Pros:
– Super stylish design
– Excellent battery lives
– Excellent displays
– Strong built-quality with IP69 rating
– Day-to-day performance is great in both devices
Cons:
– Tons of pre-installed apps in both devices
– Realme 14 Pro+’s Gaming performance leaves you wanting more
– Regular 14 Pro lacks an ultrawide camera. 2MP unit has no practical use
Rating:
– Realme 14 Pro: 4/5
– Realme 14 Pro+: 4.25/5
Price:
– Realme 14 Pro: Starts at Rs 24,999 for 8GB + 128GB unit
– Realme 14 Pro+: Starts at Rs 29,999 for 8GB + 128GB unit
Realme is back with the Pro versions of its numbered series, this time with the Realme 14 Pro and the Realme 14 Pro+. Realme’s number series, like the 14 Pro, has always been targeted towards the more discerning customer, those who look for the most bang for their bucks. For those looking to get the most out of their smartphones, Realme’s 14 Pro series has something or the other to offer.
Given the numerous advancements we have seen in smartphones since the 13 Pro series was launched, namely in battery, display and camera tech, the 14 Pro series promises to be a massive step up. And for the most part, the Realme 14 Pro and the 14 Pro+ do actually bring some clever upgrades.
But, does the Realme 14 Pro series warrant to be your next smartphone? And more importantly, if you were to go for the Realme 14 Pro series, which one should you go for, the 14 Pro, or the 14 Pro+? We find out
Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro+ Review: Design
Design has always been a standout feature for Realme, and the Realme 14 Pro series is no exception. While the overall design follows a familiar trend—large circular camera islands on the back and a curved display on the front—what really grabs attention is the striking colour options and the materials used for the back panel. The Realme 14 Pro+ takes this up a notch.
The Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro+ are available in three colour choices. There’s Suede Grey, made from Premium Vegan Suede Leather, and two India-exclusive hues: Bikaner Purple for the 14 Pro+ and Jaipur Pink for the 14 Pro. Then, there’s the standout Pearl White, which Realme is using to position the 14 Pro series as something different in the market.
The Pearl White model features an innovative thermochromic fusion fibre back panel that changes colour when exposed to cold. When the phone touches anything colder than 16°C, the panel starts shifting from a pearly white to blue. Realme claims that if you submerge the 14 Pro+ in ice-cold water, the entire panel will change colour in just five seconds. This cool effect, combined with the pearl-like texture developed through a collaboration with Danish design studio Valeur Designers, makes each panel unique.
However, while this colour-changing feature is a fun novelty, it’s a bit more of a party trick than a practical feature. Realme themselves admit that the colour-changing effect will fade over time. Plus, to trigger the change, you’ll have to expose the phone to ice water, a fridge, or rub ice on it—things most people don’t normally do with their phones. And let’s not forget that most people use phone covers, which would cover up the effect anyway.
One thing that stands out with both the 14 Pro and 14 Pro+ is just how slim they are while still feeling premium and sturdy. The 14 Pro is just 7.55mm thick and weighs 179g, while the 14 Pro+ is 7.99mm thick and weighs 194g. The Suede Grey versions are a touch thicker and a little heavier due to the suede material. But when you consider that both models house a hefty 6000mAh battery, it’s surprising how light they feel in the hand.
While the build is plastic, the devices have a sophisticated, elegant finish, making them some of the least flashy Realme phones in recent memory.
In terms of durability, these phones don’t disappoint either. They come with TÜV Rheinland certification for rugged protection and military-level shock resistance, making them resistant to environmental wear and tear. They also feature IP66, IP68, and IP69 ratings for dust and water resistance. Realme claims the 14 Pro has military-level shock resistance certification, although there’s not much detail on this. Additionally, the displays for both the devices is toughened with Corning’s premium Gorilla Glass 7i.
As for the USB-C port, SIM tray, and button placements, they’re exactly where you’d expect them to be.
Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro+ Review: Display
The Realme 14 Pro comes with a 6.77-inch FHD+ AMOLED display that’s nothing short of impressive. With a resolution of 2392×1080, it offers sharp, vibrant visuals that are perfect for everything from watching videos to gaming. The display can go up to 120Hz in refresh rate, which makes scrolling and gaming feel ultra-smooth, while the peak brightness of 1500 nits (with a local peak of 4500 nits) ensures it’s visible even in bright sunlight. Plus, the screen covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, making the colours pop beautifully. Add to that the 3840Hz PWM and DC dimming, and you’ve got a display that’s not only pretty but also gentle on the eyes, especially during long use.
The Realme 14 Pro+ offers a slightly larger 6.83-inch display, which steps up the game with a 1.5K resolution of 2800×1272. While both phones share similar specs in terms of performance, the Pro+ features a quad-curved display. This means the bezels on all sides are nearly non-existent, which Realme loves to market as a “no-bezel” design. While it’s not quite bezel-free, it does come pretty close, and in fact, the Pro+ has some of the thinnest bezels I’ve seen, even compared to phones that cost several times more.
