Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro) Review

Xiaomi introduced its Redmi 5 series in December 2017, with sole aim to provide lower 'price-over-hardware' ratio smartphones to mass markets. These phones were widely welcomed by different markets, specially China and India, and since then Xiaomi has continued with their Redmi 5 series lineup. Now, in 2018, Xiaomi has introduced Redmi 6 series by launching Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro, more commonly known as Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite. It's the first Android phone with a notched display, priced below $250. Of course, at this price point, it is an entry level smartphone with budget specs, but with notched display, it sure imitates pricier midrange smartphones in market right now. Also, it'll be interesting to see how this phone bids against its pricier and beefy version, Xiaomi Mi A2, which doesn't have a modern notched display but surely comes with better hardware specs. Question remains now, which one of the two new Xiaomi phones is worth buying, so let's dive straight into it and find out.

Notched displays have become a trend these days, and midrange to flagship level smartphones can be seen adapting to this trend. Surprisingly, Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite which is a budget device comes equipped with a notched display, unlike its superior version, Xiaomi Mi A2. Phone has a unibody design, very similar to previous Xiaomi phones, which makes this phone look rather premium than its price.

At front, there's a large notched display with tiny bezels on top and a little bigger one at bottom. Side bezels on this phone are very tiny which makes this phone look pretty modern, however, bottom bezel is pretty prominent which again reminds you that it is not a flagship device. No physical buttons can be seen at front, while a selfie camera together with an earpiece can be found at top, inside notch.

At back, first thing you will notice is that Xiaomi has retained exact same design from Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro on this phone. There is a vertically stacked dual camera module on top left, with an LED flash sandwiched in between lenses. Fingerprint sensor is placed right in middle, where it is easily accessible. Phone's body is made of metal which gives it a pretty sturdy look and feel. There's also a Mi logo at bottom-middle with Android One branding right below that. Rest of back is kept clean and you will only see rubber-plastic bands running on top and bottom of back on this phone. These are pretty standard bands used for better signal coverage, a substitute to antenna lines found on Xiaomi Mi A1.

Volume keys and power button are located on right side of phone, while a SIM card slot can be found on left. There is a micro-USB charging port (instead of a USB Type C on Xiaomi Mi A2) at bottom with speaker grilles on both sides. These grilles are, however, just for aesthetics as there's only a single speaker there. On top, you will find Xiaomi's famous IR blaster and luckily, a 3.5 mm headphone jack. This is one of the biggest design difference, together with notched display, that Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite has in comparison to Xiaomi Mi A2. One similarity between these two phones is that there's no dust and water protection on either device, which is quite fine at this price.

Using this device for a while, I found no issues in accessing buttons and phone doesn't feel slippery or heavy in hand either. Except for notch, design offered by Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite feels slightly boring, especially when we consider that some of budget handsets are now offering a premium glass sandwich designs at affordable prices.

Also, it is very interesting to see a headphone jack, while premium version of this device doesn't come with one. This could become a major selling point for this phone, as some users may frown upon Xiaomi Mi A2's lack of headphone jack and might prefer this phone instead. Another interesting thing here is to see a MicroSD card support on cheaper model while Xiaomi Mi A2 doesn't support storage expansion. This could very well be Xiaomi's winning stroke in design department, as at this price, you won't find a better option.

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite's most prominent difference with Xiaomi Mi A2 is its notched display. It comes with a 5.84 inch IPS LCD Full HD+ display with a resolution of 2280x1080p, a taller than usual aspect ratio of 19:9 and pixel density of 432 ppi. I found this display to be vibrant but slightly oversaturated. Viewing angles are good and images, as well as text, appear crisp on screen. While I've discussed this several times, it is important to point out that screen cut-out never feels like much of an issue and when you are watching videos on YouTube, notch doesn't come in the way as it is covered up by a neat uniform bezel. Furthermore, tall aspect ratio of this phone makes it noticeably easier to handle multitasking as well as maximum brightness level offered by handset's screen is impressive and makes it easy to use even outdoors, under bright sunlight.

Xiaomi haven't made information about Gorilla Glass protection available for now, but it seems like Gorilla Glass 3 as compared to Xiaomi Mi A2's Gorilla Glass 5. In addition, Xiaomi provides features like sunscreen, luminous screen, eye protection mode and intelligent environment adaptation mode for a better viewing experience on this phone.

Xiaomi says this display is capable of reproducing 84% of NTSC color gamut which is quite impressive in my opinion. Budget phones usually don't emphasis enough on display and that is why they usually have smudgy colors, dull blacks and low brightness. Thankfully, on Xiaomi M2 Lite, everything looks better than how it does on other budget smartphones in 2018. Overall, it seems as if Xiaomi took the display from Xiaomi Mi A2 and turned it into a notched display and honestly that's a great thing. Xiaomi fans will be delighted to get a notched display of this quality at a lower price point.

