Compact Android flagships are hard to come by. The Zenfone making the switch to a larger form factor leaves only two major smartphones battling it out to be the compact king. The word ‘compact’ does a lot of heavy lifting here as both smartphones are over 6 inches in size. The Samsung Galaxy S24 (our review here) is the smaller of the two, measuring 6.2-inches. The Xiaomi 14, which we have been using as our primary smartphone for the last week, spans 6.36 inches across its corners.
For comparison, their ‘Ultra’ counterparts measure 6.8 inches and 6.73 inches respectively. Needless to say, when it comes to smartphones, ‘compact’ is a relative term rather than an empirical one. If you’re thinking of grabbing the new Xiaomi 14, you may want to read this review first.
Read Also: Google to expand its Circle to Search feature to more Android devices
In This Article
Xiaomi 14 review: Design and Display
Xiaomi 14 ships inside the manufacturer’s signature black box for its flagships. Here’s what you get inside the retail package.
- Smartphone
- 120W power adapter
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- Soft phone cover (opaque)
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick Start Guide
The smartphone is available in three colour variants – Black, Jade Green, and White. Our Xiaomi 14 review unit was Jade Green which, like the White variant, is characterised by its ceramic glass back. While we do enjoy the feel of this back panel, it is a fingerprint magnet. If you want to steer away from eyesore smudges, the Black variant with its matte finish would be more up your alley.
The back panel is curved around the edges as it fits into the aluminium frame. Xiaomi has retained the square cutout for the camera setup. It gives the smartphone a significant wobble on flat surfaces, but we like its clean design language. This camera cutout also houses the IR blaster apart from the three lenses (more on those later). The Leica branding is also present right in the middle of the cutout.
The aluminium frame has flat edges and rounded corners, offering a nice grip. The right edge houses the volume rocker and the side button. The SIM tray, primary microphone, USB Type-C port, and speaker grille are positioned at the bottom. The earpiece doubles up as the secondary speaker on this device.
One of the important displays on this year’s Xiaomi 14 is the LPTO OLED display. Being an LTPO panel, it can adapt the refresh rate according to the task being carried out on the screen. This display can hit a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz when needed and dial down to 1Hz on standby to save the battery. The screen resolution also gets a small bump and is now 1,200 x 2,670 pixels.
Thin, uniform bezels surround the display. The selfie camera is housed in a punch-hole cutout. The in-display fingerprint scanner is fast and responsive but we’d have preferred if it was placed slightly highly to accommodate the natural position of the thumb while unlocking the screen. The display itself is snappy and offers an exceptional touch response. No complaints there.
Watching content on this screen is a splendid experience. The Widevine L1 certification allows you to stream HD content from major OTT apps like Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ Hotstar. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support is also present on this device, which is something you expect from a flagship. We streamed content from a range of apps throughout the review period and were pleased with the way the Xiaomi 14 reproduced the colours on the display. The LTPO OLED panel can reach a peak brightness of 3,000 nits which makes it all the more ideal for viewing HDR content.
If you want to customise your viewing experience on the Xiaomi 14, the smartphone offers a bunch of colour profiles in display settings. There is also an ‘Anti-flicker’ mode which does exactly what its name implies. While browsing through Twitter in dark mode at night, we did notice that the smartphone kept the distracting flickers to a minimum. There are a couple of AI features that enhance the HDR while viewing media in the Gallery app.
Moving on to the protective features, the smartphone flaunts an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. The device can withstand being submerged up to 1.5m in water for 30 minutes. The display receives Gorilla Glass Victus protection which safeguards it against scratches. We used the Xiaomi 14 without a cover throughout the review period and it did not register any scuffs or scratches on the display or along the body. While we did not push its limits, it did spend a lot of time inside pockets with keys and loose change.
Xiaomi 14 review: Performance and Cameras
One of the things that gives the Xiaomi 14 a significant edge over its direct rival, the Samsung Galaxy S24, is the processor. In India, the entry-level Galaxy S24 and its Plus variant (our review here) are powered by Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2400 chipset. Meanwhile, the Xiaomi 14 packs the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC under its hood. On the Geekbench 6 app, the smartphone attained a score of 2,203 points in the single-core test and 6,548 points in the multi-core test.
While performing routine tasks like web browsing, emailing, video calling, media streaming, and app multitasking, we did not hit any snags on the Xiaomi 14. The breezy performance was flagship-grade and ‘bang for the buck’ worthy. Watching a live stream on YouTube while browsing Twitter in a separate window presented no issues either. The smartphone does run a little warm when you shoot videos in outdoor conditions under direct sunlight. However, we did not encounter any camera warnings or unexpected crashes.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset is key when it comes to delivering a high-end gaming performance. This is where Xiaomi 14 inches ahead of Galaxy S24. We played titles like Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty Mobile at the highest settings and were treated with a smooth gameplay experience. Xiaomi’s IceLoop Cooling tech does a decent job of keeping the internal temperature in check. Even after an hour-long gaming session, we did not experience throttling while gaming.
Xiaomi’s new HyperOS handles the software duties on its newest compact flagship. We got a taste of this OS earlier this year on the Poco X6 Pro (our review here). While the HyperOS does not mark a radical shift in design and aesthetics from the MIUI skin, we do enjoy its superior optimisation. Browsing the phone and going through its interface feels much more snappy on HyperOS.
