Xiaomi 14 smartphone review

The current flagship line of Xiaomi smartphones includes three models: Xiaomi 14 Ultra, Xiaomi 14 Pro, and Xiaomi 14. The Ultra model is positioned as a photo flagship with maximum camera capabilities, while the Xiaomi 14 Pro with a large screen was not released outside of China. And the younger Xiaomi 14 is a kind of flagship for everyone with relatively compact dimensions. We will talk about it today.

Specifications of Xiaomi 14

Package contents

Xiaomi 14 comes in a white box with the Mi and Leica logos and the model name. Chinese manufacturers have not yet minimized their smartphone bundles, and usually a good set of accessories is included in the box. Xiaomi 14 is no exception. 

Inside is a smartphone, a 90W charger, a USB Type-C cable, a protective film (on the screen from the factory), a pin to remove the tray, the necessary documentation, and a protective bumper. Unlike the vast majority of bundled options, it is of good quality. It’s black with a nice matte finish.

It has small bezels to protect the screen and the main camera, which protrudes quite a bit.

Design and ergonomics

Nowadays, it’s quite difficult to make a smartphone design original and unusual, except for experimenting with the back cover. Xiaomi 14 is a typical modern smartphone in the best sense of the term. The body is made of glass and metal. The entire front panel is occupied by a rather small 6.36-inch flat display protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. It has very thin bezels around the perimeter, Xiaomi claims that they are only 1.61 mm thick.

The metal frame of the smartphone is flat, with only subtle chamfers around the edges. Thanks to this, it doesn’t feel like the smartphone is cutting into your palm. In our black version, the frame is glossy and prints are very visible. Although I’m not sure that users look at their smartphone bezels very often.

There are traditional plastic inserts around the perimeter of the frame for reliable operation of wireless interfaces. The power and volume buttons are also metal, protruding sufficiently above the bezel and placed in such a way that you don’t have to reach for them with either your left or right hand.

The upper edge is completely devoid of any elements: a speaker above the screen is used to reproduce stereo sound. An additional microphone and an infrared transmitter for controlling home appliances are placed in the rear camera module.

Below is a completely familiar set: the main speaker, microphone, Type-C connector of USB 3.2 Gen 1 version, and a tray. You can install two physical SIM cards in it. The smartphone also supports an eSIM, which will be used instead of one of the physical ones.

The glass back cover has a matte finish in black. It looks great and does not collect fingerprints and dirt. The white and green versions of the smartphone have glossy backs. The lid has a small rounding around the perimeter, which adds to the ease of use.

The rear camera of Xiaomi 14 is very massive, taking up more than half the width of the body and protruding very noticeably above it. This is quite justified, given the interesting cameras inside. The module has a square shape with rounded corners and a decorative step with a relief pattern around the perimeter.

Xiaomi 14 is easy to use thanks to its relatively small size. The vast majority of manipulations are quite convenient to do with one hand, which is important on the go. Dimensions are 152.8×71.5×8.2 mm, weight 188 g. The smartphone has IP68 protection against dirt and water. It is stated that it can withstand immersion in water to a depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes.

Display

Xiaomi 14 has a 6.36-inch LTPO OLED display with a resolution of 2670×1200 and a pixel density of about 460 ppi. It has a number of interesting features. It uses a custom 12-bit C8 matrix manufactured by TCL. It is capable of displaying more than 68 billion shades of color. Xiaomi promises color coverage of 100% of the DCI-P3 space and a local peak brightness of 3000 cd/m² in automatic mode.

The display supports all modern standards of extended dynamic range: HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision. The refresh rate is 1-120 Hz, and the sensor readout is 240 Hz. There is a function to eliminate flicker at low brightness – DC Dimming. In addition to the standard settings for brightness, dark and light themes, reading mode, and refresh rate, there are several other interesting image enhancement features.

Improved textures (additional effects during rendering) and a whole section called AI Visualization System. It has functions for improving video, photo, and HDR based on machine learning. There is also a MEMC function that increases the frequency of video, making it smoother. It works when the Ultra High Resolution option is inactive.

