Xiaomi 14 Pro Powered By Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 & HyperOS Launched

There is a lot of new stuff happening for Xiaomi, which is the world's third largest smartphone maker. It is also number three in India. It has unveiled its brand new smartphones, the Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Pro, which are powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset which was announced at the Snapdragon Summit earlier this week. In fact, these phones were teased by Xiaomi executives at the Summit in Maui. These phones are also the first ones which have Xiaomi's new operating system that is based on Android called HyperOS, which is the successor to MiUI.

At 6.36-inches the Xiaomi 14 is a rather compact phone by modern standards but it has an OLED screen with LTPO technology with the refresh rate scaling up to 120Hz. But the brightness level of its screen is through the charts at 3,000 nits which is higher than the iPhone 15, Pixel 8 and the new OnePlus Open foldable. It is available in Jade Green, Black, White and Snow Mountain Pink. It uses the 2nd generation nano skin technology that Xiaomi developed with the 13 Ultra.

Design-wise this phone draws inspiration from the latest iPhones but the camera tech is co-engineered by the German photography icon Leica. There is a 50-megapixel light fusion imaging module coupled with a 50-megapixel zoom lens with 3.2x optical zoom and a 50-megapixel wide angle lens.

Other specs include 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, a 4,610mAh battery with 90W charging and 50W wireless charging. It has USB Type C 3.1 which means with a Type C cable you can connect the phone to a monitor.

The Xiaomi 14 Pro builds on the fundamentals of the Xiaomi 14. It is like a Pro Max with a 6.7-inch QHD+ OLED screen with the same LTPO tech that has a 120Hz refresh rate and up to 3000 nits of brightness. It supports Dolby Vision and 1,920Hz PWM dimming coupled with Xiaomi's own ceramic glass as the cover glass, something that OnePlus has also done for the Open. It is touted to be stronger than Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

The bigger iPhone influence comes in the fact that the Xiaomi 14 Pro has a titanium model but there will also be a cheaper model that includes stainless steel rails. The processor is the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 but now there is 12GB RAM, 256GB storage and a larger 4,860mAh battery with 120W charging and 50W wireless charging. The device is also IP68 dust and water resistant.

While the cameras are similar, the main wide angle camera now has a variable aperture which ranges from F/1.4 to F/4.0 which adds versatility. The ultra-wide camera doubles as a macro camera. HyperOS brings a new human-centric design language and it will even run on cars apart from connected devices.

The pricing of the phones across SKUs are:

•Xiaomi 14 (8GB + 256GB): CNY 3,999 ($548/ ₹45,000)

•Xiaomi 14 (12GB + 256GB): CNY 4,299 ($588/₹48,500)

•Xiaomi 14 (16GB + 512GB): CNY 4,599 ($630/₹52,000)

•Xiaomi 14 (16GB + 1TB): CNY 4,999 ($685/₹56,500)

•Xiaomi 14 Pro (12GB + 256GB): CNY 4,999 ($685/₹56,500)

•Xiaomi 14 Pro (16GB + 512GB): CNY 5,499 ($752/₹62,000)

•Xiaomi 14 Pro (16GB + 1TB): CNY 5,999 ($821/₹67,500)

•Xiaomi 14 Pro Titanium (16GB + 1TB): CNY 6,499 ($890/₹73,500)

iQOO has also announced that its next flagship smartphone will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. And one can expect a battalion of other vendors to bring out high end phones with Qualcomm's latest chipset.