The Realme 13 Pro+ surprised many as one of the rare mid-range smartphones that put a strong emphasis on photography, making it a standout in its category. Now, less than six months later, Realme has returned with the 14 Pro Plus, a successor that seems to push boundaries even further.
The 14 Pro+ introduces a periscope telephoto camera—an impressive feature typically reserved for premium flagships. This addition, paired with its expected high-value performance, positions it as a compelling choice for those who prioritize mobile photography without wanting to break the bank.
While we can’t give purchase advice just yet, one thing is certain: the Realme 14 Pro+ aims to capture the attention—and hearts—of aspiring photographers and everyday users alike. Let’s dive into what this promising device has to offer!
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Design & Build Quality
The Realme 14 Pro Plus brings a refreshing approach to design while maintaining a lightweight and functional structure. Despite the continued use of a plastic frame, the overall build is well-executed, offering a premium feel in hand. The symmetry of the camera module stands out as a design highlight. With all elements neatly aligned, it not only enhances aesthetics but also improves practicality.
Adding to the innovation, the camera module features three distinct flashes: a warm-tone flash, a cool-tone flash, and a standard flash. This trio ensures accurate color temperature adjustments in varying lighting conditions, preserving natural skin tones regardless of the environment.
The back cover is where Realme truly gets creative. Made from a unique material that changes color at low temperatures, the phone’s rear offers a dynamic visual experience. For instance, in colder environments, the color change effect is both eye-catching and subtle, adding a touch of novelty to the device. However, this feature may remain a mystery to users in tropical regions, where high temperatures might prevent them from ever witnessing the transformation.
The design also emphasizes practicality without compromising on aesthetics. Weight distribution is well-balanced, making the phone comfortable to hold over extended periods. This balance complements its modern look, ensuring the 14 Pro Plus appeals to both style-conscious and functionality-focused users.
While the plastic frame might not scream luxury, Realme has clearly focused on thoughtful elements and design innovation, making the 14 Pro Plus stand out in its category.
Display Specs and Features
The Realme 14 Pro+ delivers an impressive front design that rivals higher-end flagship models. Its quad-curved screen, coupled with perfectly uniform bezels on all four sides, creates a stunning visual impression. The symmetry and immersive screen design are undeniably artistic, elevating the phone’s aesthetics to a level rarely seen in mid-range devices.
While premium flagship phones might offer more advanced display specifications, the Realme 14 Pro Plus manages to strike a balance between affordability and design excellence. The uniform bezels not only look sleek but also contribute to a more immersive viewing experience, ensuring the screen feels expansive and premium.
The display itself enhances the overall user experience, offering vivid colors and sharp details that make content consumption enjoyable. Whether you’re scrolling through social media, watching videos, or gaming, the screen quality provides a satisfying visual experience.
Realme’s choice to implement a quad-curved screen on a mid-range phone is a bold move that pays off in terms of both looks and usability. The curves are subtle enough to avoid accidental touches while still offering a more comfortable grip and a luxurious feel.
In a segment where design is often overlooked in favor of performance, Realme has ensured the 14 Pro+ sets itself apart. The display may not have the absolute top-tier specs, but its thoughtful design and balanced performance make it a standout feature in this device.
Performance & Chipset
The Realme 14 Pro+ takes a balanced approach to performance, packing the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor under the hood. While it’s a step up from its predecessor, the 7 Gen 2, it doesn’t quite reach the performance heights of the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3, which some users might have hoped for. This trade-off seems to prioritize the phone’s standout camera features over raw processing power.
For day-to-day tasks, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 proves to be more than capable. Browsing, streaming, and multitasking run smoothly, ensuring a reliable experience for most users. However, for those looking for a powerhouse performance akin to flagship devices, the 14 Pro+ might feel slightly underwhelming.
When it comes to gaming, the 14 Pro+ delivers mixed results. Titles like Genshin Impact can be played with the graphics quality cranked to the maximum settings, showcasing the phone’s ability to handle demanding visuals. Surprisingly, even at max settings, the device demonstrates commendable power efficiency, consuming less energy than its predecessor—the Realme 13 Pro+—running at medium graphics. This efficiency is a definite plus, especially for gamers who want extended play sessions without worrying about rapid battery drain.
