Best Xiaomi phones 2024: top Mi, Redmi and Black Shark devices ranked

The Xiaomi 14 on a red background
(Image credit: Xiaomi / Future)

The best Xiaomi phones may not be as popular as the best iPhones or best Android phones, but they're among the best value handsets on the market thanks to their excellent build quality and unanimously great cameras.

In 2024, the company has plenty of options in the flagship arena, too, including models that give the best camera phones a run for their money, and others that boast performance specs to rival the best phones, period.

We've fully reviewed almost all of the top Xiaomi releases, so we can help you find the best Xiaomi phone to suit your needs. For instance, while the Xiaomi 14 Ultra occupies our current top spot thanks to its exceptional performance and sleek design, you might want to go for the still-excellent Xiaomi 13T Pro if you're after something a touch more affordable. 

We've tested every Xiaomi phone inside and out, so you can be confident that our recommendations are based on expert knowledge, in-depth analysis, and intelligent comparisons with devices from rival phone-makers. Below, we've rounded up the best Xiaomi phones in 2024.

The best Xiaomi phones 2024

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Best overall Xiaomi phone

Xiaomi 14 Ultra

(Image credit: Future / Roland Moore-Colyer)
Best overall Xiaomi phone

Specifications

Release date: February 2024
Weight: 224.4g
Dimensions: 161.4 x 75.3 x 9.2 mm
OS: Android 14 w/Xiaomi HyperOS
Screen size: 6.73-inch
Resolution: 3200 x 1440
CPU: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB
Battery: 4,610mAh
Rear camera: 50MP (wide) + 50MP (ultrawide) + 50MP (telephoto, 3.2x optical)
Front camera: 32MP

Reasons to buy

+
Incredible cameras
+
High-quality design

Reasons to avoid

-
Awkward to handle
-
Expensive

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is among the best camera phones we've ever tested, and as Xiaomi phones go, it's the best model overall. 

Its Leica-developed quad camera system is second to none, and its 1-inch sensor can handle low light and wide dynamic range like a pro. The phone's 32MP front-facing camera is equally impressive, as are its video-recording capabilities. Beyond its camera specs, though, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a formidable premium smartphone. 

For starters, it's protected by a high-strength aluminum frame, Xiaomi Shield Glass, and nano-tech vegan leather, which all come together to form the best-looking Xiaomi phone of the lot. That aforementioned camera sensor is obnoxiously large, but if you're happy to own a slightly off-balanced handset, then this camera protrusion isn't (or shouldn't be) a deal-breaker.

Under the hood, you'll get Qualcomm's top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, as well as 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. The phone's battery is a long-lasting 5,000mAh cell, and it can be charged up to 90W.

These are all mightily impressive specs that put the Xiaomi 14 Ultra on par with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max. You'll have to reckon with Xiaomi's bloatware-filled HyperOS interface, but once you've done some spring cleaning, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra's software can offer a truly personal experience.

Read our full Xiaomi 14 Ultra review

Best Xiaomi phone for most people

Xiaomi 14 review gaming Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact on the Xiaomi 14 (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
Best Xiaomi phone for most people

Specifications

Release date: February 2024
Weight: 193g
Dimensions: 152.8 x 71.5 x 8.2mm
OS: Android 14 w/Xiaomi HyperOS
Screen size: 6.36-inch
Resolution: 2670 x 1200
CPU: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
RAM: 12GB
Storage: 256GB/512GB
Battery: 4,610mAh
Rear camera: 50MP (wide) + 50MP (ultrawide) + 50MP (telephoto, 3.2x optical)
Front camera: 32MP

Reasons to buy

+
Highly competitive generational display
+
Top-tier performance and thermals

Reasons to avoid

-
Volume of HyperOS features can be overwhelming
-
Functional but forgettable design

As great as the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is, the standard Xiaomi 14 is a better all-round choice if you're not too fussed about owning one of the best camera phones. It's significantly cheaper, and offers comparable performance specs, as well as a more wieldy design than its uber-premium sibling.

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 Google Pixel 9 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

Best value Xiaomi phone

Xiaomi 14T Pro in Titan Grey

(Image credit: Future // Rob Dunne)
Best value Xiaomi phone

Specifications

Release date: September 2024
Weight: 209g
Dimensions: 160.4 x 75.1 x 8.39mm
OS: HyperOS with Android 14
Screen size: 6.36-inch
Resolution: 1080 × 2400
CPU: MediaTek Dimensity 9300+
RAM: 12GB LPDDR5X
Storage: Up to 1TB, UFS 4.0
Battery: 5,000mAh
Rear camera: 50MP (wide) + 50MP (telephoto) + 12MP (ultrawide)
Front camera: 32MP

Reasons to buy

+
Superb display
+
Impressive gaming performance

Reasons to avoid

-
Overheats in certain use cases
-
Rear panel attracts fingerprints

If you'd rather not stretch your budget to the aforementioned Xiaomi 14 Pro, but still want a relatively large Xiaomi phone with plenty of firepower, then the 6.67-inch Xiaomi 14T Pro is an excellent option in 2024.

Until recently, the Xiaomi 13 occupied the 'best value' slot in our best Xiaomi phones guide, but the newer Xiaomi 14T Pro offers better cameras, more RAM, and a bigger battery than its flagship predecessor, all for a significantly smaller asking price.

In fact, we said the 14T Pro "sits comfortably near the top of a growing tree of mid-range phones" in our review, praising its "much-improved build" (versus the 13T Pro), "seriously impressive display," and "performance that puts even the most premium flagships in a spot of bother." High praise indeed.

This phone's lightning-fast speeds are made possible by the presence of a MediaTek Dimensity 9300 Plus chipset, which scored only just under the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-equipped Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra in our benchmark tests. When paired with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, it's a formidable mobile brain.

The 14T Pro's cameras are decent, too, if not totally consistent, with our reviewer noting that "the [photographic] results you get are often some of the most stunning among mid-range competitors."

Sure, the 14T Pro overheats on occasion, and yes, its design is a total fingerprint magnet, but if you can stomach those concessions, you're getting a whole lot of phone here for not very much money. If you're willing to concede even more premium features, the standard Xiaomi 14T is cheaper still.

Read our full Xiaomi 14T Pro review

Best budget Xiaomi phone

Xiaomi 13T Pro in Blue

(Image credit: Future // Rob Dunne)
Best budget Xiaomi phone

Specifications

Release date: September 2023
Weight: 206g
Dimensions: 162.2 x 75.7 x 8.49mm
OS: Android 13 w/MIUI 14
Screen size: 6.67-inch
Resolution: 2712 x 1220
CPU: MediaTek Dimensity 9200 Plus
RAM: 12GB/16GB
Storage: 256GB/512GB
Battery: 5,000mAh
Rear camera: 50MP (wide) + 12MP (ultrawide) + 50MP (telephoto, 2x optical)
Front camera: 20MP

Reasons to buy

+
Huge array of camera features
+
Noticeably cheaper than competitors

Reasons to avoid

-
Absurdly large camera bump
-
No wireless charging capabilities

We're calling the Xiaomi 13T Pro the best budget Xiaomi phone 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. It's also a touch less than the newly released Xiaomi 14T, which feels less premium than the 13T Pro.

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. It's only getting cheaper, too.

Read our full Xiaomi 13T Pro review

Best Xiaomi gaming phone

Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro

(Image credit: Future)
Best Xiaomi gaming phone

Specifications

Release date: June 2022
Weight: 220g
Dimensions: 163.9 x 76.5 x 9.5mm
OS: Android 12 with JoyUI
Screen size: 6.67-inch
Resolution: 1080 x 2400
CPU: Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
RAM: 8GB/12GB/16GB
Storage: 128GB/256GB
Battery: 4,650mAh
Rear camera: 108MP (wide) + 13MP (ultrawide) + 5MP (telemacro)
Front camera: 32MP

Reasons to buy

+
Useful retractable triggers
+
Powerful processor

Reasons to avoid

-
Lackluster battery life
-
Gets very hot

The Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro may be a few years old now, but since the Black Shark 6 never came to market, this 2022 handset remains the best Xiaomi gaming phone money can buy (if you can get your hands on one).

The Black Shark 5 Pro offers some fantastic performance specs for the price, and for a time it ranked alongside the best gaming phones for power. In 2024, it can still play top-end games at their highest graphical settings without a hitch, thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor and 12GB of RAM.

Further helping your gaming experience is a set of pop-up physical triggers that can be assigned a function for your game. Trust us: they make 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. You can certainly find better gaming phones in 2024, but if you're after a Xiaomi-branded gaming phone, specifically, then the Black Shark 5 Pro is a worthy choice.

Read our full Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro 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.

Axel Metz
Phones Editor

Axel is TechRadar's UK-based Phones Editor, reporting on everything from the latest Apple developments to newest AI breakthroughs as part of the site's Mobile Computing vertical. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and his coverage extends from general reporting and analysis to in-depth interviews and opinion.  Axel studied for a degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick before joining TechRadar in 2020, where he then earned an NCTJ qualification as part of the company’s inaugural digital training scheme.