Every smartphone company is eyeing the premium category to take a slice of share from Apple and Samsung. There are two questions: First, do people want to splurge on a smartphone anymore and, second, are people willing to try any other premium phone other than the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S? Xiaomi is taking its chances with Xiaomi 14. The phone brings upgrades like a better display, a faster chipset and a revamped camera setup.
Display talk
The design isn’t very different from what we’ve seen before from Xiaomi but a noticeable change is the beefier camera bump. And the word ‘Leica’ is written in landscape mode, meaning the company is encouraging people to use the phone to take horizontal shots to do full justice to the camera setup.
Xiaomi gets the colour science right with its new device
The design is held together by a smart aluminium frame where all the curves meet. Slightly slippery, but the device is easy to hold and use. There is IP68 rating for splash, water and dust resistance.
What I like most about the phone is its size. It’s a dynamic 6.36-inch LTPO AMOLED display that supports one to 120Hz refresh rate. The higher resolution amounts to 460 PPI, making things appear sharper than what you got on Xiaomi 13. Plus, there are all the high-end features like Dolby Vision and HDR10+. At 6.36 inches, it’s a compact phone compared to most flagship devices in the market. Definitely not as small as the iPhone Mini but this is a good size to have, especially when you are taking pictures.
Needless to say, there are stereo speakers with very good loudness. In terms of quality, the audio setup doesn’t let the bass overpower the sonicscape.
A big part of the experience is Xaomi’s new HyperOS 1.0 running on top of Android 14. There are some changes in the design compared to MiUi but for the most part, it’s similar but the system feels fluid and snappy. You can read our thoughts on HyperOS in a separate article. As for upgrades, you get four generations of Android OS upgrades and five years of security patches, which falls slightly short of what Samsung and Google Pixel are offering but only time can tell how the chipset holds up after two-three years of usage.
Night shots come out well but are slightly behind what you get on an iPhone or a Galaxy S device
Top performance
The phone is powered by Qualcomm’s latest, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform, which is there on a few other flagship phones. It offers both better performance and power efficiency than last year’s chipset as well as better ray tracing for games. The Xiaomi 14 does a great job in benchmarks, sitting near the top of the charts. It even outpaces some other current flagships with the same chipset. The difference in the tuning of the chipset can be felt when it comes to the phone’s peak performance and there is sustained gaming action. There is hardly any major thermal throttling.
Speaking of battery, there is a 4,610mAh battery which easily lasts a day. It supports 90W charging and 50W wireless charging. You should be able to get a full charge in around 35 minutes.
Xiaomi is offering substantial upgrades in camera hardware. You get a 50MP main camera, 50MP 75mm floating telephoto and 50MP ultra-wide. The company hopes that its partnership with Leica would make all the difference. The main lens boasts a 1/1.31-inch sensor, an f/1.6 aperture, and a 23-mm focal length. The telephoto lens offers 3.2X optical zoom with an f/2.0 aperture and 75-mm focal length. The ultrawide lens comes with an f/2.2 aperture and 14-mm focal length.
Here are the good points first. There is fast shutter speed for capturing action and the bokeh appears natural. The sensor is large enough to capture low-light conditions. Since the company is working with Leica, you can choose two types of photo modes — Leica Authentic and Vibrant. I like the former. When it comes to colour matching on the ultra-wide and telephoto, Xiaomi does a better job than many companies in the Android space. Also, even when I zoomed up to 10x, I got reasonably good pictures. There is also a Pro mode with the option to tweak everything and shoot in RAW. And the 32MP selfie camera is equally good and gets skin tones right.
In the still photography department, there are moments under dark conditions when pictures are tad behind the iPhone, especially in twilight conditions. In the video department, I somehow can’t move between the front and rear cameras while recording. But overall, we are impressed by the amount of details the camera captures at night. You can shoot 8K video at 24 fps on the main snapper. 4K video quality on the main camera is quite good, complete with a good dynamic range, plus there is enough sharpness.
Xiaomi relies on Leica to get the camera performance right
Should you buy it?
These are early days for Xiaomi’s flagship devices. To go that extra mile, the company needs to stop preloading unnecessary apps like Spotify, PhonePe, Snapchat, Netflix, Amazon and Facebook. Sure, many of us could be using some of these apps but that doesn’t mean preloading is a solution. For example, I don’t use Netflix or PhonePe on my smartphone. The bigger issue that Xiaomi needs to solve is that over the years, Xiaomi hasn’t been synonymous with flagship experience in India. People look elsewhere for that experience. Can it change the mindset? Also, people are looking for AI features because that’s the buzzword and human brains are wired to look for buzzwords. As for Xiaomi 14 goes, the company doesn’t scrimp on specs and it’s a solid step towards flagship dreams.
Leica Authentic mode allows users to keep the colour profile natural and not oversaturated
At a glance
Device: Xiaomi 14
Price: Rs 69,999 (12GB+512GB, minus offers)
High notes
Nimble performance
Good camera processing power
Excellent charging speeds
UI feels fluid
Muffled notes
Unnecessary apps come preloaded
Can’t switch between front and rear camera while shooting videos
