Realme 14 Pro Plus Review: A Feature-Packed Performer Under Mid-Range Price Segment

Realme gave one of the best start to the year 2025 and is turning heads by launching one of the most stylish smartphones in Realme’s lineup to date. The company unveiled its budget-friendly Realme 14X 5G in India in December. Now the company is focusing on its Pro line-up. I shared the ‘First Look’ of the Realme 14 Pro Plus at the time of its launch with few points of the smartphone. The newly launched smartphone offers impressive features including IP69 rating for durability along with power-packed battery of 6000mAh.

After evaluating it in detail for some time, I can now tell that Realme 14 Pro Plus is a mid-ranger with power-packed performance. Like its predecessors, the company launched two models in the Realme 14 Pro series including Realme 14 Pro and Realme14 Pro Plus. The Plus model is offering a cutting-edge features unexpectedly at a mid-range price money. So, what does the 14 Pro+ bring to the table?

But before we get into the details, let’s take a quick look at its detailed specifications:

While the above table gives us a fair idea about the smartophone, let’s delve into the detailed review o the Realme 14 Pro Plus.

Design and Display:

As I slowly unwrapped the Realme 14 Pro Plus 5G, the foremost thing that caught my attention was the refined chamfered edges and the stunning Pearl-White rear panel. The phone immediately felt like a sense of luxury and sophistication, a feel that I wasn’t expecting from a mid-range smartphone. Holding it in my hand, I immediately realized that the company has surely upped their game in price-to-performance. It made me feel flagship and I couldn’t wonder but feel that Realme had finally found the sweet spot with offering a device with a premium aesthetic at a price that was far more accessible as compared to the higher-end smartphones.

The variant that I received was the Pearl White, which officially comes with an interesting color-shifting feature, that surely feels like a selling gimmick to me, but here I am witnessing the world’s first color-sensitive, color-changing phone. What fascinates me is that the phone shifts from a soft white to a cool bluish tint when dipped in the ice cold water, giving it a fun and unique touch to the design. The fascinating effect causes the back of the phone to change ite hue when the temperature drops below 16 degree celsius. Nevertheless, it quickly became clear to me that’s its nothing more of a gimmick than a long-term value for money. Keeping India’s humid climate most of the time, you probably won’t get to see the color-changing feature often. Plus you would also disappoint due to the thermochromic material that actually making this feature possible is degrading with due course of time.

But even without the color-changing feature, I found the design of the phone to be absolutely gorgeous and what truly caught my attention was the phone’s camera system. The company has not just encircled the rear camera by not just one, but three LED lights. The inclusion of three LED lights serves as an important purpose in low-light photography.

The one thing that actually caught my attention was the durability of the phone and I am quite impressed with it, making me realize that the phone is ready to hold up even in the toughest situations. Thanks to its triple IP ratings—IP66, IP68, and IP69 which makes the phone ready for the underwater adventures. In addition, the brand claims it to be equipped with the “military-level shock resistance,” and to test the feature, I dropped the phone few times but it came out unscathed.  Cherry on the cup cake, the brand has given Gorilla Glass 7i protection to the phone.

The 6.83-inch OLED quad-curve display offers vibrant color and 1.5K resolution ensures the phone to be delivering sharp and crisp visuals. However, I noticed a minor lag while scrolling, which I think can be better.

Performance:

The backbone of the phone’s smooth performance I its standout Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 which is an excellent chip ensuring everything runs smooth without any hiccups. Much of the time, I used the phone for scrolling Instagram, Facebook, and watching videos and I never experienced lag or stuttering.

However, in terms of gaming, I have some of my opinions that doesn’t match with the positivity of the phone. I mainly played BGMI and Call of Duty and I kept the settings on the lowest graphics with 60fps and I would say the performance was extremely rock solid. Additionally, the frame drops were barely noticeable which proved to be the testament of the Realme 14 Pro Plus capability. But I won’t deny that its not at the top of the line gaming food chain as compared to other phones in this segment. Some competitors are offering  with up t 90 fps frame rate or in some cases up to 120 fps while playing Call of Duty: Mobile. However, the company has promised to soon bring the 90 fps mode update to its newly launched Realme 14 Pro Plus.

One feature that I would really talk about in my review and which impressed me is its cooling system during my testing. The company ahs equipped the Realme 14 Pro Plus with 13,329mm² graphite sheet and a 6000mm² VC Cooling System which in comparison is the bigger and larger than its predecessor Realme 13 Pro Plus. The cooling system helpind me in playing games like BGMI in HDR settings and while it gets warm but doesn’t feel uncomfortable in holding.

