Xiaomi 14 Review: Solid but Uninspiring

As China’s largest cellphone maker, Xiaomi makes glorious Android smartphones, boasting a number of the finest {hardware}. Should you fancy one thing completely different from the most recent Samsung or Apple, the Xiaomi 14 may be for you. With a flexible digicam, beautiful show, and top-notch specs in a comparatively compact bundle, this refined Android smartphone will go well with most folk.

Whereas Xiaomi reserves the really cutting-edge stuff for its Extremely mannequin (coming quickly), the Xiaomi 14 isn’t any slouch. Extra pocket-friendly in each senses, that is a sublime all-rounder with Xiaomi’s revamped HyperOS over Android 14. At first look it seems very similar to final 12 months’s Xiaomi 13, however enhancements throughout the board make the Xiaomi 14 extra tempting.

Elegant Design

{Photograph}: Simon Hill

{Photograph}: Simon Hill

The Xiaomi 14 is analogous in measurement to my Pixel 8 and iPhone 14 Pro, however the design is nearer to Apple’s cellphone, with flat edges across the body. The dominant, sq. digicam module on the prime left of the again has a stepped design. It’s not too heavy at 193 grams and is a tremendous measurement for most folk to handle one-handed. The curved glass on the again is a fingerprint-resistant matte black on my evaluation unit, but it surely additionally is available in white or a extra attention-grabbing inexperienced.

The Xiaomi 14 feels sturdy and scores an IP68 rating for water resistance. Gorilla Glass Victus protects the flat display screen. The USB-C port and SIM card tray are on the underside edge, and there’s an influence button with quantity rocker above on the precise backbone. Total, it’s a cultured, refined design, albeit fairly conservative.

The 6.36-inch AMOLED show has a digicam cutout on the prime and a fingerprint sensor below the display screen on the backside. I discovered the fingerprint sensor very responsive. The display screen is a spotlight. It sports activities a 2,670 x 1,200-pixel decision, supplying you with a pointy 460 pixels per inch (matching the iPhone 15 Pro). It has a dynamic refresh rate able to going from 1 Hz as much as 120 Hz for clean animations and scrolling, and to avoid wasting on battery life the place doable.

The show was vibrant sufficient for me to learn outdoor in direct gentle and might attain 3,000 nits peak brightness for highlights. The Dolby Imaginative and prescient and HDR10+ assist make this a stable cellphone for film watching. The stereo audio system provide Dolby Atmos and boast shocking depth. I watched a number of scenes from Dune and Blade Runner 2049 to place it via its paces, and it regarded and sounded ok on the Xiaomi 14 that I used to be shortly sucked in.

Stable Performer

Slick efficiency comes courtesy of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, ably backed by 12 GB of RAM. You additionally get a beneficiant 512 GB of storage, and it’s the most recent, speedy UFS 4.0. The Xiaomi 14 has sufficient energy to multitask or play essentially the most demanding video games with out stutters or dropped frames. After virtually two hours of Grimvalor and Protection Zone HD, it remained cool.

Taking part in 20 minutes of Asphalt 9: Legends used 4 % of the battery. Rated at 4,610 mAh, you possibly can anticipate the Xiaomi 14 to get via all however the busiest days, however you’ll need to cost each evening. The 90-watt charger and USB-C cable within the field can totally cost the Xiaomi 14 in simply over half an hour. This cellphone additionally helps as much as 50-watt wi-fi charging, however you want Xiaomi’s wireless charger (£60) to get that price.

Connectivity is top-notch. The Xiaomi 14 helps Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. It additionally helps an excellent unfold of bands throughout 5G and 4G. It maintained a robust sign right here within the UK, and needs to be tremendous in Europe, however people within the US ought to verify with their service, and it does lack mmWave 5G bands.

Versatile Digital camera

{Photograph}: Simon Hill

One of many fundamental causes you would possibly contemplate a Xiaomi cellphone is its pictures prowess. The rear digicam within the Xiaomi 14 combines three 50-megapixel lenses. The primary lens boasts a 1/1.31-inch sensor, an f/1.6 aperture, and a 23-mm focal size. The telephoto lens presents 3.2X optical zoom with an f/2.0 aperture and 75-mm focal size. And there’s an ultrawide lens with an f/2.2 aperture and 14-mm focal size. All of your bases are lined with this trio.