Xiaomi 13 Lite spotted in SIRIM database, Malaysian launch imminent?

Back in February, Xiaomi had launched the Xiaomi 13 series onto the global stage, with their flagship smartphones making their way to Malaysia just a day after its global launch. However, while the Xiaomi 13 lineup debuted with three models—the Xiaomi 13, Xiaomi 13 Pro and the Xiaomi 13 Lite—in Malaysia, we only got the first two of those. However, that could change very soon.

As spotted by Lowyat.net, the Xiaomi 13 Lite had been approved by SIRIM in late February 2023, just before the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro landed on our shores in fact. This is despite Xiaomi Malaysia previously stating that they were not planning to launch the Lite version of their flagship smartphones.

If you were expecting another device with a Leica-branded camera though, you might be disappointed. The Xiaomi 13 Lite is actually just a rebranded version of the China-only Xiaomi Civi 2. In fact, it doesn’t even share the same design philosophy as the Xiaomi 13 and the Xiaomi 13 Pro, lacking the squared off, blacked out camera bump for instance.

Instead, what you’re getting is a smartphone with a 6.55-inch, FHD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,000nits. The display also supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, and has a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 over it too for scratch resistance.

Under the hood, you’ll find the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 processor, which is actually already out of date with Qualcomm having recently launched the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 system-on-chip and Xiaomi themselves has already launched the Redmi Note 12 Turbo in China using the latter silicon too. Nevertheless, the Xiaomi 13 Lite will still come with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage, and runs Android 12 out of the box skinned with MIUI 14.

In the camera department meanwhile, the Xiaomi 13 Lite has a main 50MP, f/1.8 camera using a 1/1.56-inch sensor flanked by an 8MP, f/2.2 ultrawide and a 2MP, f/2.4 macro lens. In front meanwhile there’s a dual camera selfie camera setup housed in a centered pill-shaped cutout, with a 32MP, f/2.4 front camera sitting alongside an 8MP, f/2.3 depth sensor. Keeping the lights on meanwhile is a 4,500mAh battery with 67W fast charging.

There’s no word on the price in Malaysia just yet of course, but in Europe at least it starts at EUR499 (~RM2,415.60), which is much lower than the EUR999 and EUR1,299 price tags that the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro has over there. In Malaysia meanwhile, the Xiaomi 13 goes for RM3,499 while the Xiaomi 13 Pro starts at RM4,599.