Technologies

The Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro Have One Feature That Samsung Phones Don’t

The phones pack a lot for the money but US shoppers will have to look elsewhere.

Xiaomi’s 15 Ultra impressed me earlier in the year with its stellar camera setup that provides superb quality for pro shooters. But the company’s not done for the year just yet; the Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro pack Leica-branded camera systems and a host of high-end tech into a metal body. I’ve been hands-on, and there’s a lot to like.

Both the processor and the cameras put in solid performances during my hands-on time with them. Plus, I was intrigued to hear about a unique new feature found only on the Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro: a walkie talkie mode for making device-to-device voice calls in areas where there is no cell service.

Read more: I Took Over 1,000 Photos With the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Check Out My Favorites

At the time of writing, Xiaomi wouldn’t confirm pricing details for the 15T or 15T Pro, but for reference, last year’s 14T Pro started at £650 (roughly $880) in the UK and was a high-performing mid-range handset. I’d expect the 15T Pro to come with a similar price tag. It’s safe to assume the base 15T will be at least £100 cheaper. As with all of Xiaomi’s products, an official US launch is not on the cards.

Xiaomi 15T Pro cameras

The back of the 15T Pro is home to a triple-camera array, which includes a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera.

On a sunny late summer day in Edinburgh, I found the main camera capable of taking solid shots with even exposure, accurate colors and plenty of detail.

Switching to the ultrawide lens, I’m not quite as impressed. The exposure balance isn’t as good and the details are noticeably poorer, especially towards the edge of the frame. Still, it’s fine for snaps.

But the 5x optical zoom is impressive, delivering crisp details and consistent exposure handling, just like the main camera.

Like the 15 Ultra, it also offers a Pro mode that allows you to shoot in RAW, manually adjust settings and choose from various color profiles — including several of the same Leica-branded ones found on Leica’s regular cameras.

Xiaomi 15T Pro: Design and display

The phone is made with an aluminum alloy frame and a glass fiber back, which feels sturdy in hand, while its IP68 waterproof rating means the occasional splash won’t be a problem. I think the phone looks a bit plain; even its «mocha gold» color leans more towards 1970s couch brown. But looks are subjective and hardly matter if you’re just going to throw a case on it anyway.

The 6.8-inch display is bright enough for use in direct sunlight, with rich colors and plenty of screen real estate to do justice to mobile games or YouTube videos — perfect for your commute.

Xiaomi 15T Pro: Processor, battery and extras

The 15T Pro runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ processor, which clocked some decent scores on the Geekbench 6 benchmark test. It came in a bit shy of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but a fair way above the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. In everyday use, I found it nippy and it handled gaming in PUBG and Destiny: Rising without any issues.

Powering the phone is a 5,500-mAh battery, which should get you through a full day of mixed use. It supports up to 90W wired charging, which should get juice back in the tank very quickly, assuming you have a compatible charger.

The phone runs Android 15 at its core and I’m a bit peeved that it comes preinstalled with a bunch of third-party apps, including Amazon shopping, Amazon music, AliExpress, Facebook and more. It makes the phone feel cluttered right out of the box; I recommend uninstalling whatever you don’t want before you even begin installing your own apps.

An interesting new feature is offline communication, which lets two 15T series phones make direct device-to-device voice calls from up to 1.9 kilometers away. It essentially turns the phone into a walkie-talkie, offerings a way to communicate in areas where there’s no cell service — like when you’re hiking with friends in the wilderness. It’s a novel idea, and as far as I know, unique to Xiaomi. That said, it currently only works if both you and your friend have a Xiaomi 15T or 15T Pro, so hopefully the company rolls it out to more devices soon.

Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro: Are they any good?

The 15T Pro’s solid processor and camera performance make it a decent all-round phone for what I’m hoping will be a reasonable mid-range price tag. While it won’t be offering much competition to the likes of the Galaxy S25 Ultra or the new iPhone 17 Pro, it’s got everything you’d need from an everyday Android phone.

The base 15T packs most of the same camera setup but uses a slightly less powerful processor and misses out on the 90W fast charging found in its Pro sibling. I expect it to cost even less, making it a better option if you’re shopping on a budget.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 2, #967

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 2 #967

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is a fun one for fans of Agatha Christie, as the last name of one of her detectives shows up in the grid. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Time.

