Today, Xiaomi subsidiary Redmi is bringing its affordable Note 14 series to Europe, as well as the Western debut of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. After launching in August 2024, Qualcomm’s chip had to sit back and watch while the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite arrived two months later, garnered more attention, and even made its first appearance in a Western phone in the form of the OnePlus 13 unveiled this week. But the more affordable Snapdragon chip is now paying off.
There are five phones in the Note 14 lineup, ranging from the 4G-only Note 14 to the Note 14 Pro Plus 5G, the only phone in the series to run on a Snapdragon silicon chip. The entry-level chip in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 series, the 7s Gen 3 is a 4nm chipset that is most notable for its move to Arm’s v9 processor architecture with a 2.5GHz Cortex-A720 core at the heart of the processor. The other four phones use different MediaTek chipsets.
The Pro Plus, priced at £399/€499.90 (about $500), is positioned as a natural competitor to the $499 Google Pixel 8A, but is far ahead of it in most hardware features: improved IP68 water resistance, up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and a larger and brighter OLED display protected by Corning’s flagship-grade Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The big compromise is in the software, especially since Google guarantees Android updates for the Pixel 8A until 2031.
The rest of the Note 14 phones offer a gradual decline in specs and connectivity. The Note 14 Pro 5G has the Pro Plus display, 200-megapixel camera, and IP68 rating, but features a cheaper MediaTek 7300-Ultra chipset and slower charging. The regular Redmi Note 14 Pro is similar, but ditches 5G connectivity in favor of 4G and has only an IP64 rating. The Note 14 and Note 14 5G have downgraded specs, although the 4G model’s IP54 water resistance is still impressive for a phone that costs less than half the price of the Pixel 8A.
All four phones were launched in China and then India late last year, but today they are on sale in ten European countries, including the UK and Germany. Somewhat disconcertingly, the European models differ from their Asian counterparts in terms of specifications – for example, the Pro Plus 5G has completely different cameras and battery, which is not uncommon for Redmi.
The Redmi Note 14 series already has stiff competition from the Xiaomi family, after the Poco X7 and X7 Pro were launched worldwide yesterday at a similar price. These phones rely on IP68 protection and large batteries – 6,000 mAh for the Pro – in an attempt to lure budget buyers away from Google and Samsung.