As far as design changes are concerned, the biggest of the bunch is the new look for the Control Centre (surprisingly, this is what Xiaomi is officially calling it now) which does its best iPhone impression. A downward swipe on the right side of the screen pulls down the Quick Settings all at once, where the tiles are arranged as individual icons. By default, the tiles do not have labels underneath them, but you can make them appear from device settings. We prefer the cleaner look of the lable-less tiles but it can make things a little confusing.
Another thing we like about HyperOS is the customisation support for the lock screen. Apart from the classic themes, there are a bunch of ‘Rhombus’ and ‘Magazine’ style layouts, the latter letting you turn your portraits into eye-catching covers. The app drawer on the new OS is identical to its MIUI counterpart. As is the majority of the interface.
While HyperOS may not seem groundbreaking right now, it is a bold attempt at bringing a universal language to Xiaomi’s range of consumer products, be it smartphones, home appliances, or even their newly launched electric car. This is something that will be fleshed out in its future iterations but Xiaomi’s ecosystem holds a lot of promise due to the diverse nature of devices the company has to offer. Xiaomi has promised 4 years of major OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches on the newest 14 Series.
The battery situation on compact smartphones is always a cause of concern, but the 4,610 mAh unit on this smartphone easily takes it through a day of heavy use. During the review period, we got 5-6 hours of Screen on Time on the Xiaomi 14. The smartphone supports 90W fast charging, even though it comes with a 120W power brick inside the box. We were able to fully charge the smartphone in just under 35 minutes.
Xiaomi banks upon the photography reputation of its flagship phones, something that is very obvious from the brand’s mainstream messaging. While the Ultra variant may grab all the headlines, the entry-level Xiaomi 14 also deserves a lot of praise for its cutting-edge camera performance. The rear camera cutout houses three 50MP sensors for the wide, ultrawide, and telephoto lenses – an upgrade from the 50 + 12 + 10 MP setup on its predecessor. The native Camera app offers two style profiles – Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic. We used the colour-rich Vibrant profile for most of the review period.
The 50MP primary shooter displays a very versatile range. No matter the lighting condition, this camera captures detailed pictures with lush colours and a wide dynamic range. In bright outdoor conditions, we were particularly pleased with how this camera exposed the sky and processed the colour tones. The Leica tuning makes a ton of difference on this camera setup.
At nighttime, the main sensor does an incredible job of letting in a lot of light and exposing the subject correctly. In the photoprocessing phase, the smartphone does well to brighten up the subject and tune the colours accurately. We like that it doesn’t oversharpen the images as most flagship cameras tend to do.
Pictures taken with the 50MP ultrawide camera are a little soft, with the camera unable to reproduce the sharpness of the main sensor. The colour-richness of the images remains impeccable. The dynamic range and contrast are also decent. In limited lighting, this camera relies heavily upon the Night Mode. While we were happy with the brightness of the images, the images remained on the softer side. Having said that, the ultrawide lens can easily hang with its peers in this price bracket.
The 3.2x 50MP floating telephoto lens is the dark horse of this camera setup. It renders punchy colours on pictures taken with 3.2x zoom and captures a good amount of detail. Its 75mm focal length allows you to take close-up portrait shots from a distance. This lens is also used for the Macro mode as it can focus as close as 10cm. Pushing the Xiaomi 14 to its zooming limit (60x), we noticed that its ability to resolve the images was still a step behind Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Series.
When it comes to taking portrait shots, the Xiaomi 14 does an incredible job. It effortlessly recognises the boundaries of the subject, separates it from the background, and applies an appropriate amount of blur. You can choose from 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 90mm focal lengths in the camera app.
The 32MP front-facing camera takes good selfies without obfuscating the skin tone and texture. It can now record 4K videos at 30 and 60 fps, something which was missing in its previous iteration. The main camera can record 8K videos at 24fps. However, if you want to record videos in Log format, you will need to stick to 4K resolution (which isn’t bad at all).
We cannot miss mentioning how Xiaomi’s camera app is one of the best around. It has a very handy ‘Teleprompter’ feature which overlays the fleeting text on the viewfinder while you are recording a video. You can change the speed and size of the text as well. The ‘Director mode’ is one feature we’d love to see on other smartphones as well. This mode allows you to arrange a multicamera setup by linking your Xiaomi devices together.
Read Also: 6,000mAh Battery with 70W Charging Phone: Tecno POVA 6 Pro Launched
Verdict
After spending a week with the Xiaomi 14, we can safely say that it is one of the best smartphones that Android has to offer. Its (relatively) compact form factor, clean design, smooth display, powerful processor, and versatile cameras link together to produce an exemplary experience for the user. The new HyperOS holds a lot of promise for the future and has us invested in its development arc. If you’re looking for a reliable flagship device that can deliver a consistent performance on every front, then Xiaomi 14 is a great deal at Rs 70,000.
Xiaomi 14: Pros
- Clean design
- Good camera performance
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset
- Fast charging
Xiaomi 14: Cons
- Glossy back on Jade Green and White variants attracts fingerprints
