Xiaomi 14 Introduces Top-of-the-Line Hardware and Leica Cameras

Xiaomi is back big time with the new Xiaomi 14 series as the company looks to make a fresh start in the premium segment in India. The brand’s new approach includes making people aware of its partnership with Leica, what it brings to the table and how Xiaomi is poised to challenge premium rivals like Samsung and Apple.

For a company that has remained true to its value proposition, climbing the ladder has been more difficult than imagined, but it is ready to show that the products deserve attention. The Xiaomi 14 model is part of that goal and we decided to test the device and its Leica-compatible cameras to see if the price tag of Rs 69,999 can come down with the right offers.

Flagship features in a compact body

It has become difficult to find a powerful phone that is also compact, but Xiaomi has removed these concerns with the Xiaomi 14 model. It has a compact design that fits easily in the palm of your hand and doesn’t feel heavy regardless of hand size. The edges are smooth and not curved, which is also another big plus for us and avoids the need for a premium phone to be big and curvy.

The Xiaomi 14 comes in several color options, but the matte black variant we got to review is an ideal choice, especially if you don’t want the phone to be a mirror to you. It’s great to see Xiaomi taking this design and size approach and letting people enjoy a decent, powerful flagship in a compact package.

Cameras will get you excited

We decided to move the camera perspective of the Xiaomi 14 up because it deserves more attention. The Leica co-designed setup features a triple rear camera unit with a 50-megapixel wide primary sensor along with a 50-megapixel 75mm telephoto sensor and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide 14mm sensor. With the combined work of Xiaomi and Leica, you can click pictures that not only look natural, but contain a lot of detail.

Thanks to the versatility of the lenses, you get more out of them, and with all these packed into a compact size, you can shoot for hours without straining.

We loved taking monochrome (black and white) photos with the Xiaomi 14 and recalled the experience we first had with the Xiaomi 13 Pro model that came out last year. Leica filters bring another layer of natural tone that adds sharp freshness to images. The 75mm portrait lens is just as effective, and we had fun shooting people and subjects in this mode.

OS Feels New-Ish

Xiaomi has talked extensively about HyperOS and its focus on building an ecosystem around the platform, including the car. But when we got a chance to play with the new OS, we realized that the interface is very MIUI-like, which isn’t a bad thing, but we liked that the software feels smoother even though it’s still early. the operating system evolves.

Another point worth noting is that the Xiaomi 14 has bloatware, preloaded apps, and some of them cannot be uninstalled. These issues have plagued MIUI for years, but once again we noticed the same thing.

We hope things will improve as HyperOS continues to be refined. Xiaomi says you get 4 OS updates + 5 years of security updates, which is a refreshing sign, but only if the updates are released quickly.

Workhorse Hardware check off

The Xiaomi 14 is a compact flagship phone with all the bells and whistles a premium device commands in 2024. It sports a 6.36-inch LTPO OLED panel with 120Hz adaptive refresh display, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. The screen is sharp, the colors are sharp, we had little to complain about.

You’ve got a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset paired with up to 12GB of RAM on land, but 512GB of storage means you’ll be sorted for a while. Performance is top-notch and even thermal management is quite efficient, meaning you really don’t feel like the chipset is facing any extra stress.

Thanks to this package, the Xiaomi 14 can provide a full day of battery life, and when the power runs out, the paired 90W charging support will get you back up and running in less than 20 minutes.