One of Xiaomi’s latest flagships, the Xiaomi 14T Pro, is here to contend against the likes of the iPhone 16 Pro, Galaxy S24 Plus, and Pixel 9 Pro, and the camera of the new Chinese device is likely the one thing that will set it apart. No, it doesn’t really have too outlandish a camera setup, but traditionally, Xiaomi has always poised a strong presence in the mobile photography field. Sure, it’s the company’s Ultra line of superb flagships that offer the best camera experience, but the Xiaomi 14T Pro should be just one step below. That said, the Xiaomi 14 Pro doesn’t truly try to reinvent the wheel, and just looking at its camera specs on paper, it becomes clear that not that much has changed in comparison with the previous Xiaomi 13T Pro.
Read more:Xiaomi 14T Pro review
This could get interpreted one of two ways: either Xiaomi is resting on its laurels and is playing it safe, or it did things the right way from the get-go, so little change is necessary to deliver even better camera performance with its new device.
Let’s explore and which of these two scenarios is true for the Xiaomi 14T Pro, based on our latest PhoneArena Camera Score test. SpecsXiaomi 14T ProXiaomi 13T ProMain camera50MP, f/1.6, 1/1.31″ sensor, PDAF, OIS50MP, f/1.9, 1/1.28″ sensor, PDAF, OISTelephoto camera50MP, f2, 2.6X optical zoom50MP, f1.9, 2X optical zoomUltra-wide camera12MP, f/2.2, 1/3.06″12MP, f/2.2, 1/3.06″Front-facing camera32MP, f/220MP, f2.2
Exploring the specs of the two devices, it quickly becomes clear that the Xiaomi 14T Pro wins some and loses some. It gets a wider aperture for the main camera, but a slightly smaller sensor in contrast with the Xiaomi 13T Pro.
Additionally, the telephoto camera grew longer, now maxing at 2.6X optical zoom, but this has led to a slightly narrower aperture, which might slightly hurt low-light performance.
It’s all upgrades with the front camera: higher 32MP resolution and wider f/2.0 aperture.
Finally, the only camera to seemingly get zero changes is the ultrawide one.
How does this all translate to the camera’s overall image quality and performance?
Xiaomi 14T Pro Camera Score compared to its rivals
PhonePhoneArena Camera ScorePhoto ScoreVideo ScoreXiaomi 14T Pro142148.6135.4Pixel 9 Pro150.5159.4141.6Galaxy S24 Plus151.7156.1147.3OnePlus 12145.5152139
Well, the Xiaomi 14T Pro doesn’t exactly shine in comparison with some of its more popular rivals. All three––Pixel 9 Pro, Galaxy S24 Plus, and OnePlus 12––fare significantly better in both our still photography and video recording tests.
The Xiaomi 14T Pro achieves 148.6 points in the photo test, while the Galaxy S24 Plus gets 151.7 points, the Pixel 9 Pro achieves 150.5 points, while the OnePlus 12 is closest to the Xiaomi with 145.5 points.
Video recording-wise, the Xiaomi 14T Pro doesn’t impress at all: it’s held back by the lackluster video quality when zoomed. All three of its rivals easily beat it in this category, and it’s once again the OnePlus 12 that’s closest in the race.
Xiaomi 14T Pro spider chart
Main Camera
The main camera of the Xiaomi 14T Pro is fairly decent, treating us to decent dynamics and colors that are easy to love. The color temperature is spot on in most cases, but details aren’t as sharp as on the Galaxy S24 Plus or the Pixel 9 Pro. At the same time, there are some oversharpening issues present.
Zoom Quality
The telephoto camera performs surprisingly well and even beats the OnePlus 12 and Galaxy S24 Plus in terms of overall qualities. It shines with good dynamics (no burned highlights or crushed shadows), delivers excellent detail at both the native 2.6X and the lossless 5X zoom while delivering minimal oversharpening artifacts. Overall, decent performance with this one!
Ultra-wide Camera
What will immediately strike upon examining samples taken with the Xiaomi 14T Pro’s ultrawide cameras are the soft corners: it appears that this camera is only capable of resolving details in the wide center of the scene. Other than that, the ultrawide is okay, but doesn’t really stand out with anything in particular; it’s just a camera you’d use occasionally either way.
Front Camera
The megapixel-heavy upgrade of the front camera hasn’t been converted to a notable increase in overall quality. The front-facing camera of the Xiaomi 14T Pro isn’t as sharp as the phone’s rivals and has some dynamics issues, too. Some may call it painfully realistic, but the OnePlus 12, Galaxy S24 Plus, and Pixel 9 Pro all fare better.
Main Camera – Video
The main camera delivers decent video with a pretty wide dynamic range and excellent color temperature, but the video tends to run slightly underexposed. Detail is also far from ideal and behind its rivals, which all score higher in our video test. Stabilization is on par with the rest, and the bevy of software features kind of even things out here.
Ultra-wide quality – Video
The ultrawide camera delivers a slightly underexposed video, which is otherwise surprisingly decent.
Zoom quality Video
2X zoom
At 2X zoom, when the phone essentially crops in on the main sensor, the video quality is decent, but it’s easy to notice some noise and smudgy detail. Colors and exposure are lovely though, but we can’t really think of use cases for this mode: just jump to the native 2.6X zoom and call it a day.
2.6X zoom
The 2.6X telephoto is where it’s at and things are looking up. We get splendid image quality with lots of detail, a “spot-on” color temperature that just feels right and represents reality in the best way possible, while also giving us decent dynamics and perfects stabilization.
5X zoom
While usable, videos taken at 5X zoom don’t have many redeeming qualities: details quickly deteriorate and artifacts start creeping up.
Selfie video
A mediocre amount of detail and unimpressive dynamics make for a pretty forgettable front-facing video.
Conclusion
Overall, the Xiaomi 14T Pro is a mixed bag.
Sure, it will do the job just fine, but won’t really excite you with its mostly average camera that can’t really match the leaders in terms of quality. Surely, Xiaomi left the best to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, but it appears that pretty much nothing has trickled down to the Xiaomi 14T Pro, which mostly disappoints when going head-to-head with Samsung’s, Google’s, and OnePlus’ best devices right now. Would it be wise to get the Xiaomi 14T Pro for its camera performance alone? Well, probably no, but the device surely has other redeeming qualities, which you can discover in our complete Xiaomi 14T Pro review.
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