Xiaomi announced five global Redmi Note 14 smartphones, and we’re here to review three of them. Yes, we’ll tackle all three in a single review. Why three? Well, three out of five support 5G connectivity, and the remaining two are just 4G versions of the vanilla and ‘Pro’ versions. Those models won’t be as interesting to the vast majority of you. So, I’ve focused on the 5G-enabled models that will have the widest availability. Do note that there are differences between global and Chinese models of these devices.
The exact phones in question are the Redmi Note 14 5G, Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G, and Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G. All three devices that we used are global variants, just to be perfectly clear. The two ‘Pro’ models do have some notable advantages over the vanilla model, but that vanilla model could be an ideal pick if you’re on a budget. With that being said, let’s talk more about these three phones.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G series Review: Hardware / Design
Out of these three devices, only the vanilla model has a flat display, and flat frame all around. The other two handsets include a curved display, and a proportionally curved backplate too. The vanilla and ‘Pro’ handsets have plastic on their back, while the Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G includes a glass back. Still, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference, I had to check the information in order to be sure, you simply cannot feel the difference. All three phones do feel really well-built, so… the fact that the cheaper two have plastic backs shouldn’t really bother you.
In any case, the bezels on all three are relatively thin, though for sure not as thin as their official renders suggest. That is one thing to keep in mind. You need to check out real units, as we’re showing you below this paragraph, to see the real bezel thickness. It’s vastly different than what renders are showing. The Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G and Pro+ 5G feel similar in the hand. The Pro+ model is a bit heavier, though, but their footprint is similar, as is the design, so the similarities are unsurprising. The vanilla model is a whole different story. It’s lighter and has a completely different design.
All of them are water and dust resistant
You’ll find power/lock buttons on the right-hand side of all three smartphones, and those are the only buttons on these devices. All three are water and dust resistant, but the RedmI Note 14 Pro 5G and Pro+ 5G models have better ratings with IP68 certification. The vanilla model comes with an IP64 rating. An IR blaster is included on all three smartphones, it sits at the very top. You’ll even find an audio jack on the Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G. The other two models, unfortunately, do not have that port.
Do note that while all three phones feel like well-built machines, they’re all slippery. I guess the Redmi Note 14 5G is the least slippery one, but that’s because of its design and weight. The other two phones nearly slipped out of my hands several times. I carried them without a case for a couple of days to get a good feel of the hardware. The Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G has a matte finish on the back glass, while the ‘Plus’ model does not. Well, at least the color variants that I used. Either way, both finishes are quite slippery. I would, wholeheartedly suggest that you use a case from day one with these phones, regardless of which one you get. The good news is, cases are included in the retail boxes.
There is a case included with each of these phones, and a charger too
All three phones come with a silicone case, but a colored one. Those default cases actually do provide plenty of protection. Many of you will probably keep using them, but if you’re aiming for something else, these will surely do a good job until you actually buy some other case that suits you more. Do also note that all three phones ship with chargers, and that screen protectors are pre-installed.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G series Review: Display
The Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G have the exact same display. The vanilla model does differ, so let’s talk about its display first. The Redmi Note 14 5G has a 6.67-inch fullHD+ (2400 x 1080) AMOLED display. That panel is flat, and it supports a 120Hz refresh rate. HDR10+ content is supported, and the peak brightness is 2,100 nits, in theory. The screen-to-body ratio is around 87%, while the display aspect ratio is 20:9. The Gorilla Glass 5 protects this panel.
The two Pro series models have better displays
The other two phones include a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a 2712 x 1220 resolution. That panel has a 120Hz refresh rate, and it supports HDR10+ content. Dolby Vision is supported here, and the peak brightness is at 3,000 nits, theoretically. The screen-to-body ratio sits at around 89% on both phones, and the display aspect ratio is 20:9. The Gorilla Glass Victus 2 is here to protect this display on both smartphones. And yes, both displays are curved, unlike the one on the vanilla model.
The first thing you have to decide is whether you want a flat or a curved display. I can live with either, to be quite honest, even though I prefer flat displays with curved glass on top of them. Neither of these phones has that. The cheapest is flat, while the other two are curved. Regardless, all three phones have very good displays. The ‘Pro’ models do have several advantages in comparison, though.
