Redmi’s Note 14 series for the global market was just released, and while we already took a look at the higher-end Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G model, now we’ve also got the regular Redmi Note 14 model to look at. Redmi is a subsidiary brand of Xiaomi that was made to signify lower-end entry-level and mid-range Android smartphones while the Xiaomi brand would be reserved for higher-quality designs. Right now, the Redmi Note 14 can be found on AliExpress for only $159! You can also check out the Mi.com website for other places to order the Redmi Note 14.
Specifications
The Redmi Note 14 runs on a MediaTek Helio G99-Ultra 6nm Octa-core 2.2Ghz processor with Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. It’s configurable in RAM and storage options of 6Gb+12Gb, 8Gb+128Gb, or 8Gb+256Gb, but it also has a MicroSD card slot for an addition 1Tb of storage or so if you want to buy one of those separately. The Redmi Note 14 is 163.25mm x 76.55mm x 8.16mm, 196.5g, and IP54 dust and splash resistant. It’s also got a 5500mAh battery with an included 33W charger for fast charging. Of course it has dual SIM support or 1 SIM and 1 MicroSD card, plus Bluetooth 5.3, 4G LTE, NFC, and WiFi. There’s an in-screen fingerprint reader as well as face unlock. The 6.67″ AMOLED display has a 2400x1080px resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 1800 nits brightness, DCI-P3 color gamut, and Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It’s available in 4 colors: Midnight Black, Mist Purple, Ocean Blue, or Lime Green and even comes with a black rubber case to protect it.
Hardware
The hardware design is really nice looking. I love the blue color of this model and the other color options are equally as interesting. The camera bump’s glossy transparent material is really beautiful too.
On the right side is the power button and volume rocker. They’re raised up well enough to feel with your fingers and big enough to easily find and press without looking.
On the bottom we have some speaker grill holes, a USB-C port, and the SIM card tray slot along with a microphone hole. The SIM card tray has two sides; one that takes a nano-SIM card and the other that can hold either another nano-SIM card or a MicroSD storage card.
The top edge has more speaker and microphone holes and an actual 3.5mm headset jack so that you can plug wired headphones and microphones into the device. This is such a great option to have that has gone missing on more expensive phones that want to force you into using wireless devices via Bluetooth which just adds to the number of batteries you have to charge and manage.
The left edge is completely bar, but this is a good view of how flat the edges are and this is a really good thing. A lot of phones have very thing edges to make it feel like a thinner phone, but thin edges have very low surface area for gripping the phone with. A low surface area means lower friction which means it can be more slippery and therefore more likely to fall out of your hand. These larger flat edges offer a larger surface area with more friction so that you can more-securely grip the device. So that’s another big advantage to this less-expensive phone.
Camera
For the camera array, the main camera on the back is 108 megapixels with 0.64μm, 1.92μm 9-1 pixel binning, f1.7 aperture, 6P lens, and a 1/1.67″ sensor size. There’s also a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP f2.4 macro camera. The front facing camera has 20Mp and an f2.2 aperture.
The camera software is about the same as what all of the Xiaomi phones use, but it does not support any RAW/DNG output on any of the cameras, so that’s disappointing.
The main 24mm equivalent 108Mp pixel-binned to 12Mp camera is nowhere near Xiaomi Ultra 50Mp quality, but it’s tolerable.
The main camera with its 108Mp mode is a little better than the normal mode. Above you can see a 100% crop of a 108Mp JPG photo from the Redmi Note 14. It’s clearly not 108Mp of sharp image data. You can see it’s pretty soft and noisey at this resolution, but again we shouldn’t expect too much from a camera at this price point.
The 2nd camera on the back of the phone is only used for calculating a depth map for the fake blurry background filter Portrait mode. Portrait mode works about as well as anything else, but you still have to find a subject and lighting that fits it well. Flyaway hairs on people are still an issue with the fake background blur filters that everyone has these days. At lower resolutions when posted on social media or websites, the flaws in the filter are not as noticeable though, so it might look totally fine for most uses.
Switching to the 3rd camera which has a macro lens, requires being in “Photo” mode or “Video” mode and tapping the arrow at the top to show settings and then turn on the “Macro” button. Above is a photo sample from that mode. The 2Mp sensor looks like digital camera image quality from maybe 25 years ago, but again, for the price of this phone, we shouldn’t be expecting amazing quality.
The front facing camera has a 20Mp sensor and f/2.2 aperture and its image quality is a lot better than the Macro camera on the back. The front camera is actually probably close to on par with the main rear camera in terms of image quality.
Software
The Redmi Note 14 runs Xiaomi’s HyperOS 1.0 on Android 14 and comes with all the Google Apps and services pre-installed. Xiaomi also includes a lot of their own apps such as the Gallery, Weather, Mi Browser, Music, Themes, Mi Video, Game Center, Cleaner, Security, File Manager, Mi Home, Xiaomi Community, App Vault, Calculator, Clock, Recorder, Compass, Scanner, ShareMe, Notes, Mi Remote, Mi Mover, Calendar, Services & Feedback. Some other bloatware is also included like Facebook, Amazon Music, TikTok, WPS Office, Booking.com, LinkedIn, and AliExpress. There are some bundled games as well like: Block Puzzle Guardian, Tile Fun, Bubble Shooter, Word Scenery, Jewel Blast, Dust Settle, Snake Zone, and Block Blast.
There are a few AI features hidden in some of the software too. For example there are AI Erase, AI Sky, AI Beautify features in the photo gallery software. Google Gemini is included too and is annoyingly assigned to the power button so that it loads every time you try to turn the phone off. This can be fixed in the settings though if you search for the “launch digital assistant” setting and shut it off.
In my DNS server, there aren’t too many crazy server access requests. Just a lot to Xiaomi.com subdomains and MIUI.com subdomains in addition to the usual constant Google connections of course.
Battery life is pretty excellent too. You should pretty easily get more than 30 hours per charge. Obviously that depends on usage though and that will reduce as the device gets older.
Pros/Cons
Pros
- Beautiful color options and hardware design
- Decent 108Mp main camera
- Great battery life
- MicroSD card storage expansion
- Under $200 price
- 3.5mm headset jack for wired headphones
Cons
- No 5G radio support
- The 2Mp macro camera is pretty low quality
- No output to RAW DNG formats
- Performance can occasionally be a bit laggy compared to more expensive devices
- A bit of bloatware software included
Pricing
The Redmi Note 14 can be found for about $160. See Mi.com for more information.
Conclusion
The Redmi Note 14 is obviously meant for the type of person that doesn’t want to spend a lot of money on a smartphone. I don’t care that it lacks 5G radios since 5G still isn’t noticeably faster than 4G in most everyday tasks. I mean people still use SMS text messaging and that doesn’t even use the internet. The secondary cameras on the back of the Note 14 are almost useless, but it would look really dated with only one camera on the back versus 3. And in terms of looks, the Redmi Note 14 seems like a really high-end phone. The color options are gorgeous. The camera array bump on the back looks high-end, the sparkly finish looks high-end. The Redmi Note 14 is cost-conscious on the inside, but flashy on the outside, and that’s totally fine.
Guest appearance by Supermodel Brana Dane.