Realme 14 Pro+ review

Display

The Realme 14 Pro+ features a 6.83-inch OLED display with 1,272 x 2,800 pixels, a small punch hole for the selfie camera, and Gorilla Glass 7i protection. The bezels are incredibly thin and symmetrical so coupled with the screen quad-curvature, they create an almost bezelless look when held in hand, allowing the Realme 14 Pro+ to punch above its class.

The screen panel supports 10-bit color depth, 120Hz refresh rate, 1,200 nits of high and 1,500 nits of peak brightness. It also supports 3840Hz PWM dimming. There is no official HDR video certification.

We have completed our display test and the brightness levels are as advertised. The maximum manual brightness we captured was 561 nits, while the maximum automatic one - 1,168 nits. The screen can be even brighter when displaying a smaller white patch than on what we measure, but we use a standardized 80% APL white patch across all phones we review.

The minimum brightness we measured on a white screen was just 2 nits.

The 14 Pro+ screen supports 120Hz refresh rate, it can also switch to 90Hz and use the standard 60Hz option, too. For still images, it dials down to 60Hz, and for streaming, some games, the camera app and other apps won't work in HFR mode.

We discovered that you could play HDR10 on YouTube quite successfully because it's a 10-bit panel. However, popular paid streaming apps like Netflix do not serve HDR, though, so you'd be limited to 1080p streaming with standard dynamic range.

Battery life

The Realme 14 Pro+ is powered by a 6,000mAh Si/C battery, up from 5,000mAh inside the Realme 12 Pro+ and 5,200mAh in the Realme 13 Pro+. This is a very nice upgrade that had us excited.

UPDATE, 30 Jan: We've updated the battery results below with notable improvements across the board. The previously unusually low results can be attributed to a software glitch that persisted across several retestings but was resolved with new firmware.

Charging speed

The Realme 14 Pro+ supports 80W fast charging via a SuperVOOC adapter and up to 50W with a USB-PD universal charger. We carried out the charging speed test with a 120W SuperVOOC charger.

The phone does not support wireless charging.

UPDATE, 30 Jan: Since publishing the review, the the charging speed below has been increased after re-testing with a new firmware.

In our charging test, the Realme 14 Pro+ battery went from 0-39% in 15 mins and then hit the 72% mark at 30 mins, and a full charge took 55 mins. This result is not terribly fast but we shouldn't forget we are dealing with an extra large battery here.

Realme claims that even with fast charging, the battery will retain at least 80% of its useful capacity after four years of use - that is equal to 1,600 full charge cycles.

There are various battery preservation options. Smart Charging is one of those, where the phone learns your habits and refills the last 20% of the battery close to, say, your wakeup time. Then there is Charging Limit - the battery is kept at 80% charge for lower cycle count and prolonged lifespan. Resume Charging is a nice option, where the phone stops charging at 100% and will not start again until the battery drops below 95%. You can also turn off the fast charging altogether.

There are also a couple of power-saving battery modes, as well as GT mode for maximum performance.

Speakers

The Realme 14 Pro+ has a hybrid setup of speakers, where there is one at the bottom of the phone and the earpiece acts as a secondary with its top- and front-facing outlets. Naturally, the earpiece is focused on the high-frequency range and vocals, and it is noticeably quieter. Still, the audio balance is quite alright.

The speakers on the Realme 14 Pro+ scored a Very Good mark on our loudness test thanks to their focus on the high-frequency range. The sound quality is mediocre though, because the vocals are somewhat shallow and the bass is underwhelming, if any.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.