There’s not much to complain about either of these three displays, though
All three displays are quite vibrant, though I most often than not preferred the color balance on the two more expensive models. By default, the main model did seem a little bluish at times. All three have good touch response, and all three offer really good viewing angles. The two ‘Pro’ units do offer higher resolution, even though you’ll be hard-pressed to notice the difference. They also offer better display protection, though that’s also something you don’t really notice as both Gorilla Glass 5 and Victus 2 are very good in general, not to mention that all three phones have screen protectors by default.
The displays on the Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G and Pro+ 5G do get a bit brighter, but all three are more than bright enough for basically any scenario. You do get Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support on the two more expensive models, though, while you do not on the Redmi Note 14 5G. So, yeah, there are some differences, but I cannot say that I had a bad time using the Redmi Note 14 5G’s display, not at all. In fact, all of these differences didn’t affect me all that much. The main difference in my eyes is the difference between flat and curved, so… approach with caution.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G series Review: Performance
In regards to performance, these phones do differ quite a bit. Well, in all honesty, the ‘Pro’ models are not that different, but the Redmi Note 14 5G definitely trails behind. It’s fueled by the MediaTek Dimensity 7025 Ultra, which is a 6nm processor. The other two, however, have 4nm chips, the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Ultra (Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G) and Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 (Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G). Before we get down to details, let’s talk about RAM. The Redmi Note 14 5G includes 6GB, 8GB, or 12GB of UFS 2.2 RAM. The Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G comes with 8GB or 12GB of UFS 2.2 RAM, while the Pro+ 5G model has either 8GB or 12GB of RAM, UFS 2.2 or UFS 3.1, it all depends. Do note that this goes for global models only, China variants are a bit different.
The most expensive model offers the best performance
With that being said, the models I used have 8GB (Redmi Note 14 5G), 8GB (Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G), and 12GB of RAM (Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G). Having said that, I’ve experienced notably better performance on the Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G. The performance on those two was comparable, even though I did notice fewer stutters on the ‘Plus’ model. The Redmi Note 14 5G was not all that great, in all honesty. There were a lot of stutters, I’d even say notably more than last year. There is a chance Xiaomi will fix this via an update, but in comparison with the Pro 5G and Pro+ 5G models, it’s not even close.
I’m talking about general, day-to-day use, of course. Opening and closing apps, browsing the Internet, sending emails and messaging, using the camera, editing some images, processing videos, and so on. Stuttering was present on all three phones, but it was pronounced on the base model. I shouldn’t be all that surprised considering the difference in SoCs, though, and also the price tags. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t unbearable or anything, but it was considerably more notable than on the other two models. If you’re used to flagship phones, you’ll definitely notice the difference, that goes for all three of these phones. They are good, especially the Pro and Pro+, but they’re not flagship-grade performance-wise.
These are not gaming phones, but…
You also need to remember that these are not gaming smartphones either. Although, gaming was not much of a problem, not at all. Well, at least as far as “normal” games go, as in non-super graphically-intense ones. I’ve fired up 3D pool, Subway Surfers, and Looney Tunes World of Mayhem on all three, and they ran just fine. I did notice more stutters on the base model, though, especially with Subway Surfers and Looney Tunes. Both of those ran notably better on the Pro and Pro+ models, the performance was really good actually. I would not recommend using these to run games like Genshin Impact, or something else as demanding, though, at least not on the base model. The other two can handle it if you don’t mind tweaking the settings, but… these are not phones for high-end gaming. The heat was not much of an issue during gaming, however, even though I didn’t really game all that much.
There are two other performance-related aspects that I have to note. Regarding haptic feedback, and fingerprint scanners. Regarding haptic feedback, it’s really good on the Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G. It’s not outstanding like on some other high-end phones I’ve used, but for the price, it’s really, really good. There is a notable difference between haptic feedback on those two devices and the Redmi Note 14 5G. The base model has cheap-feeling haptic feedback, even though the sound is different. So, if that’s something you care about, do note that.
