Xiaomi didn't mention it during the Mi 11 launch event, but there's cheaper Mi 11 Lite coming
Yesterday, on February 8th, Xiaomi had a global launch event for its newest flagship – the Xiaomi Mi 11. The phone is expected to be available next month starting at €749. Sporting a sleek glass-back design, an impressive 120Hz QHD+ AMOLED display and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 processor, it will be quite the flagship competitor.
But, as it appears, there's also a cheaper alternative in the works that didn't make it in yesterday's launch event presentation. According to earlier Gizmochina rumors and now the Bluetooth SIG website (via Android Authority) the Xiaomi Mi 11 might be launched alongside a more affordable Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite phone.
The Bluetooth SIG site shows a smartphone with the name "Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite" that has a model number suggesting it to be a phone for the global market, as opposed to one planned for just the Chinese or Indian markets.
As for its software, much like with the Mi 11, we expect the phone to be running MIUI 12 or Xiaomi's just-announced MIUI 12.5 on top of Android 11.
The Bluetooth SIG site shows a smartphone with the name "Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite" that has a model number suggesting it to be a phone for the global market, as opposed to one planned for just the Chinese or Indian markets.
In terms of specs, the few things we know is that this phone will have 5G support and is likely to be powered by a weaker Snapdragon processor than the 888, with possibly 6GB of RAM.
At the Mi 11 launch event, Xiaomi didn't mention a Mi 11 Lite anywhere
As for its software, much like with the Mi 11, we expect the phone to be running MIUI 12 or Xiaomi's just-announced MIUI 12.5 on top of Android 11.
At Xiaomi's Mi 11 event yesterday, the company did list the Mi 11 as one of the phones to be getting MIUI 12.5 in a first wave of updates, but there was no Mi 11 Lite listed, nor mentioned throughout the event. Thus, it's reasonable to expect the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite to officially surface sometimes around or after the global Mi 11 launch.
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