Xiaomi 14T Pro Review: Pushing Xiaomi into Exciting New Territory

The Xiaomi 14T Pro is a smartphone that takes better photos than the price indicates, pushing this device into something performative between mid-range and flagship territory. Xiaomi’s T Series continues to mature, and the partnership with Leica is a driving factor.

Though it introduces AI features in this phone, Xiaomi doesn’t rest the device’s laurels on them. It is a wise decision because the standout results have more to do with how the phone and its cameras generally work. There are also excellent specs and buttery performance to punctuate the point that the $890 14T Pro is worth a look.

Design and Build

I covered many of the design details when first going hands-on with the 14T Pro, so won’t go over everything here but the obvious standout is the sheer design. I erred in saying it was an aluminum back when it’s an aluminum frame with a frosted glass back, but either way, it’s a decidedly more premium look. It’s also less of a fingerprint magnet than the glossier finish of the 13T series.

The 6.67-inch CrystalRes AMOLED screen is a gorgeous panel, albeit retaining the unusual 2712 x 1220 resolution. It’s also fast with a 144Hz refresh rate (although 60Hz by default) and brighter with 4,000 nits peak brightness. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support with Gorilla Glass 5 protection round out the details.

It’s worth mentioning that Xiaomi goes with a more natural color scheme for the screen by default. However, you can change that by going to Settings –> Display and brightness –> Color scheme and choosing from Vivid, Saturated, or adjusting the color gamut options. I point this out because it can impact how photos appear when looking at them in the Gallery app later on.

Since AI features play some role in how the 14T Pro works, it runs on a better MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ 4nm processor, ensuring the phone runs tasks briskly and smoothly. It also starts at 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, though you can find variants that go up to 16GB and 512GB or 1TB, respectively.

The 14T Pro also charges much faster than other phones in its price range, taking just 19 minutes to fully recharge with the 120W HyperCharge charger, though you don’t get one in the box. It’s also the first T Series phone to support wireless charging — faster than just about anything else — so long as you have a wireless charger that can handle rates up to 50W.

Camera Features

In another key move, Xiaomi switches to Leica Summilux lenses in another first for the T Series, leaving behind the previous Summicron lenses that the phones used before. It also equips the phone with the Light Fusion 900 image sensor co-developed with Leica for the main 50-megapixel wide camera (23mm equivalent). It’s the same 1/1.31-inch sensor from the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, and one the company claims gathers 32% more light than the previous 13T phones could. An f/1.6 aperture helps the cause, as do phase detection autofocus and optical image stabilization (OIS). All photos have pixel binning, so you get 12.5-megapixel images unless you shoot in full resolution through the 50MP or Pro modes. Fortunately, Xiaomi sees to it that you can shoot full-res in both JPEG and RAW this time.

The 50-megapixel telephoto (60mm equivalent) Samsung Isocell JN1 sensor may be equally intriguing because you can do the same thing with that lens. Pro mode lets you capture images at full resolution, whereas 50MP is limited only to the wide camera. Its f/2.0 aperture is decent, even if the focal length isn’t quite as far as other phones.

To offer some recourse, Xiaomi offers 2.6x optical and 5x hybrid zoom (120mm equivalent) options, but only when shooting in the regular Photo mode. The 2.6x length is more widely available to you, and at full-res in Pro, it gives you a fighting chance of cropping in further without losing detail.

Software Features

Now standard on Xiaomi phones with Leica camera branding, the 14T Pro’s camera app is based on the latter’s Authentic or Vibrant photographic styles. You can switch between them anytime, though some modes are pinned to Vibrant. I erred (again) in my hands-on by writing that Xiaomi removed the “customized photographic styles” it first introduced in the 13T models. They’re still there, but you can’t use them while shooting in RAW, so you can adjust tone, tonality, and texture for JPEGs.

Pro mode lets you create (or import) settings presets, which is still a very cool feature, and well worth trying when capturing JPEGs. For RAW images, you can adjust the basics, like shutter speed, ISO, focus, and white balance, as well as selecting one of the filters, but you can’t apply any tonal adjustments beyond that.

As I noted in my hands-on, Xiaomi offers a 2x crop factor for the main camera for a 46mm equivalent but doesn’t give it to you in the 50MP mode. Portrait mode gives you 23mm, 35mm, 60mm, and 75mm options and bokeh effects you can choose automatically or set manually. There’s even exposure compensation, should you want to play around with that.

Xiaomi claims a better dynamic range to go with the increased light gathering in the main lens, but its biggest challenge is dealing with exposed light. The 13T models struggled mightily in holding off exposed light bulbs, leading to lens flare affecting composition in some cases. It was worse with the ultra-wide lens, and while not as bad here, it remains an issue with the 14T Pro. It’s hard to quantify Xiaomi’s claim of a six-fold improvement in dynamic range, but I can tell you that it often doesn’t feel like that big a difference.

Image Quality

Main Camera

There’s no question the 14T Pro can take excellent photos. I was impressed with some of my results, yet also puzzled by how it struggles with certain scenes. The phone’s camera has a hard time with distinct differences, meaning a strongly backlit subject may not look all that illuminated or detailed if you don’t want to wash out the sky or background. That limitation can be acceptable when capturing a well-lit building with a night sky, but that’s also a consequence of the improved low-light performance.

Much of the dynamic range stumbles in situations where light challenges overall composition. For instance, you will have no real problem with a daytime shot of a vista or skyline with clouds in the sky, but it also depends on whether the sky is blue or overcast. In a photo I took of the Victory Column in Berlin, the sky’s detail only came out in post, not upon snapping the pic. In many cases, you get great results. It’s just that when the camera falters, it’s glaringly obvious, and that essentially has to do with how the image sensor handles light sources.

