Galaxy F14 5G | Detailed Review

[Anikroyale]

Hey guys, Anik this side.

It is time for me to review the Galaxy F14 5G, in the “Royale” style! I received my unit from Samsung India, and I’ve been using it for quite a few days, so expect a properly organized review. Also, just to be clear, receiving this unit free of charge will not affect my review in ANY way. Spoiler: Long post, make yourself a cup of coffee and dive in!

1.Display: Right off the bat, the phone is up for a rough start. The display of the F14 5G is at best, OKAY. Nothing great. It’s a PLS LCD display, which makes it a tad bit better than TFT and IPS displays, but comes nowhere near an Amoled display. Being used to an Amoled display, this does not bring joy to my eyes. It is a 90 Hz panel, so scrolling on it and regular usage feels smooth. Also, it’s a big boy, coming at 6.6 inches. Personally, for me, I would MUCH prefer a 60 Hz Amoled display over the F14’s 90 HZ PLS. Don’t expect anything like HDR etc. Widevine L1 support is there and at least it is a 1080p display and not 720p.

2.Cameras:

A.Photos: The photos that come out of this device are inconsistent. It is impressive at times but not-so-impressive at other times. But it does have the potential to be a great camera device, dare I say, the best in this segment. But it does need improvements via software updates. One positive thing is that the 50 MP camera comes with FULL Fledged Pro mode. Yes, you can change shutter speed (upto 10s) and focus control on the F14 5G. The second camera is a 2 MP depth sensor, and we don’t talk about that here.

B.Videos: The F14 5G only has 2 modes for video recording, 1080p30 (FHD) and 720p30 (HD). The FHD recoding is good, but only in bright lighting conditions. That’s all I have to say about videos. It is extremely disappointing to see that they didn’t provide a 1080p60 option.

C.Front Camera: Its not bad, but needs further optimization.

Overall Verdict: Cameras need further optimization, and I prefer the cameras on my almost 3-year-old Galaxy M31s. That thing was, and still is a MONSTER. Consistency is key and the F14 5G’s cameras lack in that department.

3.User Interface: This phone comes with One UI Core 5.1 out of the box. Just when I thought that One UI Core was no more a thing, I was wrong. Samsung has disappointed me, yet again with One UI Core. It does lack some basic features like a built-in Screen Recorder, Link to Windows or Smart View, but has most of the features from full One UI, which wasn’t the case previously. The phone supports Samsung Wallet (no cards or Samsung Pass) and Secure Folder, so that’s impressive. Good Lock is supported, but through APKs, unstable. And not all of them works. Upon setting up the device, you will have the option to select what you want and what you do not, so be careful while setting it up. After finishing setup, you will see a couple of bloatware, which can easily be uninstalled. Samsung has come a long way and has reduced the amount of bloat by a TON, but some still exist. Should not be a deal breaker.

4.Battery and charging: The phone packs a 6000 mAh battery, and it performs like one. The phone just straight up REFUSES to die. I have recorded a 0% battery drain overnight on LTE+ and a 2% drain overnight on 5G. If that isn’t impressive, I don’t know what is. I went for a photography meetup and carried this device, which gave me a chance to test the cameras and the battery, both at once. I went out at 10 AM in the morning with the battery fully charged, and by the time I was home, at & 7 PM, I was at 50%, all with 5G on and hundreds of photos and videos captured. I was transferring some photos to my laptop from the phone, and by the time I finished, at 11 PM, I was at around 40%. A battery which still has 40% still left at the end of the day with the cameras almost always on and connected to 5G is mighty impressive. The phone comes with 25 watts of charging (no charger in box), and takes around 1 hour and 40 minutes to charge from 0 to 100. Average charging speeds, but not a deal breaker for me.

5.Overall design and in-hand feel: Design is subjective. I like the design, like its nothing too fancy, just an unibody design with 2 cameras in the back and a torch. The phone is comfortable in hand, but I prefer a discrete frame and a bit more boxier corners, just like my M31s. Weight distribution is spot-on! Another thing which I would like to mention is the horrendous bezels that this phone has. Trust me when I say this, the chin is HUGE and the top bezel is thicker than the ones on the sides, which makes it look awful from the front.

6.Performance: The phone comes with the Exynos 1330, making this phone the ONLY smartphone to have a 5nm processor in this segment. I tried Call of Duty Mobile and it goes only upto Medium graphics + High framerates which is very playable and smooth. I also tried Minecraft with shaders and the phone handled it pretty well! The phone gets slightly warm every now and then while gaming and charging, but that is to be expected from any smartphone. 5G speeds go upto 800-900 mbps here in Kolkata, but this may vary with region. Overall, the phone has really satisfied me with its performance, and it will be hard to find something like this in the segment.

7.Miscellaneous: The phone comes with a SIM slot which can hold 2 SIMs and a SD card at the same time, and a headphone jack. Nice. Speakers are loud, like REALLY loud, but lacks bass. No stereo speakers though. In-call voice and connectivity have zero issues and network reception is strong. Voice focus, maintenance mode and other such features exist, which makes it a great competitor to the other brands.

Overall verdict, the phone is good for people who want a phone that has good performance, within the budget segment, or for the elderly. Techies won’t be super impressed with it, although credit where its due, the device is way better than some of the previous offerings in this budget. Read the review and decide for yourself if you want to buy it or not, and remember, these are my views and experiences, your mileage may vary.

So, that was it for the review, if I missed any points, or if you have any further questions regarding the product, ask me in the comments and I will answer accordingly.

Till then, this is Anik and I am signing off, and until next time, take care!

[MrGEEK]

By far the best review post 🙌

[Anikroyale]

Thanks a lot ❤ hope this helps potential buyers.

[Sid_Karna]

Genuine review 👍👍

[Anikroyale]

Thanks man! Consumer first!

[brucewaynethebatman]

Exynos is 💩 processor. Avoid it at all cost.

[Anikroyale]

Oh please, my experience says otherwise. Take it from someone who has ACTUALLY used the thing.

[brucewaynethebatman]

I have used exynos based phones, all of them were 💩. It is known fact that exynos are 💩 compared to snapdragon.

[Anikroyale]

Purposely spreading misinformation I see? Did you use the F14? The Exynos 1330? If you hate something, good, keep it to yourself, don't try to push that on others, especially when it is not true. Some bad products do mot mean that all products are bad.

[brucewaynethebatman]

Yes, my friend has brought it and he is saying what I told him about exynos. Many bad product means higher expectation that future product will be bad and samsung never disappointed to prove that too. Many people are also complaining about M33, you can check, it also has exynos. So i think, you are doing advertisment for Samsung new product which is fine but care to listen to people having bad experience. Or intention is, samsung should stop giving inferior products to us in India and give snapdragon based phone that are more reliable.