An optical in-display fingerprint scanner is used
All three smartphones include an optical fingerprint scanner under the display. I don’t know what units exactly did Xiaomi use here, but I’ve had a higher rate of accurate scans with the Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G, without a doubt. The fingerprint scanner on the base model was notably less accurate than the other two. There has to be a difference in hardware here, or at least in software. At one point I was ready to revert back to a PIN on the base model, that’s how much it managed to annoy me.
Benchmarks
We’ve also ran some benchmarks on each device. As per usual, you’ll find results for Geekbench 6 and 3D Mark below. Well, we ran the 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test to really put some strain on the devices, that’s what we usually do when testing phones. The Redmi Note 14 5G was not able to run it at all, though. The prompt said that the device “does not support all the Vulkan features required to run” the test. Results for the Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G are included below, along with Geekbench 6 info, and the CapCut video export test.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G series Review: Battery
When it comes to batteries, things are exactly the same between these devices, in terms of capacity. In China, the ‘Pro’ models actually have silicon-carbon batteries, while that is not the case globally. That’s why the ‘Pro’ models have smaller battery packs than their Chinese counterparts. All three of these phones come with a 5,110mAh battery on the inside. For comparison’s sake, the Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G in China includes a 6,200mAh battery, so that’s quite a difference. Granted, they do have different processors, so the power efficiency between them does differ in a way. When it comes to longevity, things are exactly what they seem like.
The Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G offered the best battery life
The Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G did offer the best battery life, in our experience, but the difference was not that big. It’s followed by the Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G, while the Redmi Note 14 5G is last. The thing is, even the vanilla model has good battery life, so… that’s great. The Redmi Note series rarely disappoints when battery life is concerned, so this is per course. I’m just sad to see that Xiaomi did not utilize silicon-carbon batteries.
So, what exactly can you expect? Well, let me first give you the context under which all three phones have been used. I’ve used them for a lot of messaging, emails, browsing, and multimedia consumption. Gaming took a back seat, and only a couple of days we’ve been using the devices gaming came into play, for testing purposes. The automatic brightness was in use on all three devices, but not tuned up too high, around 40% was more than enough, a bit higher on the base model. The devices were used mostly on Wi-Fi, but 5G came into play sporadically as well.
The Pro+ model has the fastest charging, and it’s not even close
With that being said, the Redmi Note 14 5G usually managed to deliver around 6-7 hours of screen-on time, but it was usually closer to the 6-hour mark. The Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G can cross the 7-hour mark comfortably and even came close to hitting the 8-hour mark several times. The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G was able to cross the 8-hour screen-on-time mark for us, but only barely, and not on every charge cycle. Those are solid battery numbers, needless to say. These phones will be more than enough to last throughout the day, for most people. Our battery drain tests actually reflect what we’ve seen in usage.
When it comes to charging, the Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G has a huge advantage. It supports 120W wired charging, while the other two phones support 45W wired charging. Neither phone has wireless charging support, nor reverse wired or wireless charging support. The good news is that all three devices do include chargers on the inside. Well, at least the European models do, I can’t speak for other regions. In regards to charging speed, you can check those details in the graph below. The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G is in a league of its own, it charges in around 20 minutes, compared to an hour for the other two phones.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G series Review: Camera
The Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G and Pro+ 5G have the exact same cameras. The Redmi Note 14 5G differs in the main camera department. So, let’s talk about that first. The vanilla model has a 108-megapixel main camera (f/1.7 aperture, 1/1.67-inch sensor size, 0.64um pixel size, OIS). The other two phones include a 200-megapixel main snapper (f/1.7 aperture, 1/1.4-inch sensor size, 0.56um pixel size, OIS). The other two cameras on all three phones are ultrawide and macro shooters, and they’re the exact same. An 8-megapixel ultrawide unit with an f/2.2 aperture lens and a 120-degree FoV sits on all three phones. The third camera is a 2-megapixel macro unit that is… not really worth it, to spoil the fun. Smartphone OEMs should really stop including these 2-megapixel cameras on their devices, regardless of the device.
The camera performance is not bad, especially on the ‘Pro’ models
So, you’ll notice that the two ‘Pro’ models have the same camera hardware. The end results are not the same however, there are some differences. That’s not all that surprising considering that the SoCs are different, among some other things. The Redmi Note 14 5G has a different main camera, so that phone also differs in terms of end results. We’ll first talk about the vanilla model, and will then move to the other two smartphones. Let’s see what these phones have to offer, camera-wise.
