Samsung Galaxy M14 5G Review: Raises bar for smartphones under Rs 15,000

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G Review: Samsung is known for making some good value-for-money smartphones and its M Series is popular in India for offering the best features in the budget segment. The company has added one more smartphone to this series - Galaxy M14 5G. The smartphone is available in two RAM and storage variants - 4GB + 128GB and 6GB + 128GB - that are priced at Rs 13,490 and Rs 14,990, respectively. Let's find out how Samsung Galaxy M14 5G stands out from other smartphones in the sub-Rs 15,000 segment.

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G Review: Design

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G has a plastic body with a curved back edge and round edges. The phone is thick due to the large battery, but the good thing is that the camera bumps are not huge. Despite being over 200 grams, it doesn't feel heavy as the weight is evenly distributed and is comfortable to hold in hand. For those who love numbers -  the smartphone measures 166.80 x 77.20 x 9.40mm (height x width x thickness) and weighs 206 grams.

Here I am using the Icy Silver colour and the smartphone is prone to some fingerprints and smudges. The other two colour options available are Berry Blue and Smoky Teal.

The smartphone has a volume rocker and power button on the right side. The power button doubles-up as a fingerprint sensor and is quite responsive. On the left, you will get a dual-SIM slot with a dedicated microSD card slot. At the bottom of the device, you will get a 3.5mm audio jack, the primary microphone, USB Type-C charging slot and a speaker grille. On the top, there is a secondary microphone for background noise cancellation.

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G Review: Display

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G comes with a 6.6-inch Full HD+ display with a 2408x1080 pixels resolution that offers an adaptive refresh rate of upto 90Hz. While the company has not mentioned anything about peak brightness, the display can be used easily outdoors but it would not offer the best viewing experience under direct sunlight. Also, the water drop notch display is protected with Gorilla Glass 5 — which is a good thing to have in this price range. But the smartphone has thicker bezels, especially at the bottom.

Those who are not fond of water drop notch displays get the option of hiding the camera cutout area by covering it with a black bar while using a particular app. As Samsung Galaxy M14 5G has a large screen, this option looked useful to me. Samsung Galaxy M14 5G gives a decent viewing experience and the speaker sound is loud enough to enjoy your favourite movies and web series.

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G Review: Performance and software

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G is powered by the latest 5nm Exynos 1330 processor. Also, it is supported by LPDDR4X RAM and USF or Universal Flash Storage 4.0. Galaxy M14 comes with up to 12GB of RAM with the RAM Plus feature. This chipset is capable of handling all your day-to-day tasks very comfortably. While using the device, you won't feel even once that the device being used is a sub-Rs 15,000 smartphone. Moreover, you can even try your hands on some graphic-intensive video games but the device will heat up during long usage.

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To test the performance of the device under sustained load, I ran some tests. The device has an Antutu score of over 4 lakh and it scored 2093 in the Geekbench 6 multi-core test and 809 in the single-core test. Both of them are not very impressive. In Wild Life Stress Test, Samsung Galaxy M14 5G managed to get the best loop score of 1,395 and impressive stability of 99.5 per cent.

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G boots on One UI 5.1 Core based on Android 13. The company has promised Samsung up to two generations of OS upgrades and up to four years of security updates for the device. The user interface is neat and clean and there's no bloatware. You will get some pre-installed apps like Snapchat and Candy Crush. While some would like them, those who don't can easily uninstall them.

There are a lot of additional features like Secure Folder for enhanced security and privacy, Voice Focus and Samsung Wallet for storing your important documents. The Voice Focus feature is really good and works during normal and video calls.

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G Review: Battery and charging

The battery is the major USP of Samsung Galaxy M14 5G. It has a hefty 6,000mAh battery and supports 25W fast charging. It may take between 90 to 120 minutes to get the device from zero per cent to 100 per cent, but once fully juiced up, it can last for up to two days (depending on the usage). During the Wild Life Stress Test of 20 loops, the battery dropped from 28 per cent to 25 per cent.

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G Review: Camera

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G has a triple camera setup at the rear. It consists of 50 megapixels main sensor with an f/1.8 aperture. A low f-stop means an aperture hole is wide open and helps in clicking good low-light images. It is accompanied by a 2 MP f/2.4 macro camera and a 2 MP f/2.4 depth camera.

The smartphone clicks good images in good lighting conditions.

The portrait mode gives a good bokeh effect and edge-detection accuracy works well.

I can go out on a limb and say that the rear camera of Samsung Galaxy M1 5G produces good-quality images and is one of the best options available in this price range. But there is no wide-angle camera option and don't expect a lot from photos clicked in low light conditions. The dedicated night mode is also not that effective.

The same goes for the selfie camera. Samsung Galaxy M1 5G has a 13 MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture and manages to click good images during the day or under well-lit conditions. The portrait shots are also good. But in low lighting conditions, the selfie camera will not impress.

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G Review: Verdict

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G is for those who are looking for long battery life and good performance in a smartphone from a trusted brand. The availability of 13 5G bands, Voice Focus feature and Widevine L1 support (that lets you watch HD content on streaming platforms like Netflix) at this price range is a great deal. Also, images clicked in proper lighting conditions are worthy of social media sharing. All in all, Samsung Galaxy M14 5G is raising the bar for smartphones in this price segment.