Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 4G will not be discontinued, even when the 5G variant launches

Update (August 8, 4.50 pm): Xiaomi India has confirmed that the report is false and the Mi 11 Lite 4G will continue to sell. Further, it also mentioned that when there is enough demand for 5G, the 5G variant will come to India without discontinuing the existing model. The older story is retained below but no longer holds true.

Xiaomi’s Mi 11 Lite, an upper mid-range smartphone that was launched just over a month back seems to be heading towards a dead-end already. Dubbed as the “slimmest smartphone of 2021” when launched, the Mi 11 Lite comes with a 90Hz AMOLED display, Snapdragon 732G chipset, and a triple camera setup with a 64MP primary sensor.

If the report from a tipster Abhishek Yadav is to be believed then, the world’s second-largest mobile maker Xiaomi has already axed the Mi 11 Lite in India. He further states that the company may launch its 5G variant in the country soon.

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While Xiaomi is yet to make an official announcement, the phone can still be bought from online channels. And even if Xiaomi is planning to introduce the 5G variant, discontinuing the 4G phone makes little sense since the company announced a few days back that the Mi 11 Lite sold like hotcakes.

Costliest 4G phone from Xiaomi 

Though the Mi 11 Lite focuses on style more than its peers, it is indeed Xiaomi’s costliest device in its category. On one hand where you have brands looking to come up with 5G phones under Rs. 7000, the Mi 11 Lite is a 4G only device.

In a price bracket of just above Rs. 20,000, when most brands including Xiaomi are focusing on offering 5G connectivity as default, launching Mi 11 Lite raised more than a few eyebrows. To recall, Xiaomi has launched both 4G and 5G variants of Mi 11 Lite back home in China though, in India, the company chose to introduce only 4G variants.

Now discontinuing the 4G variant in less than two months of the launch and rumours of re-launching it as a 5G variant may turn out to be a bitter pill for the users who have already compromised on the connectivity front and bought the 4G variant. To make matters worse, Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 10 lineup is also a 4G only lineup and is available at a much lesser price point.

Pricing conundrum for Xiaomi 

Oddly there were rumours that Xiaomi might be forced to discontinue the Mi 11 Lite variant in China owing to chipset shortage and the Snapdragon 780, which powers the phone, has been in short supply.

Now, if we were to ignore the chipset shortage and consider that Xiaomi brings the Mi 11 Lite 5G to India, the phone was launched at a CNY 2,299 (Rs. 26,500) and CNY 2599 (Rs. 29,900) for the 8GB+128GB and 8GB+256GB variants respectively. If launched at the same price range, it will undercut the Mi 11x lineup of devices.

If at all Xiaomi plans to go extremely aggressive with the pricing and replaces the 4G variant with the 5G variant without tinkering the pricing much, it could not only irk the current users but will again compete with the Mi 10T which again is a 5G phone and was launched 6 months back. 

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