Xiaomi 14T Pro Review – Powerful Low Light Supremo Tested – the Malaysia Review

Xiaomi is on a roll of late with an array of new hardware launched in Malaysia along with the surprise inclusion of the Mix Flip foldable though their new midrange Xiaomi 14T Pro still took centrestage. We managed to get one ahead of launch and put it through its paces -here’s our Xiaomi 14T Pro review where we see if it’s worth what you pay for.

Xiaomi 14T Pro Review – Build and Design

Midrange phones by their very nature are typically compromise designs that cull proven hardware from their flagship siblings with concessions to performance, aesthetics or materials to keep the cost down. 

The Xiaomi 14T Pro bucks this trend somewhat. While it is a midrange design by dint of its specifications, it’s not all that far from the performance envelope offered by a flagship phone with a rather unusual twist. Leveraging Xiaomi’s close collaboration with camera titan Leica, the phone has a rear triple array optimised for low light photography.

Our Xiaomi 14T Pro review sample comes in a shade of metallic Titan Gray with an aluminium chassis that has IP68 dust and water resistance. The backplate has subtle curves and rounded out edges and corners to make it easier to grip with the dominating feature being its rear Leica-tuned triple camera array that also houses an LED flash. 

The left side of the phone is otherwise unremarkable though the side hosts a power button and volume rocker. The base itself packs a SIM card tray, a USB-C port for charging duties and a grille for one of the two speakers with the other perched just above the display in a tiny slit to form a stereo pair that is also beefed up with Dolby Atmos support. The top of the phone also has an IR blaster for controlling other appliances.

Up front, the Xiaomi 14T Pro comes with a 6.7-inch CrystalRes AMOLED display with 1,220 x 2,712 pixels resolution, 4,000 nits peak brightness, a luscious 12-bit colour depth, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support and a 144Hz refresh rate along with a tiny punch hole up top for a 32MP F/2.0 selfie camera while a fingerprint scanner is emplaced in the lower quadrant for verification. The display also gets a free pre-applied screen protector too.

Overall build quality is excellent and the Xiaomi 14T Pro looks exceptionally premium with a solid heft and feel when held. However, there’s no mention of what kind of protective glass is used in the front to protect the display and seeing as this is a test unit, we’re not at liberty to

This time around, our Xiaomi 14T Pro review unit for Malaysia has no provided charger. What you do get is a soft plastic protective case, the USB-C cable, a selection of warranty literature and the obligatory SIM card pin. It’s a bit of a downer but early bird specials for the phone do bundle it in as part of the package if you preorder.

Xiaomi 14T Pro review – Performance and benchmarks

Intended as the successor to last year’s Xiaomi 13T Pro, the Xiaomi 14T Pro notably has an improved MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ processor which has better overall performance and AI capabilities, the addition of wireless charging which is a first for Xiaomi T-series phones, a brighter display and best of all, a massively upgunned rear triple camera array optimised for low light photography.

Built on a 4nm+ process, the MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ octacore processor has a main Cortex C4 core that is clocked faster than a stock 9300 chipset, with the ability to go up to 3.4GHz as opposed to the 3.25GHz maximum of the stock 9300 processor though the rest of the cores are otherwise similar in speed and performance. 

The chipset also has better support for AI-related tasks with a quoted 10% performance boost and also has fast WiFi 7 as well as Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity.

To ensure sustained performance, the processor is paired with a revamped Xiaomi 3D IceLoop vapour chamber cooling system which has separate gas and liquid flow channels as well as a slightly raised three dimension bulge for the CPU for better heat dissipation.

For Malaysia, the Xiaomi 14T Pro gets 12GB RAM and your choice of either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage available depending on how deep your pockets go. Our sample for testing has 512GB of onboard storage.

Of note is that Xiaomi’s HyperOS firmware also adds on the option to assign additional virtual RAM off the onboard storage up to 12GB in size or disable it entirely if you’re short on space. Here’s the specifications of our Xiaomi 14T Pro review unit:

 

Price	256GB (RM2,599) 512GB (RM2,999)[review unit], 1TB (RM3,499)
Display	6.67-inch CrystalRes AMOLED, 1,220 x 2,712 pixels, 144Hz, 4,000 nits peak brightness, Dolby Vision, HDR10+
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 9300+
OS	Android 14 w/ Xiaomi HyperOS 1.0.3.0
Memory	12GB RAM / 512GB storage (256GB and 1TB variants available)
Cameras	50MP F/1.6 with Light Fusion 900 image sensor, OIS, Leica Vario-Summilux 1:1.6-2.2/15-60 ASPH lens + 50MP F/2.0 telephoto w/ 2.6x optical zoom, 12MP F/2.2 ultrawide (rear) / 32MP F/2.0 (front)
Battery	5,000mAh w/ 120W HyperCharge wired charging + 50W wireless charging
Size/Weight	160.4 x 75.1 x8.4mm / 209g

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks with the default 4GB extended virtual RAM, our Xiaomi 14T Pro review unit scored the following benchmarks:

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	1,781
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	1,470
3D Mark Solar Bay	6,601
3D Mark Solar Bay Unlimited	6,690
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme	3,880
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	4,052
Geekbench 6 Single Core	2,118
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	6,874
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	12,387
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	14,302
Geekbench AI (CPU, quantised)	2,206
PC Mark Work 3.0	15,785
PCMark Battery Life	14 hours 9 minutes

When compared with the incumbent flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor used in many flagship phones, the Dimensity 9300+ chipset in our Xiaomi 14T Pro acquitted itself well with competitive single and multicore performance though the 9300+’s Immortalist G720 MC12 GPU does trail a bit behind in graphics performance.

