The iPhone 17 Is Great, But the Xiaomi 15T Pro Is Better

The iPhone 17 is being praised as the phone to buy this year, and I say that’s true if you consider the generations of mediocre base models Apple has released. The iPhone 17 is indeed a breath of fresh air with (finally) a 120Hz display, upgraded cameras, and still the same old design. I have one in my household, and to be honest, I still did not really enjoy it. It is a good phone, but I have used many Android phones that cost less and perform better. One such device is the newly launched Xiaomi 15T Pro. This flagship from the Chinese company has impressed me so much that I do not want to use the iPhone anymore.

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Design Better Than iPhone 17

The Xiaomi 15T Pro has a beautiful design that actually resembles the Pro iPhones. Xiaomi sticks to a similar design philosophy as the 14T series, with an aluminum back panel and matching edges. The camera module sits slightly more flush this time, thanks to its rounded corners and contoured cut, which gives the phone a more refined and premium look. The unit I have is in mocha gold, and I absolutely love the way it looks. The phone also comes with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, so you can confidently use it in tougher conditions.

Under the hood, the Xiaomi 15T Pro is powered by the Dimensity 9400+, the 2024 successor to the 14T Pro’s chipset. Even though it is technically a year old (MediaTek recently announced the 9500), it still delivers more than enough power for almost any task. The phone comes with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and storage options of 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB using UFS 4.1 technology.

The display is another highlight. Xiaomi has equipped the phone with a 6.83-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 1,280 x 2,772 pixels. It reaches a peak brightness of 3,200 nits, slightly lower than the 14T Pro’s 4,000 nits, and includes DC dimming for flicker-free brightness control.

This makes it larger and brighter than the iPhone 17, which features a 6.3-inch screen with 3,000 nits of peak brightness. The 15T Pro also supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, with Dolby Atmos audio for its stereo speakers. The 144Hz refresh rate keeps everything ultra-smooth, and it highlights the fact that Apple still hasn’t matched even that level of performance.

The display is impressively bright both indoors and outdoors, and the high refresh rate makes scrolling and animations feel effortless. Overall, it is an excellent panel with rich colors, crisp details, and wide viewing angles.

Camera Performance Is Great

When two brands collaborate, it’s often little more than marketing hype, and the final product rarely lives up to the buzz. Xiaomi and Leica’s partnership, however, is a welcome exception. The two companies have clearly worked closely to deliver an excellent camera system, one that comfortably outperforms Apple’s offerings. Xiaomi’s Ultra series is already earning a reputation as the go-to choice for mobile photography, but the Xiaomi 15T Pro is not far behind.

The 15T Pro uses the same OmniVision Light Fusion 900 image sensor that Xiaomi customized with Leica for its main 50-megapixel wide camera (23mm equivalent). This large Type 1/1.31-inch sensor, which first appeared in the 14 Ultra, delivers rich detail and impressive low-light performance. The phone also features a 50-megapixel “super telephoto” 5x zoom lens (115mm equivalent) with an f/3.0 aperture and optical image stabilization, along with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera (15mm equivalent) offering a 120-degree field of view and an f/2.2 aperture.

The camera system as a whole is outstanding, offering a balance of versatility, detail, and consistency across a variety of shooting conditions. The main sensor captures sharp, richly detailed images with accurate colors and natural depth. Fastshot mode is particularly useful for action and street photography, producing crisp results at wider focal lengths. The telephoto lens impresses with its precision and stabilization, delivering clean, focused shots with pleasing background blur, while the ultra-wide camera provides excellent flexibility for dramatic, sweeping perspectives, even if edge sharpness dips slightly.

Battery And Charging Speed Are Amazing

Good battery life and fast charging are always dealbreakers for me, but the base iPhone 17 offers neither. Even the Pro models still come with 40W charging, which is decent but not particularly impressive. Things are not much better on the Android side either, with Samsung and Google offering a similar experience. However, a few manufacturers are pushing the boundaries here, and Xiaomi is one of them.

The Xiaomi 15T Pro supports 90W wired charging and 50W wireless charging, both of which are excellent. It also packs a 5,500mAh battery that easily lasted me more than a day on a single charge. In my testing, I consistently achieved over 8 hours of screen time. The best part is how quickly it charges. The phone reaches 30 percent in just about 10 minutes, and a full charge takes only around 36 minutes.

The Xiaomi phone has really impressed me with what it has to offer. It will be available for purchase in the EU and UK, starting €800/£650 for the base 12/256GB configuration.

You probably can’t buy this phone if you’re in the US, but before you pick any new device, make sure you actually need Android or iOS. A lot of people get this wrong, end up regretting their choice, and have to sell their phone soon after.