Xiaomi 14 Review – For The Price, This is Unbelievable

Xiaomi 14 Unboxing

Kicking off the Xiaomi 14 review with the unboxing, it comes in a packaging that is identical to its direct predecessor, clad in white. The Pro and the Ultra models came in a black box, and we expect it to be the same this year as well. Inside the box, we found the following items:

• USB-C to USB-C cable
• SIM ejector pin
• Protective case
• 90W charger
• Documentations
• The Xiaomi 14 itself

Xiaomi 14 Specifications

SoC	Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 4nm 1 x Cortex-X4 @ 3.3 GHz + 3 x Cortex-A720 @ 3.2 GHz + 2 x Cortex-A720 @ 3 GHz + 2 x Cortex-A520 @ 2.3 GHz Adreno 750 GPU
RAM	8GB / 12GB / 16GB
Storage	256GB / 512GB / 1TB UFS 4.0
Display	6.36″ (2670 x 1200) LTPO OLED Display Corning Gorilla Glass Victus HDR10+ 3000 nits (peak) 1Hz to 120Hz Adaptive Refresh Rate
Rear Camera	50MP f/1.6 wide angle camera, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS 50MP f/2.0 telephoto camera, 3.2x optical zoom, PDAF, OIS 50MP f/2.2 115˚ ultra-wide Leica lens, Dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR, panorama 8K@24fps (HDR), 4K@24/30/60fps (HDR10+, 10-bit Dolby Vision HDR, 10-bit LOG), 1080p@30/60/120/240/960fps, 720p@1920fps, gyro-EIS
Selfie Camera	32MP f/2.0 wide-angle selfie cam HDR, panorama 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct Bluetooth 5.4, A2DP, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, LHDC NFC Infrared USB-C 3.2 with OTG support
Battery	4610mAh 90W fast charging PD 3.0, QC4 fast charging 50W wireless fast charging 10W reverse wireless charging
Dimensions	152.8 x 71.5 x 8.2 mm 193g
Ingress Protection	IP68
Software	HyperOS based on Android 14
Colours	Black, White, Jade Green, Pink

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Performance

Starting off our benchmark suite with Antutu v10, the Xiaomi 14 easily took the top spot with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. This is particularly interesting for me as we have reviewed devices using the same chip but this ended up being noticeably higher, about 200,000 points higher than the HONOR Magic6 Pro. I believe this is likely due to it having a better cooling system inside, thus leading to better scores.

Then on Geekbench 6, it seems to be more on par with devices of the same caliber, meaning the differences are practically negligible. It also shows a notable difference when compared to the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip in both single core and multi core applications, which is already impressive as is.

Moving on to 3DMark, all the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices are pretty much on the same level, which makes sense given it’s the same CPU and GPU but what I find interesting is that I expected the better thermal efficiency would lead to better scores here as well but that’s clearly not the case. It’s still worth nothing that its stability rating is 79.8%, meaning it has the least thermal issues among all the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices.

Lastly on PCMark’s Work 3.0 benchmark, the Xiaomi 14 isn’t particularly high, performing only slightly better than last year’s flagship chip. It’s like the opposite of the Antutu v10 benchmark, where the other Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices scored better here. Regardless, it’s still an admirable score and is more than enough for most people in terms of power needed for everyday use.

For those of you who are wondering about the battery life, the Xiaomi 14 lasted 12 hours and 53 minutes (773 minutes) in PCMark’s Work 3.0 endurance test. This is with Dynamic Refresh Rate enabled, a feature that will provide an optimized viewing experience without killing off battery life. It may not be the best around but it’s pretty good given its 4,610mAh battery capacity.

As for the charging speed, this is what I managed to get with the Xiaomi 14, using the included 90W charger, starting from 2%:

• 15 minutes = 57% battery life
• 30 minutes = 92% battery life
• 36 minutes = 100% battery life

Camera

The camera performance of the Xiaomi 14 is certainly great but not without its drawbacks. When it captures as intended, colors are warm and vibrant while details are sharp and plenty. The main camera itself works excellently, though the focus gets a bit slower in darker areas. The ultrawide camera however seems to be slow and have trouble focusing more often than not.

