Xiaomi 14 First Impressions

Xiaomi and Leica’s partnership has entered the third year of association. The all-new Xiaomi 14 is the only second phone in India to launch under this partnership after the Xiaomi 13 Pro. For those unaware, the partnership started in 2022 with the co-development and launch of Xiaomi 12S Ultra for the premium smartphone segment as the first product for a long-term partnership. But that never made it to India. The 13 Pro was the first product from the house of Xiaomi to make it to India, and it ticked all the boxes for an excellent premium camera phone. However, the all-new Xiaomi 14 proves there’s scope for more and how. As already announced by the company, Xiaomi 14 launches in India on March 7, but Gadgets 360 had had its hands on the all-new phone for almost a week now, and here are our first impressions.  

Xiaomi 14: What’s new

If you think the new Xiaomi 14 is similar to the Xiaomi 13 Pro, then yes and no! Yes, for the Xiaomi x Leica tuned cameras on the phones, but no from a design perspective. Xiaomi 14 looks like a handset designed from scratch and has the most practical aesthetics we have seen on a Xiaomi device in India yet. The attention to detail is something Xiaomi has nailed this time. 

The 6.36-inch screen sits perfectly well between a compact phone with a 6.1-inch screen and one with a 6.7-inch display. At 193 grams, the Xiaomi 14 is one of the perfect one-hand phones with an excellent weight distribution, especially compared to its predecessor, the Xiaomi 13 Pro, which weighed 229 grams. With a thickness of 8.2mm, it is slimmer than the iPhone 15 Pro and, of course, the Xiaomi 13 Pro. The design aspects have been on point, and the flat edges on the Xiaomi 14 will steadily grow on you. There are three colour choices – White, Jade Green, and Black (which we got for this review). 

In the time we have spent with the Xiaomi 14 and talking to both Xiaomi and Leica teams, the effort seems clear: to build a smartphone that uses the camera brand’s legendary experience and delivers one of the best camera experiences to consumers. We will talk in detail about the overall device in our in-depth review. Stay tuned to Gadgets 360.

Xiaomi 14 is also a special device when it comes to software front. It’s the company’s first device with HyperOS out-of-the-box. We will discuss it in depth in our review around the India launch.

It features a 120Hz AMOLED display with 1200×2670 pixels screen resolution and 460PPI pixel density. The display has a peak brightness of 3,000nits and supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, and TUV Rheinland Low Blue Light certification. The display on the Xiaomi 14 is stunning, and the ultra-thin bezel around the display offers an immersive viewing experience. It is bright, and colour reproduction is on point. We had a great time using the Xiaomi 14, which became our go-to multimedia device for the same reasons. Xiaomi 14 comes with stereo speakers, supports Dolby Atmos, and a 4-mic array. We will dive deep into the display specifics in our review.

The Xiaomi 14 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform and will come in a single 12GB RAM + 512GB storage. Interestingly, Xiaomi chose the highest RAM and storage configuration for the Xiaomi 14 as this is a photography-focused phone. You get LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0 storage, which is a good addition, considering this is a premium device. In our time with the Xiaomi 14, it was quick and could handle multitasking, gaming, and more without a sweat. We will talk more on the performance front in our review.

Compared to the Xiaomi 13 Pro (4820mAh), the Xiaomi 14 packs a smaller 4,610mAh battery and comes with 90W HyperCharge. It also supports 50W wireless HyperCharge and can charge fully (0-100 percent) in 31 minutes, per the company. The battery performance seemed decent in our time with the Xiaomi 14. We can talk in-depth about the battery experience in our review. The phone offers Wi-Fi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 5.4, 5G and dual-SIM for connectivity. 

Xiaomi 14: What’s new in cameras

Jumping to the cameras is probably the most important factor for the Xiaomi 14. There are three 50-megapixel sensors on the device – wide, telephoto, and ultra-wide. The primary uses a Light Fusion 900 image sensor, that comes with an f/1.6 aperture, and supports various features like Ultra Night, Movie mode, and 8K video recording. The telephoto gets the 75mm f/2.0 Leica floating camera design, and the ultra-wide gets 115-degree field of view and an f/2.2 aperture. The phone offers two photographic styles – Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant. For selfies, there’s a 32-megapixel front camera. We cannot talk much about the cameras because of the embargo, so we will let you see some camera samples and get a sense. 

Xiaomi 14 camera sample

 

From the initial feel of it, the device delivers in daylight and sets a benchmark for other phones in this price category. You can always play with the Leica-tuned portrait features. We will talk in-depth about the camera performance in our review. 

Xiaomi 14: Initial thoughts

From what we could experience in about a week, we feel Xiaomi has a winner with the 14 and should be creating the buzz in the market for all the right reasons. The all-new compact form factor is already growing and seems very practical for day-to-day usage. Stay tuned for our in-depth review to know whether the Xiaomi 14 is the camera phone to buy this year at around Rs. 75,000. You could also get a better deal if you use bank offers.