Xiaomi 14T Review: Beauty over brains? – Ultra-Sim

We were genuinely impressed with the Xiaomi 14T Pro (check out the review), but the T-series has one additional model, a trimmed-down version without the “Pro” moniker. Today, we’re going to investigate what has been lost along with that, and is the Xiaomi 14T still a good deal, and more importantly, a good phone?Of course, this strategy is nothing new; Xiaomi has been segregating its smartphone series into many different categories for years, and the T-series is no exception. The Xiaomi 14T retains some of the cool features of the Pro model while cutting some corners here and there, and this is reflected in the $599 price tag.

Let’s see what you’re getting for that kind of money.

Xiaomi 14T Design and Display

Like a Pro!

Design-wise, the Xiaomi 14T is almost identical to the Pro version, which is a good thing. We had trouble telling which is which from a distance; the size and weight are almost the same. One of the key differences is that the regular Xiaomi 14T model has a completely flat back, while the Pro is slightly curved.

The camera bump on the vanilla model sticks out less, and it’s ever so slightly smaller. But we’re talking fractions of the millimeter here. The Xiaomi 14T is also 0.4mm thinner and 14 grams lighter than the Pro version.

The same metal aesthetic is present here; the phone is available in the same Titan Gray, Titan Blue, and Titan Black hues, and the Titan Gray is definitely our favorite. The power button is again textured and has a nice feel to it.

PhoneArena Display Measurements:

In our display test, the Xiaomi 14T was able to go above the 1,000-nit threshold, outperforming even the Pro model in the brightness department. The other aspects of the panel are on par with the competition, but the Pixel 8a is still head and shoulders ahead in terms of display goodness per dollar.

The same optical fingerprint scanner from the Pro model is on duty under the screen, and for the most part it works as intended. There’s also facial recognition, but once again, it relies on a single front camera, so it’s not very secure.

Xiaomi 14T Camera

Leica-infused

Main Camera

The same goes for night shots. The samples are balanced, probably a bit on the softer side, because noise-reduction algorithms kick in. The dynamic range is still decent, and there aren’t any huge artifacts from point-like light sources. Overall, pretty decent job.

Ultrawide Camera

At 12MP the ultrawide camera inside the Xiaomi 14T is a mediocre affair. It gets the job done but without fanfares. It lacks autofocus, just like the one on the Pro model, so if you try to frame objects that are at a different distance you may run into focusing issues. The good thing is that color reproduction is uniform and the overall tonality is very similar to the photos from the main camera. That being said, the lack of detail is obvious.

Zoom Quality

The zoom camera is also different to the one found on the Pro mode. Here we have 50mm focal length equivalent or 2x if we count from the main camera. The quality is rather good, details are plenty, and the colors look natural. The dynamic range suffers a bit and images tend to look a bit flat sometimes. Also, at this magnification, the existence of a separate telephoto camera is mind-boggling, as the same or very close results can be achieved using 2x crops from the main sensor. But it is what it is.

Selfies

The 32MP selfie camera doesn’t have autofocus, and there’s not much you can adjust in the settings, you’ll get a decent shot, but nothing too special. The beauty mode is disconcerting, it’s like a character editor in Skyrim, you can be whoever you like. Another strange decision (just like with the Pro model) is to not pixel-bin the result and offer 32MP selfies shots. They’re not super detailed either.

Video Quality

Xiaomi 14T Performance & Benchmarks

Sacrifices

One of the biggest sacrifices (alongside the lack of wireless charging) is the Dimensity 8300 Ultra inside the Xiaomi 14T. Don’t let the name fool you, this is a midrange chipset that relies on one performance Cortex-A715 core clocked at 3.35 GHz, three of the same A715 cores at 3.20GHz, and four Cortex-A510 efficient cores running at 2.20 GHz. It doesn’t sound like a particularly powerful combo, but let’s look at some synthetic benchmarks and see where this chipset actually stands.

We wouldn’t call the Xiaomi 14T slow, in synthetic benchmarks the phone trades blows with the Pixel 8a and the Tensor G3, which is now getting old and not speed champion either. There’s also a slight hesitation from time to time when you ask the phone to perform something demanding, and overall, there’s a midrange feel to the experience. We can’t ask too much out of a much more affordable phone (compared to the Xiaomi 14T Pro), but this sacrifice is one that you can feel, and it kind of spoils the party a bit.

The phone’s interface is built on Android 14, with Xiaomi’s custom HyperOS UI on top. It offers some extensive customization options, allowing users to choose between a stock Android appearance or a more MIUI-like feel (which is reminiscent of iOS to some extent).

In this AI-driven era, we can’t live without the mandatory large language model magic. Instead of developing its own AI, Xiaomi has partnered with Google to integrate Gemini inside the Xiaomi 14T and we think this was the right call. Features include Circle to Search, AI Image Editing, AI Notes, and an AI Recorder with real-time translation, speaker identification, and summary generation capabilities. Some of them are due to arrive later this month (October) while others are readily available. 

One side note, Gemini still lies like crazy. We asked it to switch to a female voice in the live version and it pretended it did, only to use the same voice. “Yeah, I can totally switch my voice to female,” said the AI. You can see how it responds when we prompt the same request via text.

The Xiaomi 14T promises four years of major OS updates and five years of security patches. While this is less than the seven years offered by Google and Samsung, it still provides a reasonable update cycle.

Xiaomi 14T Battery

It’s okay

The Xiaomi 14T comes with the same 5,000mAh battery as its Pro sibling onboard, which in 2024 passes as a decent capacity. Given the underpowered chipset, we expected a battery champion, but things turned out much much different.

PhoneArena Battery Test Results:

PhoneArena Charging Test Results:

Should you buy it?