Xiaomi 15T vs 15T Pro

Xiaomi’s sub-flagship lineup is back for another year and you might be wondering if the Xiaomi 15T is good enough or if the Xiaomi 15T Pro’s camera prowess and powerful chipset are convincing enough to deserve its price premium.

As it stands now, the Xiaomi 15T Pro is asking $150-200 more than its sibling, and unlike older generations, it has a lot of differences. Some are fine, others are not. With this year’s upgrade to the 15T Pro, the handset feels closer to being a true flagship, while the 15T remains a solid, mid-range all-rounder. So which one is right for you?

Table of Contents:

For starters, you can compare full spec sheets or continue directly with our editor’s assessment. In the following text.

Size comparison

The Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro share the same design, so they are more or less indistinguishable from the outside. The 15T is more portable than the Pro because it’s a tad lighter and thinner.

However, the 15T Pro has a more premium build. The side frame is aluminum, not plastic. Additionally, the Pro offers wireless charging, so the coil is likely the reason for the thicker profile.

Display the comparison

Xiaomi
15t

6.83″

amoled
120Hz

1280×2772
Pixels

447
PPI

1525
Nuts

Both phones have a 6.83-inch OLED panel with Gorilla Glass 7i for protection on the front and a 144Hz maximum refresh rate. We even had similar results in our flash test with both devices boosted Above 1,400 nits.

Battery life

While both phones delivered very good battery life in our tests, the 15T Pro outperformed the standard 15T by a large margin. The 15T Pro offers notably longer web browsing and video playback runtimes, despite having a significantly more powerful, and supposedly more power-hungry, chipset. Call time seems to be the only advantage of the 15T.

Charging speed

The Xiaomi 15T Pro’s charging is rated at a maximum of 90W, and in our tests, it outperformed the 15T at every checkpoint. The 15T Pro completed its full charge in just half an hour, while the 15T’s battery took 51 minutes to charge.

Moreover, the Pro supports wireless charging unlike the 15T, and uses Xiaomi’s fastest wireless charging protocol, rated at 50W.

Speaker test

We were expecting the same speakers from both phones, but if you listen closely, you’ll notice that the 15T Pro’s tuning offers a warmer and richer sound with slightly more pronounced bass.

In terms of loudness, both devices perform similarly, scoring “very good” in our tests.

performance

While both devices rely on MediaTek chipsets, the 15T Pro features the flagship Dimension 9400+ chip, while the 15T uses the midrange Dimension 8400 Ultra. The Dimension 8400 Ultra is no slouch and is one of the best midrange chipsets out there, but it’s not on the level of the Dimension 9400+, which offers both a more powerful and higher-clocked CPU as well as a significantly faster GPU.

Xiaomi
15t

Dimension 8400 Ultra
4 nm

256 GB 12 GB RAM
base config

When it comes to memory, both start at 12GB/256GB, but only the 15T Pro is offered in 12GB/1TB flavor. Also, both the handsets are equipped with UFS 4.1 storage.

Benchmark performance

Xiaomi
15t

Intoto 10
1,640,253

Geekbench 6
6,327

Mark the 3D wildlife
3,811

Xiaomi
15t Pro

Intoto 10
2,683,380

Geekbench 6
7,914

Mark the 3D wildlife
5,887

When it comes to raw performance, the 15T Pro is better across the board. The Geekbench 6 score shows about 28% higher raw CPU performance, while the GPU-specific 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme test indicates a significant 54% increase in graphics performance. In the combined Antoto 10 test, the 15T Pro scored 63% higher.

As you can see, the performance difference is by no means insignificant. The 15T Pro is significantly more powerful, ensuring longevity and gaming performance.

On the software side of things, there is practically no difference in terms of features and both the handsets are launched with Android 15 based HyperX 2.0. However, both the devices are now eligible for the Android 16 + HyperX 3.0 update. That’s less than the five major OS upgrades that Xiaomi promises.

