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The Xiaomi 14T series is here with better low-light photography and new AI features

Everything you need to know about the Xiaomi 14T series, Xiaomi's latest flagship phones with Leica cameras.

10 min read
The Xiaomi 14T series is here with better low-light photography and new AI features

If you live in the US, you've probably never seen a Xiaomi phone out in the wild. That's not surprising considering they aren't sold in the States, but what is surprising is how successful Xiaomi is despite forgoing one of the largest smartphone markets. Today, Xiaomi unveiled yet another lineup of smartphones that won't be coming to the US: the Xiaomi 14T series. The Xiaomi 14T series consists of two smartphones with high-end MediaTek chipsets, Leica cameras, and a whole bunch of new AI-powered features. Here's what you need to know.

Disclaimer: Xiaomi invited me to attend the Xiaomi 14T launch event in Berlin. They covered my travel expenses but did not have any editorial input over my content.

Xiaomi 14T and its new "Titan Gray" design

Xiaomi releases a lot of products every year, but these products typically don't have any similarities in design like color or materials. The company is changing that this year with the release of the Xiaomi 14T series and its range of new accessories. The Xiaomi 14T series, Xiaomi Watch 2, Xiaomi Buds 5, and Xiaomi Smart Band 9 come in a new Titan Gray finish that looks sleek and industrial. If the gray looks dull to you, you can also pick up the 14T series in Titan Blue or Titan Black. The base 14T also comes in a special Lemon Green variant that features PU leather.

Xiaomi says the 14T series is very durable and that the frame of both phones is made of 100% recycled aluminum. Both phones are IP68 rated for dust and water resistance. They also have dual stereo speakers, ridged power buttons, dual nano SIM card trays, triple rear cameras and a dual LED flash housed in a camera island, a flat display with rounded corners on all four sides, a front-facing camera housed in a centered hole-punch cutout, and a factory installed screen protector. Basically, the Xiaomi 14T series looks like your traditional slab phone, but it's what's under the hood that Xiaomi believe really sets it apart.

"Master light, capture night" with the Xiaomi 14T

"Master light, capture night" is the tagline for the Xiaomi 14T series, and it reflects one of the key features of the new devices: improved low-light photography. Xiaomi wants its smartphones to better compete with traditional cameras when it comes to low-light photography, so they upgraded the main camera and tuned the software to eke out better low-light performance.

For starters, the Xiaomi 14T Pro features an upgraded main camera that uses Xiaomi's custom 50MP image sensor, the Light Fusion 900. It has an aperture of f/1.6, which means it takes in 32% more light than the main camera in the Xiaomi 13T series. The regular Xiaomi 14T, meanwhile, uses Sony's 50MP IMX906 image sensor with an f/1.7 aperture. The main camera on both phones come with optical image stabilization.

The main camera is joined by a secondary telephoto and a tertiary ultra wide-angle camera with similar specifications when compared with the previous generation. The telephoto camera uses a 50MP image sensor with an f/2.0 aperture on the Pro and an f/1.9 aperture on the non-Pro, whereas the ultra wide-angle camera on both uses a 12MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. In total, the Xiaomi 14T series offers 5 different focal lengths: 0.6X (15mm), 1X (23mm), 2X (46mm), 2.6X (60mm), and 5X (120mm).

All three cameras feature "next-generation" Summilux lenses. Xiaomi has been collaborating with the German lens maker Leica for a few years now, and the latest lenses they co-engineered have made their way to the Xiaomi 14T series after debuting on the Xiaomi 14 series earlier this year. They're 7P aspherical high-transmittance lenses with an anti-glare coating, spin-coated IR filter, and come with "lens-edge" ink coating technology.

On the camera processing front, Xiaomi says they optimized the capture speed to enable taking photos faster in low-light conditions. Compared to the Xiaomi 13T series, the Xiaomi 14T series has a 1.58X faster capture speed.

No 2024 smartphone launch is complete without mentioning AI, and Xiaomi is no exception. Xiaomi's proprietary photography architecture, which they've dubbed "Xiaomi AISP," processes photos on-device to improve the clarity of photos, reduce noise in photos, produce more natural portrait photos, and more. The Xiaomi AISP boasts 54 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of performance, which the company says is an improvement of 92% compared to the previous generation.

This raw computing power is used to run four proprietary machine learning models: FusionLM, ToneLM, ColorLM, and PortraitLM. Each of these LMs (large models, not to be confused with the large language models that power AI chatbots) handles different things in the image processing pipeline, with FusionLM for example processing pixels for nighttime shots. Xiaomi says these AI models combine 8 RAW images into a single photo, improving clarity, sharpness, and noise reduction and leading to a 6X increase in dynamic range compared to the 13T series.

