I tested a Xiaomi phone that might be the best-value Android you can buy

The Xiaomi 14T Pro looks and feels like a flagship phone. It’s got a curved glass back, a striking camera system adorned with a Leica insignia, a bright display, and a peek under the hood reveals ample power courtesy of MediaTek and fast wired and wireless charging.

Despite launching at the end of last year, Xiaomi’s 14T Pro has aged exceptionally well. Costing less than the iPhone 16e (128GB) and a little more than the Galaxy A56 5G (256GB), the 14T Pro seems unsure if it’s a flagship wannabe or a pimped-out mid-ranger.

Xiaomi’s phone has plenty of competition beyond Apple and Samsung. The Google Pixel 9 (128GB) and OnePlus 13R remain marginally higher-priced options. In Xiaomi's own camp, the excellent Poco F6 Pro has a similar design and capable specs. Or the Honor 200 Pro is another value champ.

So, with such an overload of upper midrange Android options, does the Xiaomi 14T Pro have what it takes to beat the competition?

How much does the Xiaomi 14T Pro cost?

When it first launched in the UK, the Xiaomi 14T Pro with 256GB storage cost a punchy £649 (around $840 / AU$1,330 – not that it's available in those territories), or £699 with 512GB, and £799 with 1TB.

A few months on, and whether you’re buying the phone from Xiaomi’s official site or third-party retailers like Amazon, you can enjoy a three-figure discount already, making it a much more competitive option – and one of the best value smartphones in this price range.

Xiaomi 14T Pro vs Xiaomi 13T Pro

• Retains key highlights including 144Hz display and 120W charging
• Upgraded design and more premium materials
• Fast 50W wireless charging
• Better gaming performance thanks to MediaTek Dimensity 9300+

The Xiaomi 14T Pro breaks through to a new premium level for the T series. Gone is the plastic frame of the 13T Pro, swapped out for much more premium metal. There’s the addition of wireless charging, while the cameras are also upgraded, with a faster aperture primary camera and a further-reaching optical zoom.

The 14T Pro also carries forward what made everything about the 13T Pro excellent, including its quality, smooth 144Hz display, high-capacity battery, and super-fast 120W wired charging – for a full tank in around 25 minutes.

The newer 14T Pro also features upgraded power, with a MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ chipset for buttery smooth gaming across top-tier titles, including Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves.

While it can’t compete with the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite and MediaTek Dimensity 9400, the 14T Pro likely packs more power than most will need in the coming years.

Is the Xiaomi 14T Pro durable?

• Premium styling, flat metal frame, curved glass back, and a flat screen
• Available in three colours with a fingerprint-resistant frosted glass back
• Durable build: pre-fitted screen protector, Gorilla Glass 5 and IP68-rated

Xiaomi leant into the KISS principle – "keep it simple, stupid" – when designing its 14T Pro. Classic styling with a flat metal frame, rounded corners, a pillowy curved glass back, and a flat screen all comes together to create an almost foolproof, classic aesthetic.

Available in three colours – Titan Black, Titan Blue and Titan Grey (pictured) – the mature styling matched with the fingerprint-resistant, frosted glass back ensures the 14T Pro makes a good impression, while also feeling premium.

Weighing 209g, the phone has a presence in the hand, but thanks to all its well-placed curves, it still sits comfortably against a palm. All the buttons (power and volume) are easy to press on the right side, with the textured power button being a great touch, and the USB-C port, bottom-firing speaker and dual-SIM slot are at the base.

With a pre-fitted screen protector, a case in the box, and a Gorilla Glass 5 display, as well as IP68 water and dust resistance, Xiaomi’s done a good job of making the 14T Pro competitively durable. It’s even been tested to withstand a freshwater dunk of 2 metres for up to 30 minutes – a slightly better stat than most of the competition.

The Xiaomi 14T Pro's HDR10 and Dolby Vision display

• 6.67-inch AMOLED display, 446ppi pixel density
• Eye-care features with 3840Hz PWM dimming and TÜV certification
• HDR10 and Dolby Vision Netflix-ready
• Ultra-smooth 144Hz refresh rate

The Xiaomi 14T Pro has a large, 6.67-inch AMOLED display, which looks excellent. It’s sharp with 446 pixels in every inch of screen, bright enough to see outdoors even in sunny conditions easily, and also supports some nifty eye-care features.

These include 3840Hz PWM dimming, TÜV Rheinland low blue light, circadian-friendly and flicker-free certification, and plenty of screen customisation and reading mode options if you dive into the settings.

With HDR10 and Dolby Vision support and Netflix certification for both, the screen’s also ready to start streaming in all its glory, with HDR content peaking at 4000 nits, creating a glorious contrast ratio for super-atmospheric viewing – especially when watching in the dark.

Where the 14T Pro even edges ahead of some flagships is its ultra-high refresh rate of 144Hz. That’s gaming monitor smooth, and while most Android games cap out at 60Hz, spec-fiends should appreciate the stat.

Where the display falls slightly behind isn’t in visual quality, but how efficient it is, likely contributing to the 14T Pro’s respectable but not excellent battery life.

Is the Xiaomi 14T Pro good for gaming?

• Powerful MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ is excellent for gaming
• 256GB, 512GB or 1TB storage and 12GB RAM
• HyperOS is capable – but bloated
• 5000mAh battery capacity
• 120W wired and 50W wireless charging

With its MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ chipset, the Xiaomi 14T Pro packs 2024 flagship power, making it an excellent choice for gamers who can’t quite afford a 2025 flagship like the Galaxy S25 Ultra or OnePlus 13.

