- Xiaomi has updated the lineups for its Poco and Redmi brands
- The Poco X7 and Redmi Note 14 Pro families focus on offering specific flagship features at a low price
- A Xiaomi spokesperson described this strategy as “democratizing” flagship features
Xiaomi has unveiled a range of new budget and mid-range smartphones under its Poco and Redmi sub-brands, with a total of six new models heading to the UK market in the coming weeks.
Poco X7 and Poco X7 Pro are the most powerful of the bunch; both are designed with gaming and sustained performance in mind and feature sporty black and yellow color options, with the Poco X7 Pro boasting a soft PU leather back panel.
The Poco X7 is equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset and a triple camera system with a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro camera. The Poco X7 Pro steps up to the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chipset and loses the macro camera. Both the phones have a 20 MP selfie camera.
The two new Poco phones also feature a 6.67-inch 1.5K display, with the X7 using a curved design and the X7 Pro having a flatter profile more akin to modern flagships. As for the battery, the X7 has a 5,110mAh cell with 45W wired charging, while the X7 Pro uses a shared 6,000mAh battery with up to 90W fast wired charging.
The Poco X7 starts at £249 for 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, with the X7 Pro starting at £309 for the same configuration.
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Xiaomi’s other new line of budget phones is the Redmi Note 14 series, which includes five models. The Note 14 comes as a single 4G-enabled version; The Note 14 Pro comes in both a 5G and a lower-spec 4G variant; and the higher-end Note 14 Pro Plus comes as a single 5G-enabled version.
The Note 14 Pro Plus is the most technically capable of the new Redmi models, boasting a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chipset, a curved 6.67-inch 120Hz 1.5k display and a 5110mAh battery that supports a impressive 120W wired charging speed. The phone is also equipped with a 200 MP main camera with optical image stabilization that enables up to 4x zoom via sensor crop and up to 30x digital zoom.
The Note 14 Pro 5G and its less powerful 4G version both have the same 200MP camera. The 5G version has the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset, while the 4G version has the MediaTek Helio G100-Ultra chipset. Both phones are equipped with a curved 6.67-inch 1.5K display.
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As for the base model Note 14, the phone has a MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, 108 MP camera and a flat 6.67-inch 120Hz FHD+ AMOLED display.
Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus starts at £399, Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G at £299, and Redmi Note 14 Pro 4G at £249; they all start with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The base model Redmi Note 14 starts at £179 for 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
Personally, I can see parallels between Xiaomi’s strategy and Samsung’s budget-friendly A-series phones, which are among the best budget phones out there. Like Samsung, Xiaomi’s updated lineup of devices features gradual incremental performance increases to meet a wide range of needs and budgets.
Xiaomi’s lack of presence in the US and relative lack of impact in the UK will hamper any chance of that really takes the fight to Samsung, but the inclusion of high-resolution cameras and huge fast-charging batteries at these low prices should have the South Korean giant looking over its shoulder.
Democratizing flagship features
At an official pre-launch event, a Xiaomi spokesperson told TechRadar about the methodology behind bringing flagship features, such as 6,000mAh batteries and 50MP wide-aperture cameras, to the company’s budget models.
“What we’re looking at when we talk about democratizing features is making sure we’re still offering a great experience for our valuable customers and customers who might not be able to afford our premium flagship devices,” the spokesperson explained.
They added: “For example, wireless charging is not something we have in the Redmi devices. We have it in our Xiaomi devices – but we still offer 120W hypercharging on the Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus.”
“It’s going to be about what the pricing structure is for the device,” the spokesperson added, “we look at the device and what the price point is and what we can do within that price point for consumers […] The second point is user feedback. We look at social media, we have our own Xiaomi fans that we talk to directly – it helps us with direction and it’s something we’ve been doing since the beginning of Xiaomi.”
If these new budget phones prove to be suitable handsets, we could be looking at some new additions to our list of the best Xiaomi phones. For the latest updates, be sure to check out our dedicated Xiaomi phone coverage.
