Aside from the Xiaomi 14 Ultra with its flashy looks and camera capabilities, the Xiaomi 14 also made its global debut during this year’s MWC. Positioned more as a day-to-day device rather than an all out smartphone camera, the Xiaomi 14 offers a sleek, clean design with flagship performance.
Smaller screen, sleeker looks
Xiaomi is calling the Xiaomi 14 a compact flagship, and though its display isn’t even really that small at 6.36-inches, it is smaller than most other flagship smartphones other than just the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Apple iPhone 15 Pro. The Xiaomi 14’s AMOLED display features a 2670 x 1200p resolution, with a 1-120Hz dynamic refresh rate and a peak brightness of 3,000nits along with full coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. There’s a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus over it too for scratch resistance, a nice bump from the Gorilla Glass 5 of its predecessor.
The symmetrical and ultra thin bezels surrounding the display meanwhile is said to allow for a more immersive viewing experience. Xiaomi have also given the Xiaomi 14’s back panel a slight curve for easier grip in the hand, while the large, square camera bump adds to its clean look. You’ll find an IP68 dust and water resistance rating on the Xiaomi 14 too. The whole device weighs a mere 193g, and is only 8.2mm thick.
First with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, first with HyperOS
The Xiaomi 14 first made headlines when it launched in China in late October last year for being the first smartphone to appear with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 system-on-chip under the hood. That gets mated to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. A Xiaomi IceLoop cooling system meanwhile keeps thermals under control.
Aside from the new hardware, the Xiaomi 14 was also the first smartphone to debut the new Xiaomi HyperOS. It marked the end of the company’s long-running MIUI skin, with Xiaomi merging their Android and IoT platforms together into its HyperOS ecosystem. You’ll also get a minimum of four major Android OS upgrades and five years of security patches with the Xiaomi 14 series.
Leica lenses with a new sensor
The Xiaomi 14 may not have the same camera credentials as the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s not a capable device in its own regard. The Xiaomi 14 still comes with Leica Vario-Summilux lenses, with a triple 50MP rear camera setup in its square camera bump. The main camera uses a new Light Fusion 900 1/1.31″ image sensor with an f/1.6 aperture, offering a 23mm equivalent shot along with a 13.5EV dynamic range, 8K video 30fps recording and native 14-bit colour depth.
The secondary 50MP camera meanwhile is a floating telephoto shooter with an f/2.0 aperture offering a 3.2x optical zoom equivalent to a 75mm shot, while the third rear camera is a 50MP, f/2.2 ultrawide shooter offering a 14mm equivalent shot. That’s a pretty significant upgrade over the Xiaomi 13, which while boasted a 50MP Leica main camera came with a 10MP telephoto and a 12MP ultrawide shooter. There’s also plenty of Leica software tools on the Xiaomi 14, such as Leica photography styles and its Master Lens system for portrait shots. Rounding it off is a 32MP, f/2.0 selfie camera up front.
Only 31 minutes for a full charge
Other features of note here include a 4,610mAh battery complemented with the Xiaomi Surge P2 charging chipset and the Xiaomi Surge G1 battery management chipset. The Xiaomi 14 supports 90W wired HyperCharge fast charging, allowing a full charge in just 31 minutes, while the 50W wireless HyperCharge fast charging gets you a full charge in just 46 minutes. Reverse wireless charging is also possible here for you to power up your gadgets and accessories.
There’s stereo speakers too, along with an in-display fingerprint sensor and support for WiFi 7, NFC, 5G and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless connectivity.
Xiaomi 14 pricing
The Xiaomi 14 will come in Black, White and Jade Green colourways and will be sold in Europe with a starting price of EUR999 (~RM5,167). It will certainly be a fair bit cheaper than that though once it hits our shelves, considering that the Xiaomi 13 launched here last year with a RM3,499 price tag. Incidentally, this year’s Xiaomi 14 series will not see a Xiaomi 14 Pro outside of China, with only the Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Ultra announced for the global stage.
Local availability of the Xiaomi 14 has yet to be confirmed, but it shouldn’t be too long now before it launches in Malaysia, so do stay tuned for more.
