realme 14 review – Midrange RM1,299 gaming phone with huge battery and stereo speakers tested

In general, the designation of what is typically a gaming phone and a budget phone are mutually exclusive from each other but realme’s latest offering aims to blend both into one design. After taking it through countless multiplayer lobbies and virtual worlds and battlefields, here’s our realme 14 review where we share if their budget gaming phone is the real deal.

realme 14 review – Build and Design

Built as a budget gaming phone, the realme 14 has quite a few gaming-centric features integrated into its design including a massive 6,050mm² vapour chamber and being the world’s first phones to use the new Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset. Beyond the standard Warrior Pink and Storm Titanium colourways, the phone also comes in a rather sci-fi inspired finish dubbed as Mecha Silver which is what our realme 14 review sample comes in. 

The finish itself is composed primarily of a metallic silver finish all around with etched panelling lines on the backplate that evoke the sides of a Gundam mobile suit along with the realme logogram and a squarish camera housing for the single 50MP camera. While a second camera housing exists on the chassis, it seems to be primarily cosmetic in nature. 

The phone also has what they refer to as a Victory Halo light that lights up when you get notifications, incoming calls or when you’re charging the phone. It’s also able to react to kills with Mobile Legends Bang Bang and Honor of Kings but at present, it doesn’t support any other games.

While it does look visually striking at first blush, the metallic Mecha Silver finish is a fingerprint magnet and easily collects smudges even with casual handling though this conundrum is easily sorted with the free bundled casing. On top of the casing, realme have also kindly tossed in a free 45W charger along with the obligatory USB-C cable and SIM eject pin for free with the phone on top of a pre-applied screen protector on the display.

The sides of our realme 14 review sample feature the same shiny metallic finish with the corners rounded gently to make it easier to hold the phone in landscape mode. While the left and top sides are otherwise unremarkable, the right of the phone has a power button finished in a shade of orange along with a volume rocker with the base featuring a SIM card tray, a USB-C port and a speaker grille.

Up front, the phone features a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution (1080 x 2,400 pixels), a 120Hz refresh rate and features 111% DCI-P3 colour gamut and a peak brightness of 2,000 nits. The side and top bezels are relatively slim though the bottom portion is a bit on the thick side, giving it a 92.65% screen-to-body ratio. Up top, the phone has a single 16MP f/2.4 selfie camera for mugshots and video calls.

In terms of overall build quality, our realme 14 review sample is fairly well built and some effort has been put into ensuring its ergonomics for use in landscape mode are solid with its rounded corners. What makes it stand out though is that it has IP69 dust and water resistance belying its price point which means that the phone is capable of surviving in up to 2.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes, survive high pressure jets of water from all directions for a limited time and also shrug off dust ingress.

realme 14 review – Benchmarks and Performance 

The realme 14 is an interesting design as it optimises almost every aspect and feature towards gaming. For starters, the phone is the very first design to run the new midrange Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset that is built on a 4nm process and which has a 5G modem as well as fast WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity. On paper, the phone is the official gaming phone for the MLBB Academy League (MAL) Season 3 and the Honor of Kings MKL Pro League which sets it apart from the competition.

Paired with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 is 256GB storage and your choice of either 8GB or 12GB storage augmented by up to 14GB of virtual RAM Expansion off the onboard storage. Our realme 14 review sample is the latter. 

Running under the hood is the latest Android 15 overlaid by their own realme UI 6.0 interface overlaying it which is oddly replete with a ton of bloatware. Fresh out of the box, they’ve crammed in TikTok, Shopee, Lazada, Amazon Prime video, Netflix, LinkedIn and more which requires a thorough clean-up. 

That quibble aside, the realme 14 also features Google Gemini along with all its usual AI enhancements like Circle to Search by Google and an AI Recording Summary to pare down lengthy conference and video calls.

Firmware aside, here’s how our realme 14 review unit stacks up on paper:

Price	RM1,299 (12GB RAM/256GB) / RM1,199 (8GB RAM/256GB)
Display	6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED (1080 x 2,400 pixels), 2,000 nits peak brightness, 120Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, 92.65% screen-to-body ratio
Processor	Snapdragon 6 Gen 4
OS	Android 15 w/ realme UI 6.0
Memory	12GB RAM /256GB storage
Cameras	50MP F/1.9 w/ OIS [rear] / 16MP F/2.4 [front]
Battery	6,000mAh Titan Battery w/ 45W wired fast charging
Size/Weight	163.15 x 75.65 x 7.97mm / 196g

While it isn’t immediately obvious , the realme 14 has an ace up its sleeve in the form of an immense 6050mm² vapour chamber that helps to vent heat from the processor especially in extended gaming sessions. This level of cooling is typically an afterthought for most budget phones and the realme 14 has, to date, the largest vapour chamber in its price segment.

Another subtle upgrade to the realme 14 is the inclusion of dual cellular antenna on the left and right sides of the phone which contributes to a 30% stronger signal and network smoothness. 

The phone also has a rare feature – bypass charging that enables it to draw juice directly from the mains rather than on the battery to minimise heat build-up especially for extended gaming.

