Xiaomi 14T Pro review

With Google going full-on flagship with its Pixel 9 value bump, it’s fallen to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and the Nothing Telephone (2) to fill the gray space between mid-range and flagship smartphones. Now the Xiaomi 14T Professional is right here to supply a barely brisker proposition.

With a flagship-level Mediatek Dimensity 9300+ processor, an impressively specced 6.67-inch 144Hz OLED show, a potent Leica-branded triple digicam system, and speedy 120W charging help, the Xiaomi 14T Professional appears to supply lots of telephone on your cash.

Certainly, with a £649 UK retail value that carries over from the Xiaomi 13T Professional, this guarantees to offer the type of smartphone cut price that’s been all too uncommon of late.

Xiaomi has made some welcome advances since its earlier T-Professional mannequin, although a few all-too-familiar gripes rear their head alongside some all-new ones. Let’s take a better look.

Design & Construct

• Bland however purposeful design
• IP68 rated
• IR blaster on prime

The very first thing to notice about Xiaomi’s T-range is that it’s by no means been a souped-up model of the previous non-T line-up. Slightly, it supplies a broadly flagship-flavoured expertise with some good concessions in an effort to hit a cheaper price level. Just a little like how Google does telephones such because the Pixel 8a however extra highly effective.

By way of design, the Xiaomi 14T Professional is a bigger, bulkier, and barely much less premium-feeling telephone than the wonderful Xiaomi 14. It broadly sticks to the identical structure, with a flat metallic rim and a big sq. digicam module, however with a much less refined end.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

It makes use of a extra utilitarian matte glass again in no-nonsense shades of Titanium Black (like my check mannequin), Titanium Gray, and Titanium Blue. Stated glass again now contains a pleasing subtle glitter impact, which is approach higher than the Xiaomi 13T Professional’s extremely reflective end.

That’s concerning the extent of any showiness on show right here, although. The digicam module, with its 4 rings, appears to be like so much like an electrical hob.

That is fairly an enormous telephone, with a thickness of 8.4mm and a weight of 209g, nevertheless it stays firmly in manageable territory. It’s additionally constructed extraordinarily effectively, with a stable really feel and a flagship-level IP68 score, which means it’s as water and mud resistant as virtually some other telephone in the marketplace.

I’m joyful to notice that the display screen bezel, whereas removed from skinny, is kind of even all the best way round, which makes the telephone seem extra premium than the Galaxy S23 FE from the entrance.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

One welcome focal point is the facility button, which carries a pleasant textured end to assist differentiate it from the sleek, elongated quantity rocker. There’s no room for a 3.5mm headphone jack or a microSD card slot on any of these thick edges, however that’s to be anticipated.

What with this being a Xiaomi telephone, you get the quirky bonus of an IR blaster on the highest edge. Utilizing the preinstalled Mi Distant app, this lets you take management of your Hello-Fi or your TV out of your telephone, which is a genuinely helpful provision when you dwell in a home filled with tech.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Display screen & Audio system

• Wonderful 6.67in 1220 x 2712 show
• 144Hz peak refresh fee
• Robust twin audio system

Xiaomi has caught with precisely the identical show as final 12 months’s mannequin, and also you gained’t catch me grumbling about that. It’s the identical sturdy 6.67in AMOLED with a stand-out 144Hz decision and a sharper-than-usual 1220 x 2712 decision.

That 144Hz refresh fee is a tad gimmicky if I’m being trustworthy. Even with the variety of telephones I take advantage of in the middle of my job, I’d wrestle to select a 144Hz display screen over a 120Hz with out playing with each side-by-side.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

I’d even make the case that 120Hz could be preferable on battery life grounds. The very fact stays, although, that the Xiaomi 14T Professional display screen has a degree of smoothness (not less than when you drive 144Hz to be energetic on a regular basis) that you simply solely have a tendency to seek out in gaming telephones, in addition to Motorola’s higher-end efforts.

It’s price shouting out that decision, which finds a pleasant candy spot between FHD+ and QHD’s pixel overkill. Textual content and pictures look that little bit sharper right here than on, say, the Nothing Telephone (2) display screen.

