Xiaomi 14T review

Display

The Xiaomi 14T features the same 6.67-inch CrystalRes OLED screen we saw on the 13T. It has 1220 x 2712 pixels, 12-bit color depth, and up to 144Hz refresh rate. The screen is protected by a Gorilla Glass 5 sheet.

The display supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision standards and it is recognized as such across all major streaming platforms. The screen also supports high-frequency PWM dimming at 2880Hz for those with sensitive eyes and 480Hz touch sampling rate for faster responsiveness.

There has been one update since last year and that is the peak brightness, now up to 4,000 nits.

Xiaomi offers Sunlight mode, which now boosts the maximum manual brightness you can get when using the brightness scrubber. It is like Samsung's Extra Brightness option. With this mode turned OFF, the maximum brightness we measured was 573 nits.

The maximum manual brightness when using the Sunlight Mode was 846 nits. Finally, the maximum automatic brightness we captured was 1355 nits.

The minimum brightness measured on a white patch was 2.1 nits.

Refresh rate

Xiaomi's display options offer two modes - Automatic and Custom (60Hz or up to 144Hz).

Automatic and Custom 144Hz are identical. They use 120Hz for most apps and the OS UI, and switch to 60Hz for static content and streaming. 144Hz is used on compatible apps such as games and benchmarks.

The only time we observed 30Hz was for the Always-On Display, and this is the lowest mode the screen supports.

Battery life

The Xiaomi 14T runs on the same 5,000 mAh battery as its predecessor but upgrades the chipset to Dimensity 8300, which, in theory, should be more efficient. The display is largely the same, but the Active Use Score we got this year is lower.

The Xiaomi 14T scored 11:32 hours, slightly less than its predecessor, but that's mostly because of the call test. Looking at the individual scenarios, we see that the web browsing test is 10% higher than last year, but the video playback score is negligibly lower. The most noticeable drop is in the call segment of the test.

In terms of battery life, the Xiaomi 14T isn't looking great compared to other rivals. The handset falls short of most phones in the same price bracket unless they are Xiaomi-made.

Charging speed

The Xiaomi 14T supports up to 67W fast charging using the included charger and USB cable, but it can also benefit from some Power Delivery 3.0 chargers as well. Last year's 13T had the same charging capabilities.

A complete charging cycle from 0% takes about 49 minutes, which is pretty competitive in comparison. Still, there are faster charging solutions out there.

Speakers

The Xiaomi 14T offers a typical hybrid stereo speaker setup. It's comprised of two speakers placed on the top and bottom sides behind dedicated grilles. The top speaker also acts as an earpiece, and that's why it has another front-facing outlet.

The balance is great even though the bottom speaker is naturally louder and with richer output.

The speakers scored a Very Good mark on our test. The audio quality is good, with a well-presented high range and enough bass for the size, but the vocals could have been a bit better.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.