The thermal performance is also worth mentioning. Despite pushing the graphics to their limits, the device remains relatively cool, hinting at effective heat management. This makes gaming sessions more comfortable and ensures sustained performance over time.
That said, it’s essential to keep expectations in check. The Realme 14 Pro+ isn’t built to compete with flagship gaming phones or high-performance devices. Instead, it offers a well-rounded performance package that balances efficiency, capability, and cost-effectiveness.
The power efficiency of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 is a highlight, ensuring that battery life remains robust even during resource-intensive tasks. This efficiency reflects Realme’s focus on optimizing performance without sacrificing longevity—a critical factor for mid-range devices targeting a broader audience.
Battery Life & Charging Speed
The Realme 14 Pro+ makes a significant leap in battery life, courtesy of its efficient Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor and a generous 6,000mAh battery. This combination ensures that the device lasts longer on a single charge, even with demanding usage, making it a reliable companion for day-to-day activities.
Charging speeds, while slightly slower than its predecessor, remain impressive. The phone supports 80W wired charging, capable of reaching 27% in just 10 minutes and a full charge in about an hour. While this may be a minor step back compared to the Realme 13 Pro+, it’s still among the fastest charging solutions available in this price range.
For most users, this speed is more than sufficient, especially when paired with the extended battery life. The ability to quickly top up the phone and get through an entire day without worrying about finding a charger adds convenience that many will appreciate.
Overall, the Realme 14 Pro+ strikes an excellent balance between battery capacity, efficiency, and charging speed, ensuring it can easily keep up with a busy lifestyle.
Camera Performance & Specs
The Realme 14 Pro+ showcases an impressive camera system, headlined by its standout telephoto lens. At the core of this system is the familiar IMX A82 sensor paired with a 73mm lens, offering 3x optical zoom. While this might not be a hardware upgrade from its predecessor, the decision to stick with the 3x telephoto zoom rather than opting for a 5x zoom, like some flagship models, proves to be a practical choice. A 3x focal length is more versatile for everyday photography, making it ideal for capturing a variety of scenes.
In the 6x zoom range, the 14 Pro+ delivers striking image quality. However, achieving this requires using the five preset zoom buttons provided by Realme. These buttons are optimized for the sensor’s capabilities, ensuring the best possible image quality. Manually zooming often bypasses the in-sensor zoom functionality, leading to diminished clarity. For instance, 5x zoom shots, while decent, are not as sharp or natural as the 6x zoom images, a testament to the sensor’s performance optimization.
In low-light conditions, the in-sensor zoom becomes less effective, and the quality of photos tends to equalize across focal lengths. Realme’s tendency to over-sharpen images when clarity is insufficient becomes particularly noticeable in such scenarios. This effect is exacerbated in macro mode, where the main camera crops images to achieve close-ups. The resulting images often appear overly processed and lack the natural feel of standard shots.
To circumvent this, it’s better to avoid macro mode altogether. Instead, maintaining a slight distance from the subject and shooting at 2x zoom produces more balanced and visually pleasing results.
The other two cameras on the Realme 14 Pro+ are competent but fall in line with the offerings of other mid-range phones. They deliver acceptable results for everyday photography but lack standout features or performance. Sample shots demonstrate their capability, providing reasonable quality for users who don’t demand high-end performance from every lens.
The most significant improvement over the Realme 13 Pro+ lies in video recording. While the specs for video capture remain unchanged, the enhanced Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor elevates the video experience. Stable 4K video recording is now possible, marking a notable improvement in usability. This stability extends to both the rear and front cameras, with the latter also supporting 4K electronic image stabilization (EIS).
This improvement in video recording brings the Realme 14 Pro+ closer to its competitors, ensuring it is no longer a step behind in this department. For those who value high-quality video alongside excellent still photography, this device finally feels like a complete package.
In summary, while the Realme 14 Pro+ camera system has its quirks, its telephoto lens and improved video recording capabilities make it a strong contender in its price segment. Photography enthusiasts, particularly those who value telephoto performance, will find much to appreciate in this device.
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Pros
- Elegant design with quad-curved display and symmetrical camera module.
- Improved battery life with a larger 6,000mAh capacity.
- Power-efficient Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor.
- Stable 4K video recording on both rear and front cameras.
- High-quality telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom.
- Fast charging support (80W).
Cons
- Incremental performance and camera upgrades.
