I've been trying out the Xiaomi 15T Pro, a smartphone that could be the best deal in mobile photography in 2025. So it's frustrating that it's going to be hard to get hold of for wannabe users in a number of countries.
Xiaomi makes excellent premium phones — the Xiaomi 15 Ultra one of the most fully-loaded photography phones in the world right now (with the price to match). But the "T" version of each Xiaomi flagship generation, coming about six months after the initial release, tones things down, and takes the cost down with it.
So what we have is a phone with 50MP rear cameras and 5x optical zoom, basically the same as you get on the iPhone 17 Pro Max or the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. Except at 799 euros, you get that hardware for closer to the price of an iPhone 16e or a Galaxy S25 FE.
What's so good about the cameras?
To get specific, the Xiaomi 15T Pro features a 50MP 5x telephoto, rare for a phone of its price. You also get 10x "optical quality" zoom on top of that, just like the premium phones Xiaomi’s going after.
Xiaomi hasn’t neglected the main camera, which is also armed with a 50MP sensor. The ultrawide camera is the weakest of the trio, with a 12MP sensor; while the front camera gets a 32MP sensor.
So let's look at some camera samples, taken on a recent trip to Munich. We'll start with this main camera comparison between the Xiaomi and the iPhone 17 of a retro tourist bus.
Xiaomi and Leica's color processing has helped the blue and cream stripes of the bus pop. That being said, the iPhone handles the light better, especially in the reflections on the bus' chrome fixtures.
This selfie comparison, also taken against the iPhone 17, look pretty similar in terms of coloration, with the Xiaomi's most obvious difference being its stronger contrast, visible in my hair and beard. Interestingly though, the portrait effect of the Xiaomi has managed to cut out my glasses correctly, while the iPhone has not.
And when it comes to the telephoto camera, I took a series of shots aimed down a large avenue with the Pixel 10 Pro XL as my yardstick phone. While there are things I like and dislike about the Xiaomi 15T Pro's zoom camera, as I'll explain in a moment, it's still wild to see it go toe to toe with a phone that costs almost twice as much.
As we move from 2x zoom to 5x and finally to 10x, the 15T Pro's image is brighter, and sharper in places. However, the fountain jet comes across better in the Pixel's image, which manages to capture the water droplets more clearly.
Like we saw with the selfie, the sharpening in Xiaomi's algorithm remains quite strong, which helps with larger details like the lines fo the road and bridge. But examining finer details, especially at 10x magnification, reveals some weird artifacting that the Pixel smartly decides to smooth over.
Just like Xiaomi's other flagship phones, the 15T Pro uses Leica color science to prove its photographic chops. And for video, the phone offers 8K at 30fps or 4K up to 120fps, and HDR10+ on all cameras. Or if you want to get professional, you can record in Log format and color-correct your footage later with a LUT profile later.
What about the rest of the phone?
With its flat, aluminum-framed design, the Xiaomi 15T Pro falls in line with the current flat-sided crowd, although with a less prominent camera bump and a restrained overall look.
The available hues are either Black, Gray, or the Mocha Gold color of my review unit. I'd call it more of a bronze, but it's a beautiful color all the same.
Xiaomi went for Gorilla Glass 7i to protect the 15T Pro’s display, which is as good as protection gets without going for a flagship-grade Victus or Armor glass material instead. There’s also an IP68 rating, including water resistance up to 3-meters deeo (just under 11 feet) — three times the depth required for such a rating.
Returning to the display, the 15T Pro’s 6.83-inch screen is the largest of any regular phone that Xiaomi has produced, and enhanced further with a 144Hz refresh rate for a little extra smoothness in scrolling or gaming compared to the typical 120Hz panel of premium phones.
Xiaomi promises a 3,200 nits peak brightness, which is higher than what Apple rates the iPhone 17 series. Sure enough, side by side with a base iPhone 17, the 15T Pro looked a touch brighter to my eye. But the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, the brightest phone we've tested so far, is still a little brighter again.
But before you start worrying about accidentally dazzling yourself with the screen, the 15T Pro is equipped with DC Dimming brightness control and eye safety certifications from TÜV Rheinland to give users who find phone screens give them headaches some peace of mind.
The MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chip is a 3-nanometer rival of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, seen in most of the Android phones of this price. In my hands-on testing with Destiny Rising, the Xiaomi happily handled the mobile version of Bungie’s MMO shooter at full settings — likely with the help of not just the chip but the latest LPDDR5X and UFS 4.1 standards for speedy RAM AND storage.
Xiaomi is selling all 15T Pro versions with 12GB RAM, the newly established standard for flagship phones. Your storage options are either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB, three typical memory specs for more expensive phones, but again rare at this price.
The 5,500 mAh battery inside the Xiaomi 15T Pro is claimed to last over 15 hours of "constant use," and while I didn't have the chance to run a full battery drain test, I didn't struggle to make it through a day with the 15T Pro as my sidekick.
In typical Xiaomi fashion, you also get rapid 90W wired and 50W wireless charging for quick refueling - a 50% charge in 15 minutes for the wired charger. Xiaomi also boasts that, in the unlikely event you drain the phone's battery entirely, its chargers will wake the phone up again in only four seconds, letting you quickly get back to what you were doing.
For software, the Xiaomi 15T Pro arrives with HyperOS 2, complete with "HyperAI" features such as real-time translation and captioning. But the HyperOS 3 update should apparently arrive in October this year, giving users an Android 16 upgrade fairly quickly.
Xiaomi's thought outside the box when it comes to software upgrades to the 15T. The most noteworthy example is its Astral Communication collection of features. As well as boosted antenna and modem tech, this gives the 15T Pro "Offline Communication", the option to make a direct voice call to another 15T Pro almost 2 kilometres (about 1.2 miles) away.
The only other phones doing this are the Oppo Find X8 series and OnePlus 13, putting the Xiaomi in an elite club of phones you'd want to have while lost in the wilderness. At least after the update enabling this feature appears in a September update.
Even back home, it’s clear the Xiaomi 15T Pro is a fantastic deal. We’ll have a full review soon, but if you’re eyeing the latest iPhone or Galaxy, it’s worth seeing how much more you could get for your money. It’s a shame Xiaomi doesn’t sell in the U.S., but its existence still benefits American consumers — proof you can demand more from your favorite brands without paying a fortune.
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