Camera comparison

The Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro feature very similar, but not identical, camera hardware. The Pro comes out with a more powerful camera system, including a larger 50MP main sensor and a decent telephone camera with 5x optical zoom. The latter even supports close focusing, enabling some excellent macro photography. That’s something you can’t do with the 15T. The latter settles for a 2x dedicated zoom camera and a slightly smaller main camera sensor.

Both the models have the same front-facing and ultra-wide cameras.

Another notable difference between the two is the video recording resolution. The 15T Pro can shoot 8K videos at 30fps using its main camera, while the 15T caps at 4K. However, we’d argue that you won’t be able to appreciate the benefits of 8K footage unless you’re watching it on a big high-res screen.

Image quality

During the day, both phones capture similar visible defects. It seems that ultrawide cameras produce images with the same global parameters, but a higher sharpness of 15T is applied.

15t (0.6x) • 15T Pro (0.6x)

The 15T Pro’s primary camera delivers slightly more detailed images, rendering finer details better.

15t (1x) • 15T Pro (1x)

Surprisingly, the 15T Pro’s 2x zoom photos aren’t far behind the 15T’s dedicated optical zoom camera in daytime image quality. Of course, it depends on the scene but the 15T Pro doesn’t fall far behind. Still, the 15T’s 2x shots are more detailed and better rendered.

15t (2x) • 15T Pro (2x)

5x zoom photos are predictably better across the board on the 15T Pro. The 5x telephoto unit improves cropping over the 15T’s 2x camera in all scenarios.

15t (5x) • 15T Pro (5x)

The 15T Pro’s nighttime photos with the ultrawide camera are sometimes a bit sharper and perhaps a bit more contrasty. You have to zoom all the way in to see it.

15t (0.6x) • 15T Pro (0.6x)

The main cameras on both phones capture equally good low-light photos with great dynamic range. Occasionally, however, images from the 15T Pro’s main camera come out a bit sharper and more contrasty, but you have to pixel squint to appreciate the difference.

15t (1x) • 15T Pro (1x)

The 15T’s zoom camera is certainly capable of taking 2x photos faster than the 15T Pro’s (first set below), however, the fact that this camera lacks OIs means that in low light, it can often produce smudged photos compared to the 2x crop by the 15T Pro’s main camera (second set).

15t (2x) • 15T Pro (2x)

In low light, the 5x zoom shots by the 15T Pro are better across the board.

15t (5x) • 15T Pro (5x)

Video quality

Below we have some framegrabs from videos taken by both phones at each focal length, so it’s easy to compare them to each other.

During the day, the two phones trade off when it comes to 4K video recording. The 15T Pro delivered a sharper main camera footage, while the 15T’s ultrawide footage is somewhat sharper – a bit unexpected.

At 2x zoom, the 15T comes out with better definition and sharpness thanks to its dedicated 2x camera, but we’re surprised by the 5x zoom comparison. The 15T Pro’s 5x camera video is notably better than the 5x crop from the 15T’s 2x camera.

4K screenshots: 15T (0.6x) • 15T Pro (0.6x) • 15T (1x) • 15T Pro (1x) • 15T (2x) • 15T Pro (2x) • 15T (5x) • 15T Pro (5x)

At night, both phones perform similarly. The 15T Pro’s main camera captures footage with slightly better contrast and more pleasing colors. 2x the footage seems to be quite the difference between the two phones. And the 15T Pro has better-looking 5x video.

4K screenshots: 15T (0.6x) • 15T Pro (0.6x) • 15T (1x) • 15T Pro (1x) • 15T (2x) • 15T Pro (2x) • 15T (5x) • 15T Pro (5x)

Verdict

While the Xiaomi 15T offers a very similar user experience overall, the 15T Pro is better in every aspect. It offers longer battery life, significantly better raw performance, faster charging (including wireless charging), nicer speakers, a more premium build, and a more versatile and powerful camera.

The 15T, on the other hand, is notably cheaper, and if you’re not necessarily into camera features (5x zoom camera or 8K video) or high-end gaming performance, you’ll be perfectly happy with the 15T, while saving a few bucks in the process.

It all boils down to your preferences.