Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5GMANILA - The Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus 5G is a midrange phone with a great screen, good cameras, decent specs, good battery, plus dust and water resistance. The price is not bad either for a phone with all of these features.

It is also a good looking gadget despite mirroring the design of other phones. The screen curves to the side, with a punch hole at the top for the selfie camera. It has a glass back, glossy aluminum frame, and a camera module at the center--all of which me of the design of a top flagship from another brand.

I liked the matte texture of the back, which seems more resistant to collecting fingerprints from my sometimes oily hands. I also liked the Midnight Black colorway, which was our review unit's color. But the phone also comes in lighter shades of Frost Blue and Lavender Purple.  

Redmi Note 14 Pro+ 5G

Launched in the Philippines last Jan. 15, the Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus 5G is the latest entry in Xiaomi's expansive selection of midrange phones, and it is a formidable contender for something at this price range.

Our review unit came with 12GB of memory and 512GB of storage and it was listed at Xiaomi's official online store at Lazada at P24,999. It comes in other memory and storage configurations though. The 8GB + 256GB variant meanwhile was listed at a more affordable P20,999 while the middle of the road 12GB + 256GB model was P22,999.

There is also a Shopee variant with an 8GB + 256GB configuration that sells for P18,999.

This phone features the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a 1.5K resolution and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Its 1920Hz PWM dimming also reduces eye strain, especially when browsing at night.

It's nice that the phone can be unlocked via a fingerprint scanner on the screen instead of on the side. Face unlock was also pretty fast.

The phone also comes with a 5110mAh battery, which is an improvement over other midrangers that have just a 5,000 mAh battery.  

It also comes with a 200MP main wide-angle camera with optical image stabilization and a f/1.65 aperture. Supporting this is an 8MP ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 and a 2MP macro camera f/2.4. Rounding up the shooters is a 20MP front camera for selfies.

The main camera has a setting of up to 4x zoom, but keep in mind that this is a digital crop from the 200MP sensor instead of an actual optical zoom like in flagship cameras. Despite this, the shots still look pretty decent in well-lit surroundings and scenes that don't require a very wide dynamic range.

SAMPLE SHOTS

The ultrawide camera also takes decent shots, and can come in pretty handy for tight interiors or wide landscapes.

That being said, the camera seems to struggle with high contrast scenes. Selfies can look a bit soft especially when shot against the light--so users need to keep this in mind when they frame their shot.

Content creators on a budget will be happy to know that the main camera can record 4K footage at 30 frames per second and 1080p at 30/60fps. Daylight videos are good, but night time videos are what you'd expect from a midrange phone.

I tried taking a video of the fireworks display last New Year's Eve, and the video was a little darker than I expected. But then again night-time video is also challenging for other phones in this price level.

Can this handle games? Yes, the Snapdragon 7 and 12GB of memory are more than enough for most mobile games. The larger-than-average battery also means extra juice for hours of gaming.

A nice bonus for a midranger is the IP68 dust and water resistance rating, which means this thing can survive getting splashed and even dunked in water, and maybe even being left in the sand of a beach.

All in all, the Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus 5G is a strong contender in its segment. It looks good, has strong specs, and it's not badly priced either.