is comparatively compact with dimensions of 149.33 x 71.68 x 8.75 mm. The weight, which is 178g, is all the more remarkable. The 5.84-inch display with notch is a distinctive feature of the device's appearance. In the price range around € 140, it is the cheapest Xiaomi handheld with this design feature to date.

 The smartphone is set up as follows: 

The front is largely taken up by the 5.84 inch display. The somewhat wide bezels of the display are noticeable, with 3 mm each on the left and right and approx. 1 cm towards the bottom edge of the case. The notch, on the other hand, is pleasantly narrow and includes a small receiver, a proximity sensor and the front camera in the middle.

The position of the notification LED is surprising. Xiaomi placed this on the left below the display. Unfortunately, again, no RGB LED was used, but a conventional white LED.

The housing frame is made of plastic. This is slightly wider than the front and back and you can feel it around the smartphone. In addition to the typical control buttons, the frame includes a 3.5 mm headphone input and an infrared transmitter on the top. The SIM slot is on the right and can be equipped with 2 nano SIM cards AND a microSD memory card. There are 2 microphones in total. One is located next to the IR transmitter, another on the underside of the frame, next to the micro-USB socket. The classic mono speaker is also located next to the USB socket.

The rear of the housing consists of a central metal plate and antenna caps (plastic) attached to the top and bottom. The back is slightly rounded towards the housing frame. Features of the rear are the vertically arranged main camera and a fingerprint scanner.

The processing quality is not objectionable. Despite the large amount of plastic, the Mi A2 Lite feels valuable. Thanks to its slim housing shape and heavy weight, the smartphone sits neatly in the hand. The control buttons on the side are easy to reach, offer a good pressure point and sit firmly in the case.

In addition to the smartphone, the scope of delivery also includes a charger with EU plug (5V 2A), a micro-USB cable, a flexible protective cover, a SIM needle and operating instructions. The handheld is available in blue, black and gold.

Display

Although the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is in a low price segment, it has an excellent display. Features of the IPS display are a 5.84 inch screen diagonal and a razor-sharp 2280 x 1080 pixel resolution (432 DPI). The aspect ratio is 19: 9.

display measurement

Measured with the colorimeter, the panel achieved a maximum luminance of 465 cd / m². The brightness deviation distributed over the panel is below 25 cd / m² and is not visible. The measured black value is 0.48 cd / m², which results in a rather average contrast ratio of 1: 1088. The Delta E deviation from the sRGB color space is an average of 4.4 and a maximum of 7.6. The shades of gray are slightly turquoise.

Display in everyday life

The display cuts a fine figure in everyday life. Colors are displayed particularly vividly without appearing unnatural. The viewing angle stability is good. Particularly flat viewing angles only lead to a slight decrease in brightness. Color changes do not occur. The high display brightness of the IPS panel enables legibility even with direct incidence of light, especially in sunshine.

Display settings and functions

There are no extensive customization options for the display. The brightness can be adjusted manually or in the form of an adaptive brightness mode. In addition to the display functions, there is a night mode that filters the blue portion of the display manually or according to a schedule.

Touchscreen

The touchscreen works flawlessly. A maximum of 10 simultaneous entries are recognized. The detection accuracy is high and takes place without delay. A coating of the hardened display glass ensures improved sliding properties.

Performance

Qualcomm Snapdragon 625

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, which was installed last year Xiaomi Mi A1 Was used. The system-on-chip, which was released in 2016, consists of a CPU with 8 processor cores (8x Cortex-A53 - 2 GHz clock rate) and an Adreno 506 GPU.

Depending on the model, the memory equipment amounts to a 3GB or 4GB LPDDR3 main memory and a 32GB or 64GB eMMC 5.1 data memory. A memory expansion using a microSD memory card is possible.

Benchmark

With 78.307 points in the AnTuTu benchmark, the system-on-chip places itself in the lower middle class. The 3DMark measurement results, which mainly relate to the graphics performance of the SoC, provide the same picture. The data memory achieves storage speeds of around 281 MB / s for reading and 212 MB / s for writing. The RAM reaches a speed of approximately 5019 MB / s.

Performance in everyday life

Although the Xiaomi Mi A2 is not one of the fastest mid-range smartphones due to the aged Snapdragon 625, the smartphone offers a pleasant everyday performance. The Android 8.1 user interface harmonises with the SoC and enables smooth operability. Animations are displayed smoothly, without the stuttering trailing effect. Apps start quickly and multitasking is also not a problem to a certain extent. Overall, Xiaomi presents a very well optimized overall system. 

Gaming

The currently popular PUBG Mobile was used to test the gaming performance. The game is definitely playable on high graphics settings. Individual image breakdowns cannot be ruled out, but they are rare. If you want to play the game smoothly, you should choose medium graphics settings. After a 30-minute gaming session, the temperature measured at the hottest point was almost 40 ° C. Performance drops due to thermal throttling do not occur. Even in the stress test, the performance remained constant without any drops.

user interface

The Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is delivered with Stock Android 8.1. The structurally identical Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro in turn relies on Xiaomi's "MIUI" user interface, which with MIUI 10 will soon be updated to Android 9 Pie.

Nevertheless, users of the Mi A2 Lite, which is one of the few Google certified “Android One” devices, receive a 2-year guarantee on system updates and a 3-year guarantee on security patches. An update to Android 9 is therefore also to be expected. The Stock Android user interface works without annoying bloatware. Only a few Xiaomi apps, such as the camera app, Mi-Drop or the Mi remote control, are preinstalled as third-party apps. All other apps come from Google. If you don't want this, you can easily uninstall the apps using the app manager.