The Xiaomi 14T series continues the trend of featuring different Leica photography modes. When first launching the camera app, you can choose between the Leica vivid and Leica authentic profiles (and later switch between them at any time). The authentic profile allows for more "authentic" Leica imagery, while the vivid profile offers more punchy and contrasty images.

The phones also feature the plethora of "ultra videography" features found in the previous generation, including MasterCinema, Movie Mode, and Director Mode. Both phones also support Google's Ultra HDR image format, though only the Pro can shoot videos at 8K30 quality or in HDR10+.

The Xiaomi 14T series promises top-tier performance and battery life

Though the Xiaomi 14T series may not look it, Xiaomi says the phones have flagship-tier displays, processors, and battery life.

Both phones in the Xiaomi 14T series are equipped with a large 6.67-inch AMOLED display that reaches a peak brightness of 4,000 nits. The displays have a 2712x1200 (1.5K) resolution panel with an up to 144Hz adaptive refresh rate and 12-bit color depth. They also have a variety of eye comfort features, like 3840 Hz PWM dimming support and a reading mode that auto adjusts the colors based on the apps that are running and the sunrise/sunset schedule. Lastly, the Pro has a display chip that allows for upscaling videos using super resolution, interpolating frames using MEMC, or tonemapping SDR to HDR content.

Under the hood, the Xiaomi 14T is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 Ultra whereas the Xiaomi 14T Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9300+. The Dimensity 9300+ in the Xiaomi 14T Pro is MediaTek's highest-end 4nm SoC, featuring one Arm Cortex-X4 CPU core clocked at up to 3.4GHz, three Arm Cortex-X4 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.85GHz, and four Arm Cortex-A720 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz. It features the Immortalis-G720 MC12 GPU with raytracing support. Compared to the Dimensity 9200+ in the 13T Pro, the Dimensity 9300+ in the 14T Pro offers 37% faster CPU performance, 44% faster GPU performance, and 100% faster NPU performance.

The chipset is paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage (512GB max on the 14T). The Xiaomi 14T Pro is also cooled by Xiaomi's custom "3D IceLoop" system and features the Xiaomi Surge T1 tuner for improved connectivity. Both phones support Bluetooth 5.4 with Auracast but only the Xiaomi 14T Pro supports Wi-Fi 7 (the 14T only supports Wi-Fi 6E). Both devices also use the same optical under-display fingerprint scanner. Although the spec sheet doesn't mention it, we can confirm that at least the Pro does support eSIM, but only if your device's region isn't set to the U.S.

Powering both devices in the Xiaomi 14T series is a large 5000mAh battery that can be topped up at different rates on the 14T and 14T Pro. The Xiaomi 14T Pro charges at up to 120W using Xiaomi's wired HyperCharge charger, whereas the Xiaomi 14T charges at a maximum of 67W via HyperCharge. The Xiaomi 14T Pro can also charge wirelessly at a rapid 50W using one of the company's 50W HyperCharge wireless chargers.

HyperOS, now with more AI features

The latest version of HyperOS, which is currently based on Android 14, debuts on the Xiaomi 14T series. The new version features a variety of system optimizations to improve performance and fix bugs but also includes several new AI features that Xiaomi has broken down into two categories: Creativity and Productivity.

The new features under the Creativity AI umbrella include:

  • AI Film:
    • Advanced scene recognition for optimal shot capture.
    • Provides composition suggestions and music synchronization.
    • Enables creative video recording on smartphones.
  • AI Image Editing:
    • AI Image Expansion:
      • Generates content beyond the original image based on its content.
      • Optimizes composition.
    • AI Erase Pro:
      • Intelligent recognition and removal of selected objects.
      • Seamlessly fills the scene based on original image content.
    • Enhances visuals and allows for detailed editing.
  • AI Portrait:
    • Creates AI-generated avatars from user's gallery photos.
    • Generates portraits with text descriptions for different looks.
    • Useful for creating display pictures for social media or formal use.

The new features under the Productivity AI umbrella include:

  • AI Interpreter:
    • Real-time language detection and translation.
    • Supports face-to-face mode with live translated content displayed for both sides.
    • Facilitates conversations in different languages.
  • AI Notes:
    • Summarizes content.
    • Assists with layout, proofreading, and translation.
    • Ensures accurate and finalized notes.
  • AI Recorder:
    • Provides translation, speaker identification, and summary generation.
    • Enhances meeting communication and pairs well with AI Notes.
  • AI Subtitles:
    • Offers real-time translation while watching videos.
    • Exports translated content and organizes it for later use.
    • Provides translations for videos without original subtitles.

Several of these new AI features are powered by Google's cloud-based Gemini large language model. Beyond that, Xiaomi also collaborated with Google to integrate Gemini into the Xiaomi 14T. The Xiaomi 14T series comes preinstalled with the Gemini app and are also the first devices not from Google or Samsung to support Circle to Search.

