Xiaomi 14 review

Design and handling

The Xiaomi 14 isn't a big departure from the Xiaomi 13's design, and for all intents and purposes, it's the same. The only noticeable change is the camera bump. It's now bigger and protrudes more from the back, which is understandable given the beefier camera hardware.

We are still not a huge fan of the combination between curved back and flat sides. The back of the phone looks like an afterthought and forms a strange ridge with the side frame. Then again, it makes the phone feel more comfortable in the hand since no sharp edges or corners sink into your palm when holding the device.

This leads us to our next complaint - the Xiaomi 14 is extremely slippery, due to its glossy finish and it also attracts fingerprint smudges very easily.

Interestingly enough, Xiaomi was able to keep the top side of the frame clean by moving the whole hardware needed for the loudspeaker behind the earpiece opening and by moving the IR blaster behind the camera island's glass. Notably, the aluminum frame itself is treated with PVD giving it that distinct shiny look and also strengthens the material to some extent.

Xiaomi 14

And even though the Chinese version comes in two variants - with a glass back or vegan leather, only the former is available in Europe. This means only the Black, White and Jade Green versions are available. We have the latter in our office, and fingerprints and smudges are quite visible. The picture below also shows the Pink vegan leather variant as well.

The front is business as usual - an extremely thin bezel (1.71mm to be exact, including the chin), completely flat design, as opposed to the curved back glass, and protected by Gorilla Glass Victus.

Xiaomi 14

We wish the fingerprint reader was higher, though, especially on a small phone like this one. It requires some awkward finger gymnastics to reach the scanner.

Although small and easy to handle, the Xiaomi 14 doesn't have the most practical design. The glossy aluminum side frame, the slippery back and the awkward positioning of the fingerprint reader keep us from giving the handset an excellent score in this category.