Xiaomi 14 Extremely assessment: it is going international, and it isn’t pulling punches!

Xiaomi 14 Extremely Intro

The Xiaomi 14 Extremely is international! Effectively, form of — no USA launch as of but. So, what’s it and may somebody be jealous? What’s so Extremely concerning the Xiaomi 14 Extremely?

The Xiaomi Extremely sequence has been round for just a few years now, offered solely in China. They’re normally the height of Xiaomi smartphone pictures — full partnership with Leica for top-tier lens supplies, and costly sensors beneath. The 14 Extremely comes with 4 totally different sensors on its foremost digicam module, overlaying a number of focal lengths and use circumstances. Plus, it has a brand new pro-grade video mode within the digicam app.

It was introduced, on the Xiaomi keynote main into MWC 2024, again within the final days of February. Now, the Xiaomi 14 Extremely is accessible for €1499 in Europe, which interprets roughly to $1623 (however tough conversions hardly ever match market actuality).

What’s new about Xiaomi 14 Extremely

Desk of Contents:

Xiaomi 14 Extremely Specs

Popping out swinging

The Xiaomi 14 Extremely is a flagship telephone to the bone… or to the processor and cooling, that’s.

Yeah, you learn that proper — the principle digicam has a variable aperture, and if you happen to work it manually within the Professional mode, you’ll be able to truly see the bodily ring contained in the digicam lens closing and opening mentioned aperture. It is very clearly a camera-centric smartphone. Apart from the principle digicam, which rocks one among Sony’s fancy new LYT-900 sensors, the remainder of all of them have the identical Sony IMX858 — an costly luxurious, which ensures comparable high quality as you swap by way of totally different focal lengths. And, in fact, we have now LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0 storage to enhance the extra-fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

It is available in black (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)

Repeating the design of the Xiaomi 13 Extremely, however refining it to an excellent extent — the Xiaomi 14 Extremely has a flat again, as a substitute of a slope in the direction of the digicam aspect. It is lined in fake leather-based, which feels tender and grippy to the contact, and positively invokes the texture of digicam gear. It is vegan leather-based, reportedly tear-resistant, and it does really feel like a really sturdy materials. The whole telephone is, in fact, IP68 rated for dust- and water-resistance.

The aluminum body has a flat aspect with stark bevels, which do really feel sharp however not tough. It is all lower from a single block of aluminum, Xiaomi says, so it has higher sturdiness than most telephones, which have frames fused from a number of cuts. However no, it isn’t lined by titanium.

The ability button is engraved with a sample that is very pronounced and exhausting to overlook, whereas the clicky quantity rocker is easy in contrast.

That digicam bump on the again is fairly respectable-looking, however we discovered that it does not add a weight unbalance to the gadget. In reality, if felt fairly balanced, even considerably gentle, contemplating the calibre of telephone we’re holding.

However talking of the digicam — this factor positively clicks and clacks as you wave it in your hand. That is the stabilization and doubtless different transferring elements inside that quad digicam module — and it is a bit unnerving. We might belief Xiaomi that all the pieces is held in place securely, but in addition — we would not shake this telephone for enjoyable, or take it to vigorous bodily actions.

A uncommon charger noticed within the field (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)

Contained in the field, we truly get greater than what your typical flagship comes with — a charger! And a case! Effectively, it isn’t an exceptional case — it is a skinny plastic that will get greased up simply and can solely present primary safety. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless a freebie.

Xiaomi 14 Extremely Show

Unbelievable display to match that digicam (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)

The display glass has a curve on each aspect, completely symmetrical even across the corners of the telephone. Nonetheless, it doesn’t lower into the picture of the show, it simply helps it spherical off and meet the aluminum body in a elaborate tender nook.

It is an LTPO AMOLED panel with a 1-120 Hz refresh price and a 1440 x 3200 decision for a 522 pixels-per-inch density. It seems crisp, clear, and colourful. Xiaomi said 3,000 nits peak brightness, which suggests solely a single space of the display can hit that, however the promised 1,000 nits typical brightness ought to be adequate to be used in brilliant ambiance. It additionally has DC dimming, so these delicate to the sparkle when setting an OLED display to low brightness should not see or really feel the odd vibrations right here.

The glass panel is a brand new Xiaomi Protect Glass, developed to be stronger than the earlier iterations, however we can’t be drop testing that to substantiate. The most effective we will say is that we have not collected any micro-scratches on the show as of but.

There’s an optical fingerprint scanner below the show, and it really works fairly quick — some fractions of a second slower than Samsung’s ultrasonic scanners, however on no account would we are saying the scanner of the Xiaomi 14 Extremely is sluggish or annoying. It is correct, it vibrates with a reassuring click on, and the software program itself lights up and unlocks with a really fast animation.

Xiaomi 14 Extremely Digital camera

A really spectacular setup

Excuse me, sir, is {that a} telephone connected to your digicam? (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)

The Xiaomi 14 Extremely comes with the brand new Sony LYT-900 sensor. It is 1″ in dimension — which is kind of huge for a smartphone and sometimes present in point-and-shoot cameras as a substitute. The brand new LYT sensors by Sony have a brand new 2-layer transistor, which helps for extra gentle assortment in shorter time intervals. Much more impressively, we have now a variable aperture, which may go from f/1.63 to f/4.0 in seamless steps of 0.01.

If you do not know what this implies — do not sweat it, the telephone’s Auto mode will handle it for you. Shutterbugs could have a blast getting into Professional mode and opening that aperture for some luscious pure bokeh and a ton of sunshine.

