Xiaomi 14T tested: lots of AI, a chic display and too much yellow

The Xiaomi 14T has a sister model that looks confusingly similar. The more expensive 14T Pro stands out primarily due to its processor and camera details. The new AI functions are available for both.

Simple design and chic display

The plastic back of the Xiaomi 14T is kept simple and monochrome. The defining element is the camera hump with four circles for the lenses and flash. The casing is comfortable to hold and I like the hatched power button. It gives the thumb something to feel.

The smartphone is also dust and waterproof to IP68. In tests, it survived 30 minutes in 1.5 metres of water - clean fresh water, mind you - without damage. It is still not intended for use under water, but rain and a brief accidental dip should not harm it.

Turning the Xiaomi 14T over, I look at a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with narrow bezels and a maximum refresh rate of 144 hertz. It covers 93.3 per cent of the front surface and shines brightly and intensely. The manufacturer specifies the maximum brightness as 4000 nits. However, this only applies in HDR mode and for individual pixels. Xiaomi does not reveal the typical brightness, which is more important for everyday use. However, it is apparently high enough for comfortable use in sunlight. With a resolution of 2712 × 1220 pixels, the screen displays a razor-sharp image.

HyperOS gets a lot of AI

The Xiaomi 14T comes with Android 14 installed ex works. Xiaomi is upgrading it to HyperOS with its user interface. The smartphone will receive Google updates for four years - i.e. up to Android 18 - and security updates for five years. Others offer more, but this seems appropriate for the average usage time of a smartphone.

With the T series, Xiaomi is pushing AI on its smartphones. Gemini from Google is replacing the Google Assistant and Circle-to-search is no longer only available on Samsung and Google.

But Xiaomi also has its own AI functions to offer. These include a live translator, a notes app that summarises content and helps with layout, corrections and translations, and a recorder that can distinguish between different people in transcripts and also produces translations. AI subtitles should translate the entire audio output of the smartphone - independently of apps.

The AI helps with editing videos and photos and even makes suggestions for composition and music for films. The T series inherits the "AI Portrait" function from the Xiaomi 14. This creates an avatar from a portrait photo that can be used in pictures. All AI tools require an internet connection and process data in the cloud.

When the AI creates subtitles

The AI subtitles are far from perfect in a short sample of English videos. But AIs are among the fastest language learners. It's already enough to understand the basic content - even if the tool is more prudish than YouTube and only displays some words as p****. However, one design decision really bothers me: I'm not only shown the translation, but also the recognised original text. This takes up an unnecessary amount of space.

The tool offers English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Hindi, Russian, Persian, Turkish, Burmese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean as subtitle languages. All of them can be translated into all languages.

When the AI edits videos

The film creation with AI help is hidden in the video editing. After I have selected one or more videos, I can find them under "Creativity". I can describe in a prompt what kind of video I want and determine the aspect ratio. To try it out, I throw 14 videos of the Eimsbüttel derby in the women's premier league and 30 - no more is possible - of the handball match of the sixth men's team of FC St. Pauli into the AI. These two videos are the result:

I can download and select additional filters and music, which is what I did with the handball game video, otherwise it would have been identical to the football game. I hope this is due to my almost identical prompt and not the laziness of the AI.

Both videos are not perfect, sometimes there is a cut just when it gets exciting and the ball is shot or thrown. That's why it's good that I can edit the videos further in an editor. However, the AI tool is helpful to have a first draft of a video in a short time.

The recorder app provides good transcriptions and coherent summaries when I try it out. I'm still looking for the AI functions in the notes app and I don't know whether the old automatic or the new AI is still hidden behind "Automatic" in the image editing app. The translator app is still missing on the 14T. However, this could change quickly, as I was able to try out the smartphone before its release.

The many pre-installed advertising apps from third-party providers on Xiaomi smartphones continue to annoy me. Fortunately, they can be uninstalled with little effort and are no longer a nuisance after a few minutes.

Enough performance for everyday use

Xiaomi has been equipping its T series with Mediatek chipsets for several years. For the 14T, the choice fell on the Dimensity 8300 Ultra. The 8-core processor with up to 3.35 gigahertz, which is manufactured using the 4-nanometre process, also belongs to the manufacturer's second series and is therefore also suitable for the 14T. It has enough power to run the AI functions from Google and Xiaomi or to pass them on to the cloud.

