At the beginning of this year, we already wrote about the photo flagship Xiaomi 14, and now at the end of it, we’re talking about the new sub-flagship Xiaomi 14T. The smartphone comes at a significantly nicer price than the older version, but overall, it boasts nice specs and camera capabilities. We’ll dive into all of this and much more, as always, in the review below.
Content
| Screen | AMOLED, 6.67″, 1220×2712 pixels, 446 ppi, 144 Hz, supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, peak brightness – 1600 nits |
| Body | Plastic, glass |
| Protection | IP68 (submersion up to 2 meters deep for 30 minutes) |
| Processor | Mediatek Dimensity 8300 Ultra, 4 nm |
| Graphics chip | Mali G615-MC6 |
| Memory | 12/256, 12/512, 16/512 GB formats LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0 |
| Main camera | 50 MP, aperture f/1.7, optical stabilization; 50 MP telephoto, aperture f/1.9 PDAF, 2x optical zoom; 12 MP ultrawide lens, aperture f/2.2 |
| Video recording | 4K at 60fps |
| Front camera | 32 MP, aperture f/2.0 |
| Video recording | 4K at 30fps |
| Communications | 5G, Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.4, GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO |
| Operating system | Android 14 with HyperOS firmware |
| Sound | Stereo |
| Battery | 5000 mAh, fast charging 67 W |
| Colors | Titan Gray, Titan Blue, Titan Black, Lemon Green |
| Dimensions | 160.5×75.1×7.8 (8.0) mm |
| Weight | 193 grams |
Xiaomi 14T comes in a white box with a minimalist design.
Inside, you’ll find the phone itself with a film on the screen, a black silicone case, USB-C cable, documentation, and instructions. There’s no power adapter included in the box.
Xiaomi 14T looks like most modern Android flagships or sub-flagships — flat edges, but rounded corners, thin frames, and a protruding camera module. The body is made of matte plastic with glass, or another type of plastic.
The smartphone has a relatively compact size of 160.5×75.1×7.8 mm and weighs 193 grams. It fits comfortably in the hand, but its surface is quite slippery, so it’s better to use a case right away. However, at least in the black color (Titan Black), there are no visible fingerprints or other signs of use. Dust is noticeable right away. But there are also colors like Titan Gray, Titan Blue, and Lemon Green, so the situation might be different, for better or worse.
Xiaomi 14T is water and dust resistant according to the IP68 standard. It’s stated that the smartphone can be submerged in fresh water up to two meters deep for up to 30 minutes. But, of course, it’s not advisable to do this just for fun. It’s better to leave this test to accidental or unfortunate events, especially since the store is unlikely to return or exchange a «drowned» device, as there’s no warranty for that.
On the front, we see a round hole for the front camera and relatively thin frames.
On the back, there’s a square platform where the three main cameras and flash are placed. Next to them, we see the Leica inscription, and lower on the body, Xiaomi.
The right edge houses the power button and volume keys. There’s nothing on the left. On the top edge, we see an IR port, and on the bottom — a slot for cards, a microphone, a speaker, and a USB-C port.
Xiaomi 14T is equipped with a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1220×2712 pixels. The pixel density here is 446 ppi, and the refresh rate is 144 Hz. It also supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision technologies.
The built-in fingerprint scanner is also not forgotten. It works quickly and rarely glitches. However, it fails to recognize moist fingers more often than not.
In the settings, you can choose an automatic mode for changing the refresh rate, or 60 or 144 Hz modes. There’s also an option to change the color scheme and adaptive colors settings. In the first case, I like the «Standard PRO» mode, but it’s always a matter of taste, so you need to choose individually.
Like the older Xiaomi 14, the display of Xiaomi 14T is one of the main advantages of the model. It’s juicy and bright, and it also has an excellent ppi index, so the picture is detailed. The presence of HDR10+ and Dolby Vision technologies also doesn’t go unnoticed because with these technologies, videos become significantly cooler, and their colors become realistic and vivid.
The maximum brightness is also very adequate. Especially here, as we have a sub-flagship at a significantly lower cost. On a sunny day, it’s easy to use the smartphone, and everything is visible on the screen. There’s enough brightness reserve, and personally, I find a level of 75% sufficient for indoor use.
However, if that’s not enough for you, there’s a «Day mode» which doubles the maximum brightness. But this negatively affects the battery discharge and heats the phone, so use the available feature sparingly.
Xiaomi 14T has stereo sound, but it’s not two full-fledged speakers, but a speaker+earpiece. Despite this, the sound is loud and voluminous, as much as it can be in smartphones. However, it’s still a bit worse than I remember from Xiaomi 14.
Like the older model, they’ve brought support for Dolby Atmos and Xiaomi Sound audio technologies. They didn’t forget about sound presets, which even work, and an equalizer.
The vibration feedback is tactilely pleasant, but doesn’t have additional settings, except for a tactile feedback dial. There was nothing like this in Xiaomi 14 either, so it would be strange to have something like that in this simplified model.
Xiaomi 14T is equipped with three main modules. The primary one is a Sony IMX906 sensor at 50 MP with an aperture of f/1.7 and optical stabilization. The second is a telephoto, also at 50 MP with an aperture of f/1.9, and a 2x optical zoom. The third is a 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor with an aperture of f/2.2. The smartphone records video at resolutions up to 4K including a 30 fps mode.
If you remember the Leica inscription next to the cameras, you might guess that in this model, the Chinese also collaborated with this well-known German company. The smartphone got two photo modes from them — Vibrant and Authentic. In the first case, the photos will have saturated colors and overall be bright, i.e., more similar to the formats of all modern smartphones. The Authentic mode offers natural color rendition and realism.
