It’s probably the boxiest in the series
The Xiaomi 12 series made its debut late last year as a family of three smartphones. Of these, the Xiaomi 12X (above) acted as an affordable entry point to the Xiaomi flagship experience, priced notably lower than its siblings despite not making too many sacrifices — the design’s the same and the internal silicon’s only been toned down just a little. Xiaomi’s not done with the series yet, with an even more affordable option on the way, and today, we’re checking out the very first photos of the phone in the flesh.
We’re looking at a series of images that first surfaced on Weibo before being spread across Twitter. Xiaomi’s been developing these Lite editions of its flagships for several generations now, and although the 12 Lite may share its name with those pricier options, the hardware here differs in just about every important area, as a previous leak had revealed. The overall design is mostly the same, at least, with a familiar-looking camera module in the top-right corner adorning the otherwise plain rear.
Unlike models that feature premium metal frames, the Xiaomi 12 Lite looks to be going down the same plastic route as the Xiaomi 11 Lite before it, presumably in an effort to keep the price down. Another significant change is the noticeably boxier design. We’ve seen plenty of phones take inspiration from the iPhone 12’s flat-edged build, including the likes of the Galaxy S22, and the Xiaomi 12 Lite only seems to be echoing that as well.
The leaked images also attempt to lend support for the presence of a 108MP camera, but don’t expect all those raw pixels to out-perform the 50MP cameras on the Xiaomi 12, 12 Pro, and 12X. We’ve still got plenty we need to learn about Xiaomi’s plans for this hardware, and hopefully some new leaks will arrive soon to help flesh out that picture.
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