The smartphone runs on Android 15 with Realme UI 6 and offers several AI enhancements which actually impressed me. Features like AI Snap Mode, AI Eraser 2.0, Circle to Search and many others prove to be perfect for multitasking. On top of that I found some  touch sensitivity features like Touch Adaptation and Waterproof Pouch Mode to be working quite practical. The Touch Senstivity feature adjusted the touch sensitivity depending on the environment.

However, not everything about the Realme 14 Pro Plus is perfect. While some of the AI features are genuinely useful, the Air Gestures feature didn’t quite live up to the hype. It felt a little gimmicky and didn’t work as seamlessly as I expected. It was a bit hit-or-miss when trying to navigate the phone with gestures, and I ended up using it less than I initially thought I would.

As I mentioned in my First Impression that Realme smartphones are sometimes known for their Bloatware and Realme 14 Pro Plus is also not untouched by it. Despite removing some of the pre-installed apps, I encountered they re-appear after the resets, which is a bit annoying for me. While I kept running into the ads while navigating the Global Search Function, which is again frustrating. Thankfully, you can turn them off and while you can remove the usual bloatware that comes with the phone, its still frustrating to deal them every time you are resetting the phone.

Realme promises two years of Android updates and three years of security patches. That’s good, but it’s not as generous as some competitors who offer longer support cycles. For a phone in this price range, I would have hoped for a bit more longevity when it comes to updates.

All things considered, the Realme 14 Pro Plus offers solid performance, great cooling, and useful features. The AI enhancements and polished UI make for a great user experience, but the occasional bloatware, limited gaming performance, and shorter software support do hold it back from being perfect.

Camera:

After using Realme 14 Pro Plus for quite some time, I realized that the photography capabilities are actually impressive, especially in daylight. While clicking photos at daylight, the images are incredibly sharp and the color are vivid. Additionally, the camera of Realme 14 Pro Plus can handle the wide dynamic range that too in challenging lightning situations. One of the most liked camera feature of this phone is its 3x periscope telephoto lens which offers some of the crisp and clear optical zoom photos, whereas the in-sensor zoom up to 6x adds even more versatility.

I also truly admire the several modes available which means whether I am clicking portraits, landscapes, or even doing more creative like time-lapses or slo-mo videos, the options are available at ample amount. The camera is also equipped with AI modes which are pretty impressive as it automatically adjusts the settings based on the scene. This not just makes the photo more vibrant, but also make it quite vivid without indulging in much effort from my part. The Pro mode gives me full control when I want to manually tweak the settings for a more professional feel.

Talking about the portrait shots, they are truly amazing with detecting edges accurately and the ultra-wide lens is solid too, suitable for landscape shots. However, it is not as quite as impressive as the telephoto lens.

Front camera does a decent job with clicking clear images, but I could notice the little over-smoothing which can be due to the AI; However its not too distracting. I am happy with the stabilization that the phone is offering while doing 4K video recording. The ultra-steady video mode is limited to 1080p at 60fps, which is a bit of a bummer if you’re hoping for a higher resolution in that mode.

The 120x zoom sounds impressive, but obviously it wouldn’t deliver the quality that you were looking for. The quality drops significantly after the 20x mark. Overall, this phone offers an outstanding camera setup for the price.

Camera Sample:

Battery:

The many activities on my daily phone usage include navigation as well as phone calls and message responses alongside web browsing and prolonged music streaming and occasional gaming sessions. To my pleasure the battery performs admirably despite all that usage. The device shows outstanding battery performance by maintaining between 10-20% of power remaining during morning use after intense daily usage.

Users will find no disappointment when it comes to charging their phone. The bundled 80W charger increases the phone’s battery from zero to 50% in 24 minutes before reaching full charge in less than an hour. A smart charging feature is a nice addition for battery health but it would be better if there was a direct way to track overall battery condition from the settings.

The battery performance maintains steady performance which offers lengthy operation during daily usage and allows easy and quick charging opportunities.

Final Verdict:

If you are looking for a smartphone for around Rs 30,000 then Realme 14 Pro Plus can e your best option. The device ticks positive on several points including Camera, Design, and Battery. However, it has its downside, but that can be avoidable. The smartphone gives premium feel while holding and delivers some of the best images in its segment. The huge battery can last for a day or two and the impressive camera features cannot be overlooked. So it is one of the best recommendation in terms of its price and the features its delivering.

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