When it comes to the experience, Realme has nailed it once again. The screen on both models delivers a crisp, clear picture with excellent viewing angles. Watching videos, browsing, and gaming all look stunning. The only area where the display could use a little more oomph is in the dynamic range, but that’s hardly a dealbreaker for most users. The adaptive 120Hz refresh rate makes everything feel buttery smooth, whether you’re flicking through your feed or enjoying a game.
You can also fine-tune the colour settings to your liking, and both phones are Widevine L1 certified, which means you can stream Full HD content from platforms like Netflix. That said, during our tests, we didn’t spot support for HDR or Dolby Vision content on streaming services, which is a bit of a letdown.
Both devices also come with an in-display fingerprint sensor, which works reliably without a hitch. All in all, the displays on the Realme 14 Pro series deliver an impressive, balanced mix of performance and features, making them a solid choice in the mid-range smartphone space.
Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro+ Review: Camera
The Realme 14 Pro+ comes with a triple camera setup. At its heart of it is a 50MP Sony IMX896 sensor with an f/1.8 lens and OIS. You also get an 8MP ultra-wide camera an f/2.2 aperture for those wide, expansive shots. Then there’s the telephoto lens — a periscopic 50MP Sony IMX882 with an f/2.65 aperture and OIS. The telephoto sensor handles zoomed-in shots perfectly, without compromising clarity.
The Realme 14 Pro, however, takes a more modest approach. Despite its camera module resembling a triple-lens setup, it actually has just two cameras. The main one is a 50MP Sony IMX882 with an f/1.8 lens and OIS, which delivers reliable results. But the secondary 2MP sensor feels more like an afterthought—it doesn’t bring much to the table.
On the selfie front, the Pro+ boasts a 32MP shooter, while the Pro sticks to a 16MP unit.
In daylight, both phones perform admirably, delivering bright, vibrant photos. The 14 Pro+ does particularly well with sharp, detailed images and colours that pop, although they can sometimes feel a bit too oversaturated. The telephoto camera of the 14 Pro+ blends produces colours that are just as good as the main sensor, so zoomed-in shots also look good, up to a point of course, You can digitally zoom to 120X, but the results at that end are practically unusable.
The ultra-wide lens isn’t far behind in colour consistency, but its lower 8MP resolution means it doesn’t capture quite as much detail.
In terms of portraits, the Realme 14 Pro+ is pretty solid. The background blur looks smooth and professional, though edge detection isn’t perfect— at times during our testing, it did struggle with the hair and the ear. Still, skin tones are pretty accurate.
Low-light shots are decent as well, but the ultra-wide lens struggles when it gets too dark, with the photos turning out a little too noisy and lacking finer details.
The 14 Pro, on the other hand, takes a more straightforward approach, producing photos with natural colours and solid detail in daylight. However, the phone’s processing speed can be a little frustrating, especially when you’re shooting portraits. Sometimes it takes a moment to finish processing a shot, leaving you wondering if it turned out blurry. Fortunately, the results usually make up for the wait.
Even in low-light conditions, the Pro manages to capture vibrant colours, which is a pleasant surprise. But because it does not have a telephoto lens, you might be tempted to digitally zoom in. This is where things fall apart quickly. Anything beyond 2x zoom starts to lose detail and sharpness, so it’s best to keep things close.
Portraits are good enough — we get balanced skin tones and decent background blur, although like its more expensive counterpart, edge detection could use some improvement.
Realme has packed some clever AI tricks into these phones. For example, we have AI HyperRAW, which works in the background to make photos look more lifelike and detailed. It focuses on how light and shadows interact to create a more natural depth in photos. This means the images appear richer and more dramatic. It also gives users the ability to reduce noise by directly recording the photo data in RAW image formats.
Another neat feature is the AI Ultra Clarity 2.0 mode. Whether you zoom in really far with the camera or download pictures from the internet, it fixes any fuzziness to make them look amazing using AI algorithms and supersampling.
Then there’s AI Snap mode, which we first saw in the GT 7 Pro. which basically enables the devices to capture action shots and objects in motion.
But the real party trick here is the MagicGlow Triple Flash. Forget the basic single-flash setup most phones use — Realme has given the 14 Pro and the 14 Pro+ a set of three flashes, hich can be used as a static fill light. Called the MagicGlow Triple Flash, this fill light can be adjusted for hue and tone to properly match the colour tone of your subjects. It’s especially handy for low-light portraits, giving a more natural and flattering light without being too harsh.
Here are some camera samples from the Realme 14 Pro:
And here are some samples from the Realme 14 Pro+:
Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro+ Review: Performance, Software experience and UI
This is where the differences between the Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro+ really become evident.
The Realme 14 Pro+ is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 SoC, which is made using the 4nm process. You get up to 12GB of LPDDR4X of RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. With the Realme 14 Pro, you get a Mediatek Dimensity 7300 Energy SoC which is again, built using the 4nm process, along with 8GB of LPDDR4X of RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
Both devices run on Realme UI 6.0, based on Android 15. The interface comes loaded with features but also with an unfortunate downside—pre-installed apps galore, complete with spammy notifications that might have you scrambling to disable them. Beyond that annoyance, the UI has some genuinely cool tricks up its sleeve.
