Xiaomi’s sub-flagship lineup is back for another year and you might be wondering whether the Xiaomi 15T is good enough or whether the Xiaomi 15T Pro‘s camera prowess and stronger chipset are convincing enough to deserve its price premium.
As it currently stands, the Xiaomi 15T Pro is asking around €150-200 more than its sibling, and unlike in older generations, there are plenty of differences to go through. Some are subtle, 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 the right fit for you?
Table of Contents:
For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue 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 as it’s a tad lighter and thinner.
However, the 15T Pro boasts a more premium build. The side frame isn’t plastic but aluminium. Additionally, the Pro offers wireless charging, so the coils are likely the reason for the thicker profile.
Display comparison
The two phones have identical 6.83-inch OLED panels with Gorilla Glass 7i for protection on the front and 144Hz max refresh rate. We even got similar results in our brightness test with both devices boosting 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 sizeable margin. The 15T Pro offers longer web browsing and video playback runtime in particular, despite having a more powerful, and supposedly more energy-hungry, chipset. Call time seems to be the only advantage of the 15T.
Charging speed
The Xiaomi 15T Pro’s charging is rated at max 90W, and in our tests, it outpaced the 15T at every checkpoint. The 15T Pro completed its full charge in just over half an hour, while the 15T’s battery took a good 51 minutes to charge to full.
Moreover, the Pro supports wireless charging, unlike the 15T, and it uses Xiaomi’s fastest wireless charging protocol, rated at 50W.
Speaker test
We were expecting identical speakers from the two phones, but if you listen closely, you will notice that the 15T Pro’s tuning offers warmer and fuller sound with slightly more pronounced bass.
Loudness-wise, the two devices perform about the same, scoring “Very Good” in our test.
Performance
While both devices rely on MediaTek chipsets, the 15T Pro boasts the flagship Dimensity 9400+ chip, while the 15T uses a midrange Dimensity 8400 Ultra. The Dimensity 8400 Ultra is no slouch and is one of the best midrange chipsets, but it’s not at the level of Dimensity 9400+, which offers both a more powerful and higher clocked CPU, as well as a significantly faster GPU.
When it comes to memory, both start from 12GB/256GB, but only the 15T Pro is offered in 12GB/1TB flavor. Also, both handsets are equipped with UFS 4.1 storage.
Benchmark performance
When it comes to raw performance, the 15T Pro is better across the board. The Geekbench 6 score shows approximately 28% higher raw CPU performance, while the GPU-intensive 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test indicates a significant 54% increase in graphics performance. In the combined AnTuTu 10 test, the 15T Pro achieved a 63% higher score.
As you can see, the performance gap is not trivial by any means. The 15T Pro is significantly more powerful, ensuring better longevity and gaming performance.
On the software side of things, there are virtually no differences feature-wise and both handsets launched with Android 15-based HyperOS 2.0. However, both devices are now eligible for the Android 16 + HyperOS 3.0 update. That’s one down from the total of five major OS upgrades that Xiaomi promises.
Camera comparison
The Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro feature very similar camera hardware, but not identical. The Pro edges out with a more potent camera system, featuring a larger 50MP main sensor and a proper telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom. The latter even supports close focusing, enabling some nice 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.
The front-facing and ultrawide cameras are the same on both models.
Another notable disparity between the two is the video recording resolution. The 15T Pro can do 8K videos at 30fps using its main camera, while the 15T caps at 4K. We would argue, however, that you won’t be able to appreciate the benefits of the 8K footage unless you are viewing it on a large high-res screen.
Image quality
During the day, the two phones capture similar-looking stills. The ultrwide cameras seem to produce photos with identical global parameters, but the 15T’s have more sharpening applied.
15T (0.6x) • 15T Pro (0.6x)
The 15T Pro’s primary camera delivers slightly more detailed photos, rendering fine details better.
15T (1x) • 15T Pro (1x)
Surprisingly, the 15T Pro’s 2x zoom photos are not that far behind the 15T’s dedicated optical zoom camera in image quality during the day. Of course, it depends on the scene but the 15T Pro does not fall far behind. Still, the 15T’s 2x shots are more detailed and better rendered.
15T (2x) • 15T Pro (2x)
The 5x zoom photos are expectedly better across the board on the 15T Pro. The 5x telephoto unit outperforms the crop from the 15T’s 2x camera in all scenarios.
15T (5x) • 15T Pro (5x)
The 15T Pro’s nighttime pictures with the ultrawide camera are ever so slightly sharper and maybe a bit more contrasty. You’d have to zoom all the way in to see it.
15T (0.6x) • 15T Pro (0.6x)
The main cameras on the two phones capture equally nice low-light photos with great dynamic range. Occasionally, however, the 15T Pro’s main camera’s photos come out a bit sharper and with better contrast, but you have to pixel-peep to appreciate the difference.
15T (1x) • 15T Pro (1x)
The 15T’s zoom camera is certainly capable of taking sharper 2x photos than the 15T Pro (the first set below), however, the fact that this camera lacks OIS, means that in low light, it may often produce smudgier photos than a 2x crop by the 15T Pro’s main camera (the 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 a few framegrabs from the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length, so it’s easier to compare them to one another.
During the day, the two phones trade blows when it comes to 4K video recording. The 15T Pro delivers a tad sharper main camera footage, while the 15T’s ultrawide footage is somewhat sharper – a bit unexpected.
At 2x zoom, the 15T edges out with better definition and sharpness, due to its dedicated 2x camera, but we are puzzled by the comparison at 5x zoom. The 15T Pro’s 5x camera video is notably better than the 5x crop from the 15T’s 2x camera.
4K screengrabs: 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 cam captures footage with slightly better contrast and more likable colors. The 2x footage seems quite on par between the two phones. And the 15T Pro has the better-looking 5x video.
4K screengrabs: 15T (0.6x) • 15T Pro (0.6x) • 15T (1x) • 15T Pro (1x) • 15T (2x) • 15T Pro (2x) • 15T (5x) • 15T Pro (5x)
Verdict
Even though the Xiaomi 15T delivers a very similar user experience overall, the 15T Pro is better in pretty much 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 noticeably cheaper, and if you are not necessarily in for the camera features (the 5x zoom camera or 8K video) or the higher-grade gaming performance, then you will be perfectly happy with the 15T, while saving a few bucks in the process.
It all boils down to your priorities.
- The largely similar user experience.
- The lower price tag.
Get the Xiaomi 15T for:
- The longer battery life.
- The faster charging and wireless charging.
- The slightly better speakers.
- The better camera system overall.
- The more premium build.
- The higher-grade performance.
Get the Xiaomi 15T Pro for:
