Smartphones with flagship performance are almost only available in form factors of 6.7 inches and larger. Xiaomi is defying this trend, as the Xiaomi 14, just like the Xiaomi 13, remains a compact high-end smartphone at 6.36 inches. In terms of performance, it has again upped the ante compared to its predecessor, with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 making the Xiaomi 14 one of the fastest smartphones on the market.
In addition to a new SoC, the Xiaomi 14 also features a new camera system. Instead of the Sony IMX800 of the Xiaomi 13, the main camera of our test device utilizes the Light Fusion 900, a sensor in 1/1.31-inch format that likely comes from Omnivision. In addition, the main, ultra-wide-angle and telephoto cameras each now have a resolution of 50 MP.
So far, the Xiaomi 14 is only officially available in China, so interested buyers will have to purchase an imported version. A global version for the European market is expected to follow in the first quarter of 2024. According to the internet rumor mill, this date falls on February 25th, one day before the start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
On the Chinese market, Xiaomi offers the Xiaomi 14 in black and white in addition to our green color variant. Whether the pink nano-leather version will also make it to Europe remains unclear. At 188 grams, it is slightly lighter than the 193-gram glass variant.
In the glass variant, the display and back are both protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus and feel very high-quality. However, both surfaces prove very susceptible to fingerprints. Smudges on the high-gloss aluminum frame are also near unavoidable. The SIM slot cover is also made of aluminum and fits cleanly with the frame. Overall, the workmanship is very good and the gaps are narrow and even.
Compared to the Xiaomi 13, the camera module has increased significantly in size. It now protrudes almost 4 millimeters from the back cover and houses an infrared transmitter and a microphone in addition to the LED flash. The advantage of the XXL camera unit is that the smartphone does not wobble back and forth on a flat surface when tapping the screen thanks to its width of over 4 cm. The Xiaomi 14 is IP68-certified and thus dust- and waterproof.
The USB-C port of the Xiaomi 14 works at USB 3.0 speed, which is a significant improvement over the USB 2.0 port of the Xiaomi 13. This is immediately noticeable when swapping data with an external storage device. In our copy test with the M2.SSD Samsung 980 Pro in the Asus ROG Strix Arion Case (USB 3.2 Gen. 2), the Xiaomi 14 achieved a solid transfer rate of 311.7 MB/s.
An audio jack and a microSD slot were already missing from the Xiaomi 13 and are also lacking on the Xiaomi 14. Instead, there is once again an IR blaster for remote control of compatible end devices such as TVs, which is located in the camera unit this time around. Bluetooth 5.4 and NFC are also included.
In China, the Xiaomi 14 is available in four storage variants: 8/256 GB, 12/256 GB, 16/512 GB and 16/1024 GB. Whether all storage variants will also be globally available remains to be seen.
The Xiaomi 14 runs Xiaomi's new HyperOS operating system, which is based on Android 14. According to the manufacturer, the HyperOS kernel is a combination of Linux and the Vela IoT platform. What sounds like a major development leap (and may well be one under the hood) turns out to be rather unspectacular in practice. Aside from minor adjustments to the appearance and menu structures, HyperOS looks exactly like the previous MIUI user interface. There are virtually no differences in terms of operation, so users do not have to adapt.
Xiaomi plans to provide its smartphone with OS upgrades for 4 years. Android security patches are scheduled to be rolled out over a period of 5 years. However, it is currently unknown how often this will occur each quarter. The Android security patch on our test device is from December 1, 2023, and thus still up to date (version 1.0.28.0.UNCCNXM).
In addition to simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Tibetan and Ugurian, the Chinese Hyper-OS ROM only knows English as the system language. Thanks to DRM certification for Widevine L1, the Xiaomi 14 can run web streams in HD quality.
The Google Play Store is not included by default on the Chinese model, but it was easy to install on our test device because the Google framework and associated services are already running in the background. This can be done, for example, via Xiaomi's GetApps app store.
Users are advised to get a keyboard such as the Google Gboard from the Play Store. Three keyboards come preinstalled on the smartphone, namely Baidu IME, Sogou Keyboard and iFlytek IME, which are optimized for Chinese users and therefore hardly usable for QWERTZ/QWERTY users.
With WiFi 7, the Xiaomi 14 supports the fastest Wi-Fi standard currently available, also known as IEEE 802.11be. This enables transfer rates of up to 46 GBit/s, which we are unable to confirm thus far due to the lack of appropriate routers.
Nevertheless, even with WiFi 6E, WiFi performance is more than sufficient for everyday use. In tandem with our Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 reference router, the smartphone achieves very high and largely stable transfer rates in the 6 GHz band. It reaches peak values of just under 1740 MBit/s.
In our import model, the cellular frequencies are adapted for the Asian market. In regard to 5G, this is not an issue because all important frequencies for the European region are supported. However, there are some gaps in 4G coverage. LTE band 20 in particular, which is important in a number of countries, is missing. This is likely to result in reception problems, especially in rural areas.
On the other hand, if the Xiaomi 14 is officially launched in Europe and in the US, these restrictions should disappear. Experience has shown that Xiaomi equips the global versions of its smartphones with a significantly wider range of frequencies.
For localization, the Xiaomi 14 has access to the GPS (L1, L5), Glonass (L1), Galileo (E1, E5a) and Beidou (B1(C), B2a) satellites, usually in dual-band. In testing, the smartphone pinpointed its own location at an accuracy of 3 meters both indoors and outdoors.
The smartphone tracked a 10-kilometre cycle route almost as accurately as the Garmin Venu 2 fitness smartwatch, making it ideal for navigational tasks.
The Xiaomi 14 supports 5G with dual SIM and, in addition to VoLTE, also supports WLAN calls. In the import version, the smartphone can record calls. However, we were unable to find an option for activating eSIMs in the settings. If a global model is released, it will likely include eSIM functionality.
The Xiaomi 14 delivers good voice quality during calls. Voices are transmitted clearly and distinctly and background noise is filtered out quite reliably, even in hands-free mode.
The resolution of the selfie camera is 32 MP and has not changed from the Xiaomi 13. On the other hand, the Xiaomi 14 can now record videos in 4K at 60 FPS, whereas its predecessor could only manage Full HD and 30 FPS at most. The selfie camera takes good pictures and uses the full 32 MP without pixel binning.
Xiaomi often develops the cameras of its high-end smartphones together with Leica, and the Xiaomi 14 is no exception. At the heart of its triple camera is a Summilux lens with a resolution of 50 MP, whose key data is imprinted on the large camera module with the Vario-Summilux 1:1.6-2:2/14-75 Asph lettering. The OIS-stabilized sensor in 1/1.31-inch format shoots 12.5 MP photos via 4-in-1 pixel binning, bears the name Light Hunter 900 and likely stems from Omnivision.
The triple camera setup is completed by a 50 MP ultra-wide-angle camera and a 50 MP telephoto camera with 3.2x optical zoom and OIS. The Xiaomi 14 Pro uses the same triple camera, but can do a little more. Variable aperture control for the main camera and autofocus for close-ups with the ultra-wide-angle camera are not available on the Xiaomi 14.
The cooperation with Leica also extends to the software. In the camera app, users can choose from numerous image modes as well as between the two Leica image modes, Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic. Both can be called up via an icon on the top right of the screen and each works with a slightly different color calibration. In Leica Vibrant, colors are more saturated, while Leica Authentic is intended to reproduce the original Leica color style with clear colors.
In daylight, the main camera takes good pictures with high image sharpness and lots of detail. The photos also look very vivid thanks to strong contrasts and are very decent in low light conditions. Like the main camera, the ultra-wide-angle camera works with 4-in-1 pixel binning, uses a similar color balance and offers decent image quality. However, the level of detail is sometimes low and the images lose sharpness towards the edges. Thanks to its optical zoom, the telephoto camera can capture images with up to 3.2x magnification without loss of quality and takes solid pictures. The 3.2x zoom of the telephoto camera is also standard for portrait shots.
With the main camera, the Xiaomi 14 can record very stable videos up to 8K at 24 frames per second. The ultra-wide-angle and telephoto cameras each support up to 4K at 60 FPS. Users can also switch back and forth between the individual lenses while recording videos, but this only works up to 4K and at a maximum of 30 FPS.
Under controlled lighting conditions, the main camera performs very well. The colors of the ColorChecker card are accurately captured, even at 1 lux of residual light. The same applies to the test chart, which remains fully recognizable and still shows plenty of detail.
The Xiaomi 14 comes with a 90-watt power adapter (up to 20V/4.5A, plug type A), a USB cable (type A to C), a SIM tool, a protective case and a quick start guide.
The Xiaomi 14 comes with a 12-month warranty.
Thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and the responsive OLED panel, the Xiaomi 14 is extremely smooth to use. The 6.36-inch screen works with a touch sampling rate of 240 Hz, which can increase up to 2160 Hz in games.
The physical buttons and the vibration motor each provide crisp and precise feedback that feels very high-quality. The same can also be said of the optical fingerprint sensor, which is integrated into the display. We had no complaints about its recogniton speed and rate. Users also have the option of logging in biometrically using 2D facial recognition, which also works quickly.
The 6.36-inch OLED panel has a resolution of 2670 x 1200 and thus achieves a high pixel density of 460 PPI. In addition to HDR10+, the screen also supports Dolby Vision. In the standard setting, the Xiaomi 14 automatically adjusts the frame rate of its OLED panel to the content displayed. Alternatively, this can be manually set at a constant 60 or 120 Hz.
With an average brightness of 1051.7 cd/m² on a white background, the OLED panel achieves a class-typical luminance, thus providing more than sufficient luminosity for practically all usage scenarios. But there is more.
In measurements with an even distribution of bright and dark image areas (APL18), the panel increases to a very good 1569 cd/m². The screen reaches the peak brightness of 3000 nits specified by Xiaomi when playing HDR content, occasionally reaching up to 3189 cd/m². When the brightness sensor is switched off, a maximum of 528 cd/m² can be elicited from the display. In the lowest brightness setting, we recorded 2.5 cd/m².
Like most OLED panels, the display on the Xiaomi 14 also flickers. However, the amplitude curve is quite uniform across the entire brightness spectrum and, at 429 Hz, is also relatively high. Users who are sensitive to pulse width modulation (PWM) can also activate Anti-Flicker in the display settings. With DC dimming activated, we only observed PWM flickering at the same level as the refresh rate in the entire brightness range.
We took a closer look at the OLED panel's color reproduction capabilities using Calman analysis software and a photo spectrometer. The Xiaomi 14 delivers the best image quality when the Original color Pro color scheme is selected in the display settings and the color temperature is set to Warm. The OLED panel then only uses the small sRGB color space, but the colors are completely accurate. In Vivid color mode, the OLED panel dynamically adapts its colors to the display content and makes use of significantly stronger color saturation, but also uses the significantly larger DCI-P3 color space.
In outdoor use, the advantages of the Xiaomi 14's bright display really come to the fore. The wintry light conditions at the time of testing was hardly a challenge for its viewing angle-stable OLED panel, as content can be easily read without issue. Due to the large brightness reserves, things shouldn't be much different in summer either.
In the GPU benchmarks, the Adreno 750 in the Xiaomi 14 is almost always at the top and beats strong competitors such as the Apple iPhone 15 or the Samsung Galaxy S23. The Xiaomi 14 Pro sister model, which is also equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and the Adreno 750, occasionally manages to narrowly beat the Xiaomi 14 in GFXBench's off-screen tests. This is likely due to thermal reasons, as our test device quickly throttles its performance under load. The 6.73-inch Xiaomi 14 Pro is also subject to throttling, but can probably dissipate its waste heat a little more effectively thanks to its larger cooling surface.
The high system speed of the Xiaomi 14 is evident when surfing the web, as it performs very well in terms of browser performance. In the benchmarks, it is only beaten by the Apple iPhone 15 among the comparison devices.
Thanks to its UFS 4.0 memory, the Xiaomi 14 achieves a high data throughput. In everyday use, this is reflected in the short loading times. Even large apps such as APK files for Asphalt 9 or PUBG Mobile are installed very quickly.
Thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and the 120 Hz OLED panel with its precise touch input and high sampling rate, the Xiaomi 14 is perfect for gaming. Even graphically demanding games such as Genshin Impact or PUBG Mobile run smoothly at all times at high detail settings. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide specific frame rates because the Xiaomi 14 refused to provide our Gamebench test tool with the corresponding FPS values.
The Xiaomi 14's cooling system is called Xiaomi Loop LiquidCool and is designed to keep the system stable during gaming, HD video streaming and demanding applications. We didn't notice any performance limitations in everyday life, regardless of which app or game was running. However, it is also noticeable that the smartphone heats up quickly under load.
Internally, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 repeatedly pushes Xiaomi's cooling system to its limits. The GFXBench Manhattan battery test crashed with an error message. The Xiaomi 14 also crashed in 3DMark's Wild Life stress tests, as both test scenarios ended with the error message that the smartphone was overheating. The same occurred with the Burnout benchmark when we ran it at full load (CPU + GPU). So we repeated the temperature measurements under less strict conditions (CPU only). The Xiaomi 14 heats up to 44.2 °C on the surface, which is thermally harmless.
The stereo speakers of the Xiaomi 14 are Dolby Atmos-certified, but do not really convey spatial sound very well. On the other hand, they deliver well-balanced sound of up to 91.4 dB(A) and reproduce voices in particular very naturally. As is typical for smartphones, bass tones are almost completely absent from the sound mix.
External audio devices can be connected via USB-C or Bluetooth 5.4. The Xiaomi 14 supports Bluetooth codecs ranging from SBC, AAC, LDAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX TWS+ to LHDC V1 to V5.
The 4610 mAh battery of the Xiaomi 14 supports a charging capacity of up to 90 watts. A suitable power adapter is included in the scope of delivery. In testing, it took 39 minutes for the empty battery to return to 100%. The smartphone supports wireless charging with up to 50 watts. Reverse wireless charging is possible with up to 10 watts.
In terms of power consumption, the Xiaomi smartphone consumes slightly less than 1 watt in idle mode. Even under full load in the Burnout benchmark, it runs quite energy-efficiently at just over 9 watts.
Although the Xiaomi 14's 4610 mAh battery is not one of the largest, it provides the smartphone with excellent runtimes. With the screen brightness at 150 cd/m², the Xiaomi 14 manages over 18 hours of simulated web surfing. It even reaches almost 28 hours of continuous video playback with the communication module switched off.
The Sony Xperia 5 V and the Xiaomi 14 Pro offer similarly good runtimes. Although the latter has a slightly larger battery, it also has to power a larger and significantly higher-resolution screen.
The Xiaomi 14 is a new edition of the Xiaomi 13 that has been improved in many areas. The basic design has not changed, as the Xiaomi 14 is also a compact and very solid high-end smartphone with extensive features that performs very well in everyday life.
The Xiaomi 14 is a compact powerhouse with a very bright OLED display and excellent battery life.
Like its predecessor, the Xiaomi 14 offers excellent battery life, scores with a revised camera setup, which was once again developed in cooperation with Leica, and is at the absolute forefront in terms of performance with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Xiaomi has further improved the already excellent display and, in particular, once again increased its brightness. It even exceeds the 3000 cd/m² mark in HDR mode.
The Xiaomi 14 also does away with the disadvantages of its predecessor. The previously slow USB-C 2.0 port now runs with modern USB 3.0, the charging power has increased from 67 to 90 watts and the front camera can now record videos at up to 4K at 60 frames per second. By comparison, the Xiaomi 13 could only manage full HD and 30 FPS.
There are only a few points of criticism. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 occasionally proves to be a hothead, pushing the smartphone to its thermal limits under continuous load. Anyone waiting for the global version of the Xiaomi 14 will most likely get two features that are missing from our Chinese test model: better cellular frequency coverage (including LTE band 20) and eSIM support.
In addition to the Xiaomi 13, alternatives to the Xiaomi 14 include the Apple iPhone 15 and the Samsung Galaxy S23. Both are similarly fast and compact, have good cameras and also impress in terms of battery life.
Outside China, the Xiaomi 14 is only available as an import. Giztop, for example, has the smartphone listed for $669.99, not including shipping or import fees. International buyers outside the US can of course change the currency via a button in the top left.
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