I like the second mode better, but that’s totally a matter of taste, so it’s really up to you to choose and compare. But overall, the camera is another huge plus of this model. Because the photos taken on the main module are detailed and balanced. They have nice contrast and adequate colors, as well as a decent dynamic range. The telephoto module, though, isn’t as good with dynamic range, but overall, it also takes quality photos that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to show off not just on social media, especially if they go through some post-processing. The ultrawide module is just okay.
Night photos are also OK, but I was hoping for better, as I’ve seen various tests of this camera from colleagues and vloggers where the photo quality was significantly better. Maybe you really need to shoot in very lit places at night because I actually took pictures when the lights were out and there was little street lighting.
Sure, the Xiaomi 14T takes worse photos than the Xiaomi 14 and other similar flagships, but it’s also half the price. But in its price range, it’s one of the best smartphones for photography.
The front sensor of the Xiaomi 14T has a resolution of 32 MP and an aperture of f/2.0. It can shoot video in 4K at 30 frames per second.
The specs here seem similar to a flagship, but this module is a bit worse. If you don’t compare it with Xiaomi 14, the front camera takes detailed quality selfies, there’s a decent portrait mode with various focal lengths, beautifiers, etc. However, in the same portrait mode, sometimes the background blur is done with artifacts, especially when there are some details behind the subject, like straight horizontal or vertical lines etc.
Xiaomi 14T features a 4-nanometer Mediatek Dimensity 8300 Ultra processor (Cortex-A715 with a clock speed of 3.35 GHz + 3 cores Cortex-A715 with a frequency of 3.20 GHz + 4 cores Cortex-A510 with a frequency of 2.20 GHz) and a Mali G615-MC6 graphics chip. All this combined with fast memory (12/256, 12/512, 16/512 GB) formats LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0 delivers great results in various benchmarks. At the same time, the chipset stays relatively cool, considering its power. The same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 posted almost 2 million in AnTuTu, but it seriously throttled.
The smartphone also has 5G modules, Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.4, GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, and also supports eSIM function. There are two main cards here and they are nano-SIM. But you can’t add an extra memory card, so you have to decide which built-in memory suits you best.
The processor is the third important plus of the Xiaomi 14T. The chipset is powerful but relatively cool, and the phone has lots of memory. Therefore, the device easily runs any modern games at high-maximum graphics settings with a high frame rate, although it’s not positioned as a gaming device. It also runs a variety of heavy applications etc., it works fast, and its system doesn’t glitch at all.
Xiaomi 14T has Android 14 installed, topped with the proprietary HyperOS interface. It is highly customizable and can be adapted to the user, but it also stands out with various ads and many pre-installed apps out of the box.
The manufacturer promises four years of system updates and an additional year of updates with security patches. For a Chinese manufacturer, these are normal numbers because some major companies don’t even give that much.
Through HyperOS, Xiaomi 14T received artificial intelligence features. There’s a built-in Gemini app, you can use AI in editing photos, and they promise to add AI assistance in some other apps later. But right now, there are certain features in the screen menu. For example, users are offered to activate ultra-high resolution, which will be provided by AI. There’s also AI-enhanced HDR and a MEMS function for creating smoother videos by adding frames.
I activated all these features, but didn’t see any difference. Maybe if you use the smartphone for a long time, and then compare it with other phones without these enhancements, the difference will be visible, but I didn’t see anything like that immediately, and I tried.
Xiaomi 14T has a 5000 mAh battery. This figure has been the norm for many modern Chinese smartphones for a while. In PC Mark tests, the new product showed a result of 12 hours, which is not the best, but a good result.
In everyday use, you can easily count on a full day, or even a day and a half, if you don’t spend much time on social media and don’t play.
The sub-flagship supports 67 W charging, but the package does not include a power block, so it will charge at the speed of your available power supply. I have a powerful 90 W block, so it provided the stated 67 W. From 0 to 100% the device charges in 45 minutes. Charging to 50% takes less than half an hour. Wireless charging wasn’t provided, which will be a minus for some.
Before reviewing, I didn’t expect anything from Xiaomi 14T and specifically didn’t look up its specs or capabilities. The design and appearance of the device won’t surprise anyone in 2024. It just looks normal, but you’ve seen modern budget phones that sometimes look better. So I was very surprised by Xiaomi 14T during the tests and use, all in a good way.
The phone impressed with its versatility, and its almost modest design somewhat hides its real capabilities. It can do a lot. Powerful processor, great camera, and screen. It feels good in the hand, but better in a case, especially since one is included and it’s not transparent. There’s also a screen protector included, but no power block, which is kind of a minus, but that’s the trend.
Battery and autonomy are just normal, but some definitely won’t like the lack of wireless charging, although I wasn’t expecting it. It’s also good that there’s full water protection, although I’m sure the warranty doesn’t cover that, but it’s important that the smartphone doesn’t drown in some situation.
Xiaomi 14T is sold at a price from 17,899 hryvnias, but these are «gray» versions. In big networks like «Allo», the official price of the officially imported device starts from 21,999 hryvnias. In my opinion, the first price is just great, and the second is more than adequate for all the available capabilities of the device.
But competitors aren’t sleeping either, they’re plenty and they mean business. For instance, there’s the Motorola Edge 50 starting at 16,900 hryvnias. There’s last year’s Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus, which could be yours (starting from 13,000) if you need something more affordable but just a tad simpler. Also worth checking out the Google Pixel 8 (priced from 20,000 hryvnias) and its little brother the Google Pixel 8a (priced from 16,900 hryvnias). The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE also stands as a serious competitor, currently available from 19,300 hryvnias. And there’s also the realme GT 6T (priced from 17,500 hryvnias), Poco F6 (priced from 15,199 hryvnias) and the Poco F6 Pro starting at 18,400 hryvnias.
