Xiaomi 14 review

Brand new HyperOS on top of Android 14

Xiaomi announced its new Android skin overlay called HyperOS, alongside the Xiaomi 14 family's release in China. The new OS has made its way around some of Xiaomi's older and more recent devices and, of course, the Xiaomi 14 boots HyperOS 1.0 + Android 14 out of the box.

Visually, the system isn't much different from MIUI, except maybe the flatter design with more rounded edges. Also, you can't go back to the classic notification shade style, so you are stuck with the so-called Control Centre, whether you like it or not. Still, the system feels as fluent and snappy as ever.

You can expect at least 4 major software updates and 5 years of security patches.

Since we've covered the most recent HyperOS version extensively in a separate review of the system, so we suggest reading it for more detailed information.

Benchmark and sustained performance

The Xiaomi 14 isn't the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered device we've tested, so we know what to expect. It is supposed to be 30% faster and 20% more efficient compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It is built on the 4nm process and has a clear focus on AI, gaming, audio, and camera advancements.

The eight-core processor inside is highlighted by 1x Cortex-X4 prime core running up to 3.3 GHz, 5x performance Cortex-A720 based cores at up to 3.2 GHz, and 2x efficiency Cortex-A520 based cores clocked up to 2.3 GHz. It is a four-cluster processor with 1+3+2+2 structure.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and its new Adreno 750 GPU can deliver 'console-defying' gaming with 240 fps support on 240 Hz displays. Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.0 can generate frames for smoother playback, and there's Unreal Engine 5.2 support. The GPU is 25% faster, 25% more power efficient, and brings 40% better Ray Tracing compared to the Adreno 740 inside the SD8G2.

AI is front and center in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It all starts with the AI Engine, which supports multi-modal generative AI models and popular large language models for speech recognition - the chip can run up to 20 tokens per second for instant AI assistant responses.

Qualcomm boasts that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 packs the world's fastest stable diffusion, which can generate an image in a fraction of a second. AI enhances the camera's abilities as well. For example - Semantic Segmentation can enhance the vibrancy and detail of images in real-time, while Night Vision video can brighten a dark scene.

Our review unit had some popular benchmarks blacklisted. We could only run AnTuTu 10 and Geekbench 5 and 6. However, that's enough to conclude that the Xiaomi 14 utilizes the SD8 Gen 3's capabilities to the fullest, even outpacing other phones with the same SoC.

When it comes to sustained load, the Xiaomi 14 was not as good. We expected better sustained performance despite the small form factor.

CPU throttle test

Ideally, you'd want steady clock speeds without much deviation from the average clock, but the Xiaomi 14 experiences severe throttling within 10-15 minutes of testing. You can see the clock speeds falling off a cliff every minute or so, which might result in choppy performance during certain CPU-heavy tasks.