We are back with another one-year-later review, and this time around, I used the Xiaomi 14 as my personal daily driver for everything, from socialising, gaming and so much more. And over the year, there are things I’d love to share about the phone and if you should pick this one pre-owned or get the new Xiaomi 15. We are going to share our thoughts, what Xiaomi did well and what I want them to improve on in this Xiaomi 14 One Year Later review.

Xiaomi 14 One Year Later Review

I still love the Compactness of the 14 over anything

In a sea of flagship smartphones, it’s such a shame that most of them are ridiculously humongous and more so in the Android space, because there isn’t a proper compact flagship that checks the box in offering a flagship experience. That’s not the case here, and Xiaomi 14 is a magnificent compact flagship smartphone I love in every way possible. From the form of it and all of this weighs about 193 grams – this phone has been a dream come true in keeping things light, easy and compact without sacrificing a lot.

And I am a major fan of the Jade Green finish of the Xiaomi 14, though its glossy nature did piss me off at times as it gets fingerprint magnet-ty pretty fast. The case options of the phone here officially is pretty terrible, so, with the help of my friend, I got the slim case from China’s Xiaomi Official Store and settled for the SmartDevil case for some “Magsafe-like” action.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Didn’t Break a Sweat

We are going to keep things short and sweet in the performance aspect, as most of our thoughts and opinion from the review we did last year still holds true to date. That said, you need to take into consideration that the Xiaomi 14 is by no means a gaming-centric smartphone because it doesn’t have adequate space for a better VCC. But then knock the performance down a notch, in games like Honkai Starrail, which does do wonders – I must say, the performance you get out of this phone is absolutely magnificent.

Even when you run it at the highest settings, seeing this phone not even break a sweat is such a nice thing to experience. And the consistency in performance, over the course of a year, has been pretty good – I personally have not noticed a drop in performance or glitches. Though there were some HyperOS bugs, which did take a while for Xiaomi to work out the kinks, but hey, they are fixing it as actively as possible – so, that’s a win in my books.

Extremely Satisfying Camera in a Small Flagship

A good camera in a smartphone is key to me, and the Xiaomi 14 camera is by far the best compact flagship smartphone camera I have enjoyed in a long time. When I say best, I do have some criteria it needs to fulfil: for starters, just because it’s a compact flagship, doesn’t mean it should lose out on what a flagship experience should deliver – like the S24 last year, for instance. Secondly, performance and the hardware throughout all three cameras should live up to the world’s Flagship. Finally, but the most important of em all, good software.

Xiaomi hit all three 3-pointers brilliantly; in fact, I’d call this a masterstroke from Xiaomi. Something a lot of smartphone manufacturers must learn. For starters, the Light Fusion 900 sensor, which is the primary camera, does a wonderful job in being able to take photos in both bright and low light conditions. I shot most of my photos with Leica Authentic rather than Vibrant – though there were moments I did appreciate the Vibrance of the latter colour profile.

The 75mm Floating telephoto camera it’s not a periscope system – and due to the space constraints, they can’t fit one in. But the telephoto camera retained the quality of images I was looking for, and since it’s also a 50MP sensor, though the effective use is about 32MP in photos, the quality was there. Finally, equipping the ultrawide with a 50MP may be overkill, but you see, this is where I appreciate that we have a proper consistency across all the cameras, and you won’t lose out on the quality.

There are so many photos I have taken with this phone, ranging from B&W to Colour images – and you can either check out all of that below or click here to take a look at our photo gallery of the Xiaomi 14. But from having a sluggish camera experience to what it has turned out to be over a few updates, man, kudos to you, Xiaomi.

HyperOS Software Updates did improve the Experience

One thing that irks me about Xiaomi phones it’s the software. Something about most Chinese smartphone manufacturers, they get the software aspect of it so wrong. But I am glad that the MIUI days are behind us – because it did turn into a major mess – but the new HyperOS is pretty good at what it does.

You can customise the phone to ends and I love that about this phone – feeling like you own a device that is personalised to your needs is simply lovely. The settings need a lot of work, but it’s better than it used to be. Xiaomi HyperAI features are doing the right kind of work – but this is something we will address in a different content. But you cannot help but feel that this phone feels like an iPhone clone of sorts at times, as it does take some heavy inspiration from the Book of Cupertino.

Updates on the phone have been decent, with an average of one update every 2-3 months – which isn’t the best practice, but a year later, I have seen some of the updates and features that are available on the newer Xiaomi 15 to be made available on the Xiaomi 14. That is simply lovely.

4610mAh Battery did the Best it Could

Being a compact phone would mean battery life can be a concern after all. Over here, we get a 4610mAh battery, and as a heavy user, it lasted me alright every day, but I do have to carry a battery bank with me to make sure that I don’t get stranded at times. But when I do go to bed, and wake up with a low battery indicator, the 90W charger is a saving grace. By the time I am done with my morning routine, the phone will have plenty of juice for me, and I can leave home in no time.

Although I don’t resort to the 90W fast charging all the time, as I like to take care of my battery, I do only use it in cases when I need it, and Xiaomi allows me to cap the speeds via the Settings panel – a feature I don’t get to see in most phones to begin with.

What I hate: Xiaomi’s Tendency to sneak up Ads

While these are a prim and proper flagship smartphone, ads on smartphones these days are inevitable – in fact, even Samsung has succumbed to such tactics with their phones. However, after spending a good few minutes with the phone, I got to say that I have managed to disable all the ads, and once you do it, it feels good. Although the thing I hate the most is Xiaomi GetApps, which I strongly believe shouldn’t exist.

A true pain in the arse in every way possible. And the Game Turbo as well, in most games you won’t see an ad – but say if you play those non-popular games, it does show some ads, which makes me think like – what on earth is this. So, Xiaomi, I know you are finding ways to offset the cost on your phones to make them a bit more affordable. But it has to stop and find better ways to offset the cost.

It’s 2025, and the Xiaomi 15 is out… So, is the 14 the phone to go for?

After using the Xiaomi 14 for over a year, I must say – every part of me loved having this phone in my pocket than I should. Most of the things we shared in our review still hold true to date, like the display and so on. But with the Xiaomi 15 around, there are a few questions we’d like to address.

  • The 15 has received two hardware improvements and one slight downgrade under the hood: The processor, for one, and the much bigger battery, which is great. The one downgrade happens to be in the camera; the telephoto is now a 65mm vs 75mm on the 14.
  • If you are using the 14 currently, don’t upgrade because I feel like you have the best phone in your hands, and the time to consider an upgrade will be when the Xiaomi 17 comes out.
  • If you are not using the 14, but thinking about jumping onto the Xiaomi life, getting the 15 is a better option, not because it’s new, but the bigger battery is something I care.
  • But if you want to save some money and get a Xiaomi flagship, getting the 14 is better. In fact, if you want a better camera experience, the 14 is surprisingly better than the 15 if you ask me.

Conclusion

The last time I was on a Xiaomi was when the brand was still called their flagship Mi, and I was on the Mi 8. I left the Xiaomi smartphone life because MIUI wasn’t doing justice, and I was not happy with it.

But coming back to the Xiaomi 14, it feels like the brand has turned a new leaf, and with their new phones, they are making things better, like increasing the major software and security updates and giving a better experience in every way possible. I must say, the Xiaomi 14 is a great phone I have had in my pocket for a year, and this is the Xiaomi I want to see more of.

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