If you don't want to spend over a thousand pounds on a flagship phone, you might be interested in something like the Xiaomi 14t pro. The price of this starts at around 800 euros at launch

But because it is more affordable than most flagships, does that mean it's not as good? And are there any areas where it might actually be better than some 2024 flagships? And how have they managed to keep the price low? I'll highlight those things for you as we go through this review.

It's worth mentioning …it does have some interesting working AI features on day one. And in regards to cameras, they have teamed up with Leica. So that's a big deal. And if you stick around the camera section. We'll play a little game, a blind camera comparison game to see how good your eyes are when it comes to spotting the Xiaomi 14T Pro vs the Pixel 8 Pro vs Galaxy S24 Ultra. Anyway, let's get into it

Colours & price 

Colour options here are Titan grey, titan blue, and titan black. This year, the frame of the 14T Pro is an upgraded aluminium alloy. Xiaomi says it's 116% more resilient than last year's T Pro model. The edges are flat, and the display glass is flat as well.

It is IP68 water and dust-resistant. The buttons are all located on the right side, just like the Samsung Galaxy phones. Xiaomi has also added a nice texture to the power key.

It has stereo speakers and a dual SIM tray, but no expandable memory exists here.  Storage options will likely range from 256GB 12GB RAM to 1TB 12GB of DDR 5X. And storage is UFS 4.

There's also an IR blaster, which almost no flagship phones have. And the back panel has this kind of sparkling look to it. It feels grippy and barely shows fingerprints. 

An optical fingerprint reader is under the display on the topic of fingerprints. And biometrics might be the first area where Xiaomi has saved some money. Because they could have gone with a slightly more expensive ultrasonic scanner or 3D face unlock.

Display

Now, let's talk about the display. If you thought it was crazy that the non-pro iPhone 16 in 2024 is rocking a 60hz panel, this display makes matters worse for the regular iPhone. It's a 6'7" 144hz 1.5k Amoled with 12-bit colours, 446 ppi and up to 4000 nits of peak brightness. On paper, this phone doesn't just defeat the base model iPhone but one up some more expensive phones released in 2024. 

It supports HDR 10+ and is officially certified by Dolby Vision. And yes, it does look good. It has many built-in eye protection features, including 3840 hz PWM dimming. There are also some TUV Rheinland eye comfort features. 

And the screen-to-body ratio here is 93.3%. And despite the very impressive specs on paper, the fact that Xiaomi didn't go with an LTPO display is probably another way they've managed to keep the price down. To put this simply, instead of being able to slow the refresh rate right down to 1hz and gradually up to 144hz. It jumps from 60 up to 120Hz and up to a maximum of 144.

Battery

Now, let's talk about batteries real quick. The battery cell size is 5000mah, which aligns with some more costly flagship phones. Charging speed via a wire is above average at 120 watts.

They call it hypercharge and can take the phone from zero to 100% in less than 20 minutes. The wireless charging speed is above average at 50 watts. But you would need a compatible charging mat.

Now one cost-cutting measure here is that there is no reverse wireless charging.

Performance

So that's the power. Now, let's talk about speed. Flagship chips are expensive. And Xiaomi, instead of going with the Flagship Qualcomm chip this year, has opted for the Mediatek equivalent.

It's called the Dimensity 9300+. It is a 4nm chip, and Xiaomi says the multicore performance is up 37% per cent. So to see how this plays out, I ran a 3D Mark Extreme benchmark test next to my Galaxy S24 ultra & Pixel 9 Pro to see how it stacks up. Here are the results of that.

Camera

If you jumped straight to this section. Hey, what's up, hello. Let me introduce you to the Xiaomi 14T Pro's stove…ok, I'm joking, but there's a lot of firepower here.

The Xiaomi 14T Pro has a triple camera setup with Leica symbolic optical lenses. You get five focal lengths. Interestingly, the primary sensor is not a Sony or a Samsung. It's actually from Omnivision, and they call it the Light Fusion 900. it's also sometimes known as the Light Hunter 9000, which is a better name, in my opinion.

There's also a 50MP tele and 12MP ultra-wide. And the selfie is 32MP. 

Now, the light hunter Omnivision sensor is said to be a beast in low-light scenarios. Here's a question for you. Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? I do wherever I go to get a glass of water at night, and this devil dog is constantly trying to bite my feet.

That's a Batman joke, and it will all make sense. Now it's time for the blind camera test. See if you can spot the Xiaomi 14T Pro.

Blind Camera Test

The Answers

Alright, how did it do? Be honest. 

Software & Ai

Anyway, one concern I know many people have when switching to a new phone is how much bloatware to uninstall on day one. & How different is the UI compared to what I'm used to? Well, here is all the preinstalled stuff on this phone straight out of the box.

Now, this is initially frustrating. But you need to keep in mind that this is one of the ways Xiaomi can subsidise the cost of the phone. So, no bloatware means you'd be paying from your pocket, or some bloatware and companies like booking.com cover some of the cost. Given the choice, what would you choose?

Now. Regarding the UI, Xiaomi has recently cleaned it up with their Hyper OS on Android 14. The navigation, notifications, and control panel style will be familiar to anyone using Android devices. Xiaomi has also thrown in some features that iOS users will find to be very similar. It's an excellent operating system & there's lots of customisation tweaks to play with. They have also started rolling out some AI.

Such as an AI interpreter, AI notes and a circle to search with the help of Google Gemini. There is one fantastic AI feature here that I particulary like, and it's generative expansion, which is incredible.

Unfortunately, this is a pre-release demo unit, and I still need to get all the AI on this one right now. But rumours suggest it should be available at launch. 

So, this has been my pre-release review. If you want to see more content from me and Xiaomi 14T pro. Let me know what you want to see.