The Xiaomi 14 Pro comes packed with the latest and greatest SoC in Android smartphones, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. A new, smaller image sensor known as 'Light Hunter 900', assumed to be from Omnivision, replaces the Sony IMX989 in the 1-inch format. The camera lens allows for a variable aperture up to f/4.0, adding a depth dimension to images. The Xiaomi 14 Pro is currently available only in China with prices starting from around $864 for the base model featuring a 12 GB RAM and 256 GB flash storage, while the top version with 16 GB RAM and 1 TB storage costs approximately $1,060.

Unlike the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, the aperture of the 14 Pro can be opened in multiple steps. Xiaomi also opted for an in-house material, known as Xiaomi Ceramic Glass, instead of Gorilla Glass from Corning. According to the manufacturer, the new glass offers 20% more protection from breakage than the Ceramic Shield of the Apple iPhone 15 Pro. The flagship device from the Chinese manufacturer is also water and dust resistant, featuring an IP68 certified casing. The Xiaomi smartphone is nearly identical in dimensions to the 13 Pro model, but the display-to-surface ratio is slightly improved due to slimmer bezels around the OLED panel.

In contrast to its predecessor, the Xiaomi 14 Pro now comes with a fast USB connection. Even though the smartphone is equipped with Bluetooth 5.4, Miracast, and NFC, it lacks an IR blaster or an ultrawide-band chip. The USB port, although theoretically very fast, has a sluggish transfer speed of 311 MB/s in our copy test using a connected M2.SSD drive. The phone doesn't offer an optional storage expansion or an audio port.

The Xiaomi 14 Pro comes preloaded with the Xiaomi HyperOS kernel, a blend of Linux and the in-house developed Vela system. This is the first time a smartphone uses this kernel. However, those expecting a completely novel Android-based operating system with HyperOS might be disappointed due to the visual and menu structure similarities with the MIUI user interface. Xiaomi aims to provide four years of software updates for the 14 Pro, along with security patches for an additional year.

Regarding the 14 Pro's location-finding abilities, there are occasional slight deviations from the actual route, particularly during turns. The smartphone uses Beidou, GPS, Galileo, and GLONASS satellite systems for positioning, most often in dual-band mode. The Xiaomi 14 Pro features dual-SIM capabilities with two nano-SIM card slots in the 5G network. While the voice quality of the built-in microphones is pleasing, you may encounter some minor annoying sounds.

The resolution of the 32-MP selfie camera remains unchanged compared to the predecessor. However, the newer model now supports 4K videos at 60 fps, and the picture quality has visibly improved, even though the 14 Pro is not a selfie specialist. Despite the high light sensitivity of f/1.42 compared to the predecessor's f/1.9, the image quality of the new Leica Summilux lens raises questions about brightness and noise under low-light conditions and sharpness of images.

In playing games from the Play Store, High Frame Rate gaming is possible with the Xiaomi 14 Pro, but only for older games such as Dead Trigger. During our testing, the 14 Pro achieved 60 fps in PUBG mobile with medium settings, dropping to a stable 40 fps on higher settings. The 14 Pro encounters high heat build-up during testing, leading to inconsistent performance at times. Buyers should also be aware of the reduced frequency band coverage for the Chinese version of the Xiaomi 14 Pro.