In comparison with Xiaomi's current top smartphone, the 14 Ultra with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the 14T clearly achieves lower scores in the benchmark tests. The currently similarly priced Galaxy S24 from Samsung also performs better with the Exynos 2400. Only the Dimensity 7200 Pro of the cheaper Nothing Phone (2a) outperforms the 14T.

When the AI puts together a video for me, the waiting time is manageable. It doesn't take a minute. But I think it could be even faster with other chipsets.

The Dimensity 8300 Ultra has twelve gigabytes of RAM at its disposal. The processor also ensures that the 14T has LTE, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4. Xiaomi offers the smartphone with 256 or 512 gigabytes of internal memory, which cannot be expanded.

Average battery life

The battery of the Xiaomi 14T has a capacity of 5000 mAh, which is common among smartphones. The manufacturer has rated it for 1600 charging cycles, which is establishing itself as the new standard after years of 800 cycles being the norm. The battery accepts up to 67 watts when charging via Xiaomi's HyperCharge fast charging technology. This allows me to fully charge the battery in around three quarters of an hour - if it was completely empty.

For the battery runtime, PCMark Work 3.0, which performs everyday tasks and drains the battery down to 20 per cent, determines a runtime of 8:33 hours. Mind you, this is at maximum display brightness. That is an average value. If I take the three smartphones from the benchmark comparison, the 14T performs the worst.

The camera setup is not convincing

Xiaomi is continuing its cooperation with Leica for the 14T. The lenses and the two available shooting modes "Leica Vibrant" and "Leica Authentic" come from this partnership. I took my test photos with Authentic. Vibrant is supposed to make the colours even more intense.

For the main camera, Xiaomi uses the Sony IMX906 with a resolution of 50 megapixels as the image sensor. Its lens has a focal length of 23 millimetres (converted to 35 mm format) and an f/1.7 aperture. The telephoto camera uses an unnamed sensor with 50 megapixels. At f/2.2, the aperture is slightly less fast and the focal length of 50 millimetres results in an optical zoom of around two times. The 4x magnification offered in the camera app is already digital.

The ultra-wide-angle camera also has an f/2.2 aperture. Its focal length is 15 millimetres and its sensor has a resolution of 12 megapixels. The front camera has 32 megapixels and also has an f/2.2 aperture.

Xiaomi uses pixel binning for the main and telephoto cameras. This involves combining several neighbouring pixels into one. This is intended to increase the light sensitivity and ultimately the image quality. This is why the images from the two cameras only have a slightly higher resolution than the ultra-wide-angle camera by default. There is also a mode with which I can take the full 50 megapixels. However, I don't recognise any advantage in this, but rather the disadvantage of the larger files.

Lots of yellow and problems with contrasts

Xiaomi likes yellow. At least the 14T's camera mixes a lot of it into the image. This makes the images appear warmer. However, this is too much for some of the subjects. It no longer looks natural.

The level of detail is high. But the camera does not cope well with strong contrasts. Despite HDR mode, the shady and sunny areas are not well balanced.

Wide angle and zoom are fine

Compared to the main camera, the ultra-wide-angle camera has a lower level of detail. Yellow remains dominant in terms of colour here too, but slightly less so in this motif.

The 2x and 4x zoom are perfectly usable, but their level of detail doesn't make me jump for joy. The quality is easily sufficient for small displays - if you don't mind the yellow tint.

Beautiful portrait shots

When I switch on portrait mode, I can choose between four focal lengths: 23, 50, 75 and 90 millimetres. The high level of detail of the main camera brings out all the details of my face. The blur looks natural and not as cropped as on other smartphones. I'm very happy with that.

The night mode is better

As soon as it gets dark, the camera automatically activates a night mode. I can deactivate it, but it's not worth it. It delivers better pictures than the automatic mode without making them excessively bright. I deactivated it for the test images, which can be done via the corresponding symbol in the viewfinder image. I can switch off automatic activation completely in the settings. However, I then have to go to "More" under Shooting modes in order to use it.

The night mode increases the level of detail a little and above all ensures better illumination. Light sources fray less and overexposures disappear almost completely.

Disappointing selfies

Despite its high resolution, the front camera does not manage to match the level of detail of the main camera. This is not so noticeable on the smartphone itself, but as soon as I zoom in, my face looks like pixel mash. I recommend taking selfies with the main camera and without the viewfinder image.

As soon as it gets dark, night mode is also the better option for selfies