Redmi Note 14 5G camera experience
I can safely say that the Redmi Note 14 5G has the weakest camera performance in the series, which is not surprising. It is the most affordable one out of the three, and it has the least powerful main camera. It’s not a bad main camera, but it’s not as good as the one in the other two phones. During the day, the pictures do tend to look good from the main camera, for the most part. They do not pop as much as I’d like to, but there’s enough detail in there, plus the exposure is usually good. In low light, it does a fairly good job, but the images do end up darker than I’d prefer, plus the detail levels are not extremely high. Also, the phone has issues with light sources in low light.
When we jump to the ultrawide camera, however, things do change. The images do seem to lack colors, while it can also mess up teh white balance rather frequently. That causes some overexposing of bright parts of the image. Images in low light do end up looking noticeably darker than the ones taken with the main camera. They also pull to the yellowish side indoors, and the detail level is noticeably lower than in the images the main camera offers.
The digital zoom on the camera is all that remains, and it can do a good job at 2x or 3x, but only in good lighting. The macro camera on all three phones is really not worth talking about. It can snap a decent picture if the lighting is great, but that’s basically the best it can do. You should avoid using the macro camera.
Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G camera experience
The Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G does a much better job than the vanilla model. The images taken during the day with the main camera look much nicer. The colors are much better, and the images are vivid enough without being too punchy. They’re really well-balanced, and there’s plenty of detail in them. Low-light images look good. They have more detail than the vanilla model offers, and they’re also a bit brighter. The phone also handles light sources better than the vanilla model.
The ultrawide camera drop-off is not as noticeable during the day, and I didn’t notice the same white balance issue, despite the fact it’s not a better camera in general. The color science is also on par with the ultrawide camera, it does a good job of keeping it on the same level as the main shooter. In low light, images from the ultrawide camera do end up looking darker, and they do offer less detail. It’s far worse than the main shooter, but that’s not as surprising.
The digital zoom from the main camera is better than on the Redmi Note 14 5G. 2x and 3x usually look really good in good lighting, and even 5x and 6x zoom is passable. Things do change in low light, though, of course.
Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G camera experience
The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G has the best camera experience out of these three phones. It does offer slightly better images than the ‘Pro’ model. During the day, the detail levels are similar, but the colors are balanced a bit better here. The exposure is good, as is the dynamic range. In low light, the images do tend to have a bit more light in them, but they’re not overexposed or anything like that. The phone does a good job with light sources, and there’s usually enough detail in those images.
Ultrawide shots look really good during the day. Images taken with that camera are a bit darker, but usually manage to retain more than enough detail. The colors also end up looking good, as the phone does a good job of keeping the same color profile as with the main camera. In low light, the images end up looking slightly darker, while the issue with light sources is there. There are enough details in those images, though, but less than in the images taken with the main camera.
The digital zoom is on the same level as the one on the Redmi Note 14 5G, I’d say. It’s usable, especially in good lighting. You can go up to 5x or 6x, but the 2x and 3x zoom levels look the best. Things look noticeably worse in low light, of course.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G camera samples:
Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G camera samples:
Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G camera samples:
Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G series Review: Software
All three of these phones ship with Android 14, with Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2.0 on top of it. They have identical software, basically, so I’ll talk about all three at the same time here. It looks very similar to the original build of HyperOS, and quite frankly a lot like MIUI too, which came before HyperOS. The design itself is good. It looks like Android with a twist, and many people seem to like that. It also has nice animations and all that. The performance differs from one phone to the next, but we already talked about that. HyperOS can only work as well as the hardware and optimization allow it to.
Many of you will aim to remove quite a few of pre-installed apps
The thing is, there’s still a lot of bloat here still. Just like in the past, however, you can remove most of it. When I say bloat, I mean unnecessary first-party or third-party apps that are pre-installed here. Here are some examples for you. Booking is here, as is Facebook. The same goes for Mi Mover, Mi Brower, and Spotify. Those are just some examples. There are also a number of games pre-installed, including Block Puzzle Guardian, Bubble Shooter and Friends, Dust Settle, and so on. The thing is, you can remove almost all of these. The only ones that are kind of stuck on the phone are first-party apps, but not all of them. You’ll be way less bothered by it once you go through the list and purify everything you’re not planning to use.