Green group hint: Need to get in.

Blue group hint: Characters in a certain genre of books.

Purple group hint: They grow in the forest, sometimes, but there’s a twist.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Duration.

Green group: Credentials for entry.

Blue group: Modern crime series protagonists.

Purple group: Trees plus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is duration. The four answers are interval, period, span and stretch.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is credentials for entry. The four answers are lanyard, pass, stamp and wristband.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is modern crime series protagonists. The four answers are Bosch, Cross, Reacher and Ryan.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is trees plus a letter. The four answers are fair (fir), Marple (maple), popular (poplar) and psalm (palm).

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

I Found the 9 Best Gifts for Someone Who Isn’t Gonna Watch the Super Bowl

Here are some great gifts for loved ones who see Super Bowl Sunday as just a regular Sunday.

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Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Super Bowl LX is this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET, and a lot of us are excited to watch the game, the halftime or both. But let’s face it, NFL games aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. If you know someone whose birthday falls around now or want to show a non-football fan how much you appreciate them, we’ve got a list of gifts that’ll do the trick.

Technologies

NordVPN Software Blocked 92% of Phishing Emails in Independent Testing

Phishing attempts continue to grow with help from generative AI and its believable deepfakes and voice impersonations.

NordVPN’s anti-malware software Threat Protection Pro blocked 92% of phishing websites in an independent lab test of several antivirus products, browsers and VPNs in results released this week.

AV-Comparatives, based in Austria, attacked 15 products with 250 websites — all verified to be valid phishing URLs — in a test that ran Jan. 7 to 19. The lab said the products were tested in parallel and with active internet/cloud access. The Google Chrome browser was used for antivirus and VPN testing.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Phishing is a form of cyberattack in which a malicious actor tries to get someone to go «fishing,» with malicious URLs as bait. These phishing attempts might be sent in emails, but they also appear on websites, in texts and in voicemails.

You might get an email that says your bank account has been hacked and you should click on a URL to solve the problem. Or an email says you’ve won a big prize, instructing you to click on a URL to redeem. During tax season, the amount of scam emails and texts increases dramatically, with AI often used to ramp up the numbers. CNET offers tips for how to detect phishing attempts on even the most sophisticated of emails.

«By creating a sense of trust and urgency, cybercriminals hope to prevent you from thinking critically about their bait message so that they can gain access to your sensitive or personal information like your password, credit card numbers, user data, etc,» warns the US State Department website. «These cybercriminals may target specific individuals, known as spear phishing, or cast a wide net to attempt to catch as many victims as possible.»

In the AV-Comparatives test, which evaluated phishing-page detection and false-positive rates, NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro ranked fourth among security products, blocking 92% of the 250 phishing URLs tested. The highest scoring included:

Avast Free Antivirus 95%
Norton Antivirus Plus 95%
Webroot SecureAnywhere Internet Security Plus 93%

On its website, NordVPN says Threat Protection Pro protects devices even when they are not connected to a VPN. The company says the software can thwart phishing attempts and prevent malware from infecting your computer in several ways — alerts about malicious websites; blocking cookies that can learn about your browsing habits; and stopping pop-ups and intrusive ads.

According to cybersecurity company Hoxhunt, the total volume of phishing attacks has skyrocketed by 4,151% since the advent of ChatGPT in 2022, with a cost to companies of $4.88 million per phishing breach.

With the rapid expansion of AI across the internet, the volume of phishing attacks is growing. Some AI-generated phishing scams are able to get past email filters, but Hoxhunt found that only 0.7% to 4.7% of phishing emails were written by AI. However, cybercriminals are using AI to expand their phishing tools. AI can create deepfake videos and voice-impersonation phone calls to redirect payments or gain access to sensitive data.

AI scams will be tough to root out. CNET reported that 62% of executives had been targets of phishing attempts, including voice- and text-based scams, with 37% reporting invoice or payment fraud, all from generative AI.

Although NordVPN’s product might be effective at preventing malware from infecting your computer, it can’t eliminate malware that may already be on it. To clean up those issues, CNET lists the best antivirus software of 2026 and the best free antivirus apps. Those products can scan your computer and hopefully eradicate any malware and viruses that might be there.