Introduction
The Xiaomi 14 Civi is the company’s most recent addition to the 14 series, and it functions similarly to the Galaxy FE smartphones in Samsung’s portfolio. That is, it is positioned in the premium midranger sector, but shares most of its hardware and, if we believe Xiaomi, user experience with the outright flagships. However, Xiaomi already has a whole line dedicated to this purpose, the T series, leading us to question if the Civi would fit in.
As of this writing, the Xiaomi 14 Civi is only available in India, however Chinese customers may get it under the name Xiaomi Civi 4 Pro. It’s unknown when and in which additional areas the phone will be available, but with the aforementioned T series launch quickly approaching, it may never get a widespread release. Anyway, the 14 Civi is powered by Qualcomm’s newest processor, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, and comes with at least 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
While the name implies that this is simply a lower-clocked version of the flagship SoC, the changes are far more important, yet the 8s Gen 3 is no slouch. The Civi is constructed around a 6.55-inch OLED display that lacks LTPO technology but otherwise sounds impressive on paper, with 120 Hz, Dolby Vision, and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. The camera configuration is another example of “almost like the flagship”.
The 14 Civi has a 50 MP primary camera with a slightly smaller sensor than the Xiaomi 14, a 50 MP telephoto lens with a shorter reach (2x vs 3.2x), and a lower-resolution ultrawide wide camera (12 MP vs 50 MP). However, the pill-shaped hole on the front holds two cameras instead of one like the Xiaomi 14.
The Civi has two cameras: one with a conventional 32 MP sensor with autofocus, and another with an ultrawide lens. That’s the main specifications, but what counts is how well each of those components works in real life. Let us take the Xiaomi 14 Civi out of the package and find out!
Unboxing the Xiaomi 14 Civi
The phone arrives in a regular retail package with all of the usual user instructions and a 67W charger to optimize its charging capability. Of course, there is also a USB-A to USB-C connection for charging and data transfer. There is also a translucent silicone container for a well-stocked retail package.
Design and ergonomics
The 14 Civi design is a hybrid of the 14/14 Pro and Ultra. However, it is thinner and lighter than any of them, and the difference is instantly noticeable. Depending on the color you select, you will receive a conventional glass sandwich chassis or a two-tone faux leather back. In both circumstances, the front is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The 14 Civi’s color pallet includes Cruise Blue, Matcha Green, and Shadow Black.
We have the Matcha Green version with a two-piece back, vegan leather, and faux wood-like glass, but we also got to try out the more muted Shadow Black version. Regardless of the discomfort job you pick, the general management will be satisfactory. The glass version is more slick, of course, but the ergonomics are superb. The camera island protrudes significantly, and the phone wobbles when put on a flat surface.
The issue is exacerbated by the island’s corner placement, but adding a case helps to resolve it. The under-display fingerprint reader is swift and dependable. We had no problems with it, save for the placement. It’s too near to the bottom edge, making it difficult to reach with your thumb.
Unfortunately, the 14 Civi lacks an official ingress protection rating, putting it at a disadvantage compared to the majority of its immediate competitors. However, when it comes to design and handling, the 14 Civi is nothing short of fantastic, especially given its light body.
6.55-inch OLED display with all the HDR
The Xiaomi 14 Civi has a 6.55-inch OLED display with a resolution of 1236 x 2750 pixels, a refresh rate of 120Hz, and compatibility for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. The screen offers 12 bits of color depth and a touch sampling rate of 240Hz. When it came to brightness, the screen fell short of its stated 3,000 nits, but it still performed admirably.
In manual mode, we measured 810 nits, whereas in auto mode, the panel increased to 1,441 nits. That is well than enough for pleasant outdoor use, even on the brightest days. Furthermore, the gadget easily outperforms its contemporaries. When showing HDR-ready material, 3,000 nits are likely to be achieved in extremely small spots on the screen.