- Over-sharpening issues in some camera modes.
- Color-changing back cover feature is climate-dependent.
- Secondary cameras lack standout features.
- Charging speed is slightly slower than the 13 Pro+.
Conclusion
The Realme 14 Pro+ has sparked mixed reactions among users, particularly when compared to its predecessor, the 13 Pro+. For some, the device feels like a minor upgrade, as the improvements in performance and camera quality are relatively incremental. On the other hand, others appreciate the subtle yet meaningful upgrades in areas like battery life, design, display, and power efficiency.
From a design perspective, the 14 Pro+ introduces thoughtful enhancements, including a more premium look and innovative features like the color-changing back cover. However, these features may remain unnoticed in tropical climates, where temperatures rarely drop low enough to activate the effect.
The display is another significant step forward, with its quad-curved edges and uniform bezels offering a flagship-like visual appeal, albeit in a mid-range package. This design choice not only elevates aesthetics but also provides a seamless viewing experience that stands out among its peers.
On the performance front, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor delivers better power efficiency, even if it’s not a groundbreaking leap from the previous generation. For most users, this translates to a smoother experience in daily tasks and gaming, with notable battery savings during extended usage.
The camera system, particularly the telephoto lens, remains a highlight of the Realme 14 Pro+. Its versatility and image quality are commendable, but quirks like over-sharpening in certain modes and limited improvements in secondary cameras might leave photography enthusiasts wishing for more. The biggest leap, however, is in video recording, with stable 4K recording now supported on both the rear and front cameras, finally addressing a key shortcoming of its predecessor.
Battery life has seen a marked improvement, thanks to the larger 6,000mAh battery and the power-efficient processor. Although the charging speed is slightly slower than the 13 Pro+, it remains competitive, ensuring users can quickly top up their device when needed.
Ultimately, whether the Realme 14 Pro+ feels like a worthy successor depends on individual priorities. For those seeking a polished design, better battery life, and improved video capabilities, it’s a solid upgrade. However, users hoping for groundbreaking advancements in performance and camera technology may find it closer to a “13s Pro+” than a true next-generation device.
(FAQ) About Realme 14 Pro+
1. Is the Realme 14 Pro+ good for photography?
- Yes! The Realme 14 Pro+ excels in mobile photography thanks to its 3x periscope telephoto lens, which is rare in mid-range phones. It also supports stable 4K video recording on both front and rear cameras.
2. What is the camera setup on the Realme 14 Pro+?
- The Realme 14 Pro+ features a 48MP wide camera, a 3x optical zoom telephoto lens (IMX A82 sensor), and an ultra-wide shooter. It’s optimized for daylight and zoom photography, with improvements in video stability and clarity.
3. Does the Realme 14 Pro+ have a curved display?
- Yes, it features a quad-curved AMOLED display with uniform bezels, offering a flagship-like viewing experience in a mid-range device.
4. How is the battery life on the Realme 14 Pro+?
- The Realme 14 Pro+ packs a 6,000mAh battery, which, combined with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3’s power efficiency, delivers excellent battery life even under heavy use.
5. How fast does the Realme 14 Pro+ charge?
- It supports 80W wired charging, reaching 27% in just 10 minutes and a full charge in about an hour, making it one of the faster-charging phones in its class.
6. What chipset powers the Realme 14 Pro+?
- The phone runs on the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, which offers balanced performance and strong power efficiency, although it’s not a major upgrade from previous models in terms of raw speed.
7. What makes the Realme 14 Pro+ unique in its design?
- One standout feature is the color-changing back, which shifts in cooler environments. It also has a symmetrical camera layout, triple flash system, and a premium aesthetic despite its plastic frame.
8. Does the Realme 14 Pro+ support gaming?
- Yes, it can handle games like Genshin Impact on high settings, with effective thermal management and power efficiency, although it’s not a gaming flagship.
9. Are there any downsides to the Realme 14 Pro+?
- Some cons include over-sharpening in certain camera modes, limited upgrades in secondary cameras, and charging speeds slightly slower than the 13 Pro+.
10. Is the Realme 14 Pro+ worth upgrading from the 13 Pro+?
- It depends. If you value better video recording, improved design, and longer battery life, then it’s a worthwhile upgrade. But performance and camera upgrades are modest, making it feel like a “13s Pro+” for some.