The opposite 3 cameras — ultra-wide, 3.2x telephoto, and 5x telephoto, all have a 50 MP Sony IMX858 inside — fairly high-class sensors in their very own proper, even throughout the board for each digicam. Every of them is roofed with Leica lenses and the three.2x zoom digicam has a floating telephoto lens, making certain higher focus at nearer distances (as little as 10 cm). By all means, this telephone pulls no punches with regards to the digicam. Let’s get to the samples:

Principal Digital camera

The pictures come out vigorous, heat, brilliant, and with nice dynamics. The colours could also be a bit too saturated for you, so you might wish to attempt utilizing Genuine mode inside the digicam — it solely tones down saturation and distinction by a bit.

Particulars are sharp and high-quality. You may positively spot indicators of oversharpening if you happen to go in search of them, however — generally — we do not discover the Xiaomi 14 Extremely to be overdiong it.

When the solar units, you’ll be able to nonetheless take some placing pictures. The digicam’s dealing with of dynamics and colours doesn’t fade by a bit — you’ll be able to positively take some placing evening time photographs with this one. Relying on the scene, you’ll be able to see noise discount and sharpening working to make the finer particulars a bit extra cartoon-like, however generally, it is an ideal performer at evening.

Consistent with different flagships within the house, the Xiaomi 14 Extremely‘s “tremendous zoom” digicam is a 5x lens. Any magnification past that’s being helped by very advanced algorithms for a most of a good 120x. At “regular” zooming distances, we predict the Xiaomi does fairly nicely — holding particulars sharp and dynamics in examine. Even as much as 10x, you would not really feel it is a digital zoom.

Selfies

The selfie digicam mirrors the dynamics and colours from the principle one, possibly with much less saturation. Particulars are captured to the intense — right down to pores within the face. If you happen to discover this fairly unflattering, there are a selection of beautify sliders which do their job fairly discreetly.

Video High quality

On the subject of video, the Xiaomi 14 Extremely does fairly nicely. Right here, we have now it in contrast towards the iPhone 15 Professional Max and you’ll see that the Xiaomi is a little more contrast-y, with barely extra sharpness utilized. Nonetheless, the footage is toe to toe — we might say the stabilization of the Xiaomi is a bit wonkier, however that is a side-by-side. If we solely had that to shoot with, we might be proud of it!

Critical equipment for critical photographers (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)

Clearly, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 goes to be the ruling processor in Android land, at the least for the primary half of 2024. And it’s right here, powering the Xiaomi 14 Extremely with out compromise. The telephone itself responds in form with Xiaomi’s proprietary IceLoop cooling system, which ought to hold issues at a decrease temperature when gaming and capturing video.

No compromise in reminiscence chips, too, because the Xiaomi 14 Extremely comes with UFS 4.0 storage and LPDDR5X RAM — beginning at 512 GB and 16 GB respectively. It appears there is not any different variation proper now. You may must make do with that 512 GB chip since there is not any microSD card slot.

Xiaomi 14 Extremely OS / Android model

MIUI isn’t any extra, say hi there to HyperOS

Xiaomi is doing an enormous push into a number of fields — AI, electrical autos, premium smartphones. The brand new HyperOS is meant to be the cornerstone of this creating ecosystem. From sensible dwelling to sensible automobile to smartphone, Xiaomi imagines all of this operating on HyperOS and dealing seamlessly collectively.

In fact, we’re nonetheless at first of this creating system, so we will type of see the place the creativeness of the creators goes, however we have now nothing concrete to play with.

Xiaomi needs HyperOS AI to be studying out of your way of life and to be proactive and useful. For instance, if you happen to gentle the identical sensible lamp at a selected time, and at a selected brightness setting — it could simply begin doing that by itself. The identical could be utilized to air conditioners, air purifiers, your sensible TV, and music playback.

File sharing throughout Xiaomi gadgets is supposed to be as simple as drag-and-dropping, and workflow ought to journey seamplessly from telephone to pill to huge display.

The Xiaomi 14 Extremely has a 5,000 mAh cell — nothing out of the unusual, however nonetheless a reasonably respectable energy pack. Xiaomi guarantees it has optimizations for improved longevity, which we put to the check — and here is the way it did:

PhoneArena Battery Take a look at Outcomes:

The Xiaomi 14 Extremely‘s endurance shines below heavy load — we do not know what is going on on below the hood, but it surely positively beats the Android competitors when gaming. Apparently, it is faster to empty its battery doing informal duties — our net looking check is designed to simulate common every day looking about.

Whenyou handle to squeeze it dry with an excessive amount of video recording or gaming, you’ll be able to fall again on the 90 W HyperCharge brick or 80 W wi-fi HyperCharge:

Fast charger! (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)

PhoneArena Charging Take a look at Outcomes:

With the included powerplug, the Xiaomi 14 Extremely is a beast — if you happen to solely have quarter-hour on the wire, you continue to get nearly half your battery. This could positively be adequate to maintain you linked by way of the day if you’re conscious. half-hour of charging and you’re just about set to make use of your telephone as regular.

Xiaomi 14 Extremely Abstract and Ultimate Verdict

A magnificence to behold (Picture credit score – PhoneArena)

Backside line — the Xiaomi 14 Extremely is great and is a pleasant various for anybody wishing to look in a unique course from the present mainstream portfolio of premium smartphones. Nevertheless it’s on no account a finances possibility — you may be coughing up a reasonably penny and there aren’t any Enhanced trade-in offers with this one, as there are with Samsung’s flagships.