Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G review

Familiar triple-camera setup

The Redmi Note 14 5G's camera setup consists of a 108MP main camera and an 8MP ultrawide camera. There's just a small change in the camera hardware compared to last year's Redmi Note 13 5G. We now get a 2MP macro camera instead of the useless depth sensor.

• Wide (main): 108MP ISOCELL (S5K)HM6, 1/1.67", 0.64µm, f/1.7, 24mm, PDAF; 1080p@30fps
• Ultrawide: 8MP, OmniVision ov08d10, 1/4.4", 1.0µm, f/2.2, 16mm, fixed focus; 1080p@30fps
• Macro: 2 MP OmniVision OV02B, f/2.4, (macro)
• Front camera: 20MP OmniVision OV20B40, f/2.2, 21mm (wide); 1080p@30fps.

The selfie unit is upgraded and is now 20MP instead of 16MP.

Daylight photos

Main camera

The main camera takes pretty decent stills during the day with lively colors and a respectable amount of detail. Dynamic range is not particularly wide but it's par for the course for this price segment. The system is obviously trying to sharpen things up and can sometimes go overboard, creating oversharpening halos on objects in the distance, such as buildings, sharp edges, windows, etc.

The photo quality remains consistent even indoors with a slight drop in sharpness and clean look. There's virtually no noise.

Main camera samples

The 108MP photos are surprisingly good and you may find some benefit from using the full-resolution mode. Just keep in mind that the dynamic range is generally narrower and there's a lot of noise in the shadows, so you'd ideally need good light to use that mode.

108MP samples

And here are some portraits as well.

Portraits: Normal • Portrait mode

3x crop zoom

By default, the viewfinder offers a 3x zoom toggle, which crops from the main camera. We believe a 2x zoom implementation would have been better because 3x zoom pushes the sensor's limits and the SoC's image processing capabilities. The photos are often too soft, with limited dynamic range and lack of fine detail.

3x crop zoom samples

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera is somewhat unimpressive, but it's about what you'd expect from a phone in this price range. The stills out of the ultrawide unit have a bit too low color saturation, they are generally soft and with more limited dynamic range compared to the main unit. Still, you can absolutely take some usable daylight photos.

Ultrawide camera samples

Selfies

The selfies are okay, but we expected more. We are not happy with how soft they turn out to be even in good lighting conditions, and the camera struggles to maintain a wide dynamic range. Sometimes the subject can be overexposed and sometimes underexposed. On the other hand, colors are somewhat accurate and the level of detail is good, but the soft nature of the selfies doesn't allow you to see the whole detail.

Selfies

Low-light photos

Main camera

The main camera with the automatic Night mode turned on does a pretty good job at taking nighttime shots. The stills are generally clean, somewhat sharp enough, and have distinguishable detail in the shadows. Dynamic range is wide enough to accommodate the shadows and the strong light sources. They all look balanced, although the shadows are a tad brighter than they should be, but that's a common feature with most Night modes out there.

Main camera samples

We also noticed a strong tendency to go for a warmer white balance. Even cold light sources turn yellow.

3x crop zoom

With the unimpressive daylight 3x zoom shots, we weren't expecting greatness in nighttime scenarios. The 3x photos at night are way too soft and noisy.

3x crop zoom samples

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide photos are muddy, noisy, with clipped highlights and washed-out colors. Definitely can't recommend using the ultrawide at night.

Ultrawide camera samples

Video recording

The Redmi Note 14 5G supports up to 1080p video recording at 30fps using its main, selfie and the ultrawide units. Electronic stabilization is available in 4K as well.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

The main camera produces decent video footage with a wide dynamic range, accurate colors and minimal noise. Our only complaint is sharpness. The videos come off a little soft.

The ultrawide videos are underwhelming, to say the least. They have a more limited dynamic range and pale colors and are considerably softer and noisier.

The nighttime videos taken with the main camera are more than decent. The highlights are clipped, but there's plenty of detail in the shadows, objects are surprisingly sharp, colors are accurate, and contrast is just right. Overall, given the price bracket of the device, the low-light footage is far from bad.

The 4K EIS stabilization isn't the best we've seen, and there's a noticeable shake here and there, but it does the job pretty well. Not all midrangers have 4K stabilization, so kudos to Xiaomi.