As China’s largest cellphone maker, Xiaomi makes glorious Android smartphones, boasting a number of the greatest {hardware}. In the event you fancy one thing completely different from the newest Samsung or Apple, the Xiaomi 14 may be for you. With a flexible digicam, beautiful show, and top-notch specs in a comparatively compact bundle, this refined Android smartphone will swimsuit most people.
Whereas Xiaomi reserves the actually cutting-edge stuff for its Extremely mannequin (coming quickly), the Xiaomi 14 is not any slouch. Extra pocket-friendly in each senses, that is a chic all-rounder with Xiaomi’s revamped HyperOS over Android 14. At first look it seems to be very like final yr’s Xiaomi 13, however enhancements throughout the board make the Xiaomi 14 extra tempting.
Elegant Design
{Photograph}: Simon Hill
{Photograph}: Simon Hill
The Xiaomi 14 is comparable in dimension to my Pixel 8 and iPhone 14 Professional, however the design is nearer to Apple’s cellphone, with flat edges across the body. The dominant, sq. digicam module on the high left of the again has a stepped design. It’s not too heavy at 193 grams and is a fantastic dimension for most people to handle one-handed. The curved glass on the again is a fingerprint-resistant matte black on my overview unit, however it additionally is available in white or a extra attention-grabbing inexperienced.
The Xiaomi 14 feels sturdy and scores an IP68 ranking for water resistance. Gorilla Glass Victus protects the flat display. The USB-C port and SIM card tray are on the underside edge, and there’s an influence button with quantity rocker above on the suitable backbone. Total, it’s an aesthetic, refined design, albeit fairly conservative.
The 6.36-inch AMOLED show has a digicam cutout on the high and a fingerprint sensor underneath the display on the backside. I discovered the fingerprint sensor very responsive. The display is a spotlight. It sports activities a 2,670 x 1,200-pixel decision, providing you with a pointy 460 pixels per inch (matching the iPhone 15 Professional). It has a dynamic refresh fee able to going from 1 Hz as much as 120 Hz for easy animations and scrolling, and to avoid wasting on battery life the place attainable.
The show was vivid sufficient for me to learn outdoor in direct mild and might attain 3,000 nits peak brightness for highlights. The Dolby Imaginative and prescient and HDR10+ help make this a strong cellphone for film watching. The stereo audio system supply Dolby Atmos and boast shocking depth. I watched a number of scenes from Dune and Blade Runner 2049 to place it via its paces, and it regarded and sounded adequate on the Xiaomi 14 that I used to be rapidly sucked in.
Strong Performer
Slick efficiency comes courtesy of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, ably backed by 12 GB of RAM. You additionally get a beneficiant 512 GB of storage, and it’s the newest, speedy UFS 4.0. The Xiaomi 14 has sufficient energy to multitask or play probably the most demanding video games with out stutters or dropped frames. After nearly two hours of Grimvalor and Protection Zone HD, it remained cool.
Taking part in 20 minutes of Asphalt 9: Legends used 4 p.c of the battery. Rated at 4,610 mAh, you possibly can anticipate the Xiaomi 14 to get via all however the busiest days, however you’ll need to cost each night time. The 90-watt charger and USB-C cable within the field can totally cost the Xiaomi 14 in simply over half an hour. This cellphone additionally helps as much as 50-watt wi-fi charging, however you want Xiaomi’s wi-fi charger (£60) to get that fee.
Connectivity is top-notch. The Xiaomi 14 helps Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. It additionally helps a superb unfold of bands throughout 5G and 4G. It maintained a powerful sign right here within the UK, and needs to be fantastic in Europe, however of us within the US ought to test with their provider, and it does lack mmWave 5G bands.
Versatile Digicam
{Photograph}: Simon Hill
One of many most important causes you would possibly contemplate a Xiaomi cellphone is its pictures prowess. The rear digicam within the Xiaomi 14 combines three 50-megapixel lenses. The primary lens boasts a 1/1.31-inch sensor, an f/1.6 aperture, and a 23-mm focal size. The telephoto lens provides 3.2X optical zoom with an f/2.0 aperture and 75-mm focal size. And there’s an ultrawide lens with an f/2.2 aperture and 14-mm focal size. All of your bases are coated with this trio.