The onscreen operation provides reason for criticism. As in the previously published test of the Xiaomi Mi A2 criticized, the orientation of the onscreen buttons is not freely selectable. The disadvantage here is that, in contrast to most Android smartphones, the arrangement is reversed. Unfortunately, there is also no full-screen mode that completely hides the buttons and scales the image accordingly.

Except for the (subjective) point of criticism, the user interface is very clearly structured. The system is not artificially inflated. However, you have to do without many functions and setting options, as you may be familiar with from MIUI. Unexpected system crashes did not occur during the test phase. Video-on-demand fans (e.g. Netflix) usually have to be content with SD. DRM, such as Wiedevine, is only supported at an inadequate security level (Widevine L3).

Camera

On the back is the dual main camera, consisting of a 12 megapixel Sony IMX486 main sensor with f / 2.2 aperture and a 5 megapixel Samsung S5K5E8 secondary sensor. The main camera is supported by a single LED flash. The front camera is a 5 megapixel OmniVision OV5675 image sensor with f / 2.0 aperture.

Practical test of the main camera

Photo mode

The recording quality of the dual main camera is overall convincing and corresponds to the price range of the device. The Mi A2 Lite takes brightly colored and detailed images under good lighting conditions. The focus is evenly distributed, even if the focus is somewhat lost from a distance. As expected, the dynamic range is limited, so color distortions can occur in high-contrast scenes. With increasingly poor lighting conditions, recordings become significantly blurred, colors fade and details are lost. Image graining is suppressed by the software to the detriment of the image details.

 All full-resolution test shots can be found under this one Link 

Zoom

The smartphone offers a digital 8x zoom. An optical zoom like the one with Xiaomi Mi A1 did not exist. A loss of detail already occurs from an 2 zoom and intensifies up to a (freehand) unusable 8 zoom.

HDR

 Auto HDR mode is a matter of luck. The mode is often not active at all despite the high-contrast scene. Sometimes it becomes active, but provides hardly any visible differences to the SDR recording. Sometimes it is also the case that HDR steps in when it is not needed. The results are completely unrealistic-looking recordings.

Bokeh

The bokeh mode works reliably considering the price range. For the most part, people are extracted cleanly. Complicated objects are, however, extracted less cleanly, which can lead to errors in the blurring effect.

video mode

The pre-installed camera app of the Mi A2 Lite records videos with a maximum 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second. If you want to record in 4K, you should install an alternative camera app (e.g. Open Camera). The video recording quality via the Xiaomi camera app is disappointing. Recordings are poor in detail and mostly out of focus. Automatic focusing did not work in the test, so it was necessary to focus manually. Recordings can be electronically stabilized (EIS). These are stabilized by the EIS, but show a pulsating dragging effect.

 The video recording quality is much better with the Open Camera app. In addition to the advantage of the 4K recording resolution, the autofocus also works perfectly and video recordings are much sharper and more detailed! The sound recording quality is clear and understandable despite the 96 kbps bit rate.

Practical test of the front camera

The recording quality of the front camera can only be seen in optimal lighting conditions. Even slight impairment of the illumination can visibly fade colors, details are lost and image noise becomes noticeable.

The software-side bokeh effect is well implemented if it only works properly in really good lighting conditions. A range of beauty filters is on board and pretty selfies are artificially displayed. The front camera records videos with a maximum resolution of 1080p at 30 frames per second.

connectivity

Telephony

The SIM slot of the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite offers space for two nano SIM cards and an additional microSD memory card. The following mobile radio frequencies are supported. 

• GSM: B2 / B3 / B5 / B8
• WCDMA: B1/B2/B4/B5/B8
• LTE FDD: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B20
• LTE TDD: B38 / B40

The LTE bands 3, 7, 8 and 20 that occur in Germany are available. However, the smartphone is not designed for worldwide cell phone use. The voice quality of the smartphone is clear and understandable in both directions. There were no reception problems in the test. VoLTE is available and can be activated by entering * # * # 86583 # * # * within the telephony app. VoWiFi or WiFi calling is not supported.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

The smartphone supports dual-band WiFi with the protocols 802.11 a / b / g / n. Fast dual AC WiFi is not available. The smartphone gives a strong signal in the WLAN. The data throughput is average. The same applies to the Bluetooth 4.2 receive and transmit power.

GPS sensors

The smartphone uses GPS, GLONASS and Beidou to determine its position. Galileo is left out. In the open air, a GPS fix is ​​found within a few seconds. The accuracy of the position determination is between 3 and 4 meters, with an average of 17 connected satellites. It is also possible to set up a GPS fix inside the building. However, the reception strength is significantly lower. Navigating is no problem for the smartphone. The positioning accuracy remains constant in both rural and urban areas. A compass to determine the direction is available.

The further sensor equipment includes a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, an acceleration sensor, a gyroscope and an infrared transmitter. With the infrared transmitter and the pre-installed Mi remote control app, various TV and household devices can be controlled directly via the smartphone.

Fingerprint scanner

The fingerprint scanner on the back has a high recognition rate. The sluggish unlocking time is to be criticized. The identical Redmi 6 Pro with MIUI unlocks the smartphone much faster!

Audio

A mono speaker is built in, which reaches a high volume without scratching. As is so often the case, the small speaker lacks bass, which is why the sound is more linear and flat. Friends of the 3.5 mm jack will get their money's worth. This is available and delivers an interference-free sound.

Battery

The battery of the Mi A2 Lite has a capacity of 4000 mAh. A few phone calls, 30 minutes of navigation, WhatsApp and a little surfing on the web only brought the battery to its knees after 2 1/2 days. Benchmark measurements showed a screen-on-time of almost 11 hours on a medium display brightness.

A complete charging process takes a good 160 minutes. A quick charge function is unfortunately not supported.