Brightness is stable, if far in need of fashionable flagship normal. I measured a prime brightness of round 580 nits with auto brightness off and the Daylight mode booster on. It’s good and color correct too, with a median Delta E of 1.08 (1 being the best) within the default Authentic color PRO color scheme.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Xiaomi’s in-display fingerprint sensors is usually a little temperamental, however whereas the Xiaomi 14T Professional’s actually isn’t essentially the most dependable I’ve used, it proved nearly constant sufficient in daily utilization.

Like its predecessor, the Xiaomi 14T Professional options stereo audio system, they usually do an inexpensive job. They lack the depth and nuance of a real flagship just like the iPhone 16 Professional or the Pixel 9 Professional (each promoting for lots of extra), however the highs keep crisp even at pretty excessive volumes.

Specs & Efficiency

• MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ chipset
• Very good all-round efficiency
• Inside storage from 256GB to 1TB

Xiaomi takes an fascinating strategy to efficiency with its T-series. Slightly than take the standard Snapdragon route, it sometimes goes with a prime chip from Qualcomm rival MediaTek, which tends to work out cheaper.

Fortunately, MediaTek’s chips have come on leaps and bounds in recent times, and the MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ powering the Xiaomi 14T Professional is one other stonker.

Our Geekbench 6 benchmark assessments recommend a CPU that’s on par with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 telephones just like the Xiaomi 14 and the Samsung Galaxy S24, each of which carry a a lot greater RRP. Suffice to say, it positively stomps the Pixel 9 with its sluggish Tensor G4 chip.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

GPU outcomes are tougher to come back by, as Xiaomi usually appears to dam the standard benchmark assessments forward of launch. Anecdotally, I used to be capable of run Genshin Affect on maxed out settings – that’s Highest/60fps – and nonetheless keep very fluid efficiency.

It’s helped alongside by 12GB of RAM. There’s a 16GB possibility on the market too in sure areas, which looks as if overkill however can’t damage both.

Xiaomi 14T Professional benchmarks

The day-to-day expertise of working this telephone drives dwelling the sensation that it is a genuinely flagship-level performer. Even with the 144Hz show pressured on on a regular basis, I didn’t decide up a lot as a stutter whereas whizzing round between apps and residential screens.

Equally, the unlock course of is nigh-on instantaneous, as is utilising the digicam shortcut from the lock display screen. I’ve been utilizing Google’s Pixel 9 Professional and Apple’s iPhone 15 Professional in amongst my Xiaomi 14T Professional testing, and there’s been no tangible drop off within the typically snappy feeling I get with these costlier telephones. Fairly the other when you’re speaking concerning the Pixel 9 Professional, actually.

There’s a beneficiant unfold of storage choices too, ranging from 256GB and topping out at 1TB. You don’t get any microSD enlargement choices, however that’s fairly regular in in the present day’s flagship telephones.

Connectivity is bang updated too, with help for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, alongside the anticipated NFC and 5G.

Cameras

• Robust 50Mp primary and completed 50Mp telephoto
• Wonderful 32Mp selfie digicam
• 12Mp ultrawide simply OK
• AI enhancing instruments a combined bag

Xiaomi actually stepped issues up with the 13T Professional’s digicam set-up final 12 months, and the Xiaomi 14T Professional subtly builds on that strategy.

The essential specs are comparable, with a 50Mp primary digicam, a 50Mp 2x telephoto, and a 12Mp ultra-wide. Nonetheless, the principle digicam is barely totally different to earlier than, with a 1/1.31in sensor. That’s fractionally smaller than final 12 months’s, however don’t take that as a foul signal.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Certainly, this seems to be precisely the identical Mild Fusion 900 sensor that Xiaomi used within the wonderful Xiaomi 14, paired with the identical massive f/1.6 aperture. Along with a Summilux optical lens, Xiaomi reckons that it pulls in 32% extra mild than the Xiaomi 13T Professional.

