Verdict on Xiaomi's Redmi Note 14 5G: Budget-friendly smartphone impresses with powerful hardware

Xiaomi’s Redmi series offers budget-friendly smartphones that fall into the mid-range segment. The current lineup contains five devices: the Redmi Note 14 LTE, Redmi Note 14 5G, Redmi Note 14 Pro, Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G, and the Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G. In terms of price, the official MSRP ranges between €200 and €530, at least if buyers opt for the base model with the smallest amount of RAM and storage.

Smooth performance for everyday use

Xiaomi has made the rather unusual decision to launch some of its 2025 smartphones without 5G support. Therefore, the most affordable 5G smartphone in this series is the Redmi Note 14 5G, which proved to be a pretty good budget phone with solid performance and features.

We found that the MediaTek Dimensity 7025 with 8GB RAM provides enough power for smooth everyday usage, while the 5,110mAh battery contributes to a decent but below-average battery life. The Redmi Note 14 5G also sports a bright 120Hz AMOLED display, a 108MP main camera and a lightweight but well-made chassis with IP64 certification, which means that it's protected against dust and splashes of water.

256GB storage, NFC and stereo speakers

Stereo speakers, NFC, an IR blaster, 256GB of mass storage and a microSD card reader for storage expansion round off the feature set of the Xiaomi smartphone. The European version of the Redmi Note 14 5G supports all important frequencies for the region including bands 1, 3, 28, 77 and 78. Meanwhile, the handset utilizes Wi-Fi 5 and had stable transfer rates of around 350MB/s in our testing.

But in order to keep the price low, Xiaomi had to do some cost-cutting. For instance, a fitting 45W charger is not included in the box, and the smartphone does not support eSIM. Furthermore, the company promises security patches until 2029, but just two major OS updates from Android 14 to Android 16.

For more details on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 5G, please check out our full-fledged review.