Of course, there are several color display modes. Standard PRO with sRGB color gamut, as well as Vivid and Saturated with extended color gamut. There is also an Adaptive Color function (auto-adjustment depending on the ambient light) and color temperature settings.

According to our own impressions, the screen is of very good quality: rich colors, maximum viewing angles and brightness sufficient for comfortable use in bright sunlight. Hardware measurements showed that the maximum brightness in Bright mode was 599,935 cd/m². The color gamut is significantly higher than sRGB, and the color reproduction is close to the reference values:

In the Standard PRO mode, the color gamut is closer to the sRGB color space, although it does not exactly match it. The brightness is 601.651 cd/m². There is a minimal emphasis on cool shades.

In the “Saturated” mode, the maximum brightness is 611.534 cd/m², the color gamut is much wider than sRGB, and the color temperature is very close to the reference value.

Security

Xiaomi 14 uses an optical fingerprint scanner under the screen. Its position may not be optimal: it is very close to the bottom edge of the smartphone. But we had no complaints about its performance at all: it’s one of the fastest and most accurate in-screen scanners we’ve ever tested. Including Samsung’s ultrasonic versions.

For face recognition, the front camera is used without additional sensors. So it works quite standardly. You can expect high speed in good lighting conditions.

Performance and software

Xiaomi 14 is a full-fledged modern flagship smartphone, so it is quite expected to have the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor inside. It is manufactured using a 4-nm process and has a 1+3+3+2 core configuration. There is one powerful ARM Cortex-X4 core with a frequency of up to 3.3 GHz, three Cortex-A720s of 3.2 GHz, two Cortex-A720s of 3.0 GHz, and two energy-efficient Cortex-A520s of 2.3 GHz. The graphics accelerator is Adreno 750 with a frequency of 1 GHz. The smartphone has 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512 GB of internal storage with UFS 4.0. There is a function to expand the RAM by 4/6/8 GB.

In synthetic tests, the smartphone quite expectedly demonstrates very high results, Xiaomi 14 is one of the most powerful smartphones available now. So there are no problems with heavy applications and modern games, and there won’t be for the next couple of years.

But the situation with stability and heating is a little worse. After all, the smartphone is quite compact and it is physically difficult to organize good cooling. Xiaomi uses its own version of the evaporation chamber with liquid and vapor separation, the Xiaomi IceLoop system. It is claimed to be three times more efficient than standard evaporation chambers.

The CPU Throttling Test showed that under prolonged maximum load in the highest performance mode, the processor can drop power by up to 78%. The case, and especially the metal frame, gets quite hot. But this is only observed in tests. In everyday use, it is impossible to load the smartphone in such a way.

Xiaomi 14 has all the modern means of communication with the outside world: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7, Bluetooth 5.4 with support for AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, LDAC and LHDC 5.0 codecs, NFC, and an infrared transmitter. Global positioning systems such as GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS and NavIC are supported.

A proprietary app is provided for the infrared transmitter to work with home electronics as a remote control. There were no problems with devices of well-known brands.

Among other unusual features, Xiaomi can measure heart rate using a fingerprint scanner. And it does it quite accurately. The function itself is hidden in the additional settings of the smartphone.

Xiaomi 14 runs on Android 14 with a new proprietary HyperOS shell that replaced MIUI. The manufacturer promises 4 years of major software updates and 5 years of security patches. The new shell has no significant differences in logic. Mostly, the appearance has changed slightly.

The shell has retained both the pros and cons of its predecessor. It is simple, easy to use, very fast, and looks quite nice. Moreover, there are many customization options. The main disadvantage is the built-in advertising that periodically runs along with branded applications. And additional app stores GetApps, Game Center, which cannot be removed.

Unfortunately, Xiaomi has removed the option to select the curtain view in HyperOS. You can only choose the appearance of the notifications themselves. Now only the so-called Control Center is available: swiping down on the right side of the screen brings up a curtain with quick settings, and on the left side, a list of notifications. In MIUI, it was possible to switch to the classic view with one curtain.

