Xiaomi has released a slate of impressive smartphones over the last few years. They all have packed top-notch hardware that could give the best Android phones a run for their money. Continuing that trend, Xiaomi announced the Xiaomi 14 series at an event in China, making it the world’s first company to announce Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered phones. Alongside the Xiaomi 14 and 14 Pro, the Chinese smartphone maker also provided more details about its new OS: HyperOS.
The regular Xiaomi 14 houses a 6.36-inch LTPO LOLED panel with a 1.5K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. Xiaomi claims the display uses C8 light-emitting material to reach a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. The screen is surrounded by exceptionally thin bezels to deliver an immersive experience.
Ticking inside the Xiaomi 14 isQualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3chip, boasting impressive performance and efficiency gains over its predecessor. Xiaomi uses Loop LiquidCool technology to ensure the phone does not get warm under sustained load. A 4,610mAh provides juice to the phone and supports 90W wired and 50W wireless charging.
The Xiaomi 14 packs high-end hardware in a compact body, featuring a 6.36-inch 120Hz OLED panel with 3,000 nits peak brightness. It uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and features a triple-camera setup consisting of 50MP sensors and Leica lenses.
Cameras are another highlight of the phone, with the company using a new Light Fusion 900 image sensor. This 50MP 1/1.3" image sensor uses a Leica Summilux lens with an f/1.6 aperture, allowing it to supposedly take in 180% more light than the Xiaomi 13. Alongside the 50MP primary shooter, the Xiaomi 14 packs a 50MP ultrawide and a 50MP 75mm 3.2x telephoto sensor with a minimum focusing distance of 10cm.
Xiaomi uses a 4-mic array on the vanilla 14 to capture crystal-clear audio. Other notable specs include a USB 3.2 Gen1 port with 5Gbps transfer speeds, a customized high-vibration X-axis linear motor, stereo speakers, and an IP68 rating.
Xiaomi 14 Pro
The Xiaomi 14 Pro lives up to its Pro moniker with further beefed-up hardware. It packs a bigger 6.7-inch WQHD+ 120Hz OLED display with a similar peak brightness of 3,000 nits. Xiaomi calls this screen All Around Liquid Display as it has slight curves on all four sides. The company claims this allows the display to provide the “visual aesthetic of a flat display while providing the smooth feel of a curved edge.” Xiaomi Ceramic Glass protects the display, which supposedly provides 10x higher drop resistance and 1.25x better scratch resistance.
The Xiaomi 14 Pro is the company’s first Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered flagship. It stands out for using a stepless variable aperture for the primary camera, allowing for precise aperture adjustments between f/1.4 and f/4.0. The 6.73-inch 120Hz OLED panel can reach a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, making it among the brightest displays around.
Like its non-Pro sibling, the Xiaomi 14 Pro uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with a liquid cooling system. The 4,800mAh cell inside the phone supports 120W fast wired charging, 50W wireless charging, and 10W reverse wireless charging.
The 14 Pro ups the game in the camera department with its f/1.42 - f/4.0 stepless variable aperture. Impressively, Xiaomi claims you can adjust the aperture in pro mode with a 1/3 EV increment for greater control over resulting images. The camera hardware is the same as the regular 14, so you get a 50MP Light Fusion 900 primary camera, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 50MP 3.2x telephoto sensor. A 32MP camera at the front does selfie duties.
The Xiaomi 14 series will launch globally in the coming months. In China, the two phones are already available for preorder, with prices starting from CNY 3,999 for Xiaomi 14 and CNY 4,999 for Xiaomi 14 Pro.
MIUI has long been a key point of criticism for Xiaomi phones. The company is finally replacing its skin with HyperOS, which will power all its devices, including smart home products, wearables, TVs, and more. For phones, Xiaomi has based HyperOS on AOSP. The company has kept the OS lightweight at around 8.75GB. There are a lot of underlying optimizations to ensure HyperOS delivers a smooth experience on even low-end and mid-range devices.
From Xiaomi’s demonstration at its event, HyperOS appears to be an evolution of MIUI and not a complete revamp. Many UI elements of the OS still look similar to iOS, so don’t expect the experience to be dramatically different from MIUI.
Xiaomi will commence theinternational rollout of HyperOS starting Q1 2024. On Xiaomi 14, HyperOS v1 will be based on Android 14, but on other devices, the OS could use an older version of Android.
