As China’s largest cellphone maker, Xiaomi makes wonderful Android smartphones, boasting a number of the greatest {hardware}. If you fancy one thing completely different from the newest Samsung or Apple, the Xiaomi 14 could be for you. With a flexible digicam, beautiful show, and top-notch specs in a comparatively compact package deal, this refined Android smartphone will swimsuit most folk.

While Xiaomi reserves the really cutting-edge stuff for its Ultra mannequin (coming quickly), the Xiaomi 14 is not any slouch. More pocket-friendly in each senses, that is a sublime all-rounder with Xiaomi’s revamped HyperOS over Android 14. At first look it appears to be like very like final yr’s Xiaomi 13, however enhancements throughout the board make the Xiaomi 14 extra tempting.

Elegant Design

The Xiaomi 14 is analogous in dimension to my Pixel 8 and iPhone 14 Pro, 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 positive dimension for most folk to handle one-handed. The curved glass on the again is a fingerprint-resistant matte black on my evaluation unit, however it additionally is available in white or a extra attention-grabbing inexperienced.

The Xiaomi 14 feels sturdy and scores an IP68 rating 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 appropriate backbone. Overall, 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 below 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, supplying you with a pointy 460 pixels per inch (matching the iPhone 15 Pro). It has a dynamic refresh rate able to going from 1 Hz as much as 120 Hz for clean animations and scrolling, and to avoid wasting on battery life the place doable.

The show was shiny sufficient for me to learn outdoor in direct gentle and may attain 3,000 nits peak brightness for highlights. The Dolby Vision and HDR10+ assist make this a strong cellphone for film watching. The stereo audio system provide Dolby Atmos and boast stunning 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.

Solid 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 essentially the most demanding video games with out stutters or dropped frames. After nearly two hours of Grimvalor and Defense Zone HD, it remained cool.

Playing 20 minutes of Asphalt 9: Legends used 4 % 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 wish 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 wireless charger (£60) to get that fee.

Connectivity is top-notch. The Xiaomi 14 helps Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. It additionally helps unfold of bands throughout 5G and 4G. It maintained a powerful sign right here within the UK, and must be positive in Europe, however of us within the US ought to verify with their service, and it does lack mmWave 5G bands.

Versatile Camera

One of the primary causes you may think about 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 your bases are coated with this trio.