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks with the maximum of 14GB of virtual RAM and standard power settings, our realme 14 review sample got the following:

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	356
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	352
3D Mark WildLife Extreme	967
3D Mark WildLife Extreme Unlimited	959
Geekbench 6 Single Core	1,109
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	3,126
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	2,926
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	3,993
Geekbench AI (CPU quanticised)	1,377
Geekbench AI (GPU quanticised)	315
PCMark Work 3.0 Performance	13,861
PCMark Battery Life	17 hours 21 mins

In terms of pixel crunching performance, the midrange Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 processor acquits itself in a fair fashion with its generous surfeit of RAM and while it doesn’t outpace a chipset and a phone of similar vintage using something like an Exynos 1580 chipset, it also outpaces examples from last year like the Dimensity 6300 by a comfortable margin and easily outpaces the prior realme 14X that we tested a while back.

When the phone was tested in the 3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Stress test, it offered 99.2% stability while keeping consistent best and lowest loop scores with the standard Steel Nomad Light tests with heat kept to 29℃ to 36℃.

Even after an hour plus session racking up kills in Call of Duty Mobile, our realme 14 review sample acquitted itself well, with the vapour chamber contributing significantly to keep heat under control even under heavy gaming with the phone feeling slightly warm. Even after an additional session of Genshin Impact, the realme 14 remained warm

When subjected to extensive gaming sessions, our realme 14 review sample acquitted itself well without issues on Call of Duty Mobile and Genshin Impact on standard settings without lag or throttling. The provision of the large vapour chamber also contributes significantly to performance, ensuring that heat remains under control even under heavy loads. If you’re looking to eke out even more performance, you can take advantage of the phone’s Geek Power Tuning mode to adjust CPU and GPU frequencies as needed though the default GT Mode boost settings are more than sufficient for gaming.

What impresses is that the realme 14 allows for bypass charging, allowing for extended multi-hour play sessions in lieu of constantly draining and recharging the battery which also contributes to heat build-up. Unfortunately, the phone only has one USB-C port to the side which makes it distinctly uncomfortable to use if you’re relying on a conventional USB-C cable. If you’re planning to take advantage of bypass charging, you’ll need to get your hands on a third-party L-shaped cable though it’s still a wee bit uncomfortable when doing so.

The AMOLED display is of note with excellent colour rendition and decent brightness under daylight conditions while ensuring smooth animations onscreen. As always, refresh rates are contingent on what you’re doing and most games are capped at 60Hz though the added smoothness is most apparent when you’re navigating the menus where the screen is able to offer its full 120hz refresh rate. 

Where most budget phones typically leave sound as an afterthought, the realme 14 has a stereo setup which further adds to its capabilities as a budget gaming phone. Offering decent volume and a fair amount of clarity, the phone’s speakers don’t offer much in the way of distinct sound staging which is critical for FPS shooters but it’s otherwise serviceable for most games and casual music listening duties.

In terms of battery life, the realme 14 offers quite a bit of endurance off its 6,000mAh battery and can comfortably offer close to two days with normal usage with phone calls, videos, social media use, emails and the like though heavy gaming will reduce this estimate somewhat. On paper, the realme 14 was rated to offer up to 10 hours of gaming on Mobile Legends Bang Bang.

In practical field tests with Call of Duty Mobile, we barely managed to drain 20% even after a full two hours of Team Deathmatch. In PCMark’s battery life benchmark, it managed to get a very respectable 17 hours and 21 minutes which is impressive on its own merits but is still trumped by the current record holder, the vivo V50 Lite that has a larger battery and over 31 hours of battery life. When charging, our realme 14 review sample at 20% remaining charge managed to get to 50% in 23 minutes with a full charge in about an hour on its proprietary 45W SuperVOOC charger which is above average, all things considered.

In any case, the realme 14 is a capable performer for both casual gaming and general duties especially seeing its price range.

realme 14 review – Cameras

The realme 14 sports a no-frills 50MP f/1.8 main rear camera with two-axis optical image stabilization (OIS), capable of 4K@30fps video recording, lossless 2x digital zoom, and up to 10x digital zoom. Notably, OIS is a rare and welcome inclusion at this price point. While the rear camera module appears to feature a dual-lens setup, the second lens is purely cosmetic—there’s only one functional rear camera. On the front, the phone includes a 16MP f/2.4 selfie camera capable of 1080p@30fps video.

This minimalist camera setup focuses on essentials. The presence of OIS improves stability and sharpness, especially in low light. However, the absence of an ultrawide or telephoto lens limits versatility—wide landscape shots and zoom beyond 2x rely on digital cropping, which impacts quality.

In good lighting, the main camera captures detailed, well-balanced photos up to 2x zoom. Beyond that, images become softer but remain usable for social media. Low-light performance is mixed; OIS helps maintain clarity and dynamic range up to 2x zoom, but results vary. Video capture at 1080p is serviceable, though unremarkable, and front-facing camera quality is similarly average.

Should you buy the realme 14?

Realme set out to create a budget gaming phone with the realme 14—and for the most part, they’ve succeeded. It offers a solid mix of gaming-centric features at an accessible price point, including a capable midrange Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chipset, a smooth 120Hz AMOLED display, stereo speakers, passthrough charging, and a large battery.

However, it’s not without compromises. If you can live with just 3 years of OS updates, 4 years of security patches, a mediocre rear camera, and some pre-installed bloatware, the realme 14 stands as a strong all-rounder with great battery life and value for money.

realme 14 review unit courtesy of realme Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.realme.com/my/realme-14-5g/specs