Xiaomi 15T review: Too many compromises

Xiaomi 15T Design and Display

One of the brightest displays out there

The Xiaomi 15T comes in three color variants: Black, Gray, and Rose Gold. These hues are nearly identical to the ones used on the Pro model, with the Rose Gold color option being a tad lighter shade than the Mocha Gold on the Xiaomi 15T Pro.

The retail packaging is a strange affair. There’s no charging brick (which is a shame as the phone supports 67W wired charging), but there’s a pre-installed screen protector, a USB-C cable, and a silicon back cover. Go figure.

The display is almost identical to the 6.83-inch panel on the Pro version, and we say almost, because this one can go up to 120Hz refresh rate, while the Pro has a 144Hz refresh rate. Other than that, the resolution, pixel density, and listed brightness—they’re all the same.It’s a 1280 x 2772 screen (477 PPI), with a peak brightness of 3,200 nits (same as the Pro). The borders around the screen on the non-Pro Xiaomi 15T are ever so slightly wider, which contributes to the fractions of a millimeter difference in size compared to the Pro. Time for some benchmarks.

Xiaomi 15T Camera

Minus one periscope

There are three cameras on the back of the Xiaomi 15T, just like on the Pro version, but the telephoto is different. It’s a 50MP 64mm camera with 2x optical zoom, as opposed to the periscope system on the Pro. A strange choice, given most brands would just take 2x crops from the main sensor to tackle this magnification.

Telephoto aside, the other two cameras are identical to the ones used on the Pro—a 50MP main camera and a 12MP ultrawide. The main camera has the same 1/1.31″ sensor as the regular Xiaomi 15 flagship, so that’s great news.

The main camera samples are good, offering a great level of detail, realistic colors, and a wide dynamic range. The ultrawide samples lag behind, and you can clearly see the lifted shadows and the narrower dynamic range on the 12MP camera. There’s some loss of detail as well, especially if you take a look at the three leaves.

The 2X telephoto camera offers a decent quality, but again, we don’t understand why Xiaomi opted for that exact level of magnification on a dedicated telephoto camera, rather than using 2X crops from the main sensor (which is big enough to tackle such a task).

The 32MP selfie camera performs quite well, and the bokeh is pretty convincing in Portrait mode; just don’t pull the slider to the maximum setting. It’s all digital, as there’s only a single front-facing camera with no depth sensors or other cool stuff, but it gets the job done.

Xiaomi 15T Performance & Benchmarks

Midrange chipset

CPU Performance Benchmarks:

The phone comes pre-installed with HyperOS 2.0, the UI Xiaomi has been using in the past couple of years, which is based on Android 15. Just like on the Pro version, the same AI capabilities have been baked in here, the experience is nearly identical to Xiaomi’s flagship series.

Gemini is still on board and also available as a physical shortcut (holding down the power button), which suggests that Xiaomi has succumbed to Google AI superiority. Or, if we’re not to be that dramatic, the company just offers the most widespread AI agent out there, just like other big brands do (including Samsung).

There still are some AI tools separate from Gemini and embedded into the UI, such as AI writing aids, AI editing in the gallery, and AI translation services with real-time AI Interpreter mode. The exact same tools that were available last year.

The Xiaomi 15T offers four years of major software updates and six years of security patches. It’s a decent lifecycle, given the midrange chipset, still far from the six years Samsung is offering on its A-series midrangers and the seven years that the Pixel A-series brings to the table.

Xiaomi 15T Battery

What a difference!

The Xiaomi 15T features the exact same 5,500 mAh battery as the one found on the Pro model. In our battery benchmark, the Xiaomi 15T Pro came out on top and currently holds the number one spot among phones tested in the past two years.

We were very optimistic about the Xiaomi 15T’s result, given the modest chipset, but we were in for a surprise. The phone only managed 7h 11m overall, which puts it in 60th place. What a difference a chipset can make!

PhoneArena Battery Test Results:

In terms of charging, the wired charging caps at 67W, which is a tad down from the 90W available on the Pro model. Luckily, the 23W difference only slows the charging time by 10 minutes, taking a total of 50 minutes for a full charge.One of the biggest omissions here is the lack of wireless charging, so if you like to just leave your phone on a charging mat, the Xiaomi 15T is not for you.

Xiaomi 15T Audio Quality and Haptics

There’s a stereo speaker setup on the Xiaomi 15T, it’s the same earpiece-plus-loudspeaker combo Xiaomi used on the Pro model. As with the Pro, the sound is loud enough, but the quality drops at max volume. We suspect the drivers are identical in both models, hence the similar result.

The Xiaomi 15T is far from boomboxes such as most of the ROG phones and the Honor Magic series (which offer exceptional audio), and it lags behind the more popular iPhone and Galaxy options out there.

In terms of haptics, the things are okay-ish. The vibration is good, strong, and tight, but nothing to write home about.

Should you buy it?

The Xiaomi 15T is even harder to recommend than the Xiaomi 15T Pro. It sacrifices the best camera feature of the series, the 50MP periscope telephoto, for a redundant 2x zoom camera. The chipset inside is unimpressive, and there’s no wireless charging. 

All of these drawbacks would’ve been forgivable if not for the starting price of €649 (roughly $750). It’s an expensive phone for what it has to offer, and there are many better alternatives out there. You can get a Pixel 10 for that kind of money, an iPhone 17, or a Galaxy S25. These are readily available, and there are trade-in offers to smoothen the transition.