You’re looking for an upper mid-range phone or just a solid all-rounder, and you’ll probably find this year’s Xiaomi 14T series attractive. But it’s hard to say Xiaomi 14T and the Xiaomi 14T Pro apart, which makes it even harder to decide which one to get.
And yet the 14T Pro commands a serious price premium over the vanilla 14T. At the time of writing, the price difference is around €150-200. A non-trivial difference, we would say. So let’s see what it has to offer on top of the already excellent Xiaomi 14T.
Table of contents:
For starters, you can compare full spec sheets or continue directly with our editor’s review in the following text.
The spec sheets alone can’t tell the whole story, so let’s dive deeper and see what’s beneath the surface.
Size comparison
In terms of size, the 14T and 14T Pro are essentially twins. They have the same screen diagonal, height and width. Although the vanilla 14T is slightly thinner, probably because it lacks a wireless charging coil, it is more than ten grams lighter.
The difference in weight can probably mainly be attributed to the fact that the 14T Pro has an aluminum frame, while the 14T makes do with a completely plastic frame.
Still, that doesn’t mean the 14T feels cheap. Both devices have very nice construction and the matte glass-like surface of the standard 14T is quite pleasant to the touch. Some may even find the boxy frame with straight sides more attractive and offering a more secure grip.
Show comparison
The 14T and 14T Pro share the same screen: 6.67 inches with all the bells and whistles such as HDR10+ support, 16-bit color depth and a refresh rate of 144 Hz.
The tests also show it. Both panels reach 1,200-1,300 nitsensuring a comfortable outdoor viewing experience.
Battery life
When it comes to battery life, the 14T Pro is the clear winner here, although not by much. The 14T Pro consistently beats the 14T in all tests except the 4G calling scenario, but it only outpaces its cheaper sibling. Nevertheless, choosing the 14T Pro will likely get you some extra runtime whether you’re surfing, gaming, or watching streaming videos.
Since the two devices run the same HyperOS software and share the same battery and screen, the Dimensity 9300+ SoC remains the only variable that adds some extra hours to battery endurance.
Charging speed
Charging is one of the reasons you might want to spend some extra money for the 14T Pro. It supports Xiaomi’s own 120-watt fast charging standard, while the 14T itself makes do with 67W. Unfortunately, neither box contains the correct charger, so you’ll have to buy that separately.
If you use the maximum charging power of 120W, you will be rewarded with a full charge in just 23 hours. That is lightning fast and significantly exceeds the 14T with its 67 W.
Furthermore, only the 14T Pro supports 50W wireless fast charging with Xiaomi’s own wireless charging standard. Another reason to buy the 14T Pro.
Speaker test
If we just look at the results from the speaker test, we can conclude that the 14T has slightly better speakers. They are slightly louder and have a similar frequency response curve.
Subjectively, some may like the 14T Pro’s speakers better because it has a fuller, warmer sound with more pronounced bass. That doesn’t mean the 14T has no bass, but the boost in the highs results in more pronounced vocals and toned down lows.
Performance
CPU performance is the other reason you might want to choose the 14T Pro. It runs on a more powerful, flagship MediaTek chipset: the Dimensity 9300+ chipset compared to the Dimensity 8300 Ultra in the 14T.
The Dimensity 9300+ graphics chip is also significantly more powerful. The benchmark results are here to confirm.
There is no difference in the memory configurations. Both devices offer the same memory options, while the storage chips are both UFS 4.0. The only difference is that the Pro has one additional configuration with 1TB of storage and 12GB of RAM if you really want to splurge.
Benchmark performance
The performance difference between the 14T and 14T Pro is huge and the Pro performs a whopping 77% better than its brother on multi-threaded CPU tasks (Geekbench 6) and is 60% better in its overall performance when combining CPU, GPU, memory and storage (AnTuTu 10). The graphically demanding 3DMark Wild Life benchmark shows that the GPU of the 14T Pro is 33% faster.
This performance gap is hard to ignore, especially by users looking for a more powerful device.
Camera comparison
The Xiaomi 14T and 14T Pro share largely similar camera hardware, but there are a few differences to keep in mind. For example, the 50 MP f/1.7 camera on the 14T uses a smaller 1/1.56″ sensor, while the Pro gets a 50 MP 1/1.31″ sensor paired with an f/1.6 aperture. In theory, the 14T Pro should produce slightly better photos, but in reality the difference is rather negligible.
The zoom cameras are also different. The 14T proper gets a 50MP unit with 2x optical zoom, while the 14T Pro expands that to 2.6x. The ultrawide and selfie cameras are all identical: 12 MP f/2.2 ultrawide and 32 MP f/2.0 selfie shooter.
Image quality
In terms of photo quality, the differences are even smaller. The ultra-wide cameras achieve identical results during the day and at night and the same can be said for the main camera.
The 14T Pro has a slight advantage during the day with slightly sharper photos, showing finer details, but you have to look closely to spot the difference. It is especially visible in the foliage and the finely detailed facades of buildings. It’s even hardware to tell the difference at night.
Xiaomi 14T: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 4x
Xiaomi 14T Pro: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 2.6x • 5x
The 14T’s 2x zoom camera has a slight advantage over the 14T Pro’s 2x zoom crop.
But the 2.6x zoom camera on the 14T Pro is really sharp, offering superior image quality in daylight and about the same in low light.
Both phones perform equally well in their respective 4x and 5x zoom modes, even if they are digital zooms.
Xiaomi 14T: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 4x
Xiaomi 14T Pro: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 2.6x • 5x
Video quality
In the video department, the two devices exchange blows. While the 14T and 14T Pro produce similar videos with their ultra-wide-angle and main cameras, the 14T’s 2x zoom camera offers significantly better zoom videos. It’s just noticeably sharper.
Below are a few frame grabs of the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length to make it easier to compare them.
Xiaomi 14T: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 1x
Xiaomi 14T Pro: 0.6x • 1x • 2.6x • 1x
You could argue that the 14T Pro’s main and ultrawide cameras produce slightly sharper videos with more accurate color temperature, but you’ll have to look very close to see the difference. Additionally, some may appreciate the 14T’s slightly warmer and cozy-looking video display.
However, the nighttime capabilities of the 14T Pro are significantly better. The video sample we created has greater dynamic range, is sharper, has less noise, and has better contrast and more accurate colors.
Pronunciation
Judging from the spec sheet, the 14T Pro seems to be the less practical choice. Even if you explored the nuances further, you could argue that the Xiaomi 14T is good enough and you can get more than half that for a lot less. After all, the two devices cost about €150-200 apart.
On the other hand, the 14T Pro will justify the price difference for users looking for better performance and faster charging. This is where the 14T Pro leads the 14T and excels in our battery life tests and camera comparison.
For most of you, there’s no easy answer to the dilemma, so weigh your priorities and decide whether the 14T Pro is worth the extra cost depending on whether you appreciate the extra features it offers.
- The significantly lower price tag.
- The better zoom videos.
- The boxier design.
Buy the Xiaomi 14T for:
- The slightly longer battery life.
- The harder construction.
- It charges much faster.
- The much higher performance.
- The better overall camera experience.
Buy the Xiaomi 14T Pro for: