The Xiaomi 15T and the POCO F8 Pro come from the same industrial group but are built for different audiences: the former bets on photography, the latter on display and raw performance at a more aggressive price. Let’s see where each one wins.
Display
The POCO F8 Pro has what, in our assessment, is the best display of the comparison: a TCL CSOT panel with a true 12-bit RGB matrix and very thin bezels. The Xiaomi 15T holds its own, with a 1.5K AMOLED panel at 120Hz protected by Gorilla Glass 7i, but it stays a notch below on color quality and precision.
Camera
Here the Xiaomi 15T takes a clear lead: it packs Leica optics with a dedicated telephoto lens, capable of near-flagship results for its price range. The POCO F8 Pro has a respectable setup — 50 MP main with OIS, 50 MP 60mm telephoto, and 8 MP ultra-wide — but without the Leica branding and its color processing, the final result doesn’t reach the same level.
Performance
The POCO F8 Pro clearly wins here with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which by our assessment is the second most powerful chip in the comparison, behind only the iPhone for raw performance and on-device AI. The Xiaomi 15T settles for the MediaTek Dimensity 8400-Ultra, solid but built for those who prefer efficiency over the Qualcomm ecosystem. Both come with 12 GB of RAM and go up to 512 GB of storage (UFS 4.1 on the Xiaomi).
Battery and charging
The POCO F8 Pro has a bigger battery, ~6200 mAh versus the Xiaomi 15T’s 5500 mAh, with charging that in tests completes in under an hour — but wired only, no wireless charging. The Xiaomi 15T tops out at 67W, slower than its rival but still on par for the class.
Software
Here the Xiaomi 15T has a real practical edge: the POCO F8 Pro is flagged for fairly heavy bloatware — ads, intrusive third-party widgets, and preinstalled apps that are hard to remove — to the point of being called “the real loser” of the comparison on the software front in one of the more recent tests. Worth considering if you don’t enjoy spending the first few days uninstalling apps.
Extras
An under-advertised advantage of the Xiaomi 15T is emergency satellite calling (Xiaomi Offline Communication), useful when out of coverage. The POCO F8 Pro answers back with symmetrical dual speakers (Sound by Bose) and one of the fastest ultrasonic unlocks in its class.
Bottom line
If photography is the priority, the Xiaomi 15T remains the more sensible choice thanks to its Leica optics. If instead you want the best display, top performance, and a bigger battery — and you can live with noisier software to clean up on first boot — the POCO F8 Pro offers more for the same budget.