The middle of the market has seen some excellent devices compete for consumer attention in recent years. The Chinese tech giants, in particular, have made great strides in pushing expectations in the mid-range, and Xiaomi 14T has raised the bar once again.
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A marriage of premium-level design, flagship user experience and a gorgeous AMOLED display creates a compelling device that looks, feels and performs like something twice the price.
Premium Visual Design
The device is minimal and elegant in its visual design. It wears the ‘friendly box’ well, the rounded corners taking some edge off the package. Xiaomi 14T has a squircle type camera island on which there are four metal portholes. Each porthole contains one if three lenses or the dual-LED flash.
The portholes are surrounded with a small shiny metal ring that pokes just a little above the lens, mostly for protection of the glass. This porthole detail not only looks cool, but it really bolsters the ‘premium’ aesthetic of the device.
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The shape of the lens island matches the rounded corners of the device itself, which is nice detail to tie the whole look together. The square pattern also lends a pleasing symmetry to the rear of the device.
In keeping with the modern minimalism of the device’s visual design, there is just a solitary ‘Xiaomi’ logo on the back seemingly frosted onto 14T. The front wears minimal bezels around the display, which, again, looks like a premium device when its blasting its juicy 68 billion colours at thousands of nits.
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Our Titan Grey review model is muted and professional looking without being boring. The matte rear and frosted frame look particularly stylish in this colour. The colourful and bright display with its minimal bezels, almost leap from the demure and mindful grey colourway of our review model 14T.
Flagship Build
Xiaomi 14T feels like a premium flagship device. It’s solid and feels formidable to manipulate in the hand, but it’s not a heavy device either. The feeling of expense is enhanced by packing its tech and solidity into its slender 7.8mm depth.
The frosted frame and rear give a nice handfeel, but, perhaps more importantly, it makes the 6.67-inch display device easier to hold. Or more difficult to drop. The power button along the right-hand edge is textured to help avoid accidentally hitting volume or vice-versa.
Display of Expense
Xiaomi 14T’s 6.67-inch display matches, or exceeds, the quality of more expensive displays in just about every way. The brightness, 4,000nits max. on auto HBM, not only allows easy legibility in bright sunlight but also allow you to look at photos or video comfortably.
The display has a refresh rate of up to 144Hz so scrolling, gaming and compatible media looks incredibly smooth. Xiaomi’s 14T’s display and GPU also process 12-bits of colour per channel, allowing for 68 billion colours.
It’s worth noting that the imaging system of Xiaomi 14T operates on “only” 10 bits per channel for 1 billon colours, but the pipeline from camera to display maintains the full 10 bits per channel.
The 6.67-inch AMOLED display is filled by 1220 x 2712 pixels offering detail to match its vividness and brightness. The colour, clarity, contrast and refresh rate combine to give Xiaomi 14T one of the best displays we have seen at at any MRRP.
Price-Conscious Powerhouse
Our Xiaomi 14T review model (12GB RAM+512GB storage) runs a rounded performance package that offer responsiveness and stability. The device is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 Ultra chipset, paired with high-speed LPDDR5X RAM. The onboard UFS 4.0 storage also offers up to 12GB of extended RAM.
The hardware delivers fluid multitasking with instant app loading and switching. For everyday use, Xiaomi has that smooth and snappy experience you expect from flagship devices. HyperOS 2 adds polish to the Android experience with minimal bloat and some thoughtful tweaks. HyperOS 2 is also notably more attractive than its Android foundation with some unique iconography and animations that look nothing short of stunning on that AMOLED display.
Gaming Sleeper Phone
When it comes to gaming, the Xiaomi 14T holds its own impressively. The Mali-G615 MC6 GPU handles popular titles like Call of Duty: Mobile and PUBG Mobile with ease, running at high settings with consistent frame rates. Even graphically demanding games such as Genshin Impact are beyond playable, though ultra settings may push the limits slightly.
And on top of all that, Xiaomi 14T’s 144Hz AMOLED display features a sharp resolution and ultra-high touch sampling rate that make gameplay both responsive and visually immersive. Controls feel fluid, colours pop, and latency remains low; aspects that only enhance the gaming experience with Xiaomi 14T
Long Haul
The 5000mAh battery comfortably will happily manage hours of continuous gaming or video streaming. On our moderate workload, Xiaomi 14T had well over 30% left every evening, lighter users would easily get to bed on day two before needing the charger. Power users can be confident Xiaomi 14T will last the work day.
67W fast charging will charge the device from 0 to 100% in slightly over 45 minutes. A 10-minute blast as you prepare to head out for the day will get Xiaomi 14T’s battery up to around 35%, enough for around eight hours of use in our hour hands. And on top of all of this, Xiaomi 14T uses the PD3.0 standard so you can get avail of these speeds with compatible chargers of any brand.
Xiaomi 14T Specifications
| Chipset: | MediaTek Dimensity 8300-Ultra (4nm process) CPU – 1x Cortex-A715, Up to 3.35GHz – 3x Cortex-A715, Up to 3.2GHz – 4x Cortex-A510, Up to 2.2GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G615 MC6 AI – MediaTek NPU 780 |
| RAM: | 8GB, 12GB (reviewed) |
| Storage: | 256GB, 512GB (reviewed) |
| Display: | 6.67-inch AMOLED, 2712 x 1220 pixels, 1-144Hz refresh rate, 68bn colours, 4,000nits max., HDR10+, Dolby Vision |
| Camera: | LEICA VARIO-SUMMILUX 1:1.7-2.2/15-50 ASPH, Triple lens, Ultra HDR – 50MP, Sony’s IMX906 image sensor, 2.0µm 4-in-1 Super Pixel, ƒ/1.7, OIS – 50MP telephoto 2x optical zoom, ƒ/1.9 – 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 Video – 4K, up to 60fps. Slow motion, up to 960fps |
| Selfie Cam: | 32 MP, f/2.0, 25mm (wide) Video – 4K@30fps, 1080p, up to 60Hz |
| OS: | Android 15, HyperOS2 |
| Battery: | 5,000 mAh |
| Charging: | 67W wired, PD3.0, 100% in 45 min (advertised) |
| Connectivity: | Bluetooth 5.4, A2DP, LE, LHDC, GPS (L1+L5), BDS (B1I+B1C+B2a), GALILEO (E1+E5a), NavIC (L5), GLONASS |
| Dimensions: | 160.5 x 75.1 x 7.80mm |
| Weight: | 195g |
| Colours: | Titan Grey (reviewed), Titan Blue, Titan Black, Lemon Green |
All things considered, Xiaomi 14T is an outstanding performer for its price. It’s powerful enough to deliver a faultless everyday experience and offers a deceptively smooth gaming experience to go with it. The device’s display is amongst the very best we have seen and can stand with devices twice its price.
Xiaomi 14T also looks and feels like a premium smartphone. A confidently minimal and demure look whispers the brand name, knowing that people will ask when they see it. The slim form factor and minimal display bezel only add to the flagship aesthetic of the device.
Pricing and Availability
Xiaomi 14T is available SIM-free direct from MStore Ireland currently at €575, down from the regular vendor price of €699.
Xiaomi 14T is also available through Vodafone Ireland from free at €80 per month on a 24-month contract, or from €599.99 on Pay as You Go. The device is also available on Tesco Mobile Ireland Bill Pay from free on a €55 monthly contract over 24 months.