Leica’s involvement right here most clearly manifests itself the very first time you fireplace up the digicam app, while you’re supplied the selection of two fundamental types: Leica Genuine and Leica Vibrant. This affords two appreciably totally different appears to be like – the primary extra pure and ‘as seen’, the latter with extra pop and color, with out sending issues too gaudy.

It’s the identical because the flagship 14 and 14 Extremely on this respect and largely a matter of style, and I truly discovered my choice switching from shot to shot, so it’s lucky you possibly can flick between them with a contact of a digital button within the Digital camera app. Try the distinction under.

Basic picture high quality is nice right here, although I did discover that the Xiaomi 14T Professional missed its publicity a few occasions. We’re solely speaking a handful of photographs out of virtually 100, however there was positively the odd underexposed shot in Genuine mode, or the odd occasional overly brilliant space on Vibrant.

Subsequent photographs would are inclined to appropriate this, nevertheless it’s reliability that counts with any point-and-shoot digicam. The 14T Professional isn’t unhealthy on this regard, nevertheless it isn’t the very best both.

Evening photographs are respectable, however betray the telephone’s less-than-flagship standing. I respect how they protect the inky shade of darker scenes, nevertheless it undoubtedly struggles to tug out element in addition to pricier telephones just like the Pixel 9 Professional and the iPhone 15 Professional – notably in very darkish conditions.

The telephoto digicam appears to be like a lot the identical as final 12 months’s, which is to say it’s a fairly completed 50Mp 2x snapper. In contrast aspect by aspect with the Pixel 9 Professional and the iPhone 15 Professional, I famous hints of overexposure and comparatively restricted dynamic vary within the Xiaomi 14T Professional, reflecting the truth that this isn’t fairly the flagship telephone it aspires to be.

Usually talking, nonetheless, the 14T Professional’s telephoto acquits itself very effectively for the cash, sustaining respectable element ranges even as much as 5x by way of stable hybrid zoom methods.

Xiaomi doesn’t seem to have achieved a lot with the 14T Professional’s ultra-wide digicam, not less than from a {hardware} perspective. It’s one other 12MP f/2.2 sensor that seems completely OK outcomes, although once more they fall effectively in need of the very best within the enterprise.

Xiaomi has upgraded the selfie digicam on the 14T Professional, although that was one of many extra spectacular sensors on the 13T Professional. Right here you’re getting a 32MP entrance digicam very like the Xiaomi 14, and it produces sturdy element, pretty sharp topic separation, and respectable pores and skin tones.

In video phrases the 14T Professional as soon as once more helps as much as 8K at 30fps in Commonplace mode, which is a powerful spec in something lower than a prime finish telephone. There’s additionally a MasterCinema mode that information in 10-bit Rec. 2020 with higher HDR, which tops out at 4K/30fps.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Xiaomi’s AI Picture Enhancing suite allows you to do issues like steadily implement a transparent sky utilizing a slider, which works impressively effectively. You may as well add varied bokeh results, once more with a slider to regulate the severity of the impact.

The AI beautifying tips are a bit bizarre although. Utilizing AI to bulk up your shoulders, fill out your chin, or ‘optimise pores and skin radiance’ with an HD portrait felt considerably odd to me, although I’m certain there’s an viewers for it someplace on this planet.

In every case, these AI instruments require an preliminary load-up time, with the power to pop into the menu and set up the AI Editor plug-in up entrance. These are further steps that talk to a wider sense that AI hasn’t been totally built-in into Xiaomi’s set-up simply but. I’ll go into that extra a bit later.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5000mAh battery
• A lot improved battery life
• 120W wired charging, although no charger in field
• 50W wi-fi charging most welcome

Final 12 months’s Xiaomi 13T Professional didn’t have horrible battery life by any means, nevertheless it was positively one in every of its weaker areas. Fortunately, it seems Xiaomi has taken steps to enhance it this time round.

It packs the identical 5000mAh battery, however whether or not it’s a extra environment friendly chip or optimisation from Xiaomi – more than likely it’s a mixture of the 2 – I obtained way more encouraging outcomes this time. In our traditional PCMark Work 3.0 battery check, the 14T Professional lasted 12 hours and 32 minutes, which is greater than 4 hours longer than the Xiaomi 13T Professional.