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is supposed to be a budget phone so on hardware side, I was expecting it to have budget specs and that is indeed the case with it. Phone is powered by Snapdragon 625 processor and Adreno 506 GPU, coupled with either 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of onboard storage, or 4 GB of RAM with 64 GB of onboard storage. It also supports MicroSD storage expansion, and this time you don't even have to sacrifice your dual sim slot, as there's a dedicated slot for MicroSD in sim tray.

As I have guessed, Xiaomi is trying to serve old wine in a new bottle over here. It has offered same processor in Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, Xiaomi Mi A1, and Xiaomi Mi Max 2 earlier. However, during my performance test, phone handled some graphically demanding games like PUBG mobile and Injustice 2 relatively well. I did not face any heating issues but there were occasional hiccups, though not far too often to ruin entire gaming experience. PUBG was unable to run at high settings and even lagged occasionally in lowest setting. I also played Honor of Kings I could see that highest picture quality, high-definition display, and high frame rate modes were active. Phone performs well at 50 fps but with one move, it dropped to 42fps. In scenes, where we have to use skills, it dropped to an even lower 33fps. Even with all that frame drop, performance is still in excellent level for Snapdragon 625 processor.

As compared to Xiaomi Mi A2's gaming experience, I would say that this phone wasn't too behind, but it sure did feel as if I'm playing on an underpowered phone. Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite's Snapdragon 625 processor just couldn't match the speed and performance of Snapdragon 660 found on Xiaomi Mi A2. Still, I wasn't completely unimpressed because performance was still pretty good for a budget phone at this price. On Benchmark test, phone scores 78,702 points on AnTuTu, which is a standard result for Snapdragon 625 chipset. For a comparison, Xiaomi Mi A2 scored 132,292 on AnTuTu.

There are some major changes on Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, as there's a 3.5 mm headphone jack to be seen, a great change for most people. Also, LED notification light on this phone is placed at bottom left bezel, which is an odd position. Most phones, including Xiaomi Mi A1 has notification light on top corner of device. Furthermore, you don't get USB Type-C on with Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, which is disappointing but again, this is a budget smartphone so can't really complain about it. For audio there's a mono bottom firing that is smaller than normal and sounds a bit flat. Other than that, you get your usual IR blaster which is pretty helpful in controlling household appliances like TV and Air-conditioner.

Overall hardware package on this device is indeed pretty solid for this price, even if it's what we have already seen on previous Xiaomi devices. It is definitely not as good as Xiaomi Mi A2, but it does provide great value for money.

There are a couple of things about this phone which are surprisingly better than on Xiaomi Mi A2 and battery is one of those things. Phone comes with a decent 4000 mAh battery, and its endurance combined with Snapdragon 625 is proven as you can expect well over 2 days of battery life. During my test, an hour of YouTube steaming at only consumes around 9% battery life. Standby drain is greatly under control with battery losing only around 1% every 3 hours. To give you further perspective, in my HD video loop test, phone managed to last around 20 hours.

You don't get fast charging on this phone, however, and included 5V 2 amp charger isn't a fast charger, but it will charge this phone quickly. Yes, Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite uses a Micro USB port, something Xiaomi had to do to keep price low. Phone charged from 0% to 31% in 31 minutes, 0% to 62% in 1 hour and a full charge took just over 2 hours and 14 minutes.

Quite frankly, this is one of the best battery performance I have seen from any Android phone out right now. Some people would argue that Xiaomi should've included fast charging on this phone, but with a battery endurance so good, I don't think most users would have any complains about it.

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite comes with a dual-camera setup at rear, consisting of a 12MP Sony IMX486 primary sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and a secondary 5MP depth sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. Theoretically, this pixel size has a greater amount of light entering it than its competitors from same niche, allowing night-shot photos to be brighter while suppressing noise. Having spent some time clicking pictures in both daylight as well as poor lighting conditions, I can safely say that camera performance offered by Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is good for its price range. However, for what it's worth, low light performance still leave room for improvement as there are some exposure and detail issues in these conditions.

Main camera is same as used in Xiaomi Redmi S2. It has PDAF autofocus which is okay, but an f/2.2 aperture isn't great for lowlight photography. Looking at photos taken in an overcast rainy weather where light is not sufficient, details of streetlights and dark parts of leaves are clearly lost. Looking at macro shots taken from this phone, color turn out to be accurate and sharp with details restored, thanks to larger pixel size of camera sensors. Night shots were made brighter by Xiaomi Mi A2's camera while suppressing noise in dark areas of scene. As a whole, picture seems to be good but as you zoom in and look at details, it is revealed that many dark areas have a very serious sense of smearing.

