Xiaomi 14 Review – Competitive Compact Flagship Phone Tested

We previously unboxed Xiaomi’s latest flagship, a compact flagship dubbed as the Xiaomi 14 and shared our first impressions of their latest phone. After putting it through its paces, here’s our Xiaomi 14 review where we cover more of what thrums beneath its glass-shod chassis, how it stacks up to the other flagship phones and whether its Leica-tuned cameras are all they’re hyped up to be…

Xiaomi 14 review – Performance and Benchmarks 

The Xiaomi 14 is an interesting design that attempts to shoehorn as much flagship-grade hardware as possible in a compact form factor. While its sibling the Xiaomi 14 Ultra takes the limelight and is intended to go toe to toe with other large-sized flagship phones like the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Honor Magic6 Pro with best-in-class Leica-tuned cameras and other hardware, the Xiaomi 14 strikes its own path as a compact flagship phone, aiming to achieve much of what the Ultra can do but at a lower cost and in a smaller footprint while also retaining a solid set of Leica cameras.  

The Xiaomi 14 features the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor as the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, features 12GB of fast LPDDR5X RAM augmented by up to 8GB of virtual RAM assigned off the onboard 512GB UFS 4.0 storage and runs their Hyper OS over Android 14.  Here’s a summary of the specifications of our Xiaomi 14 review unit:

Price	RM3,799
Display	6.36-inch LTPO OLED, 1,200 x 2,670 pixels, 120Hz refresh rate, 3000 nits peak brightness, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support
Processor	Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
OS	Android 14 w/ HyperOS
Memory	12GB LPDDR5X RAM, 512GB UFS 4.0
Camera	50MP F/1.6 w/ OIS + laser autofocus and dual pixel PDAF, 50MP F/2.0 telephoto camera w/ OIS + 3.2x optical zoom, 50MP F?2.2 ultra wide angle [rear] / 32MP F/2.0 front
Battery	4,610mAh w/ 90W wired charging, 50W wireless, 10W reverse wireless
Size/Weight	152.8 x 71.5 x 8.2mm / 188g

The RAM and storage are currently among the fastest grades available in the market; there’s no corners cut here for storage, RAM or performance. At present, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor is currently the fastest Android phone chipset in the market short of the custom-made Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processor issued only to the Galaxy S24 series this year.

Naturally, all this hardware gets hot and to ensure sustained performance, the Xiaomi 14 implements what the brand refers to as an IceLoop cooling system that is quoted to provide 3 times the thermal efficiency of a conventional vapour chamber design.

It also future-proofed to some degree with support for WiFi 7 which isn’t widespread as yet, Bluetooth 5.4 and in keeping with many other Xiaomi phones, also has an IR blaster to control other appliances like air conditioners, TVs and the like. Xiaomi has also committed to offering 4 years of Android and 5 years of security updates. 

Even with similar hardware, the biggest bottleneck in many smartphone designs is heat throttling as the processor slows down in order to avoid cooking off and damaging itself which is where the aforementioned IceLoop cooling system comes into play. When subjected to synthetic benchmarks, here’s what our Xiaomi 14 review sample scored:

3D Mark Solar Bay	8,652
3D Mark Unlimited	8,284
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme	5,128
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	5,065
3D Mark Wild Life	Maxed Out
3D Mark Wild Life Unlimited	17,188
Geekbench 6 Single Core	2,188
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	6,737
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	13,847
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	16,202
PC Mark Work 3.0	16,609
PC Mark Battery Life	16 hours 43 minutes

In terms of performance, our Xiaomi 14 review unit did not disappoint. The combination of the fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, fast LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage ensured excellent scores for single, multicore and graphics performance across the board. 

Where it showed its stuff was under heavy synthetic workloads.  Our Xiaomi 14 review unit managed a record-breaking 94.3% in stability tests with a best loop score of 7,600. Typically, we’ve encountered about a 60-68% stability percentage in the Solar Bay Stress Test. Heat was kept surprisingly manageable between 36°C –  41°C.

This level of performance means it easily crunches through web browsing and other general tasks and is also able to effortlessly tackle intricate CapCut 4K edits without faltering. It’s also sufficiently powerful enough to comfortably tackle Genshin Impact and Warzone Mobile on High settings. Extended multi-hour gaming sessions do get the phone a bit warm though it did not exhibit any major lag or frame skips. 

Battery life was excellent as well with our Xiaomi 14 review sample enjoying 16 hours and 43 minutes in benchmarks and the provision of the efficient processor and the LTPO OLED display enabled our Xiaomi 14 review unit to comfortably last a full day of moderately heavy use even on its smallish 4,610mAh battery. Charging speeds were excellent as well and the provided 90W charger was able to get a full charge in about 40 minutes.

These days, the latest flagship phones typically come at eye-watering astronomical prices that have you parting with the better chunk of a couple of month’s pay or more.

Even if a flagship phone does come cheaper, some corners get cut, be it poorer sustained performance, a cheaper made chassis or camera quality. What is mind boggling is that the Xiaomi 14 doesn’t cut any corners and manages to embody all aspects of a flagship phone from stem to stern and at a competitive price too. 

Of note is our Xiaomi 14 review unit’s 6.36-inch LTPO OLED display that allows for precise refresh rate management, allowing it to theoretically scale down to just 1Hz to offer better battery efficiency. 