Once you do that, HyperOS feels like a much better deal. The design is nice. It’s minimalistic but with some color thrown into the mix. There are also a lot of features to look forward to here. It’s also highly customizable, and so on. We’ll talk more about that, but let’s talk about a couple of extra negatives first. You cannot use third-party launchers with HyperOS. Xiaomi, for some reason, completely blocks third-party launchers, as does its Redmi and POCO phones. So if that’s a deal breaker for you, note it. Another thing, HyperOS tends to throw me too many notifications from first-party apps and services that I don’t use. It has been that way for a while. It’s not a huge amount, but every notification from a service I don’t use or care about is too much, in all honesty.
Xiaomi messed with the status bar, and it shouldn’t have
Another thing that kind of bothered me was the status bar. You can only see three notification icons at a time. By default, you can see only the latest one. If you have more than one, those will be represented in the form of dots. You can change that to up to 3 in the settings, but no more than that. That makes no sense whatsoever, as there’s plenty of space to show other notification icons in there. Xiaomi, for some reason, decided to prevent them from showing, and you’ll just have to deal with that. At least you can choose between black and white and colored icons if nothing else.
There is plenty of customization to utilize in HyperOS. You can manipulate the status bar up to a degree, while you also have access to themes. There are some home screen settings to delve into, but not many. The lock screen can be customized to a high degree, and you also have the Alwasy-On Display option with plenty of customization. Fonts can be manipulated, as can fingerprint effects, and so on. There’s plenty to delve into. The ‘Quick ball’ feature is still here, and the same goes for Gesture shortcuts and One-handed mode which works like a charm.
HyperOS is good, but needs work
All in all, HyperOS is good, but it’s far from the best Android skin out there, in my opinion. To make things worse, ads do pop up. They’re not frequent, but at times, when scrolling the menus, I receive full-screen ads. It did not happen too frequently, but it’s still immensely annoying. People don’t want to see ads within a system of a phone they paid for, period. It would be a whole different story if the phone cost 10x less, and that ended up being some sort of a tradeoff. That’s not the case, though.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G series Review: Audio
All three of these phones come with stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support. The thing is, the output you’ll be getting from all three phones is very similar. The sound is balanced, and the same goes for audio delivery from the two speakers. The sound is quite clear from all three hones, and Dolby Atmos is not only supported, but it’s switched on be default, which is nice to see.
The speakers are plenty loud, and good overall
The loudness the three speakers provide is good, but nothing earth-shattering. It won’t really beat the best speakers out there, but it’s loud enough, that’s for sure. The vocals are great from all three speakers, and the high frequencies are represented the best, in all honesty. There’s not much bass here, but there is some. All in all, the speakers are good, and that’s exactly what you’d expect out of phones in this price category. You can’t really ask for more.
One of these phones does have an audio jack too, the Redmi Note 14 5G. The other two do not, so you’ll have to rely on the Type-C port at the bottom. The two ‘Pro’ models do, however, support Bluetooth 5.4, while the vanilla model comes with Bluetooth 5.3. I did not have any issues with Bluetooth connections on either phone. I’ve tried connecting them to a Bluetooth speaker, and earphones, it worked fine without a hitch.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G series Review: Should you buy it?
As it does every year, Xiaomi managed to come up with rather appealing products at their respective price ranges. These are not the best phones on the market, nor are they meant to be. They’re meant to deliver the best bang for your buck, and that’s exactly what they’re doing. You’ll hardly find more affordable phones that work as well as these do. As long as you accept that you won’t get a flagship-grade performance here, you’ll be just fine. These are budget phones, some more than others, but still. So, as long as you’re fine with the tradeoffs, go for it.
You should buy the Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 series if you:
…are on a budget
…don’t want to spend too much on a phone
…like value products
…appreciate included case and charger
…are not a power user
You shouldn’t buy the Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 series if you:
…are a power user
…need great camera experience
…want outstanding battery life
