I used Xiaomi 14 for a week — all that's hot and all that's not

At this year's Mobile World Congress, Xiaomi unveiled its 2024 flagship smartphone lineup for global markets, including the impressive Xiaomi 14. Xiaomi 14 to launch in India on March 7.

After using the device for a week, I'm genuinely impressed with its features. The Xiaomi 14 boasts a more ergonomic design and an upgraded camera system compared to its predecessor, the Xiaomi 13.

Notably, it inherits the 50MP rear cameras from the previous year's Xiaomi 13 Pro, resulting in three 50MP rear cameras on the non-Pro model.

Building on the success of the Xiaomi 13 Pro's camera capabilities, the Xiaomi 14 continues to deliver pleasing bokeh, Leica-tuned colours, and lenses with four focal lengths: 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 90mm, along with a standard mode.

The 35mm mode no longer defaults to a monochrome look, but you can still achieve this effect from the filter section.

The portrait shots taken in the 35mm and 75mm modes stand out, capturing excellent skin tones with natural-looking bokeh. However, there are instances where the camera struggles with portraits of moving subjects.

Xiaomi addresses this by introducing Motion Capture in the camera settings, which will be a default feature in future shipments. The 50mm portraits, while good, don't quite match the edge detection level of the Xiaomi 13 Pro.

Despite not frequently using ultrawide lenses, the Xiaomi 14's ultrawide lens impressed me, maintaining colour accuracy, delivering good-looking pictures with dynamic range, and retaining details.

Xiaomi attributes this to the primary camera remaining active even when using the other two lenses. On the front, there's a decent 32MP selfie shooter.

The Xiaomi 14, with a dense yet comfortable build, feels premium in hand. The flat sides and subtle back curves contribute to its ergonomic design.

The glossy back on the green variant feels especially premium. The device features a 6.36-inch AMOLED display with a 2,670 x 1,200 pixels resolution, supporting a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+. While slightly less sharp on paper than the Xiaomi 13 Pro, it outperforms the Xiaomi 13 with a resolution of 2,400 x 1,080 pixels.

Powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, the Xiaomi 14 offers various UFS 4.0 storage and RAM options. It houses a 4,610mAh battery supporting 90W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.

PWhile you'll have to wait for my full review, the Xiaomi 14 is shaping to be another camera-focused hit.