Both the Xiaomi Mi A2 and the Mi A2 Lite are definitely going to have a big impact in the mid-range market, mostly due to their price but also due to Xiaomi's promise that it will be coming to 40 markets later this month, including several countries in Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and the Americas, which is a nice change of pace from the usual Xiaomi launches. Nice design, decent hardware and, most importantly, affordable price, will give Xiaomi a big piece of the smartphone market.
Both smartphones run on Android One OS, which is basically the stock version of the Android 8.1 Oreo OS.
The 5.99-inch Mi A2 with no notch
While the Mi A1 was one of the most popular mid-range smartphones on the market, Xiaomi has pushed its Android One into more premium market with the Mi A2, which packs a more serious hardware in an all aluminum, 158.7x75.4x7.3mm, 178g chassis with a 5.99-inch 2160x1080 FHD+ resolution IPS screen, giving it a 403ppi of pixel density.
The Mi A2 does not follow the design of recent smartphones as it does not come with a notch, but rather a standard design with thin bezels and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and dual rear camera. The screen has 1500:1 contrast ratio and is protected by Gorilla Glass 5.
Hardware-wise, the Xiaomi Mi A2 packs Qualcomm's Snapdragon 660 AIE SoC. It is an octa-core SoC with eight Kryo 260 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.2GHz, Adreno 512 GPU, Hexagon DSP and Spectra 160 ISP. Xiaomi paired it up with 4GB or 6GB of RAM and 32GB, 64GB or 128GB of storage, depending on the version.
It also comes with a rear dual-camera with 20-megapixel IMX376 main and a 12-megapixel Sony IMX486 secondary sensor. The front camera comes with the same 20-megapixel Sony IMX376 sensor with dedicated LED, HDR support, and AI.
The rest of the specifications include 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, USB Type-C port, all the usual sensors, and a 3010mAh battery with 5V2A charger. It will be available in Black, Blue, Gold, Red, and Rose Gold color options.
More affordable Mi A2 Lite with 5.84-inch notched screen
The Mi A2 Lite is also quite interesting as while it will have slightly less performance compared to the Mi A2, it makes it up with a lower price, bigger battery and quite popular notched design on its 5.84-inch 19:9 aspect ratio 2280x1080 FHD+ screen with 432ppi, 500 nits of brightness, and 1500:1 contrast ratio.
As noted, it has a more popular notched screen design and measures 149.33x71.68x8.75mm, weighing in at 178g. This makes it slightly thicker than the Mi A2, but the 4,000mAh battery was probably the main culprit.
The Mi A2 Lite will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 625 SoC with eight Cortex A53 cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz, Adreno 506 GPU, Hexagon DSP, and dual ISP. Xiaomi paired the Snapdragon 625 with 3GB or 4GB of RAM, and 32GB and 64GB of storage, depending on the version. The good thing is that, unlike the Mi A2, the Mi A2 Lite comes with a microSD card slot, so the storage is expandable by 256GB.
The Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite also comes with rear 12MP + 5MP AI dual camera. While we don't have any details regarding CMOS sensors that were used, Xiaomi did note it Supports PDAF technology, has a ƒ/2.2 aperture, 1.25?m pixels, AI Portrait mode and Depth mode. Selfie-lovers will have to use the front 5MP camera with ƒ/2.0 aperture and wide-angle lens, but it will still have AI-powered portrait mode, Beautify 4.0, and Face recognition.
It comes with 802.11n dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, older micro-USB port, and all the usual sensors, including an infrared one and the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. It will be available in Black, Blue, and Gold color options.
Versions and availability
Xiaomi promises that both the Mi A2 and the Mi A2 Lite will be available in 40 markets around the world later this month. The pricing is very aggressive as the Mi A2 will start at €249 for the 4GB/32GB version with 4GB/64GB one going for €299 and the 6GB/128GB selling for €349.
The Mi A2 Lite will start at €179 for the 3GB/32GB version, while the 4GB/64GB will sell for €229.
