Xiaomi 14 Review: Crushingly capable flagship, but does the camera live up to the hype?

Flagship phones are so frighteningly competent these days that you wonder if there’s going to be anything much to write about when you open the box of a new one. 

They are all so beautifully built, extravagantly specced, and carefully designed that you don’t really expect them to have any major flaws or quirks to set them apart from their competition. The major brands all borrow and copy ideas to such a degree that most phones these days are far more alike than different in a given price category. 

It is with this background that I received the Xiaomi 14, Xiaomi’s 2024 flagship, to review. 

Now I know some of you will quibble that the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is the true flagship. But these words have lost a little bit of meaning, and I use the word flagship to generally refer to expensive phones that are at or near the top of a brand’s line-up, with the only must-have being top-tier silicon. The Xiaomi 14 ticks all these boxes, and then some. But where I expected a sea of sameness I actually encountered a good amount of difference. 

And so the review I had in my head while opening the box is not the review I am writing some weeks later.

Variants and hardware

To make things simple, the Xiaomi 14 is only available in one well-specced variant priced at Rs 69,999. Featuring 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage, this will suit the requirements of all but the most demanding of users. The colour options are a bit unexciting, with an olive green (which I have for review), a black, and a white.

The Xiaomi 14 is a glossy jewel in the hand. The design is elegant and un-flashy, with a flat 6.36” screen, flat sides, and a glass back with subtle curves around the edges. Now this glossy jewel is also a slippery jewel. My early attempts to use this phone without a case resulted in many almost-drops. Within a day, I realised I didn’t dare to use it without the supplied case, which is a pretty good-looking matte-black number.

The size of the Xiaomi 14 is very much a Goldilocks choice – not quite as large as the usual flagships these days, but not quite as small as the “compact” phones that are getting increasingly rare. With a screen diagonal 6.36” and a width of 71.5 mm, I’d argue this is the most well-balanced size for a phone, offering excellent one-hand usability without skimping on screen real-estate. If it wasn’t so slippery, I’d have called it an ergonomic triumph. But for that, we’ll have to wait for the glass-back trend to die.

The Xiaomi 14’s screen is a 1200 x 2670 120Hz LTPO unit (460 ppi pixel density, for those who care) that also boasts a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. These peak brightness boasts need to be taken with a pinch of salt because realistically, you are not going to see these levels and subjectively, this phone felt less bright than the Pixel 8 that I had reviewed previously (which boasts a mere 2,000 nits). That said, the screen is plenty bright and even in bright sunlight I could use it comfortably without straining or squinting. It’s a truly top-tier screen in every regard.

The chunky squarish camera island houses the triple-camera unit that is one of the headline features of the Xiaomi 14. The ultrawide, primary and telephoto are all 50MP units at 14, 23 and 75mm respectively. The ultrawide and the telephoto are considerably smaller than the primary, as expected. The selfie camera is a 32 MP unit. Both the ultrawide and selfie cameras lack autofocus.

Flagship phones need big batteries these days and the Xiaomi 14 doesn’t disappoint. With a 4610 mAH battery and 90W charging, you are getting some very good specs in this department. I know it’s churlish but I’ve come to expect 120W charging in flagships these days, but even 90 is plenty fast.  

All the other flagship table-stakes features are present and accounted for including an IP68 rating and the lamentable absence of a headphone jack.

In use

The most remarkable element of using the Xiaomi 14 is Xiaomi’s new Android skin, called HyperOS. HyperOS apparently comes with many under-the-hood optimisations that result in better performance, lower latency, and many other wonderful things. It’s hard to say how much of this manifests in practice but I can say this much – this is an extremely fast, smooth and consistent device to use. 

Needless to say, the Xiaomi 14 sports the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, and this also works to ensure that the performance is absolutely top class. I encountered no lags or stutters at any point in my time with the Xiaomi 14.

But more interestingly, Xiaomi promises a lag and stutter-free user experience for 50 months or more! I would be intrigued to check in on this 50 months from now, so if any of you are using the Xiaomi 14, would you please put a reminder on your calendar and reach out to me in June 2028?

