Mesoporous anatase TiO2 beads with high surface areas and controllable pore sizes are prepared by using a combined sol-gel and solvothermal process. Dye-sensitized solar cells made from these mesoporous beads gave a total power conversion efficiency of 7.20% under AM 1.5 sunlight, higher than that obtained using Degussa P25 films of similar thickness (5.66%).