Xiaomi 14 Civi launching in India today, reinvents the flagship killer in 2024. Allow me to explain.
Flagship killers are a great bargain. Who wouldn’t want a phone with a flagship processor and speedy charging at lower—or less than flagship—prices? But then, most flagship killers have been just that — high performance devices with quick charging and a few other conveniences here and there. There’s no problem with that. OnePlus made its whole brand from ground up, from that concept. Look where it is now.
But over the years, as technology matured, people wanted more. A good smartphone camera was one such thing and OnePlus wasn’t giving it to them. Not for the lack of trying, but OnePlus simply couldn’t get their cameras right. Even today, with the whole might of Oppo behind it—officially—the results have been far from what we expect. Competitors like Samsung, Vivo, and Motorola saw the gap and tried to fill it. Only Vivo was able to crack the code. The Vivo V30 Pro brought legendary ZEISS optics to a more affordable price point elevating the camera experience for more people. What could go wrong?
The Vivo V30 Pro lacked a metal frame, stereo speakers, and NFC. But the bigger downside was the underlying processor. Vivo used the same MediaTek Dimensity 8200, three years in a row. That’s really inexcusable for a phone at Rs 42,000. Worst of all, Vivo only committed to two major OS and three years of security updates, delivering the final blow. The Vivo V30 Pro was dead on arrival despite its excellent camera setup. It was no flagship killer, leaving the onus on OnePlus once again. The OnePlus 12R played by the book. It got the job done, despite the false advertising controversy. But Vivo’s cameras made its cameras look ridiculously bad. We were back to square one.
Enter the Xiaomi 14 Civi
The Xiaomi 14 Civi takes the best bits out of the OnePlus 12R and Vivo V30 Pro and brings them under one roof, all in a very Xiaomi way. It’s got the power and performance to match the OnePlus 12R and cameras to beat the pants off the Vivo V30 Pro. It, like Vivo, is making optics from Leica—another photography giant—more accessible. While on the processor front, it’s rocking the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, which as we have already seen on the Poco F6, is blazing fast. The big difference is that Xiaomi does cooling a bit better, so your phone doesn’t turn into a piping oven in this hot Delhi weather.
It’s easier said than done because the Xiaomi 14 Civi is an insanely slim and light phone. It measures only 7.4 mm and weighs just 177 grams. That’s actually slimmer and lighter than the Vivo V30 Pro despite it having a glass back and metal frame. Our shadow black variant has a matte finish which makes it slippery, but build and styling leave a long lasting impression while staying put in the hands. The phone is uniquely curved on all four sides from the front as well as from the back. Xiaomi doesn’t specify the panel on the back but the front has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2. There is no IP rating.
Xiaomi isn’t using an LTPO panel like OnePlus—in the 12R—but aside from that, everything about it is high-quality. You get a 6.55-inch 120Hz AMOLER display with a 1.5K reposition. Xiaomi claims it can top 3,000 nits, a fair number, even if Realme has been able to pull 6,000 nits in some of its recent launches. Dolby Vision content is supported natively and works beautifully on the Xiaomi 14 Civi. A blast from the past is its pill-shaped notch that houses two 32-megapixel selfie cameras— one wide and another ultra wide. There is autofocus and the ability to record in 4K (@30fps). The back camera setup is a combination of a 50-megapixel wide lens, a 50-megapixel 2x telephoto lens, and a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens. The Leica partnership lets you choose from a wide variety of colour and LUT styles while features like movie mode give you plenty of legroom to experiment with videos (the back setup can do both 4K HDR video @30fps and standard 4K @60fps).
Software is driven by Xiaomi HyperOS based on Android 14 while the phone itself is backed by a 4,700 mAh battery with support for 67W fast charging. The phone doesn’t skimp on connectivity either. It has 5G, Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 6, and NFC. You also get stereo speakers and an in-screen fingerprint scanner for biometrics.
Xiaomi has placed the Civi smack in the middle of the OnePlus 12R and the Vivo V30 Pro. It comes in a choice of 8GB/256GB and 12GB/512GB (both with LPDDR5x RAM and UFS4.0 storage) at a price of Rs 42,999 and Rs 47,999. The ongoing embargo stops us from putting our detailed thoughts out but we stand by the headline and even if it doesn’t turn out to be a hit, there’s enough fire in its belly to make rivals sit up and take notice. People deserve an all-rounder phone at these prices today, not a one trick pony. That’s what the Xiaomi 14 Civi tries to give them. Hopefully, the upcoming Realme GT 6 and Motorola Edge 50 Ultra will put up a good fight.
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