Xiaomi 14 Civi review

HyperOS + Android 14

The 14 Civi runs the latest version of Xiaomi's HyperOS on top of Android 14, but unlike the flagship 14 series or the T series, the OEM promises only two major software updates and three years of security patches.

Despite the rebranding, HyperOS looks and feels a lot like MIUI, so long-time Xiaomi users will feel right at home. There aren't many major changes to the UI, but mostly under-the-hood improvements. We suggest reading our extensive HyperOS review to find out more about OS.

HyperOS

We didn't have any hiccups performance-wise. The software ran smoothly without any issues.

Benchmark performance

The Xiaomi 14 Civi is powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, which is not an underclocked version of the flagship 8 Gen 3 chip, but a somewhat different chip. The 4nm manufacturing process is the same, though.

The chip employs a 1+4+3 processor configuration. The main Cortex-X4 core is still at the helm, ticking at a lower 3.0 GHz frequency (compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen3), while the cluster of 4 Cortex-A720 cores runs at 2.8 GHz. The high-efficiency 3x Cortex-A520 cores are clocked at 2.0 GHz. The GPU on board is the Adreno 735, which sits below the Adreno 740 found in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC.

The chipset is paired with either 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB storage or 12 GB/512 GB, which is quite generous considering the price point. Moreover, both variants are running the latest UFS 4.0 storage.

The benchmarks above show that Xiaomi 14 Civi outperforms all of its peers in almost all of the tests. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is rare in this price range, so the 14 Civi easily takes the top spot. It even manages to beat last year's top-tier Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, found inside the OnePlus 12R and the Poco F6 Pro.

In combined and GPU-heavy workloads, the SD8s Gen 3 and the SD8 Gen 2 trade blows and even then, the difference is rather minimal. Other mid-range chipsets are no match for the 14 Civi's Snapdragon.

Sustained performance

The handset is equipped with a passive cooling solution called Xiaomi IceLoop system, which probably just a fancy way to say it has a dedicated heatsink that dissipates heat more effectively. And in the CPU throttle test, the system proved to be quite efficient in keeping the chipset cool, enabling it to maintain high clock speeds for long periods of time. The CPU never went under 80% of its maximum performance, which is a pretty good result considering the demanding nature of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip.

CPU throttle test

On the GPU front, things weren't as rosy as the 14 Civi couldn't run a full 30-minute 3DMark Wild Life stress test. The app shuts down after a while, probably due to overheating.