Phone also records videos up to 1080p at 30 fps with EIS, but 4K option isn't there in stock camera app. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, Xiaomi Redmi S2 and even Xiaomi Mi A2 gives you Google Pixel style smooth stable footage with a mild crop but that feature is not available here. Xiaomi has blocked access to gyro or something stops it from working in camera app.

In default camera app, you get option to shoot in Portrait, Square, Panorama, and manual modes. In manual mode, you can adjust ISO and white balance to take better images and apart from regular video shooting mode, there is a short video mode that allows you to shoot small video clips of just 10 seconds. There are tons of customization options available as well that allow you to click pictures with fingerprint sensor and show grid lines among other things which I found pretty useful. At the front, phone has a 5MP selfie camera which can shoot videos up to 1080p. Even though it's a pretty low-res camera, I doesn't have much complains about it at this price point.

Overall, it's an average budget phone camera, previously seen on several Xiaomi smartphones. It is nowhere near the quality of Xiaomi Mi A2's camera, as it struggles a lot in low light, but it does provide a good enough camera experience for the bucks you pay for it. Xiaomi would, however, need to improve it with software updates as other phones in this price point deliver better photography experience.

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is also known as Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro in China and while you won't see any difference between these two variants, there's one fundamental difference and that is in software department. Global version called Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite ships with Android One, which is a pure Android experience, having Android 8.1 Oreo straight out of box. Chinese variant (Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro) comes with Xiaomi's own MIUI 8 installed over Android 8.1 Oreo. That makes a huge difference between these phones as MIUI is heavily bloated with Xiaomi's own apps and user interface doesn't resemble stock Android at all.

With Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, stock Android has all the features you would find on Xiaomi Mi A2. All Google applications including Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Duo, Play Music are found on home screen with only Xiaomi apps installed being Mi Remote and Camera. Phone also comes with face unlock which works absolutely fine. Only problem with it is that it isn't as secured as a fingerprint scanner and can't be used for payments. Being an Android One device also means that you will get two years of OS updates and 3 years of security updates for sure, something promised by Google. This also means that Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is one of the first phones to receive Android P update and that is quite amazing, considering how a near 1000-dollar phone like Samsung Galaxy S9+ is still hanging over Android 8.1, while this budget device is ahead of it.

On Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro variant of this device, you get MIUI 9 installed over Android 8.1, and its experience is completely different. Phone can be updated to MIUI 10 over air, however, it still comes with plenty of bugs right now. I noticed only few games support hidden notch option and this bug will cause a lot of problems when watching videos. Moreover, this bug occurs in both landscape and portrait modes. This is one of the most obvious shortcomings of MIUI 9 on notched displays, but it is quite expected as MIUI has been developed for traditional full-screen. I am hopeful that all these problems will be solved with MIUI 10.

Being a stock Android fan, I would definitely choose Android One over MIUI. What I learned from using both these phones is that other users will probably share this sentiment as well because Android One on Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite really improves everything about its software experience. UI looks smooth and it doesn't feel at all that you're using a budget device. Chinese users are stuck with MIUI for now, but let's hope Android One variant rolls over there too, as this is indeed one of the better software experiences I have had with a Xiaomi phone.

Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is available right now in market starting at $152 or 999 Yuan for 3GB/32GB version, then continues to $190/1299 Yuan for 4GB/64GB model. Phone will be available in five different colors: Black, Blue, Gold (Global), Rose Gold and Red (China only).

Overall, Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite is better than I expected, it has no real fault and is a solid phone. A boring release yes, and some users would still get Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro over this, for its EIS 4k (Working for now), better camera with faster focus and better build. Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite does, however, have a brighter, better screen but with a notch and a 3-slot sim tray. Two nano SIMs and MicroSD slot which means you don't need to give up one of those SIM for a MicroSD card.

Both Xiaomi Mi A2 and Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite feel fast and fluid and seeing pure Android on Xiaomi-made hardware addresses many complaints we've had with company's sometimes bloated UI. Xiaomi added a few AI enhancements to cameras of Xiaomi Mi A2, specifically better edge detection when shooting in portrait mode, even when there's more than one person in shot. On Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, camera does need a lot of improvement and it is apparent that a photography enthusiast would definitely choose Xiaomi Mi A2 over its budget variant. For software, both phones feel alike, they are smooth and basic. Hardware on both phones is good for their price but Xiaomi Mi A2 steals the show with its Snapdragon 660 processor which is miles ahead of Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite's Snapdragon 625.

On the other hand, you do get a larger battery, with no fast charging, however. You do get a notched display, with slight cheaper build quality though. For me, it's a matter of preference between these two phones, your budget, your priority and major use of phone and so on. Both phones are amazing for their prices but in my opinion, Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite does provide a slightly better value for money with its modern design in a budget segment. I am just delighted to see how Xiaomi has adapted Android One and how good phones have become in midrange and budget segments. For sure, Xiaomi fans are in for a treat with both these phones.