Refresh rate
The handset fully exploits the high-refresh rate display, which works at 120Hz in practically all instances including third-party apps. This is not an LTPO panel, therefore there are no granular refresh rate adjustments, however it may be set to 60Hz while not in use or when viewing films. However, our experience indicates that very few games operate at 120Hz on the 14 Civi, which is quite disappointing.
Battery life
The Xiaomi 14 Civi sports a 4,700 mAh battery and is powered by a purportedly efficient Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC, which is at least as efficient as its conventional Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 cousin. However, our battery life test findings were generally poor. The cellphone achieved an Active Use Score of 11:36h, which is lower than most phones in this price category.
While the online surfing time is adequate, the video playback, gaming, and talking durations are shorter than its competitors. This appears to be a recurring theme with Xiaomi smartphones. For the past several years, all Xiaomi smartphones have scored worse in our battery tests, and because they employ the same hardware as other companies, we must conclude the software has space for improvement.
Charging speed
The phone supports Xiaomi’s proprietary 67W charging when using the charger and cord included in the package. That is what we utilized for the charging test. Power delivery 3.0 is also supported, although it does not optimize charging speed. In the first 15 minutes, the handset regained 45% of its battery, while a 30-minute charge increased it to 80%. The entire charging cycle took only 44 minutes, which is excellent, though not quite the best we’ve seen.
Speakers
The Xiaomi 14 Civi includes a hybrid stereo speaker arrangement, with the primary one at the bottom and the earpiece functioning as the secondary speaker. This automatically creates a small imbalance because one of the speakers is always slightly louder. The phone received a “Good” volume rating, however we are not thrilled with the sound quality. It’s not horrible, but it lacks bass and clarity, particularly when compared to competitors such as the Galaxy A55 and Motorola Edge 50 Pro. Their recordings sound richer and have a stronger bass, whilst the 14 Civi is simply flat.
HyperOS + Android 14
The 14 Civi runs the most recent version of Xiaomi’s HyperOS on top of Android 14, although unlike the flagship 14 series and T series, the OEM guarantees just two major software upgrades and three years of security fixes. Despite the renaming, HyperOS looks and feels quite similar to MIUI, making long-time Xiaomi customers feel right at home. The UI has few substantial changes, with the majority being under-the-hood enhancements. We recommend reading our in-depth HyperOS review to learn more about OS. We didn’t experience any performance issues. The program operated without any problems.
Benchmark performance
The Xiaomi 14 Civi runs on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, which is not an underclocked version of the flagship 8 Gen 3 CPU, but rather a slightly different chip. However, the 4nm manufacturing process remains the same. The chip uses a 1+4+3 processor design. The primary Cortex-X4 core remains at the helm, but at a reduced 3.0 GHz frequency (compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen3), while the cluster of four Cortex-A720 cores operates at 2.8 GHz.
The high-efficiency 3x Cortex-A520 cores operate at 2.0 GHz. The GPU on board is the Adreno 735, which ranks lower than the Adreno 740 found in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. The processor is combined with either 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage or 12 GB/512 GB, which is fairly considerable for the price. Furthermore, both models use the newest UFS 4.0 storage. The benchmarks above indicate that the Xiaomi 14 Civi surpasses all of its competitors in practically every test.
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is uncommon in this price bracket, therefore the 14 Civi easily tops the list. It even outperforms last year’s top-tier Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, featured in the OnePlus 12R and Poco F6 Pro. In mixed and GPU-heavy workloads, the SD8s Gen 3 and SD8 Gen 2 compete, although the difference is negligible. Other mid-range processors are no match for the 14 Civi’s Snapdragon.
Sustained performance
The device includes a passive cooling solution known as the Xiaomi IceLoop system, which is most likely just a fancy way of saying it has a specialized heatsink that distributes heat more efficiently. In the CPU throttle test, the system demonstrated impressive efficiency in keeping the chipset cool, allowing it to maintain high clock rates for extended periods of time.
The CPU never fell below 80% of its full performance, which is impressive given the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip’s high demands. On the GPU front, things were not as pleasant, as the 14 Civi failed to complete a full 30-minute 3DMark Wild Life stress test. The program shuts down after a time, most likely due to overheating.
