Xiaomi recently released a completely different phone than what they have ever released before: the Xiaomi Civi. This phone is aimed at the female market, but as a guy, even I am very much interested in this phone. After using it for a week, I have some things to share with you.
Xiaomi CIVI Review: Stand out design
If you’ve seen Xiaomi’s promo video, you know how cute and good-looking the pink back covers of the Xiaomi Civi are this time. 
They have added a fluffy texture to the pink glass back panel. It looks quite pretty under the light. And this design won’t just appeal to female users but even guys like me would appreciate this back cover.
And because of the curved screen and the narrower width of the body, it feels better in your hand. The upper and lower metal frames are recessed to make the phone more refined. But the charging port isn’t centered and this makes me uncomfortable. The lens is made smaller, and this lens design is a bit like a smaller version of the Mi 10T series. The best part is that Civi is only 6g heavier than the XIAOMI 11 Lite 5G NE, but the battery has been increased to 4500mAh. Who doesn’t like a phone that is only 166g but can be used all day without charging?
I know I do!
While such a light phone is easy to use, its back cover is like a layer of flour and is really, really slippery. Plus, the center frame is very narrow and doesn’t provide enough friction. So if you use it for a long time, the full weight of the phone presses down on your little finger, so it’s not really easy to hold much like a heavy phone. Of course, if you like to use a case, you won’t have this problem.
Overall, the Xiaomi Civi is a mid-range phone, but it looks and feels like a flagship device.
Xiaomi CIVI Review: Better Display
I carefully compared the official specs of the Civi’s screen and found little change on paper between it and the XIAOMI 11 Lite 5G NE. The Civi’s refresh rate has become 120Hz, and the peak brightness is a little higher too. However, after a week of use, the screen’s difference between the two is actually quite large. For example, from a straight screen to a curved screen, the bezels have become narrower. In particular, the lower bezel is narrower than Xiaomi’s own flagship phone, the Mi 11 Ultra. And it uses an under-screen fingerprint instead of a side fingerprint scanner.
The Xiaomi 11 Lite NE’s screen uses RGB Delta Pixels, which resulted in a very poor screen clarity problem that was solved on the Civi. After changing the supplier of the screen to Diamond-like pixels, the clarity is no different from that of Samsung’s screen. However, the problem of rainbow lines on the screen is a bit more serious than the 11 Lite NE. All in all, the Xiaomi Civi’s screen is in the upper-middle class, much better than the XIAOMI 11 Lite 5G NE.
Xiaomi CIVI Review: Selfie & Rear Cameras
Because it is a phone specifically designed for female users, before we talk about the rear lens for taking pictures, I want to talk about the front camera first. This time, Civi is finally using a new 32MP lens that can auto-focus instead of a traditional 20MP front lens without autofocus.
Because young Asian female users generally like to retouch their selfies, Xiaomi is also introducing a new beauty mode algorithm that will make your selfies look more natural even in beauty mode. Compared to the beauty mode of Xiaomi 11 Lite NE, the biggest change is that the skin has become smoother, with less noise, and at the same time the skin pores are not completely eliminated. This makes it look better than the previous beauty mode.
When we turn off the beauty mode, with the superb front lens, it can still take selfies with more details and less noise. Although the HDR effect is weaker than the Lite NE, the advantage is that the hair will not turn purple. For the self-portrait effect, Xiaomi Civi really spares no effort. It has two flash lights tucked on either side of the front lens. The area around the screen can also turn white to light up your face. The flash + screen fill light effect is excellent, and the face skin tone is more natural, the details become more, even the HDR effect has become stronger. But if you wear glasses, the reflection from the lights can be a problem.
And with the addition of autofocus on the front, you no longer need to worry about losing focus due to the close shooting distance. You can really use your phone as a mirror to check your makeup.
The main rear camera uses the same sensor as the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE, and the ultra-wide lens is also 8 MP. But the macro lens is not as good as the telephoto macro lens on the 11 Lite NE.
The performance of the main camera in the daytime is relatively close between the two phones. The main difference is the color tuning for food. When the AI recognizes the subject as food, Civi’s colors are more intense and the contrast is higher. The difference in other scenes is almost negligible. When the sky is dark, although both perform very well in most scenes with more lights, when the lighting goes down and the Xiaomi Civi in auto mode reveals its problems. The highlights can’t be controlled, while 11 Lite NE doesn’t have this problem. The good thing is that Civi’s night mode is well optimized, not only can the highlights be controlled, but the colors can also be reproduced. For example, the red light sign is definitely not the rosy red of the 11 Lite NE, but closer to the positive red as seen on the Civi sample.
The ultra-wide lens on both phones is also very similar. Xiaomi Civi still has the problem of partial overexposure in low light, and the purple edge problem is not optimized. Sometimes the purple edge effect is worse on the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE, while sometimes it’s worse on the Xiaomi Civi. But this ultra-wide lens is also average, and it performs well as long as there’s enough light.
As for the macro lens, it is an ordinary macro lens. Both the closest focusing distance and image quality are worse than 11 Lite NE’s telephoto macro lens.
The main difference between Xiaomi Civi’s video recording capabilities and the 11 Lite NE is still the color, which is more intense on the Civi most of the time. As for noise, dynamic range, stabilization, etc., there is still no visible difference with 11 Lite NE.
Xiaomi CIVI Review: Performance and Gaming
The chip is still Snapdragon 778G with LPDDR 4X and UFS 2.2, and the Benchmark score is almost the same as the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE.
The phone scores 510,000 on AnTuTu, 2400 on 3Dmark, 780 on Geekbench 5 single-core, and nearly 3000 on its multi-core test. This chip’s gaming performance is also very clear to everyone. Because they feature Snapdragon 778G, PUBG can only be run in the Ultra frame rate under HDR Graphics. It offers stable performance at 40FPS without problems.
Genshin Impact started out at 50 FPS, but was soon locked at 30 FPS. Finally, it didn’t even stabilize at 30 FPS, averaging at 24.8 FPS which is not very good. But if you compare it to the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE, you’ll find that the Xiaomi Civi is actually performing quite well. The Xiaomi 11 Lite NE not only struggled to achieve a frame rate above 30 fps, but it also lagged a lot. When you think about it, the fact that the phone is light and thin makes it impossible to dissipate heat very well. Xiaomi probably didn’t intend this phone for playing any big games, and that’s exactly what we could confirm.
Xiaomi CIVI Review: Battery Life
This time the Xiaomi Civi’s box is also very simple, it has no charger and no charging cable. Of course, if Xiaomi’s charger is not inside the box, it will definitely come with a separate charger. Much like the provided charger, the phone supports up to 55w of charging power. It takes ten minutes to charge to 27%, half an hour to charge to 77%, and 45 minutes to 100%.
Will the 4500mAh battery last longer than the 11 Lite NE?
Half an hour of 1080P online video consumed 4%, Tiktok consumed 5%. Ten minutes of PUBG dropped the charge by 3%, and 20 minutes Genshin Impact by 8%. Basically it’s the same battery life score as the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE.
So the Xiaomi Civi is a beefed-up version of the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE, with an upgraded look and a more powerful screen and front-facing camera. The fact that the Xiaomi Civi is selling well in China shows that many people still like a nice and thin phone, provided it doesn’t have too many flaws.
Comments