The best Xiaomi phones may not be as well-known as devices from the likes of Apple and Samsung, but their excellent build quality and great cameras make them some of the best value handsets on the market.
That's not say you'll find every Xiaomi phone on our list of the best cheap phones, mind. In 2024, the company has plenty of options in the high-end arena, too. A few of those models give the best camera phones a run for their money, while some boast performance specs to rival the best phones, period.
Having fully reviewed most of the top Xiaomi releases, we can help you find the best Xiaomi phone to suit your needs. For instance, while the Xiaomi 14 occupies our current top spot thanks to its exceptional performance and sleek design, you might want to go for the still-excellent Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G if you're after something a touch more affordable.
It's also worth noting that we're currently testing the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, which prohibits its inclusion on this list (for now). We'll inevitably be adding that phone to the below list in some capacity once we've been able to pass a full verdict on its quality, so stay tuned to our best Xiaomi phones list throughout the year.
The best Xiaomi phones 2024
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We haven't yet finished testing the uber-premium Xiaomi 14 Ultra, so the standard Xiaomi 14 is our pick as the best-performing Xiaomi phone money can buy right now. That said, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is significantly more expensive than the Xiaomi 14, and only really offers superior camera capabilities, so from a performance perspective, they're not too dissimilar.
In sharing a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with its premium sibling, the Xiaomi 14 is a compact powerhouse. The phone has than enough clout to handle demanding gaming and productivity tasks, not least because HyperOS – like MIUI before it – aces performance management, with overarching power profiles that limit just how much apps and services can ask of the phone's internals.
Even without switching 'performance mode' on, though, in artificial benchmarks the Xiaomi 14 holds its own against many of the other best Android phones right now – including the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra – while other flagships like the Pixel 8 Pro score far weaker across compute and graphical tests.
The Xiaomi 14 sports a larger 4,610mAh battery than its predecessor, and its charging capabilities have also been increased to 90W wired and 50W wireless. If we've one criticism of the Xiaomi 14's performance credentials, it's Xiaomi's shorter update commitment compared to its rivals. You'll get four years of OS updates and five years of security updates with the Xiaomi 14, which isn't a bad amount by any means, but it's not as much as, say, Apple or Samsung offers.
Read our full Xiaomi 14 review
We're calling the Xiaomi 13T Pro the best Xiaomi all-rounder for a multitude of reasons. The Pro has a great-looking 6.67-inch display, a huge 5,000mAh battery, super-fast 120W charging, a sleek finish, and a trio of awesome cameras – all for less than the price you'll pay for the aforementioned Xiaomi 14.
You'll have to settle for a MediaTek Dimensity 9200 Plus chipset over the Xiaomi 14's more mainstream Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, but in our experience, this distinction has little impact on the 13T Pro's real-world performance.
While gaming, for instance, the phone is not only able to comfortably hold a consistent and high frame rate across the likes of Call of Duty Mobile, Genshin Impact, and Grid Autosport, but it's also able to retain an impressive amount of battery during longer gaming stints both thanks to the hardware and the integrated performance optimizing software.
The 13T Pro boasts a highly capable array of rear cameras, too. Specifically, you're getting a 50MP main camera, a 50MP telephoto camera, and a 12MP ultra-wide camera, while the display plays host to a 20MP selfie camera; all in all, that's a strong photographic lineup.
Annoyingly, the Xiaomi 13T Pro has no wireless charging capabilities, and its large camera bump can cause issues if you prefer to use your phone case-less, but this is an undeniably impressive all-rounder that sits comfortably as one of the best smartphones of its class.
Read our full Xiaomi 13T Pro review
If you'd rather not stretch your budget to the aforementioned Xiaomi 14, but still want a compact Xiaomi phone with plenty of firepower, then the 6.36-inch Xiaomi 13 remains an excellent option in 2024.
This phone's lightning-fast speeds are made possible by the presence of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset – similar to the processor you’ll find powering models in the Samsung Galaxy S23 line – and the device is offered in two memory variations: 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, paired with 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage (though, if you’re in the UK, you’re looking at the 8GB version only).
Beyond a marginal size increase, the Xiaomi 13's display is largely unchanged when compared to its predecessor, the Xiaomi 12), but Xiaomi’s knack for brightness and vivid colors is here delivered in a much sleeker, almost iPhone-like body, which lands its latest flagship in the ‘handsome’ camp of today’s best Android phones.
Granted, the device offers almost no originality on the design front beyond its Leica-branded camera setup, but if you’re a sucker for Apple’s straight-sided aesthetic, then the Xiaomi 13's unashamed resemblance to the best iPhones makes it an even more attractive proposition.
Read our full Xiaomi 13 review
The Black Shark 5 Pro offers some fantastic performance for the price, easily ensuring it's still one of the best gaming phones around in 2024. It can play top-end games at their highest graphics settings without a hitch, thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor and 12GB of RAM.
Further helping your gaming experience are a set of pop-up physical triggers that can be assigned a function for your game. Trust us: they makes a big difference, effectively turning the phone into a gaming controller all-in-one.
While it gets rather hot and battery life could be a little better, the Black Shark 5 Pro is a potent gaming system that's perfectly suited for gaming on the move.
Read our full Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro review
Having arrived in 2022 as the 5G equivalent to the standard Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro, the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G is now affordable enough in 2024 to be called the best budget Xiaomi handset.
This mid-range phone comes packing a 6.67-inch, Full HD+ AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. You'll also get up to 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, too, as well as a long-lasting 5,000 mAh battery and 67W fast charging support.
The Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G’s stereo speakers are loud and robust-sounding for an affordable Android, and while the phone’s processor brings disappointing limitations, it’s still more powerful than the Snapdragon 732G you'll find powering its predecessor. If you're not hung up on having the best camera phone, this is a solid option, though it's worth bearing in mind that both the Redmi Note 12 series and Redmi Note 13 series have now hit shelves in certain regions.
Read our full Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G review
FAQs
How to choose the best Xiaomi phone for you
Xiaomi makes a wide range of handsets, so there will almost certainly be at least one model that you'll be happy with, but there are a number of things you should consider when making your choice.
The first is how much you want to spend – obviously, with a bigger spend, you'll get more consistently high-end specs, so if you're spending less, then you need to work out what you can live without.
In terms of specs, the main things to look out for include power, which is especially important if you plan to play many games on your phone. Cameras are obviously important if smartphone photography matters much to you, and good battery life could benefit anyone – but if the phone charges fast, that could go some way to making up for worse endurance.
Screen size is more subjective – some people want a large screen, as this is better for watching videos on, and gives you more space to interact with apps. But it also makes the phone bigger, heavier, and harder to use with one hand. Regardless of size, though, a high resolution and refresh rate can be beneficial.
So, weigh up which of those things matter most to you, and choose accordingly. Or, go for a flagship and potentially tick every box – at a price.
Are Xiaomi phones better than Samsung phones?
Each year, Xiaomi's flagship phones feel more and more like Samsung rivals – the Xiaomi 14 is the best example yet, as it's a portable flagship like the Galaxy S24.
Samsung and Xiaomi flagships have slight differences, though, as Xiaomi models offer faster charging while Samsung models have better camera arrays, so your preferences will depend on what you're looking for.
That's the case for budget phones, too. While Samsung's Galaxy A phones give you great displays on a budget, we'd say Poco devices are more powerful and Redmi handsets are better for photography.
Is Xiaomi a good brand to buy?
We've been big fans of Xiaomi phones since the brand started selling them in the West, and if you're looking for a new phone, we'd definitely recommend checking out their offerings.
Like all brands, Xiaomi has misses as well as hits, and not all of their devices are great. There are sometimes duds in the flagship line, with handsets that are too expensive for their own good, or in the low-end, models with features that don't totally work.
But, on this list of the best Xiaomi phones, you're obviously going to find the best ones we've tested.
Do Xiaomi phones have Google apps?
Good question – yep, all Xiaomi phones come with Google Mobile Services, so they have Maps, Pay, the Play Store and more installed. That also means you can download plenty more apps – you're getting a decent Android experience here.
In fact, Huawei and Apple are the only companes which sell phones without the Play Store – and obviously Apple has the App Store, so it's fine.
One thing to note, though: even Android phones don't use Google apps in China, where other options are preferred by consumers. So, if you an import a Xiaomi phone from China, you might find it doesn't have the Google Mobile Services – saying that, this list only includes devices that are on sale in the West, so you don't need to worry about that.
How we test
To come up with this list of the best Xiaomi phones, we tested every included model, in most cases using them for a week or more. That testing included using the camera, pushing the processor with high-end games, multitasking, seeing how long the battery lasts – and how fast it charges – and living with each phone as our main handset during the test period.
So, all that leaves us with an excellent idea of exactly how each Xiaomi phone performs, and it also allows us to compare each model to other Xiaomi handsets and the wider smartphone market.
Using that information – and factoring in the price, too – we then worked out which phones were worthy of inclusion and how they should rank.
