Review of Xiaomi 14

There are not too many alternatives if you would rather have a smaller phone with excellent performance. The Samsung Galaxy S24 and iPhone 15 are the obvious options, but the Xiaomi 14 offers a strong alternative that could be more suited for you.

While it's not a little phone by any means, the 6.39-inch display makes it far more portable than large flagships like as the S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Even with its diminutive size, the Xiaomi 14 has specs that rival those of these massive devices.

This phone has an amazing display, a ton of power, fantastic cameras, and quick charging. Nevertheless, the cost is also somewhat high. Is the Xiaomi 14 providing consumers enough to divert them from the more popular phones on our list of the best 5G phones? I wanted to know, and after a few weeks of adjusting, this is what I discovered.

Cost and accessibility

The Xiaomi 14 was introduced to the world during the February MWC and is now sold on Xiaomi's website as well as via independent retailers like Amazon. Unfortunately, the US is not part of Xiaomi's worldwide rollout, as is customary, thus your only choice if you want to own one in the US is to import.

The Xiaomi 14 retails for £849 / €999 in the UK and Europe with 256GB of storage or £899 / €1099 with 512GB. It is more costly than some of the competitors at this price bracket. For example, the starting price of the iPhone 15 is €949, while that of the Samsung Galaxy S24 is €899.

Specifications

Software and features

The Xiaomi 14 is powered by HyperOS, a new version of Xiaomi's software that takes the place of the MIUI overlay. HyperOS is built on top of Android 14, and while the name change suggests significant changes, the user experience is really very similar.

You won't be in for too many shocks if you've already used a Xiaomi phone, since HyperOS operates quite similarly to MIUI. The design has been altered primarily, and generally, I believe it looks a bit more professional. The fast settings, for instance, now just show symbols with no language beneath, which looks really sleek and simple. However, I did find it difficult to recall what each symbol meant.

The notification shade and quick settings are located on separate sides of the screen and are accessed by swiping, exactly as on an iPhone. This is the most difficult feature for Android users to get accustomed to. Other than that, HyperOS is comparable to other Android skins.

The system was simple to use and had lovely, flowing animations that worked flawlessly every time. The primary drawback is the large amount of bloatware that is pre-installed. The majority of it consists of Xiaomi's own applications, but there's also a folder containing a variety of oddities including Facebook, Booking.com, and TikTok. Although it's simple to take out, you shouldn't have to go to the difficulty when spending this much money.

Unless you include Google Assistant, this phone lacks any sophisticated AI productivity capabilities, however they are still exclusive to Samsung and Google phones. But you do get some AI-powered tools for picture editing. You may create some very lovely fake bokeh effects and remove annoying individuals or objects from your images. Although it's nothing more sophisticated than what Google Photos currently offers, having these features in the built-in picture viewer is handy.

Design

The Xiaomi 14 and the Xiaomi 13 from the previous year have a similar design, with strong iPhone influences. With this configuration, you have a completely flat display, flat metal borders, and a square camera array located in the upper-left corner of the back panel.

Although the design isn't the most eye-catching, it feels high-end and is useful. The larger camera housing on the more recent model suggests that the photography department has made some progress. In addition, a new knurled ring reminiscent of a high-end watch's bezel surrounds the cameras. Though it's minor, the trim does look good.

I'm trying the Black model, which features a glass back panel with a matte finish. This is considerably better than the previous model, which was a fingerprint magnet, so I'm glad to see it. The Jade Green model has a high-gloss finish, while the White model has a comparable matte glass back. Although it looks fantastic, you can be sure that if you use the green phone without a protection, it will be smudge-fest.

Each variant is tinted to match the color of the back panel and has a glossy mirror-like surface around the edges. These appear like they would scratch easily and are highly prone to fingerprints, thus I'd like to see them given the matte treatment as well. To allay these worries, I tested the Xiaomi 14 with the matte-black TPU cover that comes with the device.

