Made official in China in September, there’s talk of the Mi 8 Pro and Mi 8 Lite headlining at Xiaomi’s UK launch this Thursday. Here’s what to expect.
Xiaomi unveiled the Mi 8 Lite and Mi 8 Pro in China on 19 September. Now it’s rumoured that these two Mi 8 siblings could be the first to arrive in the UK as Xiaomi officially opens its doors in London on 8 November – click here to watch the UK launch live stream.
Special editions of its Mi 8 flagship, the Mi 8 Lite and Mi 8 Pro join the Mi 8 SE and Mi 8 Explorer in Xiaomi’s top-end line-up .
While the Mi 8 Lite is a cheaper version of the Mi 8 with decent photography and gaming credentials, the Mi 8 Pro takes the in-display fingerprint sensor and transparent rear cover previously seen only in the Explorer edition.
The Mi 8 Lite became available in China on 25 September in a range of colours comprising Aurora Blue, Sunset Gold and Midnight Black.
If it is made available in the UK on Thursday then you should be able to buy it on contract through Three from 9 November. Xiaomi is also said to be opening its own Mi outlet in central London.
The Mi 8 Pro became available in China on 21 September in Sunset Gold, Black and Transparent Titanium. As with the Lite, if it is made available in the UK it will be available on the Three network from 9 November.
Ahead of this week’s Xiaomi UK launch, you can buy the Mi 8 Lite and Mi 8 Pro from the likes of GearBest or Geekbuying, but remember that when shipping phones from China your consumer rights are different and you are liable for 20% import duty.
Expect to pay a little more than a straight conversion from the Chinese retail price, but either phone will still cost you a lot less than had you bought a similarly specced phone in the UK.
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The Mi 8 Lite is the cheapest in Xiaomi’s Mi 8 line-up. It’s a Snapdragon 660-powered phone with Vulkan API support making it ideal for gaming. Xiaomi has worked with both Tencent Games and Epic Games to optimise the phone for gaming, and the Mi 8 Lite is the first Snapdragon 660 phone capable of running the Chinese version of Arena of Valor.
You can also expect decent audio while playing those games, thanks to the inclusion of Mi Sound with an upgraded DSP algorithm.
With a 24Mp Sony IMX576 front camera, selfies are a major draw here. There’s integrated AI, as we’ve seen on previous high-end Xiaomi phone cameras, as well as a new feature that can retouch facial areas to achieve an enhanced nude make-up look.
It has a 6.26in Full-HD+ 19:9 IPS display, up to 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage. There’s also a 12Mp + 5Mp dual-camera, 3350mAh battery and a rear fingerprint sensor. See how it compares to the other Mi 8 models in the table at the bottom of this page.
As you’ll see below the Mi 8 Pro is in essence the Mi 8 Explorer Edition with an additional 6GB of RAM option and a couple more colour options. It takes the spec of the standard Mi 8 but sacrifices a bit of battery capacity in order to squeeze in that fancy fingerprint sensor. You can see how the phones compare below.
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