Xiaomi 14T Pro review: Fitting the performance/budget matrix to a T

Note: This review was first published on 26 February 2025.

Can cheap, pretty, and good phones come back, please?

Last year, we gave the Xiaomi 13T Pro the Best Value Award because it was an incredible smartphone with plenty of hardware upgrades at a superb price point.

This time, the Xiaomi 14T Pro builds on that and offers a price drop at the highest storage configuration.

With flagship-level specs like LPDDR5X RAM, UFS 4.0 storage and a flagship-grade MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ processor, the Xiaomi 14T Pro is perfectly positioned to go up against more expensive flagship phones. 

TL;DR version:



Excellent value with plenty of small but nice upgrades. If you're looking for a powerful phone under S$1,000, the Xiaomi 14T Pro should be your first port of call.



Note: You can get the phone at authorised Xiaomi retail stores island-wide or at Xiaomi's official Shopee store

Additionally, the phone comes with new Leica optics and a new artificial intelligence signal processor (AISP), which means mobile photographers should be very excited about the quality of photos this phone can take.

So how much does the phone cost, with all its new improvements? The Xiaomi 14T Pro retail price starts at just S$799 for the lowest 12GB+256GB configuration, which wasn't announced at launch (it started at 512GB for just S$869).

If we compare the 12GB+256GB model, it retails for S$949, which is the same price as before, but the 12GB+1TB model is now S$999, which is a S$100 price drop from the equivalent Xiaomi 13T Pro model.

Does it live up to our high expectations? Let’s find out.

Improvements in small ways

Xiaomi has moved away from the vegan leather back aesthetic to a curved glass rear.

While this design is similar to most smartphones, Xiaomi's choice of subtle, textured, sparkly glass makes it different. The texture also provides some needed grip and eliminates the issue of grubby fingerprints on a glossy glass back. It's very reminiscent of the early OnePlus sandstone look and feel.

The aluminium sides are colour-matched to the glass, resulting in a sleek, seamless appearance that matches the glass and metal camera rings. Some people might prefer a pop of colour here and there, but I’m a big fan of the muted all-black look. 

On the front, we get a 6.67-inch 1.5K (2,712 x 1,220 pixels) CrystalRes AMOLED panel protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It has an adaptive refresh rate of up to 144Hz and a peak brightness of up to 4,000 nits, which is insanely bright and makes the display perfectly legible even under bright sunlight.

While it’s supposed to reach 144Hz, it theoretically only achieves that high speed in benchmarks and compatible games. For other content, it usually runs at 120Hz or 60Hz.

The display supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, and like last year, it is enjoyable to consume content on because of its vibrant, striking colours.

The phone retains the IP68 dust and water resistance rating it got last year, a major plus for durability (check this article on what it means). 

However, we noticed that the preinstalled screen protector was prone to scuffing. This is despite treating the Xiaomi 14T Pro as we would with any other reviewed phone (neither rough nor excessive).

If you get this phone, we recommend removing the preinstalled protector and getting your own screen protector in its place.

HyperOS

The Xiaomi 14T Pro came with HyperOS (Xiaomi’s skin of Android 14) out of the box when it launched back in September 2023, although we’ve now updated the phone to HyperOS 2 (Xiaomi’s skin of Android 15).

We won’t go too in-depth into either OS, as we’ve gone through HyperOS in our Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Ultra reviews, and what’s new in HyperOS 2 when we reviewed the Poco X7 Pro earlier this year.

The Xiaomi 14T Pro flawlessly runsHyperOS 2. Despite seeing a few pre-installed apps , such as Amazon Shopping, TikTok, WPS Office, LinkedIn, and Spotify, we didn’t encounter massive amounts of bloatware like we did while reviewing the Poco X7 Pro. 

However, there were some occasions when we saw ads of "recommended" apps. After a few times, however, these ads disappeared and never showed up again. The phone also comes with Google Gemini pre-installed.

Speaking of AI, the phone gets nifty AI features like AI subtitles, translation of conversations, and other AI photo editing features. Again, we’ve covered this in our Poco X7 Pro review, so check it out if you want a more in-depth look at the features.

The HyperOS 2 experience is generally good. Its design is influenced by refined operating systems like Apple’s iOS, making it easy for users to adapt and navigate. Xiaomi also promises four operating system updates and five years of security updates, which is a respectable duration.

Imaging performance

Xiaomi’s collaboration with Leica has been a fairly longstanding one, and when they brought Leica optics to the Xiaomi 13T series for the first time last year, it definitely resulted in some impressive results.

The Leica camera system has been improved this time, with new Leica Vario-Summilux 1:1.6-2.2/15-60 ASPH lenses.

That's combined with a:

• 50MP main camera (f/1.6 aperture, 2.4µm 4-in-1 Super Pixel, OIS)
• 50MP telephoto camera (f/2.0 aperture)
• 12MP ultrawide camera (f/2.2 aperture)

The results out of this camera setup is stunning for a midrange smartphone. 

As always, there are two photographic style modes to choose from: Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic. As the names suggest, the former bumps up the saturation and contrast for a punchier look, while the latter preserves a more balanced, accurate image.