It's a modest phone by today's standards, as previously indicated. But it's not little. Although the Xiaomi 14 is somewhat bigger than the S24 and the iPhone 15, it seems surprisingly light and small after using the Oppo Find X7 Ultra. It's significantly less of a bulge in your pocket and has smooth edges that make it easy to grasp.

The Xiaomi 14 is almost waterproof thanks to its IP68 dust and water resistant certification. It is well-suited to adventurous lives since it can withstand being submerged in waters up to 1.5 meters without suffering any harm.

Display

The 6.39-inch display on the Xiaomi 14 has an adjustable refresh rate that can be adjusted between 1Hz and 120Hz to save battery life and guarantee a flawless visual experience. It always seems very crisp because of its resolution of 2,670 x 1,200 pixels, which is a very high pixel density for the screen size.It's an extremely brilliant display, with 3,000 nits of brightness possible, according to Xiaomi. Although it wasn't increasing to nearly such levels during my testing, it was more than capable of competing with direct sunshine. With its brilliant panel and its compatibility for Dolby Vision and HDR10+, you can enjoy some extremely spectacular images from applications like Netflix and Prime Video. The highlights may become startlingly brilliant, while the blacks are deep and inky. It's excellent.Since I'm accustomed to phones with bigger screens, as I previously noted, I did found the Xiaomi 14 to be a touch too small for prolonged gaming sessions. Your mileage may vary here, however, since I have very big hands. Most importantly, games usually look great on this display, so you should have fun with less real estate if that's okay with you.You will love this phone if you prefer to adjust the color reproduction since HyperOS has some of the most extensive display modification options I have seen. You may change the color gamut and modify the saturation, hue, contrast, color balance, and other parameters in addition to the standard color profiles.Cameras

The focal point of the Xiaomi 14 is its camera system, as indicated by the Leica logo and the oversized camera enclosure. All three of the rear lenses on the Xiaomi 13 now have a 50MP resolution thanks to the brand's replacement of the lesser megapixel-count auxiliary lenses. Additionally, the primary sensor has been modified to use a novel OmniVision sensor, which Xiaomi has named the Light Fusion 900.At 1/1.3 inches, this new main sensor is much larger than the leading competitors' main sensors, the S24 and iPhone 15. With a larger sensor that reduces exposure times and gathers more light, you can anticipate improved low-light performance with reduced motion blur.But this primary camera doesn't just beam at night. All things considered, it's the most spectacular of the lot. Even though the resolution of all three cameras is the same, the primary camera by far captures the finest photos and most information. Its bigger sensor also allows it to produce some lovely, natural bokeh, with close-ups looking especially good.However, the other cameras are also rather powerful. I found the 3x telephoto to be quite useful for taking close-up macro photos and portraits, and I really loved using it. Compared to the primary snapper, it struggles at night and produces significantly weaker details, but during the day it can produce amazing shots.The ultrawide is the same in this regard. With its superb dynamic range and very large field of vision, it's fantastic during the day, but less so at night. It's also not autofocus, so while it works well for big group photographs and architectural photography, you can't take any close-ups, which is a little restrictive.Additionally, the selfie camera performs well. With a 32MP resolution, it catches a lot of information, and Xiaomi's image processing produces attractive self-portraits. If you want to experiment, a variety of beauty techniques and filters are available to help, and the cutouts in portrait mode are quite dependable.All of the cameras can shoot in 4K60 in video mode, and 8K at 24 frames per second is also possible, however it is limited to 6 minutes and only works with the primary camera. Both the autofocus and stabilization perform well in videos. The camera app offers an unexpectedly large number of professional capabilities, such as complete manual adjustments and even a LOG color profile.