Even so, it’s more than capable enough to tackle the most demanding tasks including gaming on the likes of Genshin Impact and Call of Duty Mobile without issue.

The 6.67-inch CrystalRes AMOLED display offers good clarity under sunlight with an optional Sunlight mode that lets it achieve its peak 4,000 nits brightness under direct sunlight conditions though this naturally drains battery life fast in tandem with its 144Hz refresh.

Colour rendition was excellent with lifelike hues and the display was also responsive too thanks to its 480Hz touch sampling rate. The provided stereo speakers were also up to snuff, offering good volume and a fair amount of detail too for music and gaming alike.

Of note with our Xiaomi 14T Pro review sample is its ability to run relatively cool under field conditions. Even after an extended gameplay session of Genshin Impact spanning over three hours, the phone was only slightly warm to the touch but remained comfortable to wield two-handed without any discomfort.

Battery life on our Xiaomi 14T Pro is impressive with the phone at full charge easily lasting a day and a half even with 144Hz refresh mode and going in at full tilt with web browsing, calls, gaming and watching videos on TikTok. In PCMark’s battery life test, it managed to last an impressive 14 hours and 9 minutes.

While the omission of a charger is a bit of a downer, it still works with third party chargers and to be fair, most of us already have existing chargers lying around the place.

Activating their optional HyperCharge mode in settings and with a 100W UGreen charger,  we managed to get it juiced to 50% in 27 minutes and to a full charge in about 47 minutes which is respectable.

In terms of software and the overall user experience, our Xiaomi 14T Pro review unit with its Android 14 and HyperOS overlay proved to be a smooth and pleasant affair though it does get an unusually odd number of suggestions to download apps onto the phone.

The phone also gets an array of AI-powered features including Xiaomi’s AI Image that has AI Magic Erase Pro to delete photo bombers from shots along with AI Interpreter, AI Notes and more though all these features weren’t available on our early test sample but which will be pushed in a future update.

That aside, the phone gets 4 years of OS and 5 years of security updates which is a solid figure all things considered.

Xiaomi 14T Pro Review – Cameras and Low Light Performance

Arguably the main draw to the 14T Pro, the rear triple camera array is built around a primary 50MP F/1.6 main camera that has a custom-designed Light Fusion 900 image sensor paired with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a Leica Vario-Summilux 1:1.6-2.2/15-60 ASPH lens.

Complementing this setup is a 50MP F/2.0 telephoto camera with 2.6x optical zoom as well as a 12MP F/2.2 ultra wide angle camera. On paper, this setup allows for shots all the way up to 30x digital zoom as well as up to 8K@30fps video. The front comes with a 32MP F/2.0 camera for video calls and mugshots capable of up to 4K@40fps video capture.

In brightly lit and daytime conditions, our Xiaomi 14T Pro review sample was capable of serving up excellent, well saturated shots all the way out to about 2.6X zoom with great detail and colour rendition.

While it is capable of up to 30X zoom, shots tend to be a bit soft though they’re useful for capturing distant landscape features like the KLCC tower bridge from a distance.

Where the phone truly shines is in low light and it’s able to capture great shots even in challenging light conditions with good dynamic range and a stunning amount of detail from what would otherwise have been a dim swath of shadows. 

Naturally, shots are best tackle on the main 50MP camera with the Light Fusion 900 image sensor though shots up to 2.6x zoom also retain decent quality. Beyond that distance, images get a bit soft though it still has good dynamic range.

Selfies are otherwise decent but aren’t something to write home about as the Xiaomi 14T Pro isn’t intended as a selfie-centric phone though it does deliver decent shots in brightly lit conditions with fairly good skin tones in dimly lit conditions.

Beyond hardware, the Xiaomi 14T Pro excels on account of its cornucopia of Leica-tuned features. Out of the box, you get two Leica photography styles – Vivid and Authentic, six Leica filters and their Master Lens system that mimics four popular focal lengths in Portrait mode.

And that’s just getting started as the potential combination of Leica settings is mind boggling and could be daunting to novice users. Patient photographers and those willing to experiment will find that there are a wealth of rewarding features to delve through that can add a distinctive Leica touch to photos.

@hitechcentury Here’s our Xiaomi 14T Pro low light camera test featuring their rear triple Leica camera array on a whirlwind tour of Petaling Street, Malaysia at dusk! The next-gen Light Fusion 900 image sensor and Vario-Summilux lens gives it awesome low light performance – check out the video for shots! #XiaomiMalaysia #xiaomi14TPro #xiaomi14tseries #OnlyAtNight #FYP #hitechcentury #techtok @xiaomimalaysia ♬ Vlog ・ Stylish city pop(1275391) – orino

For videos, the Xiaomi 14T Pro captures footage with decent sharpness and good dynamic range in both daylight and low light if you keep to the main 50MP camera and up to 4K@60fps video; while it is capable of 8K@30fps this rapidly uses up storage and is difficult to edit. You can check out some of the photos and our prior feature on the Xiaomi 14T Pro’s cameras here. 

Should you buy the Xiaomi 14T Pro?

The Xiaomi 14T Pro is an affordable midrange phone that’s just shy of flagship status with a specialised emphasis on low light camera performance thanks to its Leica-tuned rear triple camera array.

You get a fine tuned blend of power and performance that combines a solid MediaTek 9300+ processor with a good display, great battery life with flagship-grade low light photography performance. Even if you’re not a low light shutterbug, it’s an otherwise solid workhorse that’s well worth your money.

Xiaomi 14T Pro review sample courtesy of Xiaomi Malaysia. To purchase please visit https://www.mi.com/my/event/xiaomi-14t-series/