Xiaomi Redmi 14C smartphone review - Budget phone with a faster screen than the iPhone

On the one hand, the Xiaomi Redmi 14C is a stylish, very well-built and well-equipped phone for its price range. The long battery life, the fast screen and the good performance of the camera system are also impressive.

There is no need to worry about PWM flickering even at low brightness, there are many Bluetooth audio codecs for wireless sound transmission and there is hardly any noticeable warming even after prolonged use.

On the other hand, there is the SoC, for whose choice Xiaomi has to listen to clear criticism: The new name actually hides an older SoC, which can now also drive 120 Hz screens. Otherwise, however, it even offers slightly less performance than the SoC of its predecessor Redmi 13C and this is definitely noticeable in everyday use in this low price range.

It's great that you have the choice between an understated and unusual casing, as this allows the Redmi phone to blend in unobtrusively in any environment or become a real eye-catcher. The Redmi 14C is also attractive thanks to the already significantly reduced price on the Internet. And 4 years of guaranteed software updates is no bad thing in this price range.

The three officially available color variants of the Redmi 14C are widely available in Europe, including both memory versions. Even the purple variant can be found at some retailers.

Compared to the manufacturer's official price, the phone is already available at a significantly lower price, for example at amazon.de, where the 128 GB model cost less than 120 Euros (~$126) at the time of testing.

Xiaomi gathers its price breakers under the "Redmi" brand, which usually offer a lot of features for little money.

The Xiaomi Redmi 14C is another particularly affordable smartphone: it is available for less than 150 Euros (~$158). Nevertheless, the manufacturer has provided plenty of memory, a large battery and a fast display, which can even compete with significantly more expensive devices.

In this test, we take a closer look at the affordable Redmi phone.

The chassis of the Xiaomi Redmi 14C is made of plastic and is available in different colors: In Europe, there are three variants, namely the classic Midnight Black with a matte surface and the olive green Sage Green with a light texture.

More interesting is Starry Blue, which has a color gradient from gray to blue and changes its appearance slightly depending on the incidence of light thanks to the circular lines that have been ground into it. A lavender-colored back is also available internationally.

There are clearly visible edges around the screen on the front, but these are relatively narrow for an inexpensive smartphone. Xiaomi does not provide any information about the protective glass for the screen.

With its 6.88-inch screen, the Redmi 14C is quite a large smartphone and this is also reflected in its weight, which comes in at 211 grams (~7.4 oz). Overall, it feels good in the hand and the edges are pleasantly rounded. The workmanship is also impressive, material transitions are barely noticeable. The phone is also very stable and can hardly be twisted or dented.

The Redmi 14C is available with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. There is also a larger version with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB mass storage; the difference in price from the manufacturer is 30 Euros (~$32). Other RAM sizes are stated on the packaging, but these are due to virtual RAM, i.e. a swap file in the much slower data memory.

NFC for contactless payments is on board.

The Xiaomi Redmi 14C is a 4G phone, so you have to do without the fast 5G network. We randomly test the signal strength during our test period and see that the Xiaomi Redmi 14C sometimes has problems ensuring good reception, especially in difficult locations such as between tall buildings.

WiFi 5 is used as the fastest Wi-Fi standard. Our test device achieved transfer rates of around 300 to 350 MBit/s, which is in line with the expected values. When transmitting, there are sometimes dips as low as 221 MBit/s, which also occurred repeatedly during the test. Data reception, on the other hand, is more consistent.

Thanks to the ability to reach 120 Hz the display is quite smooth to use, but the device does occasionally stutter, probably due to the slow SoC. A fingerprint sensor is built into the standby button on the right, which unlocks the smartphone quite quickly after one-time learning.

Xiaomi delivers the Redmi 14C with HyperOS 1, which is still based on Android 14. The operating system is heavily customized, so you have to get used to it in many areas if you previously used a cleaner Android.

Security updates are guaranteed until 26.09.2028. However, it is not stated how frequent these will be. There is also no information on how many new OS versions the device will receive.

There are no specific statements on the sustainability of the device, nor are there any repair manuals. Nevertheless, you can find out the approximate cost of spare parts for a repair on the website of Xiaomi and the packaging is largely plastic-free.

The MediaTek Helio G81 Ultra, which is used as SoC in our test device, largely corresponds to the Helio G80, apart from its ability to drive 120 Hz displays. However, this also suggests that the Redmi 14C has slightly less performance than the Redmi 13C, which is equipped with a slightly more powerful Helio G85.

And our benchmarks actually confirm this: The Redmi 14C lags slightly behind its predecessor in terms of both CPU and GPU performance. Given the already low performance level, this definitely makes a difference in everyday use: The Redmi 14C stutters a little more often in everyday use and does not always run as smoothly as its predecessor despite the nominally faster 120 Hz display.

The slow eMMC flash has not changed either: Data is thus only copied relatively slowly and app loading times are long.

The maximum temperature rise after prolonged load is moderate at 42.6 °C (~109 °F) on the casing. The 3DMark stress tests also show hardly any drop in performance after several benchmark runs.

The sound from the mono speaker is generally thin, but at least offers a little more low mid-range than the predecessor. External audio devices can be connected via the 3.5mm audio port. Almost all current Bluetooth audio codecs are available for wireless connections with headphones or speakers.

At 5,160 mAh, the battery in the Redmi 14C offers slightly more capacity than its predecessor and also manages slightly longer runtimes in our Wi-Fi test: our test device lasted 16:16 hours. This is a good value, so you should be able to use the device for two days without charging. The device can be charged with a maximum of 18 watts, but does not come with a charger. The cell phone works well with our existing chargers and needs around 2:15 hours for a full charging cycle.

The Xiaomi Redmi 14C impresses with its 120 Hz display and good camera considering the price. The sturdy, attractive and well-made casing is also a plus point. Compared to its predecessor, however, the performance has been reduced somewhat, which is quite noticeable in an entry-level phone and does not leave a good impression.

Overall, you get a very high-quality phone with lots of features for little money, but without 5G.