The difference between the two is clear, and while everybody has their preference, I personally like the natural look of Leica Authentic, so most of the photos I shot were in that style.

Shots taken with the primary camera can be gorgeous if the lighting is ideal. The photos come out with plenty of detail and sharpness, and the colours are generally accurate, even if they get a bit boosted and warmer if you’re shooting in Leica Vibrant.

Ultrawide shots are relatively sharp in good lighting conditions, with good detail retention and colours. You do get a bit of distortion around the corners and sides occasionally however, but it’s not a big deal.

However, if you’re indoors or in low-light situations, it starts to fall apart a little. 

Night shots are fantastic, with a lot of brightening while retaining detail. Some of these shots were taken in really dark indoor scenarios, but the phone brightened the shadows while keeping visible details sharp and not too overexposed. 

Photography features like the Leica Custom Photographic Styles are still available. If you’re interested in adjusting your shots' tone, tonality, saturation and texture, this is a nice tool to tinker around with.

Tone adjusts the gamma curve to affect the contrast and dynamic range, while Tonality adjusts the colour temperature and cyan/magenta hues. Texture adjusts the level of sharpness.

The feature is still tucked away in the Pro mode, but it’s better since if you’re shooting in that mode, you most likely know what you’re doing.

Our one quibble from last year is gone. Xiaomi now offers the ability to save various presets and even import them. 

Benchmark performance

The Xiaomi 14T Pro uses the flagship tier Dimensity 9300+ chipset, which was announced in mid-2024. 

It’s supposed to compete against other flagship chips like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, so we’ll be comparing the Xiaomi 14T series to some alternatives around the S$800-S$1,000 price range with equivalent chips. 

Unlike last year, Xiaomi has decided to go with a flat 12GB of RAM across all storage configurations for the Xiaomi 14T series in Singapore. 

Putting it to the test

To find out how the competitors line up specs and price-wise, check them out in this link.

To find out more about the tests we conduct and what they relate to, we've jotted them down here.

Benchmark performance remarks

The phone performed very well against the competitors, particularly considering we pitted it against more expensive phones like the Honor Magic6 Pro and flagship Xiaomi 14.

Normal usage was smooth. Games played well without lag, and the phone only reached about 40°C when benchmarking, charging, or playing games for a prolonged period. 

We see an uptick in numbers across every benchmark, which we expected from the newer, more powerful processor.

Battery life

Our new battery benchmark uses PCMark for Android’s Work 3.0 Battery Life test to determine a modern Android-based smartphone's battery uptime in minutes. This controlled benchmark simulates real-world usage with a combination of both web and social media browsing, video and photo editing, parsing data with various file formats, writing (on documents), and more. 

Despite retaining the same 5,000mAh battery as its predecessor, the Xiaomi 14T Pro lasted 2.5 hours longer in the same battery life test, which is very impressive.

It also held up well against competitors like the Google Pixel 9 and the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, but the one major advantage the Xiaomi 14T Pro has is the quick 120W wired charging speeds.

It managed to get a 50% charge from 0% in just 29 minutes, although a full charge did take a bit longer at about 65 minutes, with the phone slowing down majorly once it hit 90%. This is most likely an attempt to preserve the battery's lifespan, so it’s not too big an issue.

If necessary, you can turn off smart charging and change the wired charging mode to “Top speed” in the battery settings, but we recommend keeping those options on the default settings if you plan to keep this phone for more than two years.

This time, Xiaomi has included 50W wireless charging capabilities, which is a nice addition and removes one of our cons from last year.

Conclusion

Our thoughts on the newest addition to the T-series remain highly positive, like last year's model. The Xiaomi 14T Pro is an incredible smartphone, whether you’re considering it at the S$800 or S$1,000 price range.

It offers excellent specs, such as fast LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage, a powerful MediaTek processor, nice Leica cameras, and more. It also checks out on all the basics like battery uptime software fluidity.

We gave the Xiaomi 14 a high score because we were so impressed by it, and this subvariant Xiaomi 14T Pro isn’t too far off from that standard.

Sure, it might have a MediaTek chip and thus not offer nice features like Snapdragon Sound or a USB 3.2 port for ultra-fast data transfer. But these are features you can live without for now, especially when you consider how much more affordable it is.

The Xiaomi 14T Pro does everything well for a phone that retails for just S$799. While there isn’t much of a change from the Xiaomi 13T Pro, we strongly feel that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies here.

People looking for a flagship-lite mobile that satisfies the core tenets of a good smartphone will find it in the Xiaomi 14T Pro. If you need anything more, you might have to pony up to get an actual flagship handset.

There are always users who want a phone that works well, looks good, and doesn't burn holes in their wallets. This phone delivers all of that in spades.

Xiaomi 14T Pro comes in Titan Black, Titan Blue and Titan Gray. The official prices are:

• Xiaomi 14T Pro: S$799 (12GB RAM, 256GB storage)
• Xiaomi 14T Pro: S$949 (12GB RAM, 512GB storage)
• Xiaomi 14T Pro: S$999 (16GB RAM, 1TB storage)

You can get it at authorised Xiaomi retail stores island-wide, and the phone is also available on Xiaomi's official Shopee store.