That determine sees it path behind the Pixel 9 and the Nothing Telephone (2), however beats the Galaxy S24 and attracts degree with the Xiaomi 14. Provided that this was attained with the display screen set to 144Hz, that’s not a foul end result.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

In common daily use, I used to be typically capable of get by way of a 16 hour day of reasonable utilization, with round 4 hours of display screen on time, and be left with round 50% left. Once more, that is stable stuff.

Xiaomi at all times supplies among the greatest charging speeds in any given space of the smartphone market, and the Xiaomi 14T Professional as soon as once more helps a blistering 120W wired normal. The catch with this 12 months’s mannequin is that you simply don’t get a charger within the field.

That is achieved with the standard claims of decreasing waste, which is undoubtedly true, nevertheless it additionally serves to go a probably vital price onto the consumer. Add within the value of an official Xiaomi 120W charger at £39.99, and you can take it as representing a stealthy value bump over the 13T Professional.

Luckily I had simply such a 120W Xiaomi charger at hand. Having deactivated the charging restriction within the settings menu (aimed toward preserving battery life), I used to be capable of get the 14T Professional from empty to 65% in quarter-hour, and to 100% in round 26 minutes. That’s approach sooner than something from Samsung, Apple, or Google.

One other large addition that makes up for the dearth of a charger within the field is that Xiaomi has lastly applied wi-fi charging to the combo. It’ll go as much as 50W, too, in case you have the suitable £49.99 Xiaomi charger.

Software program & AI

• HyperOS continues to frustrate
• Constructed on Android 14
• AI options up within the air

Because the launch of the 13T Professional final 12 months, Xiaomi has drawn a line below its divisive MIUI customized Android interface. The Xiaomi 14T Professional, just like the Xiaomi 14 telephones, runs on its new HyperOS.

Whereas it feels sharper and snappier than ever right here – comfortably residing as much as the Xiaomi 14T Professional’s succesful processor and 144Hz show – it continues to frustrate. I’d like to say that HyperOS heralds in a very new strategy to cell interface design on Xiaomi’s half, with a cleaner, extra fashionable look and fewer bloatware. Nevertheless it appears to be like and feels very like MIUI earlier than it.

It runs on prime of Android 14, however you wouldn’t understand it. Virtually none of Google’s clear, fashionable UI, as seen on the Pixel 9 and Pixel 8a, works its approach by way of right here. The notification and management centre is an overstuffed affair, and one which splits in two, iOS-style.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

There’s no app tray (although this may be added) and the icons and menus vary between charmless and flat out ugly. You may basically alter the look of those with Xiaomi’s Themes retailer, however lots of these are fairly tacky-looking, whereas lots of them additionally require cost.

It felt like HyperOS was continually attempting to push Xiaomi’s Wallpaper Carousel on me with its random, sometimes weird lock display screen skins. After one night time out, I discovered that I will need to have unintentionally accepted one in every of these prompts, and located myself Googling the best way to deactivate it once more.

Xiaomi’s Settings menu stays a warren of complicated placement and infuriating useless ends. I’ve by no means used a Settings search system greater than Xiaomi’s, whereas my heavy use of the ‘Want different settings?’ suggestion on the backside of those menus means that sure issues simply aren’t the place you (or not less than I) anticipate them to be.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

As soon as once more, there are a great deal of undesirable preinstalled apps right here. Xiaomi has a bunch of its personal core apps after all. However you additionally get third social gathering efforts like Opera (making that three internet browsers proper off the bat), Reserving.com, LinkedIn, Amazon Music (along with YouTube Music), WPS Workplace, and AliExpress. It’s all only a bit a lot to take care of from a recent set up.

