Xiaomi 14T Pro review: back to that good ol’ value for money

With the Xiaomi 14T, I was particularly disappointed by the camera. Good then that the 14T Pro offers hope for better photos thanks to its new image sensor. The added performance in turn isn’t a must, but nice to have. Longer battery life is also always great.

A convincing camera setup

Xiaomi has continued its cooperation with Leica in the 14T Pro. The team-up has resulted in the lenses as well as the two available shooting modes: Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic. With one exception, I took my test photos with Authentic. Vibrant is designed to make colours even more intense.

The Xiaomi 14T Pro main camera uses the company’s own Light Fusion 900 image sensor, featuring a focal length of 23 millimetres converted to a 35 mm format. Its telephoto camera offers 60 millimetres, resulting in 2.6x optical zoom. Both cameras have a resolution of 50 megapixels. Thanks to «pixel binning» – the merging of adjacent pixels for better image quality – photos from both cameras have a 12.5 megapixel resolution as standard. This puts them in the same range as the ultra-wide-angle camera with its 12 megapixels – no pixel binning there. Its focal length is 15 millimetres.

The ultra-wide-angle camera is paler than both other cameras

I’m pleased as punch Xiaomi’s software doesn’t make all pictures look the same. Instead, the sensors really have an effect on the result. While the Sony IMX906 in the Xiaomi 14T mixes too much yellow into images for my taste, this isn’t the case with the Light Fusion 900 in the 14T Pro. For me, this camera is a good reason to spend a few euros more.

Colour reproduction’s natural, the level of detail is very high and strong contrasts are no problem for the camera. I just wonder whether vignetting in Leica Authentic, i.e. darkening towards the corners and edges, was the right choice.

The ultra-wide-angle camera bleaches colours somewhat and becomes blurry on closer inspection due to the distortions towards the edges.

The telephoto camera doesn’t have these problems. It also delivers colours at the same high quality as the main camera.

Creates good pictures in the dark

In the dark, all three cameras in the Xiaomi 14T Pro deliver a better image quality than the 14T. Even without night mode, the images on the smartphone look good. When viewing on a larger screen, I prefer night mode. This time, I notice the higher level of detail.

With the ultra-wide-angle camera, blurring towards the edges remains, even in the dark. In terms of colour, however, you lose less compared to the main camera than during the day.

Automatic and night mode are much closer together on the telephoto camera than with the other two cameras.

Selfies: made to be seen on a smartphone

Selfies taken with the 32-megapixel front camera look excellent on the display of the 14T Pro, even if the background in my example photo is a little too bright. Only on a larger monitor do you notice the problems the camera has with detailed small elements, such as facial hair.

In the dark – and with at least some street lighting – the front camera doesn’t shine with the greatest level of detail, but it still delivers respectable images. Night mode doesn’t increase the level of detail in any way. Still, it brightens up the shot as a whole and compensates for the yellow cast caused by the street lighting.

Performance at the highest level

Xiaomi has equipped the 14T Pro with the Dimensity 9300+. It’s currently the most powerful chipset from Mediatek. True, the Dimensity 9400 has already been presented, but it isn’t expected to hit devices until the end of this year or early next year. As a result, it isn’t surprising that the Pro performs better in benchmarks than the Dimensity 8300 Ultra in the 14T. The gaps between the values I measured are larger than I expected, but hardly noticeable in everyday life.

With its results, the 14T Pro is also surprisingly close to Xiaomi’s current top smartphone, the 14 Ultra with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The Qualcomm chipset performs even better in the Galaxy S24 Ultra – note, the Samsung phone also contains a slightly higher clocked version of the Snapdragon.

The Dimensity 9300+ is equipped with twelve gigabytes of RAM. Its processor also ensures the 14T Pro can handle LTE, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4. Xiaomi offers versions with 256 or 512 gigabytes as well as 1 terabyte of internal memory, which can’t be expanded.

Long-lasting battery

With 5,000 mAh, the Xiaomi 14T Pro has the same battery capacity as the 14T. However, my battery test with PCMark Work 3.0 results in a runtime that’s 50 minutes longer at full display brightness. Impressive, considering the identical display and a more powerful processor.

The 14T Pro even lasts a little longer than Xiaomi’s top smartphone, the 14 Ultra. However, the Galaxy S24 Ultra, also with 5,000 mAh, chugs along for 1.5 hours longer.

The Xiaomi 14T Pro doesn’t come with a power adapter. However, it does support various fast charging standards such as PD3.0 and PD2.0 as well as Mi-FC 2.0. With the right Xiaomi HyperCharge power supply, it accepts up to 120 watts. To power it wirelessly up to 50 watts, a suitable charger is also required.

Sleek design, stylish display

The plastic back on the Xiaomi 14T Pro is plain and monochrome. Its defining element is the camera hump with four circles for the lenses and flash. The case is comfortable to hold, and I like the hatched power button.

The smartphone is also dust and waterproof to IP68. In tests, it survived 30 minutes in 1.5 metres of water – clean fresh water, mind you – without damage. It still isn’t intended for use under water, but rain and a short, unintentional bath shouldn’t harm it.

When you turn the Xiaomi 14T Pro around, you’re greeted by a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with narrow bezels and a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hertz. It covers 93.3 per cent of the front surface, shining with an intense brightness. The manufacturer specifies the maximum brightness as 4000 nits. However, this only applies in HDR mode and for individual pixels. Xiaomi doesn’t reveal the actual average brightness, which is more important for everyday use. However, it’s apparently strong enough for comfortable use in sunlight. With a resolution of 2712 × 1220 pixels, the screen shows off a razor-sharp image.

HyperOS gets plenty of AI

Android 14 is installed on the Xiaomi 14T Pro from the off. Xiaomi expands it to HyperOS with its user interface. The smartphone will receive Google updates for four years – i.e. until Android 18 – and security updates for five. Others offer more, but for the average life cycle of a smartphone, this seems appropriate.

Xiaomi’s pushing AI on its T series smartphones. For example, Google Gemini is replacing Google Assistant, and Circle-to-search is no longer only available from Samsung and Google.

But Xiaomi also has its own AI functions to offer. These include a live translator, a notes app that summarises content and helps with layouts, corrections and translations, and a recorder that can distinguish between different people in transcripts on top of translating. AI subtitles can apparently translate the entire audio output of the smartphone – independent of any apps.

AI also helps with editing videos and photos, even making suggestions for composition and music in films. The T series adopts the AI Portrait feature from the Xiaomi 14. This creates an avatar from a portrait photo that can be used in pictures. All these AI tools require an internet connection and process data in the cloud.

I already took a closer look at the subtitles created by this AI, as well as AI-assisted video creation.

However, not all of the announced AI features have arrived on the 14T Pro yet. The Recorder app provides good transcriptions and coherent summaries when I tried it. In the Notes app, on the other hand, I’m still looking in vain for the AI functions. And when image editing, I don’t know whether the old automatic function still powers «Automatic» or whether it’s already the new AI. The translator app’s still completely missing on the 14T Pro.

A whole host of pre-installed advertising apps from third-party providers is still a bothersome trend in Xiaomi smartphones. Luckily, they can be uninstalled with little effort to stop them being a nuisance after a few minutes.