Realme 14x 5G Review: specs and features, camera quality test, gaming benchmark, user opinions and photos

Realme 14X 5G - numerous compromises

The last few years in the low-mid price segment of the smartphone market have clearly seen some stagnation. Technical characteristics in terms of performance are marking time, the phones produced very rarely have new competitive advantages. And the Chinese company Realme tried to solve the current situation. However, the final result was quite controversial.

The appearance of the new product turned out to be beautiful, but not without drawbacks. If the widespread use of plastic instead of glass or metal is easy enough to forgive, but the huge lower frame of the screen looks mediocre. But the design of the camera block, stunning colors of the cases and the side fingerprint sensor look competitive. But what you don’t expect to see in an inexpensive device is moisture protection according to IP69 standards, which also did not affect the dimensions and ergonomics. But the 6.67-inch IPS display is rather disappointing. Still, it is not worth using a resolution of 1604x720 pixels with such a diagonal, because small fonts and icons seem blurry. But the image is smooth (refresh rate of 120 Hz), natural in color rendering and bright for the technology used (peak brightness of 950 nits).

The MediaTek Dimensity 6300 processor with support for 5G networks is not the best, but a good solution for the cost category. Together with 6 GB / 8 GB of RAM and a Mali G57-MC2 video accelerator, the CPU scores more than 350 thousand points in the AnTuTu test and copes with the proprietary RealmeUI shell (Android 14), minimizing possible lags. But the chipset, of course, does not have flagship gaming capabilities. Really resource-demanding applications like Honkai: Star Rail will have to be launched with minimum graphics settings. Only then will the gameplay be more or less stable. As for autonomy, with a 6000 mAh battery, it is excellent. Searching for sockets will be relevant only after a couple of days, and you do not need to be near them for a long time thanks to fast charging at 45 W. The permanent memory of 128/256 GB can be expanded with MicroSD cards.

But where the device has problems is in photography. The main 50 and 2-megapixel photo sensors without optical stabilization are suitable only for daytime shooting, while the increased dynamics of objects in the frame are not welcome. Evening shots will often be spoiled by a lot of noise. There are no stereo speakers, and a separate headphone jack is not installed. The lack of NFC contactless payments is very disappointing, which is due to the gadget's orientation to the Indian region. The release of the global version will correct this shortcoming, but the device has too many other disadvantages to definitely recommend it for purchase.