Xiaomi X Pro QLED 65in (2025) review

Pulling this beauty out of its cardboard cocoon, you get that familiar Xiaomi vibe. It’s smart, it’s minimalist, and it looks more expensive than it probably is. The premium metal bezel is so thin it’s practically on a diet, meaning all you really see is a glorious screen. Whether you plump for the 43, 55, or the whopping 65-incher, it’s got that modern, ‘all-screen’ aesthetic.

Around the back, it’s clean enough, with ports sensibly placed. You get three HDMIs (one with eARC for your booming soundbar), a couple of USBs, Ethernet for the Wi-Fi phobics, optical audio, and even an old-school AV input. Nothing revolutionary, perhaps, but it's got the essentials covered. 

They've tweaked the remote too – it's taller now, with curvier sides for a comfier grip during those marathon channel-hopping sessions. Nice touch. There’s a dedicated mute button with hot keys for the well-known OTT services. The number pad is back on the Xiaomi remote because of a government policy, according to Xiaomi India; going forward, all TV remotes will need to have the number pad on the remote to switch through channels.

Right, the main event: the picture quality. This is a 4K QLED panel, meaning tiny Quantum Dots are doing a flashy disco dance to give you punchier colours and brightness than your standard LED telly. And for the most part, it delivers the goods, especially when you feed it the right stuff.

Let's get specific, using some prime movie night fodder. Fire up Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning. That opening submarine scene, where Ethan emerges from the gloom? The Xiaomi handles it decently. There’s a smidge of crushed black, meaning some really dark details get swallowed up, but overall, you can still make out what’s lurking in the shadows. It’s a similar story in Blade Runner 2049’s moody opening, as K confronts Sapper Morton. Again, not perfectly inky blacks, but better than you might expect at this price point.

Where this telly really starts to sing is with modern shows mastered in Dolby Vision, especially with Filmmaker Mode flicked on. Take the intense arrest sequence in that gritty Netflix drama, Adolescence. The velvety, slightly noisy picture, the well-judged warmth – it feels properly cinematic, just as the director intended, without the TV mucking about with artificial smoothing or pumped-up colours. This panel definitely performs better with native 4K content designed for HDR formats like Dolby Vision or HDR10+.

Upscaling standard HD stuff, like old episodes of The Big Bang Theory, is admirable but not perfect. Things can look a little soft compared to native 4K. Motion handling and clarity, however, are generally well-judged, keeping action scenes relatively smooth. The 2025 model boasts DLG (Dual Line Gate) tech, letting the native 60Hz panel mimic 120Hz for smoother gaming or sports – though this likely comes at the cost of resolution, so hardcore gamers might want to manage expectations. There’s no VRR or ALLM for gaming either, and the TV doesn’t support HDR at 4K gaming. So if you’re plonking your PS5 into this, HDR wouldn’t be supported.

Now, for the nitpicking. Colour uniformity isn’t its strongest suit, particularly around the edges where things can look slightly off compared to the centre. And because this uses edge-lit backlighting (lights around the frame) rather than full-array (lights directly behind the whole screen), you can spot its limitations in torture tests.

There’s very little distracting blooming (halos around bright objects on dark backgrounds) in tricky scenes, like the candle-lit hallways in Shogun's "Crimson Sky" episode. Highlights on those flickering flames are tight, and brightness is fairly uniform towards the centre. However, darker scenes viewed near the edges can betray a mild halo effect.

No scene demonstrates this edge-light bleed better than the opening of Our Oceans (the one narrated by Barack Obama). Watching those deep ocean shots, you might notice the blue hues on the very edges appearing brighter than the rest of the scene. It’s a tell-tale sign of edge lighting. That said, even with this slight uniformity issue, Dolby Vision content still looks impressive. Contrast and highlights are often well-balanced; those white splashes of crashing waves ping with impressive brightness and tight detail. The darker areas aren't as deep and inky as you'd get on a pricier OLED, but it’s a respectable performance.

A quick word on Adaptive Luma Control. It does a good job of boosting colour punch in scenes that might otherwise look washed out. Keeping it on 'Low' seems a good starting point. For older HD shows, though, you might find turning it off gives a more natural picture.

Running Google TV means you get a slick, content-focused interface pulling shows and movies from all your apps into one place. It’s got Google Assistant built-in for voice commands ("Oi, Google, find me something funny!"), Chromecast, and even Apple AirPlay 2 support. Xiaomi also layers its own PatchWall interface over the top, offering another way to browse, plus curated content lists and themes. Under the hood, it's got the same Quad-Core chip, 2GB RAM and 32GB storage as last year – perfectly adequate for zipping around menus and apps.   

Sound-wise, the 55 and 65-inch models get a slight bump to 34W speakers (the 43-incher stays at 30W). They support Dolby Audio and DTS:X, and Xiaomi reckons they've tweaked the tuning. It’s decent for built-in sound – clear dialogue, a bit of punch – but as always, a dedicated soundbar will blow it out of the water.

The Xiaomi X Pro QLED TV (2025 Edition) isn't a massive leap forward from its predecessor. It’s more of an iterative update, polishing the software, adding Filmmaker Mode for the cinephiles, and tweaking the sound and remote.

The QLED panel delivers vibrant colours and handles HDR content (especially Dolby Vision) impressively well for the price. It’s bright, sharp, and makes modern 4K stuff look ace. However, black levels aren't OLED-deep, there's some backlight inconsistency near the edges, and upscaling could be better.   

But let's be real. Xiaomi isn't trying to dethrone the OLED kings here. It's offering a feature-packed, stylish 4K QLED experience with great smarts at a price that makes you nod appreciatively rather than wince. If you want cracking value, decent performance (especially with 4K HDR), and slick smart features without breaking the bank, this 2025 Xiaomi is definitely still worth sticking on your shortlist. It’s a solid all-rounder that gets most things right.