realme’s Number Series has always piqued the most interest from me. Earlier this year, realme highlighted its camera improvements with the realme 14 Pro Series. Now, we’re getting phones geared towards performance with the realme 14 Series 5G. Is focusing on performance and gaming-centric features enough for the realme 14 5G to shine? Find out in my full review.
Disclaimer: realme Philippines sent over an Exclusive Gift Set with the realme 14 5G in Mecha Silver, TechLife Headphones G1, and some realme merch. The gift set arrived on April 21, 2025, and I unboxed the phone on the same day. I’ve been using the phone for a week as my main Android phone.
Unboxing Experience
A Standout Mecha Design
If there’s one indicator that realme focused on gaming-centric features, it’s the design of the realme 14. We’re getting a gamer aesthetic with the Mecha Silver color of this phone. I love its matte back and the nice touch of the orange power button. On the bottom of the phone, we get the dual SIM card tray (no microSD card slot), a USB-C port, and the bottom speaker. The second speaker is on the top.
The realme 14 also has support for IP66, IP68, and IP69 ratings for dust and water resistance. I’m glad to see realme commit to bringing better dust and water resistance to its C Series and Number Series phones.
Does Its Performance Go Beyond Limits?
The realme 14 5G is the first smartphone in the Philippines to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 processor. Coupled with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, realme pretty much made it clear that this is geared towards gaming. This phone has GT Boost, which brings many of the optimizations previously found in the GT Series such as Geek Power Tuning, combined with AI features like AI Motion Control and AI Ultra Touch Control for an even better mobile gaming experience.
I honestly felt that while playing my usual game Pokémon UNITE and even games like Honor of Kings and Mobile Legends. realme also claimed an AnTuTu benchmark score of 760,000+ and the results I got basically match that claim. Here are some benchmark results:
It also helps that this phone runs realme UI 6.0 based on Android 15. While this skin still has a lot of bloatware, the user interface smoothness is still one of the best I’ve used.
The Essentials Complementing the Performance
The good thing about realme’s Number Series is that the other aspects complement well with the aspect that stands out. Of course, the realme 14 excels in maintaining that balance.
Its 6.67-inch 120Hz Esports AMOLED display pretty much provides a no-frills experience when watching videos or playing games. What impressed me more is its almost-symmetrical bezels. You really won’t notice them during long ML matches or insane binge-watching sessions. A disappointing thing for me is its stereo speakers. I wish it had more volume, but I think the improved dust and water resistance has something to do with that.
I do like the Pulse Light feature on the camera module. It shines when you do certain actions in your phone like starting a match in ML and HoK, receiving notifications, or even when charging the phone.
INSANE Battery Life!
If there’s one feature I love the most about the realme 14 5G, it would have to be its battery life. On paper, it’s actually good to see a 6000 mAh battery along with 45W SUPERVOOC fast charging. I honestly did not expect to get a staggering 21 HOURS in the PCMark Work 3.0 battery test!
Even when you just factor in the battery results shown in realme UI, I got 5 hours, 33 minutes of screen-on time with 42% battery remaining! Even though I got used to the faster charging speeds of higher-end realme phones, charging the battery to full in around an hour is perfectly fine for me.
Are The Cameras Any Good?
Since realme didn’t put much emphasis on its cameras as a selling point for this phone, I didn’t expect much. On paper, just having a 50MP main camera and a 2MP bokeh camera on the rear sounds disappointing. Good thing we have realme’s image processing at work here. I generally got good photos in both bright light and some low-light scenarios.
Click on the photos for full-resolution versions.
The realme 14 5G also has a 16MP front camera for taking those selfies. Photos coming from the front camera are good enough, though I prefer the better front camera on the 14 Pro+. (That phone’s review is coming soon.)
Should You Buy the realme 14 5G?
The realme 14 5G is a midrange smartphone that handles the essentials of a smartphone well while bringing a more stable mobile gaming experience especially in supported games. Battery life is a definite standout in this phone, though I wish it had slightly faster charging.
Pros
- A clean Mecha Design with better IP69 ingress protection rating
- Good 6.67-inch 120Hz AMOLED display
- Better-than-expected performance thanks to Snapdragon 6 Gen 4
- Exceptional battery life thanks to its big 6000 mAh battery
- Its Pulse Light can be useful
- Solid 50MP main camera and 16MP front camera
Cons
- No microSD card slot and headphone jack
- Disappointing speaker performance
- Why does the 2MP camera still exist in 2025?
- 45W SUPERVOOC is okay, but could be better
You can get the realme 14 5G at an SRP of P17,999 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It is available at your nearest realme store, kiosk, and authorized retailer nationwide. Take advantage of the First-Selling Offer at realme physical stores where you can get a FREE TechLife Headphones G1 worth PHP 2,199 (while supplies last). It is also available online via realme’s TikTok Shop where it can be yours for as low as P15,299 with a freebie (800 ML Diamond (while supplies last))!