Features like “Share with iPhone” and AI screen recognition stand out, alongside Live Alerts that mimic the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. There’s also a handy anti-theft setup that includes options to verify before powering off and track the device via location and network settings. Realme has even thrown in nifty tools like flexible windows and Google’s Circle to Search, which add a touch of convenience to daily tasks. Existing AI-backed features such as AI Clear Voice for noise isolation during calls and AI gestures also make life a bit easier.
As for updates, Realme has promised both devices will get 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security updates. At a time when most major smartphone manufacturers are pushing for longer update cycles, Realme’s decision to go for a 2+3 year cycle may seem odd, but I wouldn’t count on it too much. After all, not a lot of people keep their mid-range phones for over 3 years.
Coming to the performance bit, the Dimensity 7300-powered Realme 14 Pro does fairly well in synthetic benchmarks — the scores aren’t anything worth writing home about, but they are also not disappointing. The phone does tend to heat up when running benchmarks and heavy and intensive gaming, but not to a level where it would be alarming. In day-to-day usage, though things, were completely normal — Realme 14 Pro didn’t really break any sweat when dealing with most tasks. The 120Hz refresh rate really made switching between apps, multitasking and scrolling through social media feel very snappy and responsive.
The Realme 14 Pro isn’t exactly a gaming phone so when you play games like BGMI or Call of Duty: Mobile, at medium to low graphics and medium to high frame rates, you will get a pretty respectable gaming experience. Demand more from the device, and you will see it struggle.
The Realme 14 Pro+ with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 SoC, on the other hand, fairs much better in benchmarks and gaming. You won’t be getting 120fps in games like BGMI or CoD: Mobile, but the gaming experience is significantly smoother at higher graphics and higher frame rates.
In benchmarks, the 14 Pro+ obviously does a better job than the 14 Pro, thanks to the more powerful and power efficient SoC. You will also see the 14 Pro+ managing its heat in a better manner.
In day-to-day usage though it feels like the the Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro+ perform almost exactly the same, thanks to the buttery smooth 120Hz display. It is only when you’re really pushing the device graphically that you will start noticing some minor differences.
Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro+ Review: Battery & Charging
The Realme 14 Pro+ and the Realme 14 Pro, both, come equipped with a new 6,000mAh Silicon-carbon battery. These batteries use a silicon-carbon composite as the anode instead of graphite and are touted to be the next big thing in mobile battery technology. That is the reason why you will see most smartphone manufacturers are now using 6000 mAh batteries in their devices.
Coming to the battery life, both the Realme 14 Pro+ and the Realme 14 Pro perform great. During a typical day’s usage, which included things like attending calling, scrolling through social media for a good hour and a half, reading numerous articles, attending several video calls, listening to some music, and some light gaming, the battery comfortably lasted just about two days. On days, when I was particularly demanding, took lots of photos and videos, played games for longer and watched a lot more shows and movies at higher brightness, the device would last me a day.
Even in synthetic benchmarks, the devices scored better than most previous-generation phones. In the PC Mark 10 battery test, the device lasted about 16.5 hours, which is pretty commendable.
The only difference between the when it comes to battery performance is charging. Realme has included an 80W SUPERVOOC charger with the 14 Pro+, whereas the 14 Pro gets a 45W SUPERVOOC charger. As a result, the 14 Pro+ goes from 0-50% in about 25 mins and does 0-100% in just under an hour, whereas the 14 Pro takes about 35 mins to go from 0-50% and 1 hour 20 mins to reach 100%. Neither of the devices support wireless charging.
Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro+ Review: Verdict
The Realme 14 Pro+ stands out as an excellent choice if you’re looking for dependable cameras without breaking the bank. It doesn’t stop at just photography, though. With a stunning display and impressive speakers, it’s designed for an immersive multimedia experience. Add to that its long-lasting battery, which can keep up with extended gaming sessions, and you’ve got a phone that’s built to entertain. To top it off, the Pro+ comes in a sleek yet durable design, making it a package that’s as attractive as it is practical.
That said, competition in this price range is fierce. Rivals like the POCO X7 Pro, Realme’s GT 6T, and Vivo’s T3 Ultra bring tough challenges, especially in performance and features.
The Realme 14 Pro, on the other hand, caters to those who value looks, display quality, battery life, and dependable everyday performance. Its primary camera punches well above its weight for this segment, but the lack of an ultra-wide camera is a noticeable omission that might frustrate some users. While the phone handles casual gaming just fine, it’s not built for hardcore gamers. For gaming enthusiasts, the POCO X7 series is a better bet with superior graphics and battery optimisation.
If your priority is a versatile camera setup though the Redmi Note 14 Pro+ stands as a contender against the regular 14 Pro. At its price, it offers a balance of features that might sway those looking for more flexibility in their photography. Ultimately, the choice between these options depends on whether your focus is gaming, photography, or an all-around performer.