Realme brought its latest 14 series to India in January with the Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro+. The new phones bring improvements over the Realme 13 Pro series but are now slightly cheaper than before. The Realme 14 Pro+ sits at the top and comes with a new chipset, improved design and durability, a larger battery, and slightly better cameras with some alien-looking flash setup. I’ve been using the phone for a couple of weeks now, and here’s my take on the latest flagship Realme number series.
The Realme 14 Pro+ 5G starts at Rs. 29,999 for the 8GB + 128GB variant. You could also get the phone in 8GB + 256GB and 12GB + 256GB options, which will cost you Rs. 31,999 and Rs. 34,999, respectively. The phone is available in Bikaner Purple, Pearl White, and Suede Grey colourways. We received the top-end variant in Suede Grey.
Realme 14 Pro+ Design: Stylish and durable
- Dimensions – 163.51×77.34×8.29mm (Suede Grey)
- Weight – 196g
- Colours – Pearl White, Suede Grey, Bikaner Purple
The Realme 14 Pro+ introduces several subtle design refinements over its predecessor. The signature circular camera module remains at the back, but the watch-like outer ring has been replaced with a sleek metal bezel. The updated camera module now incorporates three LED flash units, branded as the “MagicGlow” system by Realme.
The luxury watch design from last year is no more
Our Suede Grey review unit features a vegan leather suede back panel, offering a noticeably softer texture compared to the standard vegan leather finishes found on other smartphones. Meanwhile, the Pearl White variant boasts a unique temperature-sensitive rear panel that reacts to cold—turning streaked blue when the ambient temperature falls below 16°C. This variant is also slightly slimmer at 7.9mm.
The suede vegan leather is soft to the touch and offers a premium feel
The rear panel’s quad-curved design enhances the phone’s ergonomics, delivering a smooth, premium in-hand feel. While the frame is made of plastic, it sports a glossy finish. The power and volume buttons are positioned on the right, while the bottom houses the SIM tray, a microphone, a loudspeaker, and a USB Type-C port. At the top, there’s another microphone, a speaker, and an IR blaster.
The frame is still made from plastic
Realme has also bolstered the 14 Pro+’s durability. It boasts an IP69 rating for resistance against high-pressure water jets, an IP66 rating for protection from dust and water jets, and an IP68 rating for submersion in up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes. Additionally, the handset meets US MIL-STD-810H military-grade durability standards.
Realme 14 Pro+ Display: Immersive
- Size and type – 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED, 450ppi, Quad curved
- Refresh rate – 120Hz
- Protection – Corning Gorilla Glass 7i
Realme 14 Pro+ features a slightly larger screen compared to the previous generation. The display also features a quad-curved design, which makes the already slim symmetrical bezels appear slimmer. This also translates to a more immersive experience. The curved sides aren’t very deep and don’t register any ghost touches.
The display is bright and vivid but lacks HDR support
You get a hole-punch cutout at the top for the selfie camera, and an optical under-display fingerprint scanner is on the lower part of the screen. The ear speaker cutout above the display is barely visible, but it’s there. The display offers up to 1,500 nits peak brightness and is easy to read under direct sunlight. It is a 10-bit panel, but you don’t get HDR or Dolby Vision certifications.
The phone lets you choose between auto, 60Hz, and 120Hz refresh rates, and you can also change the colour profile.
Realme 14 Pro+ Software: There’s some Bloatware
- UI – Realme UI 6.0
- OS – Android 15
- Latest security patch – February 2025
Like most Realme phones, the software on the 14 Pro+ is riddled with bloatware. However, most of these can be uninstalled or disabled. If you ignore the bloatware, which you can’t, you’re treated with a software experience similar to Oppo’s Color OS or OnePlus’ Oxygen OS. The phone runs Realme UI 6.0, which is based on Android 15. Realme promises 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security patches.
You’ll find plenty of bloatware on the phone
In terms of usage, the Quick settings and notifications are now separate. You still get the Smart Sidebar feature, and there are a couple of unique features, such as Air Gestures. There are several AI features sprinkled across the system as well, including Google’s Circle to Search and Gemini. You’ll also find AI Eraser and AI Ultra Clarity tools in the Gallery app. Most of the time, the erase feature did a good job, but it’s not very accurate.
Realme 14 Pro+ Performance: Good enough
- SoC – Snapdragon 7s Gen 3
- RAM – Up to 12GB LPDDR4X
- Storage – Up to 256GB UFS 3.1
The Realme 14 Pro+ has an improved chipset when compared to the older 13 Pro+. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 is a 4nm octa-core chipset that is paired with up to 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. Animations across the user interface, navigation, and daily tasks are easily handled. App launches are also quick.
The phone performs well in day-to-day usage
We ran our usual set of synthetic benchmarks on the phone, which did about as well as other phones with a similar chipset. However, the 14 Pro+ did slightly better than newer phones such as the Nothing Phone 3a.
| Benchmarks | Realme 14 Pro+ | Redmi Note 14 Pro+ | Nothing Phone 3a | Poco X7 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench Single | 1,188 | 1,168 | 1,158 | 1,549 |
| Geekbench Multi | 3,224 | 3,238 | 3,255 | 6,216 |
| AnTuTu V10 | 8,29,560 | 724,770 | 8,04,179 | 16,02,933 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 14,157 | 14,198 | 13,554 | 14,628 |
| GFXB T-rex | 74fps | N/A | 60fps | 120fps |
| GFXB Manhattan 3.1 | 38fps | N/A | 55fps | 118fps |
| GFXB Car Chase | 20fps | N/A | 28fps | 89fps |
| 3DM Slingshot Extreme OpenGL | 5,500 | Maxed Out | 5,485 | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Slingshot | 7,017 | Maxed Out | 6,954 | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life | 4,195 | 4,599 | 3,988 | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life Unlimited | 4,205 | Maxed Out | 4,175 | 13,102 |
The chipset is also very capable when it comes to gaming. I was able to run BGMI in Very High settings with ease. The phone also doesn’t heat up a lot when on longer gaming sessions. There’s also a GT Mode that improves performance when gaming.
