With a large 6,000 mAh battery with faster 45W charging speed and IP69 waterproof rating with Military-Grade Shock Resistance, is the Realme 14x the right phone for you or your family? The Realme 14x does look beautiful, but is that enough up for the other aspects for the phone, like the mediocre-sounding HD display, average audio, almost non-existent camera, slower storage, and more? We share the detailed insights of Realme 14x with you on this page. This is our Realme 14x review!

In summary:

  • Realme 14x makes sense only if you need a beautiful looking phone that's also the toughest one in the range.
  • It doesn't have a good display and cameras. It even tries to deceive you into believing there are three rear cameras when there is only one.
  • Performance is also not up to the mark.
  • Those who are too keen on IP69 should simply wait out for more devices to launch in this range, or a bit of higher segment.

Box contents:

  • 1 Phone
  • 1 Charger
  • 1 USB Data Cable
  • 1 SIM Ejector Tool
  • 1 Quick Guide
  • 1 Protective Case

The in-box content is good. You get the charger, cable and even a free – but very nice! – case, so full points to Realme for that!

Design and basic features

  • Dimensions: 165.7mm x 76.22 x 7.94 mm
  • Weight: 197g
  • IP69 rating
  • Military grade protection
  • Sensors: Geomagnetic Sensor, Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Acceleration Sensor, Side Capacitance Fingerprint Sensor, Flicker Sensor
  • 5G + 5G Dual Mode (can make calls on 5G on one SIM and use 5G data on another one)
  • Wi-Fi: Supports 2.4/5GHz Wi-Fi, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
  • Bluetooth: 5.3
  • Type C

You have to admit it – the Realme 14X does look beautiful.

Even the otherwise super-dull yellow color we got, which is officially called Folder Glow, is nice to look at. But go for the Red color or Black one, and you will not be disappointed at all.

The diamond inspired design on the glass back is quite mesmerizing and the colored aluminum grill that surrounds the phone's body is also really nice. That it packs in IP69 rating and military-grade protection makes the phone a pretty great deal design-wise.

It's quite thin, too, given it packs in a large 6,000mAh battery. You can't find many phones that are a hair under 8mm thin and pack in 6,000 mAh battery without breaking your bank much.

One thing we did not like in Realme 14x's otherwise great design is the large bezels around the screen. The more-than-usual bezels at top and bottom make the phone more longer than comfortable – both on eyes and use. Even though the display is sized 6.67 inches, it's longer than Galaxy S24 ultra (6.8 inches) and Google pixel 9 Pro XL (6.8 inches). It's bigger in both length and width than Agni 3, which in itself is quite a big device.

You may also come to hate the plastic body of the phone, which gives you a cheap feel that you may not be accustomed to and maybe badly surprised by it, given most phones in this range now offer premium glass back.

Realme 14x design score: 8/10

Performance

  • Chipset: Dimensity 6300 5G
  • CPU: 6nm process, octa-core, up to 2.4GHz
  • GPU: ARM G57 MC2
  • RAM: 6GB/8GB
  • ROM (internal storage): 128GB (eMMC 5.1)
  • Dynamic RAM expansion: 8GB

We tested the 6GB version of this phone that has 128GB storage (EMMC 5.1, duh!).

In our usage, we found the phone to do the basic tasks well, but when used heavily, it lagged a bit. if you are into gaming, this is NOT the phone for you. The Realme 14x is suitable only for light usage. If you ask me, I think it is fine for my parents, they only use the phone for calls and YouTube, so that should not be a problem.

(I will be handing this over to my father soon and will share the findings with you here. So, do check this page back later. He's not a good caretaker of his phone, so let's see how the military-grade protection works.)

You can run the games like PUBG and all and play and have some fun, but the performance is not good. Even without gaming, the phone can struggle a bit at times.

We would recommend you to carefully SKIP the extra apps Realme asks you to install during installation, and, uninstall/disable as many apps you can on this phone. Lastly, we tested the 6GB variant, so, you might want to opt for the 8GB variant as that could make things slightly better.

Realme 14x performance score: 4/10

Display

  • Screen size: 16.94cm (6.67 inch)
  • Resolution: 1604 × 720 (HD+)
  • Peak brightness: 625 nits (as per Realme)
  • Refresh rate: up to 120Hz
  • Touch reporting rate: up to 180Hz
  • Brightness adjustment: 4096 levels
  • Screen-to-body ratio: 89.97%
  • Color depth: 16.7 million colors
  • Contrast ratio: 1500:1
  • Color gamut: 83% NTSC

Again, the display on Realme 14x is not great. Like its performance, it can do the job, but don't expect it to impress you. So, this is also suitable only for the people who are not conscious about the display on their phone and are of "kuch-bhi-chalega" type. Because this display is really kuch bhi! It's not a bad trait, mind you, as they use the phone only for basic needs like YouTube, calls, SMS, WhatsApp and such.

So, only if you don't mind need a really good display, then this will do. It's kind-of a display from ancient times and we totally hate to see Realme skip Full HD display here. Guess it's good for the kind of people who don't know what Netflix is (or hate it). I can think of my parents to be perfectly happy with this display, truth be told. But I would not recommend it to anyone who is looking forward to watch a lot of OTT.

