Unboxing the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro and Mi 8 Lite

Both phones are bundled with cheap cases and USB-C to headphone jack dongles

Reading Time:2 minutes

Unboxing the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro and Mi 8 Lite

Published: 8:15pm, 14 Nov 2018Updated: 8:45am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

We’ve got the newest phones from Xiaomi, the Mi 8 Pro and the Mi 8 Lite.

The Mi 8 Pro is one of Xiaomi’s flagship smartphones this year, while the Mi 8 Lite is a mid-range phone that comes with a really shiny back and a dual-color gradient finish.

We had our hands-on with both phones earlier this month at a launch event in Hong Kong. This time we spent more time with them, trying out the in-screen fingerprint sensor on the Mi 8 Pro. We also like something about the cheaper Mi 8 Lite: The gradient design on the back. However, the shiny glass surface on the Mi 8 Lite seems to be a fingerprint magnet with all greasy smudges all over it.

Mi 8 Lite on the left, Mi 8 Pro on the right

One cool thing about the Mi 8 Pro is its transparent back. But don’t expect to see real internal parts here. What you see is just a fake board with plastic parts. And although both phones sport a glass back, they don’t support wireless charging.

Both phones have a notched screen. The Mi 8 Pro has a wider notch than the Mi 8 Lite, packing more sensors to support IR face unlock -- not the more secure facial recognition found on the iPhone X or the Oppo Find X. The fingerprint scanner is inside the screen on the Mi 8 Pro, but setting up is not easy. We took more time than other phones to register our fingerprint, and sometimes we needed to press harder to unlock the phone.