The year 2024 sees a resurgent Xiaomi, rebounding from the lows of early 2023. Its partnership with iconic camera maker Leica is now well-entrenched, with products receiving rave reviews. The company's product portfolio is more focused, and some of the anti-Chinese sentiment amongst Indian customers has dissipated. With the Xiaomi 14 Civi, the company has launched what we would characterise as its most impressive offering in years. This is not the most cutting-edge phone, but rather starts in the Rs 40,000 range at the entry point of the premium segment. It is armed with camera technology that Xiaomi has co-developed with German optical leviathan Leica and also features Qualcomm's latest chipset — the Snapdragon 8S Gen 3. What's not to like, some might say?
Critics have often panned Xiaomi for its boring and pedantic industrial design language, but the same cannot be said about the 14 Civi. It is an elegant device which is also rather compact, with exceptional ergonomics. This is one of its slimmest phones, with a svelte profile of 7.4mm whilst also being rather compact with a 6.5-inch OLED screen which uses LTPS technology. This screen gets supremely bright and has stunningly vivid colours. The HyperOS user interface also comes to life thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate provided by the display. This display also adds quad curves, providing a blend between a flat screen and a fully curved one — offering advantages of both screen technologies without any of the flaws. Overall, it is a phone that adheres to great one-handed usage with sturdiness secured by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.
That's not to say that good design on the 14 Civi means only great usability. It is also a looker in matcha green with a combination of a sun mica-like finish and faux leather. It feels very easy to hold, though there is a massive spherical camera island on the back which is home to the triple camera array underpinned by Leica's optics.
The main camera sensor is a 50-megapixel one, the same as the flagship Xiaomi 14, that takes attractive shots with dollops of contrast and vivid colours. It is also pretty fast to shoot with when given good lighting. Portrait shots are its forte — and it can take cinematic-looking portraits with ease, with support for various iconic lens types.
Our personal favourite is the vintage filter type which allows you to get a vibe of vintage cameras, which can be used either with the primary 50-megapixel camera or the 2x 50-megapixel telephoto lens. The ultra-wide 12-megapixel sensor is also good for landscape shots. It's also a phone that's pretty decent for shooting videos, especially if you're a serial Instagrammer. For more professional-looking b-roll, a higher-end camera phone like Xiaomi's 14 Ultra or the iPhone 15 Pro Max would be better suited.
All of this is possible thanks to the Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 chipset which is married with 8/12GB DDR5X RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. Day-to-day usage of HyperOS feels fluid and responsive. It feels pretty decent for gaming too, for games like Asphalt 8 and Call of Duty mobile, with few frame rate drops at the highest graphical settings. The phone also doesn't get awfully warm while doing so and lasts quite a long time.
Considering it has a 4,700mAh battery, this phone can easily last a full charge for more than 12-13 hours with upwards of 5 hours of screen-on time. This means for most regular tasks this phone will be capable and will provide excellent battery life. If that's not enough, well, 67W fast charging ensures this device gets juiced up in less than 40 minutes.
HyperOS is a solid update over what was MIUI — whilst visually it isn't awfully different, it feels swifter and cleaner with less bloatware. It will also get a couple of OS updates in the coming years, and one hopes Xiaomi visually refreshes things as this iOS-like motif is becoming tiresome, so much so that iOS is also moving on.
There are neat features like the IR blaster which remain old favourites, enabling one to control almost any conceivable electronic gadget that uses an IR-based remote, with Xiaomi's database of IR remotes being the most expansive. Call and network quality was on point. We tested the phone using a Jio SIM in Delhi NCR. Nothing out of the ordinary is there to report.
The Xiaomi 14 Civi may not be the most cutting-edge device Xiaomi has made, but it's well-rounded, balanced, fun to use with excellent performance and cameras in a slender, good-looking package — at the right price, starting at Rs 39,999 and going up to Rs 47,999 for the decked-out 512GB / 12GB variant.
Rating: 8.3/10