Even I can use it to watch my daily dose of Sadguru and Premanand Ji videos – because I even turn off the display for that many a times, LOL! – but never for TV shows and movies on Netflix, Hotstar, etc., nor even cricket and football matches, including even the pre-match manager conference streams!

Realme 14x display score: 2/10

Battery

  • Charging technology: 45W SuperVOOC Charge
  • Battery capacity: 6,000mAh
  • Charger: 45W charging adapter (included)
  • Port: USB Type-C

One of the reasons to buy the Realme 14x is is battery. You get a massive battery with a capacity of 6,000mAh, which coupled with mediocre display and processor that do not need a lot of power to do their job, means the battery can last a full 2 days easily. Especially, for the target audience we think will buy this phone and might be looking to use the phone mainly only for WhatsApp, calls, SMS, YouTube, and some more.

As per Realme's lab data, the battery at 100% charge can manage to do calls for 45.4 hours, YouTube for 15.8 hours, Instagram for 18 hours, and, Candy Crush Saga for 14.1 hours. And on 5 minute's charge, calls for 3.6 hours, YouTube for 1.3 hours, Instagram for 1.4 hours, and lastly, Candy Crush Saga for 1.1 hours.

You can expect the phone to achieve lesser numbers than their lab, but I guess Realme 14x will do better than many of the phones when it comes to light weight usage. We will test these numbers soon and report back with our findings, along with the time it takes the devices to charge in various scenes.

Realme 14x battery score: 10/10

Camera

Note: Realme 14x has only one back camera, not three!
  • Main Lens: 50MP, f/1.8
    • Supports video recording at 1080P@30fps, 720P@30fps
  • Front camera: 8MP, f/2.0
    • Supports video recording at 1080P@30fps; at 720P@30fps if beauty mode is enabled (default)

First things first, there is only a single camera at the back. The 3 sensors at the back are only for looks, the two of them are dummy. The lone 50 MP camera is also mediocre. It lacks OIS, thus videos lack stability and images are blurry at night. Not that the images are other very good. The camera exists for odd use only, and you can't rely on it to capture great photos or videos.

The same goes for the front-facing camera, too. It can click photos and record videos, but of low quality only.

But we don't mind it much. Because the target audience for this phone is not the youth, but rather older adults, who may need camera for video calling only mainly, with a little handy use for capturing photos and videos when really needed. Someone, who will never analyze the videos and photos for their quality and are content that they captured something when they needed. I am thinking about my parents only, and how they completely do not use the iPhone we have purchased from them – also buying into the constant worry of them hefty repairs it comes pack with.

All that said, the camera is still take decent pictures in daylight that may actually end up liking.

And anyway, it is more about capturing the moment to save it digitally than capture it at its best possible manner with the best tech.

Realme 14x camera score: 5/10

Here are some examples of Realme 14x camera with virtual 2x zoom:

Lastly, as idea of the blur effect in portrait mode from the front facing camera:

No blur in the left photo, default blur in the center photo, and maximum blur in the right photo.

Software

  • Android 14
    • 2 years of software updates
    • 3 years of security updates
  • Custom skin: Realme UI 5.0

The Realme 14x lacks the latest and greatest Realme has for smartphones in the form of Android 15-based Realme UI 6.0. But as it the whole story, even the compromise here is fine given the target audience for this device.

You get AI features, sure, and Android 14 is no slouch either. But the 6GB RAM model failed to work smoothly on current software, and we hope the future updates, whether incremental ones or the big ones like Realme 6.0 would fix this.

You get some AI features which should not make you miss them, but do not expect them to be great at what they do.

You do get a ton of cool features in Realme UI 5.0 which make using the a lot easier, and good marks to Realme for that. You can even customize the side-mounted fingerprint sensor to do a lot of jobs besides unlocking this phone:

Swiping on the power button to jump to previous app is an insane feature! We love it!

Loved the above? There are many more cool features that you explore and enable in settings to m ale it really easier to use this phone – or any Realme phone for that matter.

Realme 14x software score: 6/10

Verdict

I would say this again, this phone makes sense only for the people who really need an IP69 rated robust device. I can think of it befitting the aged people, who are let's say in their fifties or sixties who can even use this phone without a case without worrying too much – and enjoy its cool design. And they don't need to worry about battery either because it's quite large size and charges faster with 45W charging speeds.

I am sure that age group won't be very wary of the display and camera quality either. Many aged people do increase the font size too more than usual to help them view UI options clearly, and that's where you really can make-do with the HD display – so does on YouTube and WhatsApp.

So, we guess only for some type of people who are keen only good and sturdy design with large battery, does the phone makes sense. Everyone else, which is maybe 98% of the prospective users, just stay away from Realme 14X. The marketed IP 69 rating is not enough to spend Rs. 14,000 on as it will be available on more phones soon, and they might offer easily offer you better processor, camera, display and other things (UFS storage, yay!).

Why did Realme even make 14x?

If you ask me, this phone looks like there was some old-tech dead stock lying around at Realme (or at BBK Electronics which Realme is part of with iQOO, Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus) which they could not use anymore but found a tricky idea to sell the same by jamming it inside an IP69 rated package and naming that device, the Realme 14x. Because, everything in this phone looks from 2014!

That's all from us. Let us know what are your thoughts on Realme 14x?