Sound

Xiaomi 14 reproduces stereo sound using the main and earpiece speakers, like most modern smartphones. The volume margin is not bad, as is the sound quality. Although this is certainly not the level of Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro. There is a small amount of low frequencies, but they are almost inaudible at maximum volume. The balance of the left and right speakers is quite good, the difference is almost imperceptible.

The smartphone supports Dolby Atmos virtual surround sound. In the settings, in addition to Dolby Atmos, there are proprietary Xiaomi Sound settings, as well as a graphic equalizer with several presets for different styles of music. The vibration response is generally good, but nothing unique.

Cameras

Xiaomi 14 has a set of three rear cameras, which can be called a modern standard for a good smartphone: main, ultra-wide-angle and telephoto. But the cameras themselves are quite interesting. It is claimed that they were developed jointly with Leica.

The main camera uses a 50 megapixel OmniVision OVX9000 sensor, which the company calls Light Fusion 900. The physical size is 1/1.31″, with a dynamic range of 13.5 EV. Optics: f/1.6, 23 mm EFE. There is phase detection autofocus dual pixel PDAF, laser autofocus and optical stabilization. In the standard mode, the image resolution is 12.5 MP (pixel combining), and there is a 50 MP mode.

The telephoto camera is also 50 MP, using a Samsung ISOCELL JN1 sensor with a size of 1/2.76″, pixel size of 0.64 µm. Lens: f/2.0, 75 mm with a movable lens group inside. This allows the camera to focus at a distance of 10 to infinity. The zoom factor is 3.2x and there is optical stabilization. The same camera is used for macro photography.

The ultra-wide-angle camera has the same Samsung ISOCELL JN1 50MP sensor. Optics are 14 mm, viewing angle 115˚, without autofocus. Front camera – 32 MP OmniVision OV32B, f/2.0, 1/3.14″. The maximum video resolution is 8K 24 FPS, and it is possible to record video with extended dynamic range.

The application is quite convenient and clear. A carousel of basic modes, a separate menu with additional modes that can be added to the main ones. The main settings are on the viewfinder screen (flash, HDR, format, camera switching, video resolution and FPS, etc.). Additional settings are in the drop-down menu. There are supermoon and long shutter speed modes that require a tripod. Among the unusual elements, there is a switch for Leica Vibrant (more saturated colors) or Leica Authentic (more natural) modes. And a lot of video recording options.

The main camera is capable of taking high-quality photos in the vast majority of conditions. Daytime photos are detailed, with rich and fairly natural colors. The night mode does its job well. In some cases, traces of processing algorithms and slightly artificial orange hues are visible.

2x zoom from the main camera:

The telephoto camera performs very well in the vast majority of cases, with photos that are clear and detailed:

Photos taken with an ultra-wide-angle camera generally have less detail and lower dynamic range. Noise appears in low light. But in general, good photos can be taken.

The telephoto camera is excellent in macro mode. The photos are much better than those taken with separate macro cameras, which are now commonly installed in mid-range and budget smartphones:

Video recording is good with the Xiaomi 14. 4K 60 FPS video is of good quality, with good detail without jitter and almost no jelly effect. There are different stabilization modes in the settings, although everything is quite good without it:

Battery life

Xiaomi 14 is equipped with a 4610 mAh battery. Given the relatively small display, this is a pretty good indicator. It supports 90W fast charging. With its help, the smartphone is fully charged in just over 30 minutes. There is also support for 50 W wireless charging, such a charger is sold separately and should charge the smartphone in 46 minutes. There is also support for 10W reverse wireless charging.

Xiaomi claims that the smartphone will last 15 hours of continuous operation. With fairly active use: calls, instant messengers, mail, browser, social networks, camera, and an hour and a half of music via Bluetooth, you can get a day of work. If you add games and videos in large quantities, you will have to charge it in the evening.