Achievement

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC with 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage powers the Xiaomi 14. With those specifications, it's obvious that this phone will be really fast.When used, it performs well. Apps launch swiftly, the system is speedy and responsive, and it multitasks like a pro. Naturally, the Xiaomi 14's processing strength truly comes through in games, where it can smoothly run almost every game available in the Google Play Store on its highest settings.I spent a good number of hours playing Genshin Impact, as usual, using the Highest setting at 60 frames per second. It was easily handled by the Xiaomi 14, and I never saw any stutters or frame dropouts. After around twenty minutes, the phone started to warm up a bit, but it never became too hot to handle. Considering the small frame, this is an amazing accomplishment.When a game is open, you may swipe from the left side of the screen to enter the gaming menu. Although it's not as extensive as the menu on a gaming phone, such as the Redmagic 9 Pro or ROG Phone 8, there are still more choices than on a normal mobile phone. The gaming menu has the ability to alter your voice, record gameplay, prevent calls and alerts, and improve performance. It's a very practical feature.The dual speakers on the Xiaomi 14 are of a respectable caliber. The bass response is greater than on many phones, and the mids and highs have a great deal of clarity. While they won't blow you away, there is respectable stereo separation and sufficient volume for everyone in the house.

Battery

The Xiaomi 14 has a 4,610 mAh battery pack, which is just less than other flagship devices since their capacity are moving approaching 5,000 mAh. I had some concerns regarding battery life because of the strong CPU that was built inside the device. Actually however, this battery capacity more than meets the demands of the majority of individuals.The Xiaomi 14 never failed to last until the end of the day, even on days when you spent a lot of time in front of the screen and took a lot of pictures and videos. I would often go to bed with 30% or more left. Naturally, the battery may run out a little quicker if you play games all day, but most users can get by with a full day's usage between charges.It won't be too much of an issue if you do need to recharge the battery throughout the day. With the 90W wall adapter that comes with it, it charges quite quickly. It will take you little more than 30 minutes to get from completely flat to fully charged, and less than 15 minutes to charge 50% of the way.Up to 50W of wireless charging is supported by the Xiaomi 14, but in order to achieve these rates, you'll need Xiaomi's wireless charger. My 50W Oppo AirVooc charger didn't work as well for me; instead, it only charged at a languid 15W. In the event that your earphones die while you're out and about or if a buddy needs an emergency top-up, you may also reverse wireless charge at up to 10W.

Is the Xiaomi 14 a good purchase?

The Xiaomi 14 is an excellent choice if you're looking for a flagship phone that is a little bit smaller. It has outstanding performance, a wonderful display, a superb camera, and a long battery life. Choosing this more compact alternative actually doesn't come with any disadvantages, apart from losing out on the larger zoom lengths given by "Ultra" flagships.Though there is fierce competition, many will find the Samsung Galaxy S24 to be the more appealing choice because of its cheaper price. Not that the Xiaomi 14 doesn't offer any benefits, either. In my opinion, the Snapdragon CPU performs somewhat better while gaming, and the Samsung is nowhere near as quick when it comes to charging. I also find that I often like the Xiaomi pictures more.You're going to have an amazing experience if you choose to get the Xiaomi 14. It fulfills all of my expectations for a top-tier smartphone, and what's even better is that it accomplishes it all while being lightweight and small.

Substitutes

Here are a few more fantastic little flagships to consider if you're not sure whether the Xiaomi 14 is the phone for you.Samsung Galaxy S24

An excellent substitute for the Xiaomi 14 is the smallest phone in the S24 family. As I've previously shown, it's somewhat less expensive, but it's also smaller and almost identical to the Xiaomi 14. The fact that this phone has all the amazing new AI functions that we saw on the S24 Ultra is a big plus. However, you'll have to wait a lot longer for it to charge. Check out our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review and

iPhone 15

if you have the extra cash.The iPhone 15 is an excellent substitute for an Android phone if you're not set on getting one. For a little less money, it provides a quality flagship experience and is also comparably small. Although the iPhone's camera specifications are not as remarkable, it still produces excellent images, and its gaming prowess is indisputable. We also recommend checking out our iPhone 15 Pro Max review if you have a little more money to invest.