The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ is the latest flagship model in Xiaomi’s highly successful Redmi Note series of premium mid-range devices. While the device was initially launched exclusively in China, it is now also available in India, along with the cheaper Redmi Note 14 Pro and the Redmi Note 14 devices.
Replacing the previous generation Redmi Note 13 Pro+, the new model features a comprehensive suite of improvements. This includes a new design, an updated display, a newer chipset, larger battery, and the company’s latest software with a host of AI features.
In this preview, we will be taking a look at some of the aspects of the new model and see how it stacks up in the current market.
Unboxing
The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ comes in fairly standard packaging consisting of the phone, a 90W fast charger, a USB cable, a case, a good-quality rubber case, and some paperwork.
Design
The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ has an updated design for 2024, with the vertical camera arrangement of the previous generation giving way to a new squircle-shaped camera island that also happens to look like the Mi logo. Within this are four elements, out of which three are usable cameras and the fourth is the flash.
Also hidden above the flash is the IR blaster, which is positioned somewhat awkwardly and requires you to point the back of the phone to the device you are trying to use, which can be inconvenient if it’s something like an air conditioner that is placed high up.
The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ comes in three colors, Titan Black, Spectre Blue, and Phantom Purple. Out of these, the Phantom Purple model pictured here is the only one that has a vegan leather back while the other two get Corning Gorilla Glass 7i.
The vegan leather variant is ever so slightly thicker while the glass models are 5g heavier. All models feature a plastic frame with a glossy finish on the sides and matte on the top and bottom.
Display
The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ has a 6.67-inch, 2717×1220 resolution curved AMOLED display. The display has a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz with 240Hz standard touch sampling rate and 480Hz in games.
Most of the specs of this display are identical to that on the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ except the peak brightness, which has been increased from 1800 nits to 3000 nits.
The display has good color accuracy but could be better. Despite having several options to adjust colors, there doesn’t seem to be a single setting that offers a standard sRGB color gamut with D65 white point out of the box without some tinkering as all the presets are set too cool.
Battery and charging
The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ has a 6200mAh silicon carbon battery, which is quite a bit larger than the 5000mAh lithium polymer unit in the previous generation mode. The phone now supports 90W of fast charging, which is a downgrade compared to 120W of its predecessor.
While this preview won’t delve into battery testing, the Redmi Note 14 Pro+ was an absolute beast when it came to usable battery life, with guaranteed two full days of use and maybe even a third for those who use their phone lightly.
Unfortunately, the combination of a vastly bigger battery and slower charging means the charging times have slowed down considerably. The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ takes nearly 30 minutes to reach where the 13 Pro+ could in 15.
But most importantly, 0-100% times have nearly tripled, with the new phone taking almost an hour for a full charge.
Considering the size of the battery and what you benefit in terms of usable battery life, the reduction in charging speeds isn’t a terrible deal. Still, we would have preferred if the gap between the two wasn’t so large.
Camera
The Redmi Note 14 Pro+ has a triple camera system on the back, which consists of the 50MP OmniVision Light Hunter 800 sensor, a 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1 telephoto camera with 2.5x magnification, and an 8MP Sony IMX355 ultra-wide camera.
There are no macro cameras and none of the other cameras have macro capability.
On the front is a 20MP OmniVision OV20b40 sensor. This is a fixed focus camera with a quad-bayer sensor, so the intended output is around 5MP but the phone upscales them to 20MP.
The camera app has a pretty typical layout for a Xiaomi device. You get options to toggle between 0.6x, 1x, 2x, 2.5x, and 5x through direct keys. The 2x digital option feels redundant when the 2.5x optical option is right there and has a very similar field of view with better image quality.
Starting with the main camera, the 12.5MP images have decent image quality. The level of detail is good in most shots but can look a bit smeared in some, especially when it comes to foliage or skin textures. The color reproduction is mostly accurate but the white balance tends to be slightly on the cooler side.
Dynamic range isn’t as wide as we’d like, with a tendency to prefer punchier contrast at the cost of reduced shadow detail. The focus isn’t 100% reliable and can occasionally hunt or miss entirely, even on larger subjects.