Like each different producer, Xiaomi is heralding AI with its newest flagship(ish) telephone nevertheless it’s not precisely a rosy state of affairs. A lot of that’s Google’s work, with Gemini preinstalled because the default assistant app, like on the Pixel 9. Google’s Circle to Search will apparently be made accessible on the telephone from 6 October.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Xiaomi additionally talked about a spread of its personal AI instruments in its press supplies, reminiscent of AI Interpreter, AI Notes, AI Recorder, and AI Subtitles. Nonetheless, Xiaomi has since instructed me that the cell model of AI Interpreter is at present unavailable, whereas AI Interpreter and different AI options might be accessible by way of an replace on the day of the announcement. So, too late for me to check.

Solely AI Subtitles was truly accessible to me forward of launch,  and even then solely in obvious beta type. Xiaomi is promising an OTA replace at some undetermined level sooner or later.

Having negotiated the glitchy means of getting AI Subtitles working, it primarily reads, interprets and subtitles at present taking part in audio and movies, each by way of a floating window on prime of the content material and an underlying app. It largely works as marketed, although the splurge of translated textual content from a French language video proved jerky and unimaginable to observe in actual time, with sentences increasing and contracting in a fashion that made my eyes go humorous.

Having completed the video, Xiaomi’s AI good abstract proved extra legible, giving me the principle speaking factors from a number of contributors. Nonetheless, its checklist of ‘Motion gadgets’ felt utterly off the mark, forcing a productiveness angle the place there was none. It’s price reiterating that this isn’t completed software program proper now, and Xiaomi has not positioned a date on when the completed model might be prepared.

Value & Availability

The Xiaomi 14T Professional begins at £649/€649 for 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, similar to the Xiaomi 13T Professional earlier than it. My overview mannequin is the 12GB/1TB possibility which I don’t have a determine for on the time of writing.

You’ll be capable to purchase it from the official Xiaomi Mi retailer in addition to, presumably, retailers like Amazon. As traditional, it gained’t be formally accessible within the USA.

It’s a really aggressive value for a telephone that performs in addition to the Xiaomi 14T Professional, and there’s actually nothing else in the marketplace fairly this spectacular from a {hardware} perspective in late 2024.

With Google’s value bump, the Pixel 9 is now £150 costlier. The Nothing Telephone (2) is maybe the closest competitor with its fractionally cheaper £629 RRP, however focuses on snazzy design and sharp software program over the 14T Professional’s uncooked spec assault.

Must you purchase the Xiaomi 14T Professional?

With the Xiaomi 14T Professional, Xiaomi has offered a really effectively specced almost-flagship telephone with aggressive efficiency and a very good 144Hz OLED show. Its digicam set-up, whereas not fairly flagship normal, is able to fairly nice issues, whereas the design makes up for a scarcity of frills with stable construct high quality and an honest invoice of supplies.

There have been notable enhancements over the Xiaomi 13T Professional too, most clearly within the provision of wi-fi charging – 50W no much less -, a extra sensible end, and much more dependable battery life.

It’s not fairly a house run, nonetheless. HyperOS continues to trigger friction, whereas Xiaomi’s AI implementation appears considerably half-baked on the time of writing. In the meantime, the omission of a charger within the field is way from uncommon, nevertheless it does probably characterize a stealthy value bump when you don’t have already got one in every of Xiaomi’s speedy 120W bricks.

As soon as once more, Xiaomi’s {hardware} is impeccable and its worth proposition compelling, nevertheless it nonetheless gained’t be the best telephone for everybody.

Specs

• Android 14
• 6.67in, 1220 x 2712, OLED, 144Hz, flat show
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Mediatek Dimensity 9300+
• 12/16GB RAM
• 256GB/512GB/1TB storage
• 50Mp, f/1.7 primary digicam
• 12Mp, f/2.2 ultra-wide digicam
• 50Mp, f/1.9 telephoto digicam
• As much as 8K @ 30fps rear video
• 32Mp front-facing digicam
• Stereo audio system
• Twin-SIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6/7
• Bluetooth 5.4
• 5000mAh battery
• 120W charging
• 160.4 x 75.1 x 8.4mm
• 209g
• Launch colors: Titanium Black, Titanium Gray, Titanium Blue