Xiaomi 14 Civi review: A new flagship killer enters the Android arena

With a touch of Leica, Xiaomi has reinvented the wheel and brought a true “flagship killer” in 2024, with the Xiaomi 14 Civi, which debuted in India recently and is already making waves.

Why Civi? Civi stands for ‘Cinematic Vision’. With Civi, Xiaomi wants to broaden its professional-grade imaging - read Leica - range of smartphones. Relying on a solid foundation of a flagship processor (Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset), top-notch camera (Leica prowess) and incredible design (a standout factor with a unique Matcha Green colour and a great in-hand feel), Xiaomi wants to bring the complete package to the under ₹50,000 segment.

The Xiaomi 14 Civi gives the feeling of owning a flagship without breaking the bank. It’s uniquely curved on all four sides (with the front getting Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection), the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (previously seen in the Poco F6), a thin and light form factor (7.44mm thick and 177 grams light), and a point-and-shoot camera that’ll do the trick in almost all situations.

It may not be as affordable as the OnePlus 12R, and the portraits are a touch behind the Vivo V30 Pro, but it is a true flagship killer, starting at ₹42,999.

Standout design

The design - read Matcha Green - is one of the standout factors about the Xiaomi 14 Civi. It’s an eye-catching smartphone with a great in-hand feel. The back panel of the Xiaomi 14 Civi is split into two: there is vegan leather on one side, and the patterned glass inlay (which is the differentiating factor) on the other half of the smartphone. Thanks to the vegan leather edges and brushed aluminium side frames, the phone is comfortable to hold for long periods. There is, however, no official IP rating on the Xiaomi 14 Civi.

Apart from Matcha Green, the phone also comes in Cruise Blue (my least favourite) and Shadow Black (which is classy in its own right).

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The display is a 6.55-inch AMOLED panel that supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Xiaomi is calling it a quad-curved display. This lends a certain premium experience to the smartphone. It’s got great viewing angles, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a great touch response. Brightness (a claimed peak brightness of 3000 nits) isn’t an issue, whether I was indoors or outdoors, and the colours remain vibrant no matter what time of the day. Overall, the phone looks classy, and the display output is great.

Leica-able cameras

The Leica cameras are the other big USP of the Xiaomi 14 Civi. Like Vivo’s partnership with Zeiss, Xiaomi is going big with Leica. It uses Leica lenses, and the Summilux lens (just like in the Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Ultra), in the Xiaomi 14 Civi. Here, you get a triple-camera setup. There’s the 50MP main camera [with a Light Hunter 800 image sensor, optical image stabilisation (OIS)], a 50MP telephoto lens (with 2x optical zoom) and a 12MP ultra-wide lens (with 120-degree field of view). There are two 32MP selfie cameras on the front of the smartphone. On paper, this is one of the most versatile camera setups at this price range.

But how does that translate in the real world? It’s mostly positive, except for one misstep. Scenery and landscape photos, just like on the Xiaomi 14, were my favourite things to click with the Xiaomi 14 Civi. The Xiaomi 14 Civi’s Leica colour science adds an artistic effect to the photos, which will work with many users. The resulting photos of buildings, blue skies, flowers, and more, were vibrant and packed a punch. The dynamic range was also handled well by this camera system. Users can choose from options for Leica Authentic (natural colours) and Leica Vibrant (punchy colours).

The Xiaomi 14 Civi focuses on portrait shots (using the 50MP telephoto lens). The 1x and 2x shots were pleasing and had a good amount of background blur and subject separation. There’s freedom to experiment with a few different Leica-tuned filters and focal lenses to choose from. This is just one of the ways in which the Xiaomi 14 Civi stands out from the crowd.

The only downside is that the Xiaomi 14 Civi tends to smoothen out facial features. As a result, you tend to miss out on some of the details and facial sharpness. At times, portrait shots were a hit or miss, compared to the Vivo V30 Pro or even the iQOO Neo 9 Pro.

The Xiaomi 14 Civi barely edges out the OnePlus 12R in low-light photography. The photos from the Xiaomi 14 Civi at night are pleasing to the eye but lack some details. The telephoto is where the Xiaomi 14 Civi’s camera system falters as it lacks OIS. In daylight it’s good, but it is tough to get a good shot with the telephoto lens during low-light situations.

Selfies with the primary front-facing camera capture good sharpness and natural skin tones. The wide-angle selfie camera tends to wash out the colours a little, and you might want to avoid using it. One good thing is that the camera will autodetect the number of people in the frame and adjust the zoom levels accordingly.

As I said before, the Civi in the Xiaomi 14 Civi stands for Cinematic Vision, and there are plenty of modes to play around with while recording videos. Content creators can breathe a sigh of relief as all four cameras can shoot 4K videos. Since the primary camera comes with OIS, it’ll be the best for recording videos. With the Cinematic Vision mode, you can shoot in widescreen (with an aspect ratio of 2:4:1) and it comes with subject tracking.

Performance and software

The phone is no slouch, thanks to the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset. Paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB/512GB of USF 4.0 storage, the smartphone flies during daily tasks. With my usage of YouTube videos, watching sports via Hotstar, texting via Telegram and WhatsApp, Google Meet calls, and lots of photography, I faced no noticeable stutters or lags.

With that being said, the Xiaomi 14 Civi isn’t meant to be a gaming smartphone. You could play casual games, but if you’re a daily Call of Duty: Mobile (or a similar game) gamer, then you’re better off buying a gaming-focused smartphone.

HyperOS has a much better interface than MIUI. It’s slowly improving by becoming cleaner and lighter (though some bloatware still exists). There’s a lot more customisations, and overall, it feels smoother than before. Xiaomi has promised three years of software updates and up to four years of security patches.

Battery life

Xiaomi managed to fit in a 4,700mAh battery in the slim profile of the smartphone, less than the 5,000mAh unit we’re used to in many competitor smartphones. Still, the Xiaomi 14 Civi is an all-day smartphone, but don’t expect anything over that. With a typical usage pattern, you’d be reaching out for the charger by the next morning. On heavy days (when you’re out and about taking a lot of photos and videos), you’d be charging the phone before you hit the bed.

What’s good though is the 67W fast charging adapter that comes in the box and can take the phone from 0-100 per cent in around 40 minutes. A handy feature when you are running low on time.

Verdict

The Xiaomi 14 Civi is an easy recommendation as long as you’re not looking to game on your smartphone.

To me, the Xiaomi 14 Civi is a double-edged sword. It’s an extremely well-rounded phone – one that makes the Xiaomi 14 (with a starting price of ₹69,999) feel redundant. Yes, the Xiaomi 14 can take better portraits, has a slightly better in-hand feel and lasts longer on a single charge, but apart from that, there isn’t much to differentiate the two. 

For most consumers, the Xiaomi 14 Civi makes for a better buy than the Xiaomi 14, but it also faces tough competition from the Vivo V30 Pro, OnePlus 12R, the iQOO Neo 9 Pro, and other smartphones.

Sahil Bhalla is a Delhi-based writer. He posts @IMSahilBhalla.

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