Gaming on the phone is fun, and it doesn’t heat up a lot
The in-display fingerprint scanner on the phone is of the optical type and performed flawlessly during the review. You get a hybrid dual stereo speaker setup on the smartphone. The speakers do offer some bass and get quite loud indoors. However, the sound quality is on the muddier side. The earphones performed quite well, and so did the microphones. Antennas on the phone also didn’t give me any issues, such as call drops.
Realme 14 Pro+ Cameras: Same but different
- Wide – 50-megapixel Sony IMX896, f/1.8, OIS
- Telephoto – 50-megapixel Sony IMX882, f/2.65, OIS
- Ultrawide – 8-megapixel Sony IMX896, f/2.2, 112 degree FoV
- Selfie – 32-megapixel, f/2.0, autofocus
Realme has upgraded the primary, ultrawide, and selfie camera sensors on the 14 Pro+, with the selfie camera now featuring autofocus. The telephoto periscope camera remains unchanged from last year, but the new MagicGlow triple-flash system adds a notable enhancement. This system utilises three LEDs with different colour temperatures, allowing you to adjust the brightness to your preference and achieve more natural-looking portrait shots in low-light conditions.
The MagicGlow triple flash system does actually improve lowlight portrait photos
The camera app is intuitive, with all essential photo modes easily accessible. Among the various shooting options is an Underwater mode, which Realme claims enables shooting for up to 60 minutes at a depth of 1.5 meters.
The primary rear camera captures well-detailed daylight photos with a wide dynamic range and slightly boosted colours. However, zooming in reveals that the phones lack sharpness.
Daylight samples from the primary rear camera [Tap to expand]
The 8-megapixel ultrawide camera also performs well in daylight, delivering images with good detail and consistent colour reproduction. The dynamic range and white balance are well-balanced, and Realme has effectively minimised lens distortion around the edges.
Daylight samples from the 8-megapixel ultrawide camera [Tap to expand]
The standout performer is the 3x periscope telephoto camera, which produces highly detailed shots with excellent sharpness, close-to-natural colour reproduction, and a strong dynamic range. Portraits taken with this lens exhibit good subject separation and a pleasing bokeh effect. While higher zoom levels are available, they rely on digital zoom and lack fine detail unless viewed on the phone’s display.
Daylight samples from the 3x Telephoto periscope camera [Tap to expand]
Portrait shot at 3x zoom using the telephoto camera [Tap to expand]
In low-light conditions, the primary camera retains details while offering vivid colours, good dynamic range, and well-balanced exposure. The phone automatically activates Night mode in low-light conditions. The telephoto camera also performs well at night, though its level of detail falls slightly short of the primary sensor. However, colours, dynamic range, and exposure remain commendable. The ultrawide lens experiences a greater loss of detail, but its images are still usable.
Top to bottom: Lowlight samples from Main camera (2), Ultrawide (2), and Telephoto 3x (2)
Testing the MagicGlow flash for low-light portraits yielded more natural-looking results than a standard flash.
The selfie camera sees a slight improvement over the Realme 13 Pro+ thanks to autofocus, though sharpness still diminishes upon zooming in. Nevertheless, it delivers decent detail and dynamic range.
On the video front, 4K recording offers good detail, exposure, and vivid colours. Stabilisation is noticeably improved over the previous model. Sticking to the primary or 3x telephoto camera is recommended for the best results, as the ultrawide lens introduces additional noise. The selfie camera also supports 4K recording, capturing videos with ample detail and fairly accurate skin colours.
Realme 14 Pro+ Battery: Big Upgrade
- Capacity – 6,000mAh
- Type – Silicon-carbon
- Fast charging – 80W
The Realme 14 Pro+ gets a big upgrade in terms of battery life; however, it did not convert to longer battery life in our tests. In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted about 28 hours, much lower than the 32 hours that the Realme 13 Pro+ managed with a lower-capacity battery. However, the 14 Pro+ does feature a new silicon carbide battery that is not common in this price range.
The Realme 14 Pro+ offers a silicon carbon battery
In terms of regular use, the phone lasted a day and a half with normal usage and about a day with heavy usage. Topping up the battery is a fast affair thanks to 80W fast charging support. The phone hit 33 percent from 0 in 30 minutes and 68 percent in an hour, much slower than the claimed 100 percent charge in an hour. However, Realme has said its charging performance has improved with the latest firmware.
Realme 14 Pro+ Verdict
At a starting price of Rs. 29,999, the Realme 14 Pro+ offers plenty of features. It impresses with its sleek design, immersive display (despite lacking HDR or Dolby Vision), solid all-around camera performance—especially with zoom—long battery life, and an IP69 rating for durability. Overall, it’s a well-rounded package, though an upgrade may not be necessary if you already own the Realme 13 Pro+.
The phone competes with other offerings in the price range, such as the Redmi Note 14 Pro+, the new Nothing Phone 3a, and the Poco X7 Pro. The Redmi and Nothing phones offer the same chipset. However, the former has Dolby Vision support and faster charging. Meanwhile, the Nothing Phone 3a provides a distinctive design, cleaner software, and slightly superior main camera performance. The Poco X7 Pro, though not the best in camera quality, delivers flagship-level performance.
Other competitors include the OnePlus Nord 4 and the Motorola Edge 50 Pro, both offering premium designs, capable cameras, good displays, and better software experiences.
