Xiaomi 14 Pro Review: What’s special about it?

November 09, 2023, 03:35 PM
by Shahriar Rabab

UNB News
Publish- November 09, 2023, 03:35 PM
Shahriar Rabab
Update- November 09, 2023, 03:47 PM

Xiaomi 14 Pro

Ever since its inception, Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Xiaomi is leading almost every price segment in the smartphone industry. ‘Pro’ lineup represents Xiaomi’s top-tier products that money can afford. Xiaomi launched the 14 Pro on 1st November 2023 for China and subsequently for the global market. As Xiaomi’s premium flagship smartphone for the year, the 14 Pro brings several cutting-edge features. Let’s have a detailed look at the key specs, pros, cons and price of Xiaomi 14 Pro.

Key Specifications of Xiaomi 14 Pro

Design and Build Quality

Xiaomi’s design philosophy has been fairly consistent for their Pro series. The design of the 14 Pro can be best described as an incremental update to last year’s 13 Pro. Users will be getting a glass front and back device with an aluminum frame. There’s a premium variant with a titanium frame as well this time around. The glass back has a matte finish which does an incredible job of deterring fingerprints and smudges.

There is a noticeable curve all around on the front like the 3D glass designs we’ve seen on many Xiaomi devices. The actual screen real estate doesn’t curve, rather it’s the glass design that curves onto the frame. It's what Xiaomi is calling a “full equal depth micro-curved screen” (translated from simplified Chinese). The front glass is protected by Xiaomi Longjing Glass.

The 14 Pro has a 161.4 mm by 75.3 mm by 8.5 mm dimension with 223 g weight for the standard option. The titanium variant comes in at 230 g. As expected, the 14 Pro also has IP68 dust/water resistance (up to 1.5m for 30 minutes). The choice of ports and buttons remains the same as the 13 Pro on the 14 Pro. The compact form factor combined with a stealth minimal design really makes the 14 Pro stand out of the lot.

The Display

The display on the Xiaomi 14 Pro is all about pushing the limit of display technology. The 6.73-inch LTPO AMOLED panel has 68B colors, a 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+ support. While these might sound like standard flagship features, Xiaomi has added an astounding 3000 nits of peak brightness on the panel. This is the first time a mobile device has reached such a level. It has been made possible thanks to Huaxing Optoelectronics' customized C8 light-emitting material. Naturally, the outdoor experience of the display with auto brightness has been excellent, to say the least.

The panel has a QHD+ resolution with 1440 by 3200 pixels and 522 ppi density. With an all-around symmetrical design, the screen-to-body ratio on the 14 Pro stands at 89.6%. Additional specs at the default settings include 98.6% sRGB, 70.2% Adobe RGB, and 73.1% DCI-P3 color gamut.

The usage experience on the 14 Pro has been no less than flagship grade. The LTPO tech helps to conserve battery with 1 to 120 hz refresh variability. Scrolling through apps and UI has been smooth with good viewing angles all around. Overall, it’s an impressive display with no apparent drawbacks as of yet.

The Camera

The triple camera module on the 14 Pro has a 50 MP, f/1.4-f/4.0, 23mm wide angle shooter with dual PDAF, laser AF, and OIS. The second sensor is a 50 MP, f/2.0, 75mm telephoto lens with PDAF and OIS. And lastly, there is a 50 MP, f/2.2, 14mm, 115˚ ultrawide sensor with AF.

The main sensor is a custom-built sensor which Xiaomi calls the “Lighthunter 900” (translated from simplified Chinese). The pictures from the main sensor came out well with detailed sharpness on the subject and accurate background blur. The dynamic range was easily on par with the iPhone 14 Pro. There is a distinct warm pop of colors in each image which naturally enhances the picture quality. The portrait mode also showed accurate edge detection and realistic blur.

The camera performance intensifies in low light conditions. The variable aperture on the main sensor allows you to take some great shots even without the night mode. Pictures had decent exposure and accurate details with grains seen only in extremely dark conditions.

The telephoto with its 3.2x optical zoom and the ultrawide also performed on par with the main sensor.

There’s also a 32 MP front-facing camera good enough for selfies and vlogging as it supports 4K at 30 fps now.

Xiaomi 14 Pro

The list of videography options on the 14 Pro is quite long. Users can choose from 8K@24fps (HDR), 4K at24/30/60fps (HDR10+, 10-bit Dolby Vision HDR, 10-bit LOG), and 1080p at 30/60/120/240/960fps as well as 720p at 1920fps. The stabilization at 4K is some of the best among flagship categories with great video quality all around.

Processor and Performance

The processor on the Xiaomi 14 Pro is the Qualcomm SM8650-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4 nm). Just three months after the release of the 8 Gen 3, Xiaomi is here with the 14 Pro sporting the same. The octa-core processor has a 1x3.3 GHz Cortex-X 4 & 5 x 3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x2.3 GHz Cortex-A520 chip design with an updated Adreno 750 GPU. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 pushes the boundary of mobile computing even further with increased power output and efficiency. Standard benchmark tests with Antutu placed the test unit at around 1.8 million.

Some YouTubers have reported a score as high as 2 million. However, it's still early days and the processor would need a lot more optimization before it can produce uniform scores across the board.

Gaming on the 14 Pro has been excellent. PUBG and Genshin Impact both ran on max settings with smooth 60 fps output. However, the device heated up quite a bit after 20 minutes or so. The temperature on the back reached as high as 43 degrees Celsius which heated the display as well. Once the thermal throttling kicks in, the device becomes a bit choppy with essential features like the hotspot being suspended. These are all early speculations as the new OS and the new processor would require a lot of optimization before it becomes completely stable.

Speaking of the OS, the new HyperOS based on Android 14 will be replacing the outgoing MIUI. It's essentially a makeover of the MIUI with increased smoothness all around and a dash of minimalistic layout.

Additional features like USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2, UFS 4.0 storage, and LPDDRX5 RAM all work together to make it the fastest Android smartphone in the market.

Battery and Charge Time

The battery on the Xiaomi 14 Pro is 4800 mAh with 120W wired, 50W wireless, and 10W reverse wireless charging on board. The 120W charging brick also comes in the retail box. Xiaomi claims the 14 Pro can go from 0 to 100% in 18 minutes and the wireless charging can do the same in 40 minutes.

Pros and Cons of Xiaomi 14 Pro

Pros:

- Excellent camera system
- 3000 nits of HBM
- Latest Android 14
- Stereo speakers
- 120W fast charging.

Cons:

- Stability issues (expected to be sorted with updates)
- Lack of a headphone jack

Price of Xiaomi 14 Pro

The Xiaomi 14 Pro comes in 12/256 GB, 16/512 GB, and 16 GB/1 TB variants. The prices of each of them are 4,999, 5499, and 5999 RMB respectively. The price roughly translates to 76,088 BDT, 83,698 BDT, and 91,308 BDT respectively (1 RMB = 15.22 BDT). However, expect the price to differ once the device becomes officially available in Bangladesh.

Verdict

The Xiaomi 14 Pro lives up to the hype of being the best of what Xiaomi has to offer in 2023. In a lot of ways, the Xiaomi 14 Pro brings several features that aren’t available in other flagships of 2023 at a much more affordable and competitive pricing.

It's still early to complain about the processor with thermal throttling and heating issues. It's something that will definitely be sorted with incremental updates over time. Other than that, it's hard to fault the Xiaomi 14 Pro in any way with its excellent all-around performance.