Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro+ hands-on review

Camera

The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ has a triple camera system on the back, which consists of the 50MP OmniVision Light Hunter 800 sensor, a 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1 telephoto camera with 2.5x magnification, and an 8MP Sony IMX355 ultra-wide camera. There are no macro cameras and none of the other cameras have macro capability.

On the front is a 20MP OmniVision OV20b40 sensor. This is a fixed focus camera with a quad-bayer sensor, so the intended output is around 5MP but the phone upscales them to 20MP.

The camera app has a pretty typical layout for a Xiaomi device. You get options to toggle between 0.6x, 1x, 2x, 2.5x, and 5x through direct keys. The 2x digital option feels redundant when the 2.5x optical option is right there and has a very similar field of view with better image quality.

Starting with the main camera, the 12.5MP images have decent image quality. The level of detail is good in most shots but can look a bit smeared in some, especially when it comes to foliage or skin textures. The color reproduction is mostly accurate but the white balance tends to be slightly on the cooler side. Dynamic range isn't as wide as we'd like, with a tendency to prefer punchier contrast at the cost of reduced shadow detail. The focus isn't 100% reliable and can occasionally hunt or miss entirely, even on larger subjects.

1x main camera samples

The main camera has a 2x zoom mode, which does not produce good results as it's not lossless. The camera does not use a crop from the center of the actual sensor. Rather, it crops the center of the 1x image and then blows it up to 2x, which looks awful at close inspection.

2x digital zoom

Fortunately, the 2.5x mode uses the actual telephoto camera, which produces vastly better results. The images from this camera have much more natural processing, resulting in better fine-detail reproduction. Unfortunately, the phone rarely tries to match the colors and white balance to the main camera. Hence, the results are often quite off, as the telephoto camera prefers significantly warmer, more saturated colors.

2.5x optical zoom

Unlike the 2x mode, the 5x toggle produces surprisingly usable results, with more of the same natural processing and detail as the 2.5x mode.

5x digital zoom

The 0.6x ultra-wide is also a bit underwhelming. The level of detail is unimpressive and gets noticeably worse as you move outward from the center of the image. This camera also does not bother matching colors with the main camera, with colors often warmer and shifting towards magenta.

0.6x ultra-wide camera samples

Moving on to video, the Redmi Note 14 Pro+ can only record up to 30fps at 4K on the main camera. Moreover, 4K is only available on the main and telephoto cameras, not ultra-wide.

Starting again with the main camera, the quality of the 4K video is generally quite good. The image has a satisfactory level of detail, good colors, and dynamic range. However, there is noticeable pulsing from the autofocus as you walk around, which can be quite distracting, especially when viewed on a big screen.

The telephoto camera captures excellent quality video with great detail and colors. There is no OIS for this lens, but that's acceptable since it is a telephoto camera, and you should keep it fixed in place for video rather than run around with it.

The 1080p video from the ultra-wide is really not good. It's really soft, there are a ton of motion artifacts across the frame from the image stabilization that make it look like jelly, and the colors and dynamic range are also subpar.