Xiaomi X Pro QLED 2025 review: Filmmaker mode and a pristine QLED, on a budget

The Xiaomi X Pro QLED Series 2025 Edition is leaving very few cards on the table, as far as the spec sheet and features list is concerned, with pricing its biggest advantage.

For Xiaomi to be able to deliver a ‘Filmmaker Mode’, itself a trump card that doesn’t come easily and requires extreme levels of picture tuning, is no mean feat for the company’s latest affordable TVs. Affordable being an operative word, because Sony delivered something similar on its new Bravia TVs (the series 3, 7 and 8) earlier this year with prices upwards of ₹99,900. Xiaomi’s price points are ₹31,999 (43-inch), ₹44,999 (55-inch) and ₹64,999 (65-inch; this is the one we’re reviewing) for the X Pro QLED Series 2025 Edition, in comparison. Results of course may vary because different panel tech is being used — Xiaomi’s relying on a newer-architecture QLED panel, while Sony uses more expensive OLED and Mini LED displays.

The Xiaomi X Pro QLED Series 2025 Edition television. (Official image.)

This mode (that’s also the big leap, generationally) is something you’ll manually invoke once (and it can be set as default for different input sources too), ideally for streaming apps or an HDMI input which you use often to watch 4K movies with Dolby Vision or HDR10+. The Xiaomi X Pro QLED Series 2025 Edition supports both high-dynamic range (HDR) formats. The adjustments for colour, contrast, brightness and noise reduction are predefined, and Xiaomi insists this is how the creators of the piece of content you’re watching, intended for it to look on the TV. There is of course the flexibility to tweak this further, and you may wish to turn down the backlight levels in case skin tones feel a little off.

The Xiaomi X Pro QLED Series 2025 Edition is leaving very few cards on the table, as far as the spec sheet and features list is concerned. That should hold it in good stead with consistent experience, as buyers view different content. The MagiQLED panel can go incredibly bright (that’s one reason to manually reduce backlight and brightness for optimal colours and tones), which should be good news if you’re watching a Formula 1 race, in a brightly lit living room. At this point, it is imperative to note that the 120Hz game booster works well when a PlayStation is connected, but this TV will exhibit some judder in fast moving visuals in movies and often sports too. The pan shot of the ball racing towards the boundary, for example.

Once the picture settings are in accordance with subjective preferences and typical in-home viewing scenarios, the 4K content really shines through with vivid colours, great contrast and smoother brightness level changes with the DC dimming tech working in the background. Blacks are really deep, which helps with contrast and colour across the spectrum. Where it needs to optimise further is with lower resolution content, including sources such as Tata Play DTH services and older YouTube videos - these aren’t as crisp as you’d like them to be, particularly on a 55-inch or 65-inch display real estate.

There are two weak links in the Xiaomi X Pro QLED Series 2025 Edition proposition. First, the smart TV foundations which include the Google TV software and Xiaomi’s own PatchWall content suggestion ecosystem, feel sluggish despite a quad core processor and 2GB memory to work with. The interface remains decidedly sluggish at times, and the response lag is perceptible.

Secondly, the audio could have and should have been better. In previous years, OnePlus and Haier have given us an illustration of how to do in-TV speakers better, so much so you wouldn’t always need a soundbar to make up. But in this case, it is typically limiting with hardly any lower frequencies filtering through to the ears. Any attempts to counter that, and you’ll end up making the higher frequencies and therefore vocals, too sharp, or too dull. For a TV that’s has taken such a step forward in the visual part of the movie viewing experience, the audio shortcomings are decidedly disappointing.

After many years of retaining a similar remote layout, Xiaomi has changed things around this time. It is too early to make up our minds on whether this works, because we’re in the midst of the period of rewriting muscle memory.

All things considered and necessary weightage that you’d assign to a TV purchase (the panel quality and accompanying picture optimisations getting top billing), the Xiaomi X Pro QLED Series 2025 Edition is perhaps the ideal proposition at these price points, if you need the best possible picture quality for a variety of content — sports, movies or gaming. It simply works, because the basics are in place with a high quality QLED panel and just the right optimisations to image processing. No complaints, to the things that really matter. Except, put some money aside for a good soundbar. We’d recommend the Sonos Ray (that’s around ₹23,999).