As I had mentioned before, the display is first class. It’s bright, punchy, and eminently usable in bright sunlight. The 120Hz refresh rate means every interaction is buttery smooth (Apple needs to take notes). It’s excellent for streaming shows, and this is supplemented by the loud, rich speakers, which are among the best I’ve heard in a while. I didn’t have an iPhone handy to compare, but I would guess this is competitive. 

Battery life is rock solid, ending most days with anywhere between 20 and 30 percent left in the tank. This is a phone that can deliver 6 hours or more of screen-on time regularly, and for its size, that’s commendable. Add to this the 90W charging that takes it from zero to 100 in a little over half an hour, and living with this phone is completely stress-free.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 delivers blazing performance, with even editing of 4K videos being smooth and stutter free. While I’m not a gamer myself, other reviewers have praised the Xiaomi 14’s gaming performance. 

Now I must catalogue some of my annoyances with HyperOS. 

I always enjoyed using MIUI. But in changing to HyperOS, Xiaomi appears to have tried to take the OS in a more iPhone-like direction and this means that they have introduced some annoyances. The first is the Control Center arrangement, where you have to reach for the far corner if you want to pull down the notification shade. Even on a smaller phone, that feels like extra, unnecessary effort. MIUI allowed you the option to switch to the traditional Android setup but HyperOS doesn't. Notifications interactions are also a bit more clunky than with stock Android.

The second is that when you delete a homescreen icon, all the other icons rearrange themselves. Now when you have a carefully set up homescreen with many icons, this is a major annoyance. And it doesn’t even make sense because otherwise, icons are freely rearrangeable, unlike on the iPhone, where this behaviour is copied from. 

There are some other random quirks, like the phone automatically locking once an Instagram video ends, or Google search term icons (I always have a quick shortcut on the homepage for the Google search term “Arsenal”, the football team I support) randomly disappearing from the home screen, which I assume are bugs that will be fixed. One more annoyance was that the always-on display turns off when I put the phone on a wireless charging dock at night. And there’s no way to change this. My Pixel 7 is my invaluable bedside clock so to not even have that option is one more mild annoyance.

None of these things are deal-breakers but to me, they took what was a very enjoyable Android skin and made it mildly annoying. I do hope the folks at Xiaomi have a rethink about some of these decisions.

Camera

The headline item of this phone is this camera setup, boasting its collaboration with Leica for colour science, as well some very well specced hardware. As I had mentioned before, this is a three-camera set-up with a primary, an ultrawide, and a telephoto. From the moment I got my hands on this phone, I have been using the camera a lot, as I tend to. And with all the hype and build-up, I was really looking forward to the kind of pictures I’d get from the Xiaomi 14. 

But I must say my experience was a little mixed.

First, let me get the pluses out of the way. The camera interface is great. Coming from the Pixel’s frustrating interface where exposure compensation and other tweaks are hidden away in a menu, the ability to tap and adjust exposure was a pleasure. Add to this the very well-designed Pro mode which lets you dial in manual settings to just the extent you want (including the ability to adjust both temperature and tint, a rarity), makes the process of shooting with the Xiaomi 14 an absolute joy. The video interface is excellent as well, with the most seamless video zooming I’ve seen on an Android phone. It’s not iPhone level, but it’s solidly good. All Android phone makers should just copy this interface for their camera. 

Now, the photos. The cameras are by and large capable and put out very detailed images, with good exposure and colours. The colour science is consistent between the three imaging units, and most people will be quite happy with the imaging prowess of the Xiaomi 14. White balance is generally accurate and the HDR performance is creditable, with a good tone map and realistic looking shadows and highlights, even in tricky light situations. 

But I have a few complaints. I consistently encountered a tendency to slightly overexpose pictures of people. Now, I could just go into the Pro mode and dial in a minus 0.7 or 1.0 exposure compensation, but most people won’t know to do that. 

One more complaint is that I’ve been spoiled by the Pixel’s skintone processing and colours, and the Xiaomi 14’s accuracy in this regard is just not there. Standalone, the skin tones look fine. But when you compare it with the image from a Pixel, you can see the difference. Skin always looks a bit lighter and a touch smoother (and a touch more magenta), whereas the Pixel shows you all the colour and texture of the skin (for good and bad). I know this is also a matter of taste and many prefer Xiaomi's more flattering approach, but I personally like how the Pixel handles this. 