Xiaomi 14T series - Pricing & availability

The Xiaomi 14T starts at €649 while the Xiaomi 14T Pro starts at €799.

In addition to the Xiaomi 14T series, the company is also releasing its Xiaomi MIX Flip in Europe for €1299. The MIX Flip is also getting Circle to Search, it seems.

The Xiaomi Watch 2 is also being refreshed in a new Titan Gray colorway. The smartwatch, which runs Wear OS 4, was first announced back in February.

Lastly, Xiaomi is also releasing a new pair of wireless earbuds (the Xiaomi Buds 5), a new fitness tracker (the Xiaomi Smart Band 9), a new robot vacuum (the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max), and a new 100" smart TV (the Xiaomi TV Max 100).

Xiaomi 14T series - Specifications

FeatureXiaomi 14T ProXiaomi 14T
Design
Dimensions160.4 x 75.1 x 8.39 mm160.5 x 75.1 x 7.80 mm (Glass) / 7.95 mm (PU)
Weight209g195g
ColorsTitan Gray, Titan Blue, Titan BlackTitan Gray, Titan Blue, Titan Black, Lemon Green
Frame MaterialMetallic aluminum alloyMetallic aluminum alloy
Water & Dust ResistanceIP68IP68
Display
Type6.67-inch AMOLED, 144Hz CrystalRes AI Display6.67-inch AMOLED, 144Hz CrystalRes AMOLED
Resolution2712 x 1220 (1.5K), 446 ppi2712 x 1220 (1.5K), 446 ppi
Brightness4000 nits (peak)4000 nits (peak)
Color Depth12-bit12-bit
HDR SupportHDR10+, Dolby VisionHDR10+, Dolby Vision
Other FeaturesTÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light, Flicker Free, Circadian Friendly certifiedTÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light, Flicker Free, Circadian Friendly certified
Camera
Rear Cameras
- Main Camera50MP, f/1.6, 23mm, Leica Vario-Summilux, OIS, Light Fusion 900 sensor, 2.4μm Super Pixel, Dual Native ISO Fusion Max50MP, f/1.7, 23mm, Leica Vario-Summilux, OIS, Sony IMX906 sensor, 2.0μm Super Pixel
- Telephoto Camera50MP, f/2.0, 60mm, Leica50MP, f/1.9, 50mm, Leica
- Ultrawide Camera12MP, f/2.2, 15mm, Leica12MP, f/2.2, 15mm, Leica
Camera FeaturesFusionLM, ColorLM, ToneLM, PortraitLM, UltraHDR, Master Portrait, Master Videography, Movie Mode, MasterCinema, Director Mode, Leica Filters, Leica WatermarkFusionLM, ColorLM, ToneLM, PortraitLM, UltraHDR, Master Portrait, Master Videography, Movie Mode, MasterCinema, Director Mode, Leica Filters, Leica Watermark
Front Camera32MP, f/2.0, 25mm32MP, f/2.0, 25mm
Video Recording8K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240/960fps, 10-bit Rec.2020, HDR10+4K@30fps, Log format recording
ProcessorMediaTek Dimensity 9300+MediaTek Dimensity 8300-Ultra
CPU1x Cortex-X4 (up to 3.4GHz), 3x Cortex-X4 (up to 2.85GHz), 4x Cortex-A720 (up to 2.0GHz)1x Cortex-A715 (up to 3.35GHz), 3x Cortex-A715 (up to 3.2GHz), 4x Cortex-A510 (up to 2.2GHz)
GPUImmortalis-G720 MC12Arm Mali-G615 MC6
CoolingXiaomi 3D IceLoop cooling system-
RAMUp to 12GB LPDDR5XUp to 12GB LPDDR5X
StorageUp to 1TB UFS 4.0Up to 512GB UFS 4.0
SoftwareXiaomi HyperOS based on Android 14 (with Google Gemini app, Circle to Search, Al Notes, Al Recorder, Al Image Editing, Al Portrait, Al Film)Xiaomi HyperOS based on Android 14 (with Google Gemini app, Circle to Search, Al Notes, Al Recorder, Al Image Editing, Al Portrait, Al Film)
Battery5000mAh (typ)5000mAh (typ)
Wired Charging120W HyperCharge67W HyperCharge
Wireless Charging50W-
AudioStereo speakers, Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res & Hi-Res Audio Wireless certificationStereo speakers, Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res & Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification
Connectivity5G SA/NSA, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, Dual SIM, eSIM, USB Type-C, Xiaomi Surge T1 Tuner5G SA/NSA, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, Dual SIM, USB Type-C
SecurityOptical in-display fingerprint sensorOptical in-display fingerprint sensor

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