Xiaomi 14 review

Introduction and specs

The Xiaomi 14 is going to be a lone rider this year, as the Pro won't make it outside of China. This means the Xiaomi 14 must bear the weight of the company's flagship numeric lineup. At least until the 14 Ultra comes around. Аlthough if history is of any indication, it will be a rare find outside of China. It seems like Xiaomi is shipping limited quantities of its Ultra device.

Luckily, the Xiaomi 14 isn't just a refresh or a modest upgrade over its predecessor. Quite the opposite actually. The Xiaomi 14 is now equipped with a better display, LTPO at that, faster SoC, twice the storage and completely revamped camera hardware.

The latter may be the biggest selling point as you are now getting pretty much the Xiaomi 13 Pro-level camera experience and versatility in a small form factor. This is a huge deal for fans of compact flagships as they no longer have to compromise camera quality for size.

Xiaomi 14 specs at a glance:

• Body: 152.8x71.5x8.2mm, 188g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus), glass back or silicone polymer back, aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min).
• Display: 6.36" LTPO OLED, 68B colors, 120Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, 3000 nits (peak), 1200x2670px resolution, 20.03:9 aspect ratio, 460ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8650-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 & 3x3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x3.0 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x2.3 GHz Cortex-A520); Adreno 750.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM; UFS 4.0.
• OS/Software: Android 14, HyperOS.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.6, 23mm, 1/1.31", 1.2µm, dual pixel PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; Telephoto: 50 MP, f/2.0, 75mm, PDAF (10cm - ∞), OIS, 3.2x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.2, 14mm, 115˚.
• Front camera: 32 MP, f/2.0, 22mm (wide), 0.7µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@24fps (HDR), 4K@24/30/60fps (HDR10+, 10-bit Dolby Vision HDR, 10-bit LOG), 1080p@30/60/120/240/960fps, 720p@1920fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS.
• Battery: 4610mAh; 90W wired, PD3.0, QC4, 100% in 31 min (advertised), 50W wireless, 100% in 46 min (advertised), 10W reverse wireless.
• Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 5.4, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive; NFC; Infrared port.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); stereo speakers.

In short, the Xiaomi 14 gets a bigger main 50MP sensor, better 50MP 3.2x telephoto camera and a 50MP ultrawide camera with wider field of view.

Moreover, the Xiaomi 14 has a tad bigger battery now, 4,610 mAh and supports 90W fast charging, instead of 67W.

As you can see, there's much to go through, so we better get started. Seeing how it fares against the rather limited "compact" competition will be interesting, to say the least.

Unboxing the Xiaomi 14

The Xiaomi 14 comes in a standard retail box containing all the usual user manuals, the compatible 90-watt charger and a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging and data transfer.

The box also contains a silicone case.