The other quibble is that colours are often a little punchier than real life. So the photos do look great on Instagram and, if you were to just look at the photograph in isolation, you’d conclude it’s a very good image with excellent characteristics. But if you, like me, care about faithful representation of the scene, the Xiaomi 14 is not ideal. I tried both the Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic modes and both had this approach. But again, I am a professional photographer, and perhaps too fussy about such things. 

For photos of people, I compared the Xiaomi 14’s 3.2x telephoto to the digital 3.2x zoom from both the Pixel 8 pro and my Pixel 7. While the Pixel 8 Pro was clearly superior, even the Pixel 7 (with no telephoto camera) had the edge with not just better skin tones but a sharper image overall. The ultrawide on the Xiaomi 14 lacks autofocus and you can see it is a weaker unit than the primary, but still puts up a creditable performance with consistent colours. 

Low-light performance is also reasonably good, but – and I know I sound like a broken record – the much older Pixel 7 beats it handily. The one area where the Xiaomi 14 beats the Pixels is that there is no lag in processing the images, unlike the Pixels. But given the choice between a quicker photo and a better photo, I'll take the better photo every time. Portrait mode works well enough, and the Leica lens emulation is a fun trick to play around with.  

The selfie camera is also a bit of a let-down, not just for the lack of autofocus but for the slightly soft images they put out. 

Video performance is the real standout of the XIaomi 14. Both in terms of the interface and the resulting video, it is very, very good and among the best that I have seen on Android phones. Needless to say, it’s not at iPhone level, but it handily beats the Pixels, and has a very good interface to boot. Zoom transitions between the lenses are smooth (although occasionally you notice a small jerk or change in colours). Overall, if shooting video is your top priority, the Xiaomi 14 is a top contender in the Android space. 

I know I’ve spent a lot of words on complaints, but I must reiterate that this is still a very capable imaging unit and will be competitive with the comparably priced iPhones and Samsungs. It is only when compared to the Pixels that they fall short. It is also likely that the Xiaomi 14 Ultra puts in a much better performance, but unfortunately I was not able to get a review unit of that beast.

Should I buy it?

The Xiaomi 14, like other flagships these days, is a crushingly capable phone. The hardware is absolutely first-rate and built like an absolute gem. The size makes it a beautifully balanced device to use both one-handed and two-handed. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 paired with the new and optimised HyperOS means that the performance and smoothness of the Xiaomi 14 are absolutely top class. 

I had a few complaints about HyperOS, but if you are more used to Xiaomi devices, those will probably not bother you at all. Even for me, they are not dealbreakers. 

For the price of Rs 69,999 packed with 12 GB RAM and 512 GB storage, it delivers a level of value that competitors like the iPhone 15 (priced similarly for 128 GB and with a 60Hz screen), the Pixel 8 (which is also priced similarly for 128 GB and 8 GB of RAM) or the Samsung S24 (Rs. 10,000 more for 256 GB and 8 GB of RAM) simply cannot match. It is a lot of phone for the money. 

But if photos are your priority, the Xiaomi 14 falls short of its competition. The Pixels (even older ones) especially are noticeably superior in virtually every regard, but particularly with colours and skin tones. That said, in the video department, the Xiaomi 14 pulls ahead of its competition. I must of course mention here that Pixels are not as powerful, and have a tendency to run warm, compared to the Xiaomi. 

It is safe to say that the Xiaomi 14 is perhaps the best value flagship that’s also sized thoughtfully. And if you like Xiaomi’s approach to photography, then you’ll have virtually nothing to complain about. Perhaps 50 months from now, you will be writing to me to tell me how happy you were with the purchase. 

This Xiaomi 14 was sent to the reviewer as a loaner unit for review purposes. The unit will be returned on completion of the review. Xiaomi has been given no advance information about the content of this review and exercises no copy approval.

Contact the author on X @vinayaravind.

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