That was quick. The newly-announced Xiaomi 14 and 14 Pro handsets will be the first to land with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processors – which was only announced earlier this week. The handsets, revealed for the Chinese market at an event in that country, are already up for pre-order but we won’t get to see them for a while. Nor will anyone else. This is fine.
But we’ll all want to at least give them a look. The Xiaomi 14 Pro is the obvious headliner, with a special titanium edition of the device being the standout but no matter which ends up in our pockets, they’ll all come with a similar set of features.
Xiaomi 14 – Pro or no?
That’s because Xiaomi is shipping very similar specs for its high-end smartphones. Both models arrive with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, complete with the AI-conferring capabilities it’s supposed to provide. Both phones have 256GB/12GB up to 1TB/16GB models, with the stock Xiaomi 14 also including a single 256GB/8GB model so you can pretend it was affordable. Both devices also include similar screen tech, albeit in different sizes.
The 14 Pro has a 6.73in LPTO AMOLED display capable of up to 120Hz. It’s got a resolution of 1,440 x 3,200 and also includes the brand’s own Longjing Glass, also known as Ceramic Glass. Apparently that’s a thing we’re doing now. The stock Xiaomi 14 has a 6.36in LPTO OLED (no AM for you) screen that operates at up to 120Hz. The 1,200 x 2,670 resolution is no slouch but there’s no fancy custom glass to brag about.
The camera tech across both models is very similar but the Xiaomi 14 Pro has one distinct advantage — it’s packing a variable aperture sensor in the rear camera array. The Pro’s main 50MP sensor can scale between f/1.42 and f/4.0, plus it’s packing laser autofocus and optical image stabilisation (OIS). The secondary 50MP sensor is an f/2.0 75mm effort with 3.2x optical zoom and OIS. The third rear sensor is also 50MP, only this time with an f/2.2 aperture and a 115º field of view.
The Xiaomi 14 shares the zoom and ultrawide lenses but its main 50MP sensor is ‘only’ an f/1.6 23mm affair. Leica has made the lenses for both models and both are also toting identical 32MP front-facing cameras.
One last bit of similarity/difference for you — both the Xiaomi 14 and 14 Pro are rated IP68 but they differ a bit on the battery front. The standard 14 has a 4,610mAh battery and 90W charge speed. The 14 Pro? A 4,880mAh battery and 120W charging.
But, as we hinted right at the beginning, these phones are only confirmed for China right now. There is an international launch coming but it’s not clear right now a) when that will be and b) whether HyperOS, “a human-centric, smart ecosystem for human[s], cars, and home”, will launch outside of China at that time. The new operating system’s claims make sense in a context where Xiaomi’s devices are everywhere but it probably won’t be terribly useful here right now. Still, it could happen.