Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite/Mi CC9 review

Android 9 underneath MIUI 10

The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite boots the MIUI 10 ROM based on Android 9 Pie. While lightweight and intuitive, MIUI is no vanilla Android, so it will take a couple of hours for the purists to get the handle of it.

The Mi Lite supports Always-on display, and you can schedule it or leave it on/off all the time. There are various themes you can choose from and make it yours.

Always-on screen

You can unlock the screen via the snappy under-display fingerprint scanner. The reader is easy to set up and works surprisingly fast. The accuracy is very good, too, and overall it's great for your daily unlocking.

You can also set up face unlock in addition to it - it's even faster as the Mi Lite wakes up the moment you pick it up. Note that the face unlock option may not be available in all regions and is far less secure than the fingerprint scanner.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite has a Dark mode - it will switch all system colors from white to black, and this way, you can save some battery juice by making the best use of the power-efficient AMOLED screen. Note that not all apps support the dark mode, but the majority do.

Dark mode

There is no app drawer in MIUI, so all your apps are just sitting there on your homescreen, but you can still add them to folders. Of course, you can always install a third-party launcher if you miss the app drawer.

Here are the default home screens on Mi 9 Lite. There's a weather widget in the upper right corner across from a large clock widget. There is a Quick Card pane, the leftmost one. It contains different cards with relevant information - recent apps, step counter, notes, calendar events, the weather, and favorites, among others. You can configure what shows up here, or you can disable this altogether.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Homescreen • Tools • Quick Card • Settings

The task switcher felt a bit awkward at first, but we've grown to like it. It shows all of your recent apps in two columns. Tap and hold on a card for the split-screen shortcut, or just swipe it left or right to close it.

Recents and Split Screen

Themes are supported on the Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite, but the app appears only when the phone is set to a supported region, say India.

MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps and allows you to define the battery behavior of selected apps and applies restrictions only to the apps you choose.

MIUI also offers proprietary Gallery, Music, and Video player. In some regions, the music and video apps include paid streaming options. An FM radio app is available, too.

The Mi 9 Lite has an IR blaster on its top, and you can install the Mi Remote app from the Play Store and configure your phone as the one remote to rule them all.

Security app • Security • Gallery • File Manager • FM radio • Mi Remote

In some markets, the pre-installed applications by Xiaomi will show ads, which is how Xiaomi is compensating for the relatively low prices of its devices. We're reviewing a global version of the Mi 9 Lite, and we noticed a couple of ads in some apps (like File Manager), but not as aggressive as if you were running on an Indian or Chinese version of MIUI.

Performance and benchmarks

The Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite is powered by the Snapdragon 710 chip - a recent and powerful midrange SoC from Qualcomm. It's built on a 10nm production process and features an octa-core CPU in a 2x2.2 GHz Kryo 360 Gold (Cortex-A75 based) & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 360 Silver (Cortex-A55 based) configuration plus an Adreno 616 GPU. There's a single memory tier of 6GB of RAM.

The Snapdragon 710 may have just two high-performance A75-derived cores, but those were not only enough to keep it afloat, but they also put a fierce fight against the competition and do win on a few occasions. Sure, the Snapdragon 730 within the Mi 9T is faster, but then it's not that much faster.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  6863
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  6584
• Realme XT
  6102
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  6017
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  5989
• Motorola One Macro
  5763
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  5686
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  5549
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  5396
• Motorola One Action
  5271

The single-core score is great, but not chart topping.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2537
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  2391
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  1905
• Realme XT
  1899
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  1851
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  1715
• Motorola One Action
  1604
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  1576
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  1531
• Motorola One Macro
  1393

The Snapdragon 710's Adreno 616 GPU is powerful, but if you thought the Adreno 618 in the Snapdragon 730 (Mi 9T) would be more powerful - the difference is rather insignificant. And for its price tag, the Mi 9 Lite is just acing these graphics benchmarks, pretty much on par with the other Mi 9 peers.

Note that the Mi A3 has a 720p display hence the better than expected scores.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola One Macro
  29
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  27
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  24
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  24
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  24
• Realme XT
  23
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  21
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  13
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  13
• Motorola One Action
  13

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola One Macro
  17
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  14
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  14
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  13
• Realme XT
  13
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  13
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  8
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  7
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  6.9

3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  2439
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  2329
• Realme XT
  2284
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  2218
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  1959
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  1353
• Motorola One Macro
  1257
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  1131
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  1112
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  988

In the compound AnTuTu test, the Mi 9 Lite shows that it is not as powerful as the Mi 9T, but is on par with the Mi 9 SE. The ones to take it down are the Mi 9T and Redmi Note 8 Pro, both featuring more powerful chips.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  224759
• Xiaomi Mi 9T
  211915
• Realme XT
  185193
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  180057
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  175478
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  167750
• Motorola One Action
  148748
• Samsung Galaxy A50
  144574
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  141600
• Xiaomi Mi A3
  140633
• Motorola One Macro
  139869

We are delighted with the Snapdragon 710 as a daily runner. The Mi 9 Lite has more than enough oomph for both day-to-day tasks and gaming and going for the 730-powered Mi 9T on the grounds of performance alone doesn't seem warranted if that's your dilemma.