After months of silence, Xiaomi has finally broken the silence. The manufacturer has admitted to using the same Gorilla Glass glass cover on the Mi 8 Lite, launched months earlier, as the first standalone Redmi model, the Note 7, which was launched recently.
When the Mi 8 Lite was announced, we were only speculating whether the Mi 8 Lite would have a plastic back or some kind of tempered glass cover. Officially it was not indicated, the existing specifications were not officially confirmed.
But now that the Redmi Note 7 is getting more and more attention, and the glass resistance is being demoed on every social media portal, the Mi 8 Lite has been pushed to the background. As expected, demand for it in China may have fallen off as the Redmi Note 7 is already available there, and with a similar price tag, it's a better deal than the cheaper Mi 8, the Mi 8 Lite, which is based on the same SoC but with a weaker camera and smaller battery.
Corning's Gorilla Glass 5 is currently the latest development, more resistant than their previous product. Of course, we hear this every time there is a model change, but the service department could argue that if you drop the phone on its heel, for example, you probably won't get away with a few scratches on the frame.
So the GG5 is 4x more resilient than previously exploited solutions.
So the kitchen challenges continue, with the Mi 8 Lite following on from the Redmi Note 7 as a cutting board. We've seen Note 7s dropped on a lot of hard-shelled and heavy fruit, used as nutcrackers, roller skates....
Wang Chuan Weibo post
So the Mi 8 Lite, with its selfie champion 24MP Sony IMX576 sensor, is just as great a kitchen accessory as the Redmi Note 7.
I'd be curious to see the sales in a few months time, which model will have more fans.