Proper triple cameras and dual selfies on the front
The Xiaomi 14 Civ has a relatively sized 50 MP primary sensor (also used in the Poco F6 Pro), which is supplemented with a 12 MP ultrawide camera, rather than the more widely utilized and inferior 8 MP sensor. The gadget also has a specialized 50 MP telephoto camera, however its reach is fairly limited at only 2x. On the front, the Civi surprises with two cameras. The primary unit features autofocus, while the secondary unit is equipped with ultrawide lenses. On paper, this is a rather amazing configuration for a tablet in this category.
Daylight photo quality
The primary camera generates quite nice photos that remain constant inside and outdoors. The stills are crisp with a lot of fine detail, and the colors are vibrant without going overboard or departing from the natural aesthetic. We are impressed by the HDR process, however it appears to be a little too harsh, enhancing the shadows excessively. We would have preferred a more conservative and natural rendition. We also took several 50 MP images, using the sensor’s full resolution, but they don’t provide much further information.
2x zoom camera
The 2x zoom camera offers a similar rendition as the primary shooter, but the shadows appear more realistic. We’re pleased with the overall quality; the processing, detail levels, dynamic range, and colors are all excellent. Noise is almost non-existent, and moving inside has little affect on quality. Sure, there’s a tiny decrease in clarity and a little extra noise, but nothing to worry about.
4x zoom
The camera app has an extra 4x toggle. This is a crop from the 2x zoom camera, and the daytime stills are far better than expected. There is a notable decrease in sharpness and detail, although it is not as significant as we have seen with rival solutions. Overall, we can state that the outside examples appear outstanding. When you try to zoom indoors, the pictures become loud and dirty. Remember that the 2x zoom camera lacks OIS, therefore shooting 4x stills may result in fuzzy images at times. Stabilizing your hand when shooting a 2x shot is simple, but 4x can be difficult.
Ultrawide camera
The ultrawide samples are adequate, but do not represent a significant improvement over certain 8 MP ultrawide cameras. Detail is limited, and the dynamic range is adequate but falls short of that of the primary camera. Indoor settings enable noise to infiltrate and quality suffers dramatically. In reality, noise can occasionally be detected outside.
Selfies
The 14 Civi outperforms the bulk of phones with its two selfie cameras and focuses on the primary wide one. Now, the resolution detail on the ultrawide camera isn’t outstanding, but it allows you to take group photographs, which counts for something. The primary camera captures excellent photos with strong dynamic range, precisely portrayed skin tones, and an amazing degree of detail. There is some noise, especially inside, but it is not overly irritating. We’ve seen competing devices outperform the 14 Civi in key areas, like overall image quality, but as a whole, it ranks among the best.
Low-light photo quality
The camera software defaults to the automated Night mode, although in most circumstances, the program prefers to take a regular shot. Even when Night mode is turned off, there is clearly some picture stacking going on in the background. The Night mode is used only in extremely dim situations, and there is even a little popup asking if you want to run a 3-second exposure for improved results.
In any event, the low-light photographs captured with the primary camera are fantastic. There is a lot of detail all around, the colors are correct, the contrast is good, and the dynamic range is large. Perhaps the shadows are too bright at times, and the landscape loses its natural appearance. Noise is always kept at bay, and light sources are portrayed perfectly.
2x zoom camera Low-light
The 2x zoom camera likes the Night mode in almost all situations. The photographs aren’t as crisp as those from the primary camera, which is to be anticipated, but the image quality is still decent. There is plenty of detail, a broad dynamic range, no noise, and rather accurate color rendering. In fact, shadows are portrayed better than on the primary camera since they are somewhat darker and hence more natural-looking. However, in more difficult situations with restricted lighting, the stills can be a little blurry.
4x zoom Low-light
Shooting in 4x zoom mode is rather ambitious and beyond the capability of a 2x zoom camera. Despite the Night mode’s attempts to remove noise, the samples remain fuzzy. The lack of OIS at night in 4x zoom mode means that the end result is rarely useful.