Long bouts of playing 3D games and hot-spotting can make the Xiaomi 14T Pro warm up, but it never got uncomfortably hot in my time with it, and the flat sides and flat display all contribute to a great, hand-held mobile gaming experience.

The phone is also a solid multi-tasker, with 12GB fast LPDDR5X RAM and up to an additional 12GB virtual RAM (pulled from the nippy UFS 4.0 storage within).

The Xiaomi 14T Pro also sounds good with dual speakers, though it can’t best the iPhone 16 Pro Max or new Honor Magic 7 Pro – two of the best phone speakers around.

It’s great to see Xiaomi include eSIM support on the 14T Pro – a feature confusingly missing from the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. The phone also supports Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, and Wi-Fi 7, making it as specced out as the best out there when it comes to connectivity.

The Xiaomi 14T introduces some obligatory AI elements to the series, which covers a number of Google features – Circle to Search and Gemini – and Xiaomi’s own interpreting, recording/transcribing, image editing and writing tools.

These AI tools are all very similar to what we’ve seen before, but they work well, helping Xiaomi get competitive without any headline features.

Running Android 14 on launch and having been updated to Android 15 shortly after, the Xiaomi 14T will receive four years of OS updates, taking it through to Android 18, and five years of security updates. This isn’t class-leading, but it’s still competitive.

Xiaomi’s HyperOS operating system is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s feature-rich, so you can customise your experience at a granular level with display modes, plenty of wallpaper options, home screen layout settings and more.

There are some stumbling blocks when navigating the HyperOS experience, though, with some bloatware to uninstall when you fire the phone up, and strange quirks like the Themes and Files app requiring you accept cookies to use them. Not deal-breakers, but they take the shine off.

The main aspect of the Xiaomi 14T Pro that isn’t quite as good as I hoped it would be is battery life. The 5000mAh cell will comfortably make it through a day of typical use with around 20% power remaining, but if you’re hammering the camera, gaming, or fire up performance mode, then you could struggle after a very long day.

A boon for the whole battery story is Xiaomi’s 120W wired charging, powering the phone up fully in around 25 minutes. At the price, 50W wireless charging is anything but a given – so the fact Xiaomi includes it is a big win too, even if you'll need to buy a charger to hit those top speeds.

Xiaomi 14T Pro’s Leica camera review

• Main (23mm): 50-megapixel, f/1.6 aperture, 1/1.3in sensor size, optical stabilisation (OIS)
• Zoom (2.5x, 60mm): 50MP, f/2.0, OIS
• Wide (15mm): 12MP, f/2.2

The Xiaomi 14T Pro has a triple camera around the back, lead by a 50MP main camera (with a large 1/1.3-inch sensor – around the same size as the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera sensor), matched with a fast f/1.6 aperture.

An upgraded telephoto camera shoots with a roughly 2.6x zoom at a 50MP resolution, while there’s also a 12MP ultra-wide camera to cater for broad scenes.

If you’re wondering where Leica comes in – the camera system has a Leica lens and the photo processing has the Leica-tuned look. Think heightened contrast and drama for a classical, photographic aesthetic.

The heavy Leica look isn’t always a good thing though. When bright objects are nested in dark scenes, they can have a visible halo, a sign that the HDR algorithm has misjudged things, and occasionally highlights can get blown out.

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Image 1 of 10

That said, the Xiaomi 14T Pro is typically a very good camera phone. The main camera takes beautiful close-up shots, producing photos loaded with depth and detail. Close-up subjects pull focus thanks to the fast aperture and large sensor creating a soft background.

All three cameras tend to be reliable for photos in bright to middling environments. At night, the primary camera wins out, and the same can be said for video, too, with the 14T Pro’s 4K 60fps video looking impressive at the phone’s price.

For fans of flatter, more smartphone-like photos, the Google Pixel 9 might be more your speed. But if you’re after shots that swing a little bigger with contrast, saturation and atmosphere, Leica and Xiaomi’s 14T Pro could hit the mark better than alternatives at its price.

Xiaomi 14T Pro review: Verdict

The Xiaomi 14T Pro is a great all-rounder. When it launched, its pricing was arguably punching a little high – but just a few months on and it’s one of the best value options around.

Between its style, screen, performance and camera, the Xiaomi 14T Pro even manages to best fresh phones like the OnePlus 13R, Google Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy A56 5G in a few ways.

The cherry on the cake is fast wired and wireless charging, making up for so-so battery performance – and making it a great value option for anyone looking for a flagship Android experience on a budget.

So while the Xiaomi 14T Pro may not be the best smartphone money can buy, it's easily among the best at this mid-range level – without compromising on quality imaging, premium styling and wireless charging.

Also consider

The Xiaomi 14T Pro has a few obvious alternatives. In the Apple camp, the new iPhone 16e is a pricier iOS option with Apple’s latest power and ecosystem, but not a huge amount else going for it, at least in terms of spec.

Android fans who want to spend a bit less, the Samsung Galaxy A56 5G undercuts the asking price, though its camera and power pale in comparison, and there's no wireless charging.

Alternatively, the Galaxy S24 FE costs a bit more and matches the Xiaomi’s spec a bit more closely, though Xiaomi still offers better value for anyone happy to take a punt on a less well-known brand.

Pixel fans could opt for the pricier Google Pixel 9, which has a champion design and better software, provided you're happy to settle for no telephoto camera and much slower charging.

Anyone seeking better battery life and similar power should check out the OnePlus 13R – which has a higher-capacity 6000mAh battery, though no wireless charging and a weaker camera system.