If you’re a fan of zoomed shots, the telephoto camera appears to be on par with the main camera up to 5x zoom. At 10x magnification, details start to soften up but still more than usable. Past that, it will be highly dependent on the lighting as it typically turns into mush. Selfies look sharp, though you will need to toy around with the softening effect, and have no trouble focusing. At times, it did capture some bizarre light flares, like on my glasses, but it’s nothing to worry about for the most part.

If you missed out on the local launch, check out both this and the Xiaomi 14 Ultra by clicking right here.

[button type=”link” size=”btn-sm” target=”blank” variation=”btn-success” block=”btn-block” link=”https://shope.ee/6pdKBDfHjp”]Click here to purchase the Xiaomi 14 (via Shopee)[/button]

The Good

There are a number of good reasons to consider getting the Xiaomi 14. For starters, the display has seen some notable improvements. While it still has the same 6.36-inch size, the resolution has bumped up to 2670x 1200, the panel is LTPO so you get adaptive refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz, it has 12-bit color depth support, and DC dimming as an anti-flickering measure. Of course, you still get HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support as well. While the brightness seems to have been bumped to 3,000 nits, our review unit has never come close to that so far, though its brightness is still more than adequate even under bright sunlight.

While I wasn’t expecting much from the new HyperOS as it didn’t look much different from MIUI, I did enjoy how fluid and responsive the whole experience was. It’s also pretty simple to use and just a matter of getting used to, especially with regards to the Control Centre, but it shouldn’t be much issues for anyone. Alternatively, since it’s an Android device, you could always install a launcher of your liking after. It’s worth noting that you’re guaranteed to get 4 major OS upgrades and 5 years of security updates, which isn’t the longest but is certainly more than enough for most consumers.

The Xiaomi 14 is also enters the market in an area that is far from saturated; compact flagships. Most flagships, especially the highest end model there is for every brand, tends to be on the larger side and there is still a market for these compact flagships. For this year alone in Malaysia, you only have this and the S24 as options for now with the HONOR Magic6 coming a little later, and I’m certain there won’t be too many addition by the time this year ends anyway. If I filter out the compact flagships that feel like they’re missing too many things from the highest end model, the Xiaomi 14 will still be in the list but a number of others might not make the cut.

Lastly, the Xiaomi 14 hits a price point that is so attractive for a flagship, it’s hard to say no. It’s retailing for RM3,499 for the 256GB model and RM3,799 for the 512GB model. Its current main competitor, the S24, is going for RM4,099 and RM4,599 for the same memory configurations respectively. If you’re focus on purchasing a smartphone is solely on functionality and value, the answer gets pretty clear as a difference of RM600 to RM800 isn’t small by any means. To my understanding, the pricing difference in other regions isn’t as significant but here in Malaysia, it’s a surprise to see it being priced rather affordably for a flagship without cutting major corners like a lack of IP rating, which this one is IP68-certified.

The Bad

Of course, the Xiaomi 14 has its share of drawbacks. For starters, it looks pretty much the same as its predecessor the Xiaomi 13. On top of that, the glossy finish on the rear brings two specific issues when handling it; it’s slippery to hold and it’s prone to fingerprint smudges. On the bright side, those two issues can be easily alleviated with the use of a protective case, which most consumers would do when using a smartphone over the long term.

Lastly, and this shouldn’t be a surprise, is the bloatware. There is a suite of Mi apps, ecommerce apps, and social media apps pre-installed in the device. Arguably, a number of these apps are used by the general public but if you typically rely on your own set of apps and most of them happen to not be among the ones included, it will feel like an eyesore and / or bring about the worry of these apps collecting data on you / your usage. The part where I mentioned about the RM600 to RM800 difference in price, this is where you’ll end up paying as a number of the Mi apps cannot be uninstalled.

Xiaomi 14 Verdict

The Xiaomi 14 is an excellent compact flagship smartphone that really went above and beyond in terms of value. Sure, it may have its share of drawbacks but at the end of the day, this is a true blue 2024 flagship smartphone that can serve you well without the excessive splurge.

At the end of our Xiaomi 14 review, I award this flagship smartphone with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.

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Big thanks to Xiaomi Malaysia for sending us this smartphone for the purpose of this review.