That’s the main drag on an otherwise fabulous camera system that proves more versatile than most competitors. The Authentic style, in particular, does a beautiful job pulling out detail in an image, whereas Vibrant makes them pop in ways to make a subject look interesting. That also extends to the black and white Leica filters within the interface. Leica’s presence adds something extra to images that always garner a response from others who see them. Anecdotal as it may be, people I know or meet have come away impressed with what they see here.

Telephoto and Ultra-Wide Lenses

The telephoto lens may be the big star because of its ability to capture both the detail and mood of a subject for whatever your subject happens to be. It could benefit from OIS, but I also recognize Xiaomi had to cut costs, so the lack of optical stabilization isn’t a terrible surprise.

What works with the telephoto is that you can use it for full-res images, manual controls, and portraits. While its 2.6x/60mm length doesn’t make it especially long, since it’s not a periscope lens, good photos in full-res can enable you to crop in just a little further. The same exposed light issues affect this lens as well, so you’re not immune when zooming in, though it’s easier to avoid them when you frame your subject the right way. While the 5x hybrid zoom is okay, digital zoom beyond that gets progressively worse and isn’t worth your time.

As for the ultra-wide camera, it’s a rehash of the one in the 13T Pro. While it does slightly better warding off lens flare, something I also attribute to the Summilux lens, a lack of detail along the edges is something you’ll have to contend with if the entirety of the frame matters to you. The imperfections are less noticeable when viewing those images on phone screens and more evident on laptop or computer screens.

Other Modes

Pro and 50MP are necessary to realize what the 14T Pro can deliver as a camera. The reasons aren’t any different this time; it’s simply a case of allowing you to do more with the photo before and after. I also had fun editing full-res JPEGs, suggesting that not every shot has to be in RAW when you can work with all the pixels available. Even in low light with a subject that’s not too dark, both perform admirably well, especially if it’s a static subject and you’ve got a very steady hand. Long-exposure shots with a tripod can be just as good.

The level of control here puts most others in the same price range to shame, save for other Chinese brands that stock up in camera settings. A comparable iPhone, Samsung, or Google mid-ranger doesn’t come close to presenting all these options — and I’m just talking about two modes. Never mind Long Exposure, which is fun to play around with under the right conditions.

AI Features

This is one area where the likes of Samsung and Google can breathe easily. Xiaomi is trying to stake a claim to offer some of the best AI editing features, but they’re just not there yet. Despite a substantial built-in editing suite within the Gallery app, parsing the AI-driven features gives you a mixed bag.

For example, under the Create section, going to Erase now gives you a “Pro” setting that ramps up speed and accuracy in removing people, objects, or lines from an image. A slider lets you crank up or dial down potency, though results are unpredictable either way. The AI is pretty good at automatically recognizing people in a photo to enable their removal with just one tap. The problem is if there are objects next to them (like a bike or stroller), then you have to run through the object removal process to erase those, too. Proximity matters here because drawing a circle around each may include the new pixels applied to the now-missing people, leaving you with a blotchy section.

Part of the problem is the software forces you to remove these things separately since there’s no general removal tool, like how Google’s Magic Eraser works. It’s also easy to replace the sky in a photo with all the options Xiaomi provides, except once you pick one, it may ruin the dynamic range of the foreground. You’re not dealing with layers, so anything you do to restore the foreground’s clarity becomes destructive to the new sky as well.

A far better implementation lies in AI Film. Here, you can select many images and videos and create short clips. Under Auto, an AI prompt lets you determine how it might look and whether you want specific effects. Clearly, Xiaomi is thinking of social media, given that you can also save results in 3:4 and 9:16 aspect ratios. It recognizes things like transitions and Ken Burns effects, though you can’t import your own.

There’s a fair bit of creativity on hand, especially if you go it alone and try the Custom feature instead. It works like a timeline where you can add text to images and audio to the entire clip, which can be the music Xiaomi includes or your own MP3 tracks. I know other third-party tools are available, but these built-in tools are ideal for those who want to share batches of images on social media without migrating them to other apps.

Video Features

Xiaomi is a rare case in that it lets users record in 8K at 30fps on a mid-range phone. The 14T Pro has a pretty extensive toolkit for video capture, whether it’s the standard video mode, Master Cinema, or Movie. You can use the Leica styles with them, much as you can with Short video, a social media-driven mode for short clips with an array of filters to choose from. Dual Video is a solo mode that records from both the rear and front cameras simultaneously.

For more granular control, you can use Pro mode for video, or try Director mode to link multiple compatible devices together for shots from different angles. Pro mode also offers LOG shooting when you want to handle color correction yourself later.

Getting Better at a Better Price

It’s always nice to see a product get better without a commensurate price increase. While availability is limited to online sources for those in North America, there is tremendous value in what the 14T Pro delivers. It’s a mid-range phone that usually doesn’t feel like one. Beautiful screen, solid craftsmanship, excellent cameras, improving software — what’s not to like about that?

Not everything lines up perfectly, of course, but that’s also based on the bar Xiaomi set with last year’s models. Xiaomi’s HyperOS is better than the previous MIUI overlay, leading to a growingly efficient and intuitive user experience.

Are There Alternatives?

The Vivo V40 Pro is among the best mid-range phones few have heard of. It’s perhaps the best camera array of any phone in the same range to the point where it’s hard to find one. Another option, mainly if you like portrait photography, is the Honor Magic 200 and its partnership with Studio Harcourt in Paris.

For less money, you can try the Google Pixel 8a as a value alternative good for point-and-shoot situations that don’t require much fiddling with controls.

Should You Buy It?

Yes. The Xiaomi 14T Pro earns its keep for more than just its photography. The company also improves its devices through software updates, which bodes well for stretching your dollars out further.