Xiaomi has taken an understated approach of trimming its phone lineup rather than stuffing the market with similar-spec phones with different names. The Xiaomi 14 series has shown us the company has the nous to fight it out with the big boys, and those claims have been strengthened with the 14 Ultra launch this year in the country. Now, the brand is giving us a taste of its Leica-partnered engineering with the Xiaomi 14 Civi smartphone.
Priced at Rs 42,999 this new phone is entering a segment where the competition isn’t as fierce but you still have quality alternatives available. Can the Leica-totting 14 Civi match it up with the peers and give us the extra oomph that the market is craving for? Here’s our Xiaomi 14 Civi review that does its best to give these answers.
Flashy But Effective
Xiaomi has taken pointers from the 14 series and offered it with basic tweaks on the 14 Civi. The sleek design and quad-curved screen brings a new layer of design that is ergonomically comfortable and gives you a good grip without feeling delicate. It measures at 7.8mm in thickness and weighs 177 grams which makes it one of the lightest in the segment.
We got the black variant which has a matte-ish finish and continuity that gives it a good look. The rounded camera module sits on the side rather than in the middle which somehow gives it a balance that you can only experience to know more about. Even the frame gets aluminium finish which gives it the consistent flow that most people like.
You also have a matcha green colour which comes with a leather-like finishing that some of you may find flashy. Having said that, there is very little to complain about the design of the 14 Civi, and if we are to nitpick something, we would say that some people might find it too sleek to hold. Also, Xiaomi hasn’t taken any IP rating for the device which should have been offered.
Leica Colours And Quality
The biggest takeaway from the premium 14 series for us has been the evolution with the Leica-engineered lenses. To keep the costs down, Xiaomi has fiddled with the setup, giving you a 50MP primary along with a 12MP ultrawide and a 50MP telephoto.
You immediately notice the familiar interface and the colour tones offered by Leica on the other 14 series phones. The sensors aren’t as powerful as 14 or the 14 Ultra but still makes a decent shout with its quality. The main sensor gets OIS which allows you to click well detailed and crisp images where the colours are balanced in most cases.
However, the 50MP telephoto lens could have used OIS support which means low light doesn’t become a hindrance for its performance. The portrait shots look natural but we did notice the edge detection being off in some cases. These issues are not grave and a quick update to patch most of them.
The front dual 32MP shooters were a surprising package and if you turn off the beauty mode, the snaps give the natural skin tone and details are intact as well.
Curved Display Sharpness
Xiaomi has offered an AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate screen and Dolby Vision but what you don’t get is LTPO for adaptive refresh rate on the screen. It seems the company has focused on the core aspects of the product and decided that it could do away with the LTPO tech on the panel which seems to have helped with the cost of the device.
Having said that, there isn’t much to complain about the quality of the display, the colours that pop out and the overall multimedia experience. Having the dual selfie cameras in the notch (or a bar) is another addition that brings visual changes to the screen.
Performance Reliability
Xiaomi is the latest brand to join the ranks of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 bandwagon. The 14 Civi comes with up to 12GB RAM and 512GB UFS 4.0 storage that translates into reliable and effective performance without going overboard. This combination promises reliable and efficient performance without unnecessary extravagance. In fact, it’s being hailed as a chipset for affordable flagships, and benchmark tests seem to confirm this notion.
You can enjoy the popular intensive games without any major stutter but don’t expect gaming-level performance that premium devices offer. We would rank the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 slightly below the 8 Gen 2 with its graphics output but on the whole, the new chipset made a strong showing.
Xiaomi is offering the Android 14-based HyperOS out of the box which continues with the focus on pre-loaded apps like PhonePe, Opera Browser, and Netflix among others. You also have to disable apps like Themes and GetApps to stop the annoying notifications. The company is promising 3 OS upgrades and 4 years of security updates for the 14 Civi and we have already seen its proactive focus on offering these security patches quickly.
The sleekness of the phone means you only have a 4700mAh battery that would be fine if you can manage with charging the device at least once. Most phones these days come with at least 5,000mAh battery so it seems Xiaomi has decided to trim things down which means the overall backup is average compared to the others. You also get 67W wired charging speed which isn’t the swiftest in this range but does the job.
Xiaomi 14 Civi promises a lot of premium features, which includes the design, build quality, the display and the cameras largely deliver but could use some improvements. The battery life takes a hit at the cost of the petite frame but nothing alarming when you have fast-charging support.
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