Samsung Galaxy M14 5G Review – Big On Performance, Low On Price

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G has been launched in India in two RAM variants. The phone costs Rs. 14990 for 4GB RAM and 128GB storage and Rs. 16490 for 6GB RAM and 128GB storage.

The phone is available in three different colour options: Berry Blue, Smoky Teal and Icy Silver. You can buy the phone directly from the official website of Samsung or other platforms like Amazon.

The Samsung Galaxy M14 packs the following items inside the box:

• Handset
• Type-C cable
• SIM ejector tool
• Documentation

Before we talk in detail about the Samsung Galaxy M14 review, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.6 inches LCD
• Chipset: Samsung Exynos 1330
• RAM & ROM: 4GB 128GB, 6GB 128GB
• Software: Android v13
• Rear camera: 50MP + 2MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 13MP
• Battery: 6000 mAh
• Weight: 206 grams
• Dimensions: 166.8 x 77.2 x 9.4 mm

Samsung Galaxy M14 looks very simple and elegant at the first look. It comes with a plastic body that has a glossy finish. I have the silver colour variant for the review, however, it’s also available in blue and teal colour options.

It comes with curved edges and rounded corners which offers a good grip in the hands. You will see a triple camera setup on the back with no camera island and just the camera lens. They do not prude much and hence the wobbling is almost negligible.

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The bottom of the backside has a very subtle Samsung branding. Keeping that aside, the phone is quite big and feels a bit bulky, weighing about 206 grams. Moreover, it’s also a bit thick. But that’s acceptable considering the big battery it packs.

Talking about ports and buttons, the right side has a power button that doubles as the fingerprint scanner along with volume rockers. The left side has the SIM card slot. The top has the secondary mic while the bottom holds the type-C port, loudspeaker, 3.5mm audio jack and primary mic.

Samsung Galaxy M14 features a triple camera setup at the back which takes really good photos for its price. It features a 50MP main camera, a 2MP depth camera and a 2MP macro lens. The front side has a 13MP camera for taking selfies.

The main camera takes some impressive shots in good lighting conditions. The shots I took had good details and clarity unless I zoomed in. I found the results to be a little cooler when it comes to colour accuracy. But overall, they looked nice and pleasing to the eye.

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The low-light shots were decent using the night mode. Even though the result has noise, it tends to brighten up the images and give them a good look. The portrait shots were also good. Edge-detection was handled-well and you can adjust the level of background blur.

Coming over to the front, the 13MP camera takes clear and sharp selfies in daylight conditions. Skin tones looked pretty natural to me. Low-light selfies were just not up to the mark.

As I mentioned earlier, the Samsung Galaxy M14 brings the biggest upgrade in terms of battery and charging. It boasts a massive 6000mAh battery compared to the 5000mAh battery that we saw last year. Not only that, but it also brings a 25W fast charging support which was only 15W last year.

Needless to say, the Samsung Galaxy M14 offers an outstanding battery backup. Even a heavy user can use the phone for more than one day. And if you are a casual user like me, who just has to make calls, text on WhatsApp and scroll reels on Instagram, you can easily use this phone for two straight days.

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While it supports 25W fast charging, which is good, it misses out on providing the charger in the box. You have to buy it separately, which adds some extra cost to your pocket. Considering you get the 25W fast charging, this thing can take more than 1.5 hours to fully charge the phone.

Samsung Galaxy M14 features an FHD+ 6.6 inches display that offers a nice viewing experience. You get a 90Hz panel with decent brightness. I had no issues while using the phone indoors, but there was a bit of a struggle under direct sunlight.

You can change the refresh rate in the display settings. There are two options: Adaptive (automatically adjust the refresh rate) and Standard (60Hz refresh rate). Scrolling reels or playing games on the Galaxy M14 gives a really smooth experience.

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The display quality is also good. Colours are vibrant and the viewing angles are great as well. Although it’s not as good as an AMOLED panel, it’s good enough for casual use. You get to see a water drop notch at the front with not-so-thin bezels, which are acceptable for this price point.

I watched a couple of videos on YouTube and my experience was pretty decent. The display is also protected with Gorilla Glass 5, which prevents it from scratches and occasional drops.

Samsung Galaxy M14 is powered by the Exynos 1330 chipset, which is paired with up to 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. The phone performs really well when it comes to day to day tasks.

You can even expand the RAM by 6GB (on the 6GB variant) by using the RAM Plus feature. I did not face any issues while using WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram or even while taking photos. Apps take a couple of seconds to load up, but that is okay for this price point.

If we talk about gaming, you can easily play games on low to medium settings. I tried playing Asphalt 9 and CoD Mobile. While Asphalt 9 ran smoothly on High settings, I had to play CoD on medium settings for a good gaming experience.

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What impressed me the most was that even after playing for about an hour, the phone did not heat up much.

The Samsung Galaxy M14 runs on One UI core 5.1 version which is based on Android 13. Good to see that Samsung has given the latest Android version out of the box. I really liked the UI, as it’s very simple to use and has a bunch of useful features.

You get features like Side Key, Gestures, RAM Plus, Secure Folders, Voice Focus and many more. At the same time, there are some pre-installed third-party apps, including Snapchat, Truecaller, JioCinema, Candy Crush Saga, and a few more. Good thing is that you can uninstall them from the settings.