Xiaomi 15T vs. 15T Pro | Infinium-tech

Xiaomi’s sub-flagship lineup is back for another year and you may be wondering if the Xiaomi 15T is good enough or whether the Xiaomi 15T Pro’s camera capabilities and stronger chipset are worth its premium price.

As it stands currently, the Xiaomi 15T Pro is asking around €150-200 more than its brother, and unlike older generations, there are plenty of differences. Some are subtle, others not. With the upgrade to the 15T Pro this year, 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 the full specifications or continue straight to our editor’s assessment In the following text.

size comparison

The Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro have a similar design, so they are more or less indistinguishable on the outside. The 15T is more portable than the Pro because it’s a little lighter and thinner.

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

display comparison

Both phones have the same 6.83-inch OLED panels with Gorilla Glass 7i for protection on the front and a 144Hz maximum refresh rate. We also got similar results in the brightness test of both devices 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 considerable margin. Despite having a more powerful and reportedly more energy-consuming chipset, the 15T Pro offers notably longer web browsing and video playback runtimes. 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 fully charge.

Additionally, 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 similar speakers from both phones, but if you listen carefully, you’ll notice that the 15T Pro’s tuning offers warmer and fuller sound with slightly more pronounced bass.

In terms of sound intensity, both devices perform almost equally and scored “Very Good” in our testing.

Display

While both devices rely on MediaTek chipsets, the 15T Pro boasts the flagship Dimensity 9400+ chip, while the 15T uses the 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 the Dimensity 9400+, which offers a more powerful and higher clocked CPU as well as a significantly faster GPU.

When it comes to memory, both start at 12GB/256GB, but only the 15T Pro is offered in a 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 in every way. The Geekbench 6 score shows approximately 28% more 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 difference is not trivial by any means. The 15T Pro is significantly more powerful, which ensures better longevity and gaming performance.

On the software front, there is virtually no difference feature-wise and both the handsets launch with Android 15-based HyperOS 2.0. However, both devices are now eligible for the Android 16 + HyperOS 3.0 update. This is one less than the total of five major OS upgrades made by Xiaomi.

camera comparison

The Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro have very similar camera hardware, but not identical. The Pro comes with a more powerful camera system, with a larger 50MP main sensor and a proper telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom. The latter also supports close focusing, enabling some nice macro photography. This is something you can’t do with the 15T. The latter is fixed to 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 video recording resolution. The 15T Pro can do 8K video at 30fps using its main camera, while the 15T caps out at 4K. However, we would argue that you won’t be able to appreciate the benefits of 8K footage unless you’re watching it on a large high-resolution screen.

image quality

During the day, both phones capture similar looking photos. It appears that ultrawide cameras produce photos with similar global parameters, but the 15T has more sharpening applied.

15T (0.6x) • 15T Pro (0.6x)

The 15T Pro’s primary camera delivers slightly more detailed photos, 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 image quality during the day. Of course, it depends on the view but the 15T Pro is not far behind. Still, the 15T’s 2x shots are more detailed and better rendered.

15T (2x) • 15T Pro (2x)

Photos with 5x zoom are expected to be a whole lot better on the 15T Pro. The 5x telephoto unit outperforms the 15T’s 2x camera in all scenarios.

15T (5X) • 15T Pro (5X)

Nighttime photos from the 15T Pro with the ultrawide camera are a little sharper and perhaps a little 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. However, sometimes, photos from the 15T Pro’s main camera come out a little clearer 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 2x sharper photos than the 15T Pro (first set below), however, the fact that this camera lacks OIS means that in low light, it can often take blurry photos compared to the 2x crop produced by the 15T Pro’s main camera (second set).

15T (2x) • 15T Pro (2x)

In low light, the 15T Pro’s 5x zoom shots are better across the board.

15T (5X) • 15T Pro (5X)

video quality

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

During the day, both phones compete when it comes to 4K video recording. The 15T Pro offers somewhat 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 due to its dedicated 2x camera, but we’re surprised by the comparison at 5x zoom. The 15T Pro’s 5x camera video is much better than the 5x crop of the 15T’s 2x camera.

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

Both phones perform similarly at night. The 15T Pro’s main camera captures footage with slightly better contrast and more pleasing colors. The 2x footage looks pretty similar between the two phones. And the 15T Pro has better-looking 5x video.

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

decision

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

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

It all depends on your preferences.