Last year, I reviewed the Xiaomi 14T Pro, and no doubt the phone impressed me a lot. Now, Xiaomi has introduced a successor, the Xiaomi 15T Pro. The company’s T-series devices are known for their performance and camera capabilities while offering the lowest price compared to premium flagships.
This time around, Xiaomi has completely turned the tables with its latest generation T-series smartphone, bringing notable design, camera, and battery upgrades. Perhaps most significantly, it now doesn’t come cheap, though. If you ask me why, the obvious reason is that Xiaomi’s latest T-series smartphone has inched closer to flagships than traditional mid-range phones.
Like last time, this time too, Xiaomi provided us with a 15T Pro review unit. It’s been almost two weeks since I started using the Xiaomi 15T Pro as my daily driver, and during my extensive testing period, the phone performed really well. The real question is, does it stand against some of its mid-range flagship rivals like the Google Pixel 10, OnePlus 13, and iQOO 13? Let’s find out.
With its Leica-tuned cameras, flagship-grade design, and all-day battery life, the Xiaomi 15T Pro delivers premium performance without the premium price tag.
Pros
- The new design looks more premium than previous years
- Fluid 144 Hz AMOLED display
- Snappy performance
- Amazing telephoto lens
- Solid battery life
Cons
- Some bloatware
- No charger included in the box
- Limited market availability
Price and Availability
The Xiaomi 15T Pro starts at €799/£649 for the base 12 GB + 256 GB variant, while the 12 GB + 512 GB model costs €899/£699. Plus, Xiaomi has also announced a 12 GB + 1 TB storage configuration as well, which will set you back €999/£799.
Though if you look at the price of the Xiaomi 15T Pro from a market perspective, the price does feel more expensive than some flagship rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S25, Pixel 10, or iPhone 17. This is something that definitely bothers buyers when considering Xiaomi’s 15T Pro phone.
Xiaomi 15T Pro Unboxing
Design and Build
When I unboxed the Xiaomi 15T Pro, I was taken aback by its new, refreshing camera layout and overall design. Xiaomi ditched its individual protruding lens design from its predecessor and opted for a uniform squarish camera island, which looks much better than the last-generation model.
Are there any major changes in the overall design of the 15T Pro? The answer is yes. Dimension-wise, the device is now taller, slimmer, and wider than its predecessor. To be more exact, the smartphone measures 162.7 x 77.9 x 7.96 mm and weighs around 210 grams. By contrast, the 14T comes in at 8.4 mm thickness and weighs 209 grams. Despite boasting larger dimensions and a bigger battery capacity, the device isn’t any heavier and looks sleek and elegant. Specifically, if we look at the numbers, the phone weighs just one gram more than its predecessor. That almost makes no difference.
This time around, Xiaomi used a glass fiber back finished in a matte texture on the 15T Pro’s rear side, which offers a great in-hand feel. The 6M13 aluminum construction is quite sturdy, and the beveled edges ensure a comfortable fit for the palm. I liked the new squarish camera island design, which has chamfered edges and a metallic finish that looks quite good. Plus, the carved Leica branding present between the four lenses offers a premium flagship phone vibe.
All the buttons and ports on the device are positioned perfectly, and I didn’t face any problems, like hard-to-reach buttons. The device is IP68 rated for water and dust resistance, meaning it can easily withstand dust and water. Xiaomi also claims that the smartphone can survive up to 3 meters (up from 2 meters from the last generation model), which is good to see.
Like last year’s phone, there is nothing new in the box content. You get the same color-matching soft silicone case, a Type A-to-Type-C charging cable, and a pre-applied screen protector; that’s it. There’s no charger included in the 15T Pro retail package.
Xiaomi brings three color options to choose from, which include black, gray, and mocha gold. The one I’ve received for review is the gray variant, which does look good, but honestly, I really liked the mocha gold colorway. Well, the camera bump is larger; that further translates to a minor wobble on a flat surface, particularly in the top right corner.
Screen
The major upgrades reach the screen as well, which is good to see. The Xiaomi 15T Pro now features a larger display than before. It has a 6.83-inch AMOLED display (a step up from the 6.67-inch of the 14T Pro) that delivers a resolution of 2772 x 1280 with a whopping peak brightness of 3,200 nits. The phone feels very snappy and fluid in regular use, thanks to the 144 Hz refresh rate.
Upfront, there’s Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, protecting the panel from accidental scratches and falls. Speaking of panel quality, the 15T Pro has a very nice display, which offers sharp, vivid, and bright colors. Xiaomi has also packed a wide range of eye features into the phone, including DC dimming, TUV Rheinland certification for low blue light, flicker-free, and circadian-friendly credentials.
The display of the smartphone is pretty bright, and I didn’t have any problems using the phone under direct sunlight. This makes it one of the brightest phones I’ve ever tested. Unlike the base variant with ultrasonic, it comes with an in-display optical fingerprint sensor. Although this still gets the job done.
Performance
The performance department is now more powerful than before. The 15T Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chipset, and honestly, in real life, the device offers flawless performance. No matter what tasks you throw at it, whether it’s streaming, browsing, scrolling social media, or gaming, the 15T Pro handles everything. Speaking of my experience, I used the smartphone for two weeks and I didn’t notice any slowdowns.
Xiaomi has offered up to 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1 TB of UFS 4.1 storage. Additionally, you get all the latest connectivity with the Xiaomi 15T Pro, including Bluetooth 6.0, cutting-edge WiFi 7, NFC, and 5G. The review unit I received features 12 GB of RAM and 1 TB of internal storage.
Speaking of benchmarks, MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400+ managed to impress me on the Geekbench 6 and 3DMark stress tests, where the device achieved scores of 2474 in single-core and 7480 in multi-core tests. On the other hand, it also performed quite well in 3DMark stress tests by scoring 3345 in 3DMark Wildlife Extreme, 5559 points in 3DMark Solar Bay, and 20 fps in the 3DMark Wildlife test. The CPU score is quite good compared to last year’s Dimensity 9300+-equipped Xiaomi 14T Pro. However, the processor isn’t quite there in terms of raw performance.
Coming to the gaming performance, I played some of the popular mobile titles such as Genshin Impact, BGMI, and COD Warzone. During gameplay, I didn’t notice any lags or frame drops on high-graphics settings. The smartphone does get warm during my one-and-a-half-hour gaming session. However, it doesn’t get as hot as its last-generation model.
Xiaomi has incorporated a bigger 5,500 mAh battery into the Xiaomi 15T Pro, a step up from the 5,000 mAh of the 14T Pro. With heavy use, mostly gaming, streaming, scrolling, and taking videos and photos, the phone easily offered me a day-long battery life (10 hours and 37 minutes) without any issues whatsoever, and in casual use, it lasted around 18 hours and 25 minutes on a single charge. That’s impressive.
In terms of charging, Xiaomi has slightly downgraded the charging power compared to the 14T Pro, which features 120 W wired charging. As far as the charging speed is concerned, the 15T Pro supports 90 W wired HyperCharge and 50 W wireless HyperCharge charging. Still, it’s faster than the latest iPhone 17 series and Galaxy S25 series. It took just over 45 minutes to fully charge the device and only 21 minutes to hit the 0 to 50% mark. The only quibble is that there’s no charger in the box and you have to purchase it separately. Although it’s not the first time, Xiaomi also did the same with the last-generation model too.
Camera Performance
Like its predecessor, the Xiaomi 15T Pro also has a Leica-tuned triple rear camera setup. The primary camera is 50 MP, complemented by a 12 MP ultrawide and a 50 MP periscope telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom. This time around, there are a few upgrades in the camera hardware. The main camera now comes with a large 1/1.31” sensor with OIS and PDAF support. The periscope lens boasts an equivalent length of 115 mm, and the aperture is f/3.0. Upfront, you get the same 32 MP Samsung KD1 sensor as last time.
The main camera captures really good pictures in daylight and low-light conditions, offering a great level of detail, a wide dynamic range, and good contrast. Enough talking; let’s take a look at some samples. You can clearly see the magic of Leica’s color science in the samples. Colors look accurate, balanced, and quite natural. I really liked the processing in the 15T Pro. The low-light performance of the smartphone is better than before. It does a good job in low-light conditions, delivering great shots with maximum detail without over-brightening an image.
However, the ultra-wide camera disappoints me a lot in terms of quality. To be more exact, it captures less detail and has an average dynamic range, and things go south in low light. Although you do get decent usable shots, that’s it. I hope that Xiaomi will improve this in their next iteration.
The addition of the new 5x telephoto is a game changer—it’s the first periscope used in a T-series. During my testing, I found the quality to be simply phenomenal; the images look realistic, sharp, and accurate with the main camera. The telephoto lens offers detailed images up to 5x, good images up to 30x, and usable images up to 60x, but after that, once you reach 100x, you see the major shift in quality—details get lost, and all you get is blurry output.
Like its predecessor, the 15T Pro allows you to record video at a maximum resolution of up to 8k 30 fps. Xiaomi has also added 4k 120 frames per second for slow-mo shots. No doubt, the video quality is really nice in daylight, although it does struggle a little bit, especially in low light.
The OIS/EIS works really well for image stabilization on both the main and telephoto lenses. The selfie camera is also good and offers nice, crisp, and detailed selfies with good skin tones.
Software
The Xiaomi 15T Pro boots HyperOS 2.0 based on Android 15 out of the box. The company has promised four major OS upgrades and six years of security patches, which is fine, but at this price point, Xiaomi must at least provide support for six major OS updates. Even Samsung’s mid-range A-series devices ship with a six-year software update policy, and the Pixel 9a sits at seven years.
Speaking of software experience, the OS looks good, feels snappier and super smooth, and it offers tons of customization options. However, the one thing that doesn’t change is the bloatware. You do get some amount of bloatware here. Though it’s removable, which is good. Xiaomi also offers a wide range of AI tools, including AI writing, AI editing, AI eraser, AI translation, and real-time AI interpreter mode.
Should you buy the Xiaomi 15T Pro smartphone?
Buy it if…
- You want a smartphone with large display
- You like Leica-tuned camera phones
- You want a smartphone with great all-round specs
- You want a smartphone with good battery life
Don’t buy it if…
- You’re looking for an flagship camera smartphone
- You want a clean UI experience with long-term software support
Final Thoughts
Awarded to products with an average rating of 3.75 stars or higher, the AndroidGuys Smart Pick recognizes a balance of quality, performance, and value.
Products with this distinction deserve to be on your short list of purchase candidates.
Overall, Xiaomi did a phenomenal job with its latest, the 15T Pro. I really liked the new design, solid camera system, bigger display, long-lasting battery life, and fantastic performance of the 15T Pro. So far, the device ticks almost all the important boxes, making it a great option for those who want a solid camera phone without breaking the bank.
The only quibble is the software. If you are looking for an clean UI experience with longer software support, you may want to consider the Pixel 10, the OnePlus 13, or the Samsung Galaxy S25.