Ultrawide camera Low-light
The ultrawide camera’s rendering is comparable to the main camera’s in that it produces bright and vivid photographs with plenty of color and minimal noise, but sharpness is missing. Even though the program always selects the specialized Night mode, things in shadows appear soft. However, this is to be expected with an ultrawide camera, and the quality is somewhat above average.
Video recording
The Xiaomi 14 Civi’s cameras, both the selfie and ultrawide lenses, can record 2160p films at 30 frames per second. The main and 2x zoom cameras can also shoot in 4K at 60fps. All video modes benefit from EIS, but Xiaomi now offers two extra stabilization modes that imitate action camera-level stabilization: Steady video and Steady video Pro. However, both modes have a maximum resolution of 1080p@30fps. Let’s begin with the primary camera’s 4K video.
The first thing we noticed was the evident magenta tinge and the somewhat warmer color temperature overall. Aside from that, the video is clean and bright, and despite the color divergence, the colors are strong and vibrant. Contrast is outstanding, dynamic range is superb, and we found no noise in the scene. However, the 2x zoom camera clip does not have the same difficulties as the primary camera. The video seems just as crisp, detailed, and clear.
The ultrawide camera’s videos also have a little magenta hue, but not as pronounced. Because the sensor supports 4K video recording, the 14 Civi outperforms certain competitors that use 8MP ultrawide cameras and are therefore limited to 1080p resolution. It’s no surprise that the ultrawide footage is clear, detailed, and has a good dynamic range, particularly when compared to rival alternatives.
The low-light footage has the same warmer color temperature, but it looks clean, clear, and has a broad dynamic range, with the exception of few minor highlight patches that appear clipped. Even in the shadows, noise is difficult to detect, yet contrast and colors are great. The EIS in 4K recording is more than sufficient, but the Steady video Pro mode we tried takes things to the next level with outstanding stabilization.
Competition
The Xiaomi 14 Civi seems to be a terrific all-rounder, with a distinctive design, a decent camera arrangement, and exceptional performance for its class. However, that combination should make it an appealing option for roughly INR 40,000. And, because the 14 Civi is now only available in India, we will focus on alternatives in that market. Begin with the Samsung Galaxy A55. A popular midranger with a strong all-around package.
It trails below the 14 Civi in terms of camera and performance, but it has a longer battery life and higher-quality speakers. Xiaomi’s competitor features a brighter, more feature-rich display, quicker charging, and a more premium design, but no ingress protection grade. Sure, the A55 is less expensive than the Civi, but only by a little margin, so Xiaomi’s phone is the superior bargain here. Perhaps the Motorola Edge 50 Pro is a better match for the 14 Civi.
The smartphone has a similar feature set, but with a 3x telephoto camera and a better main selfie shooter (but no ultrawide selfies). It also charges quickly and has a similar display. It does include 128 GB of internal storage in its base edition, but while that is less expensive, you may upgrade to the 256GB variant while staying within the same price. The Edge 50 Pro’s main shortcoming is its processor, which is significantly less powerful than the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 inside the 14 Civi.
The Oppo Reno12 Pro and the OnePlus 12R are also viable choices. The Reno12 Pro features a better camera, but it falls short of the 14 Civi in terms of display quality and performance. The OnePlus 12R, on the other hand, offers an advantage in terms of performance and a similar display, but it falls short in terms of camera quality. In either scenario, Oppo or OnePlus will provide much longer battery life than the 14 Civi. Oh, and they are both somewhat cheaper.
Verdict
Xiaomi has put together a fairly competitive package, with little to complain about. The smartphone has an outstanding display, powerful and flexible camera hardware, rapid charging, class-leading performance, and a stylish, small, and lightweight design. However, Xiaomi’s phones continue to have poor battery life, and despite the varied selfie camera technology, you can get better quality on the primary camera elsewhere.
These are the only two reasons why we can’t give the 14 Civi a higher score. Still, if you prioritize group selfies over outright quality and rapid charging over long battery life, the 14 Civi will be well worth the investment.