On average, it hovers at 10Hz when in static scenarios, ramping up to 60Hz in most scenarios and YouTube, spiking up to 120Hz in supported content like selected games. Brightness, colours and clarity are excellent along with the support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision for high definition content. The paired stereo speakers are also above average with good detail and sound though bass is understandably lacking but that’s pretty much the case for all but a few gamer-specific phones in the market. 

The only downside here is the use of Gorilla Glass Victus. While it’s so far the best grade of glass that Xiaomi has implemented in their designs, it’s still a couple of generations down from the state of the art Gorilla Glass Armour and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 seen in competing designs like the Galaxy S24 series from Samsung.

Arguably the biggest quibble we have is the learning curve required for mastering Xiaomi’s HyperOS. While it is replete with a host of features, they’re nestled in odd parts of the menu you wouldn’t expect them to be and even the pulldown menu is obtuse, being a literal wall of abstract icons that require experimentation for you to figure out what is what. 

All the expected features are there but there’s a learning curve required and it took us a couple of weeks to figure out where everything was. That and the odd array of bloatware installed on  the phone like Agoda, the Shopee app, Amazon Shopping, Lazada Booking,com and more was irksome indeed which in turn required a bit of housekeeping to remove.

Xiaomi 14 Review – Cameras

One of the biggest draws to the new Xiaomi 14 is its triple 50MP rear camera array with a primary, ultrawide and telephoto camera co-developed with Leica. Typically, other contenders will use smaller camera sensors for the ultrawide angle and telephoto which makes it an immensely capable shooter indeed.

The primary 50MP F/1.6 camera that uses a Light Fusion 900 image sensor and has a trifecta of optical image stabilisation, dual pixel phase detection autofocus and laser autofocus along with the rare inclusion of a Leica Vario-Summilux 1:1.6-2.2/14-75 ASPH lenses for superior visual clarity. Unfortunately, it misses out on the variable aperture lens of its larger sibling the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

The secondary 50MP F/2.0 telephoto camera also has OIS with 3.2x optical zoom and up to 60x digital zoom while the 50MP F/2.2 ultrawide angle camera lacks stabilisation tech but takes advantage of its massive sensor size for steadier shots. Videos can be captured at up to 8K@24fps with up to 15x digital zoom while stills can be snagged at up to 60x digital zoom and lossless at up to 3.2x optical zoom. 

 

@hitechcentury We check out how the new Xiaomi 14 fares in low light scenarios in Malaysia with its rear triple camera that is co-engineered with Leica.@xiaomimalaysia @xiaomi.official The results are surprising!#xiaomi14 #lenstolegend #malaysia #samasamabelajar #fyp #sembanggadget #fyp #techtok #hitechcentury #tech #leica ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

Up front, you get a 32MP selfie camera capable of up to 4K@60fps video. Seeing the close collaboration with Leica, you get the choice of either a Leica Vibrant aesthetic or a more realistic looking Leica Authentic colour setting depending on your tastes.

In daylight scenarios, the rear triple camera capable of excellent shots all the way out to 3.2x with Leica Vibrant settings delivering the more popular and slightly higher saturated shots while the Leica Authentic delivers colour rendition more true to life but which may seem more muted to those accustomed to the kind of hues beloved in social media.

The primary lenses all the way out to 3.2x zoom offer excellent detail and a beautiful depth of field with the optional Movie mode offering a delightful rack focus option for that cinematic feel. While it is capable of 60x zoom, it’s soft and grainy but the fact that a compact phone of this size can do so is already an impressive feat of engineering. 

Even in lower light settings, our Xiaomi 14 review unit does well with the ability to offer good dynamic range and retention of detail from the ultrawide and main camera out to 3.2x zoom. Zoomed in shots beyond that all the way out to 60x grow increasingly grainy and soft. 

Videos on the rear triple camera allow for up to 8K@24fps and typically up to 4K@60fps if HDR is disabled and 4K@30fps if HDR is enabled. Results for videos are impressive with beautifully crisp detail and colours even in challenging light conditions with Xiaomi’s movie mode offering smooth rack focus that will come in handy especially for budding cinematographers.

The front-facing selfie camera doesn’t impress as much as the rear cameras but offers competent shots off the cuff with good skin tones and detail for daylight and indoor use for mugshots and up to 4K video.

What is irksome here is that the more advanced settings like 8K video capture and 60x zoom are nested deeper than usual in the menus which is a mind boggling choice but this is presumably to make the camera menu as easy as possible for novices which is mind boggling seeing the advanced capabilities that it offers. Menus aside, the Xiaomi 14’s camera setup offers excellent performance for most general usage scenarios.

Should I buy the Xiaomi 14?

The Xiaomi 14  is a very well polished design and is among the best compact flagships of 2024. Not only do you get premium build quality, you also get excellent performance, great battery life and a superb set of rear Leica-tuned cameras too.

While it isn’t the cheapest flagship-grade compact phone and still has some quirks with Hyper OS and how its menus are organised, it is still one of the best compact flagships that money can buy.

Xiaomi 14 review unit courtesy of Xiaomi Malaysia. For more details and to purchase please visit https://www.mi.com/my/product/xiaomi-14/