Huge battery in a cheap cell phone

2023-07-03 14:15:00

Cheap can be expensive. Is it really worth buying the Galaxy M14, one of the cheapest phones available, but launched in 2023 and with 128 GB of storage? I used it for three weeks and honestly I was pretty surprised. In this video I will tell you all the positives and negatives of Samsung’s new entry-level cell phone.

Galaxy M14 Review

cameras

In the cameras, the M14 has three sensors: the main is wide and has 50 MP and that’s the sensor that matters. The others Samsung just put here to maintain the aesthetics of the device: they are a sensor 2 MP macro it is a depth sensor, also 2 MP. We don’t have an ultra-wide camera on this device.

On the front, we have a 13 MP selfie camera.

I enjoyed the sunny morning and took some pictures with the M14. We can see in this first selfie that, despite the sky being a bit blown out, the cell phone managed to crop my face well. Buddy’s photo, taken with the rear camera, was excellent. The sharpness and colors caught my attention.

Selfie camera (13 MP) and main camera (50 MP) Samsung Galaxy M14 / Source: Oficina da Net

In an environment with less light, Samsung’s selfie ends up being a little too “soft”, but that was to be expected. Even on the brand’s most expensive cell phones, this tends to happen.

Selfie camera (13 MP) and main camera (50 MP) Samsung Galaxy M14 / Source: Oficina da Net

But look at how well HDR worked in this shot inside the studio: the street is fully lit, while the interior of the studio has kept all the details of the shadows.

Selfie camera (13 MP) and main camera (50 MP) Samsung Galaxy M14 / Source: Oficina da Net It’s the same case we saw there in the A14 review, these cameras are really similar. I’m even thinking of making a comparison video of the A14 vs the M14 photos, putting the two side by side and seeing which one does better. If you would like to see this comparison, comment below.

Main camera (50 MP) Samsung Galaxy M14 / Source: Oficina da Net

In the end, the cameras end up being one of the biggest reasons to buy the M14. You won’t find better quality for the price they are asking for it.

Main camera (50 MP) Samsung Galaxy M14 / Source: Oficina da Net

videos

With the M14 we can only shoot in FULL HD e 30 frames, standard for cell phones in this price range. The image quality is ok, but what caught my attention was the stabilization. Of all the entry-level phones we tested here, the A14 and the M14 were the best at stabilizing videos.

Battery

The battery is usually the biggest plus point of Samsung’s M line phones. The Galaxy M14 has an incredible 6000mAh of capacity. But how long can it be used?

Well, to test this we developed a complete test with several steps: browsing social networks, YouTube, video recording, playing games, in short, everything to simulate a day of intense use as much as possible.

Battery: 6000mAh;
Charger: 15W;
Final result: + 7 hours 45 minutes from the phone. Completed the cycle;
Consumption: The battery is 75%;
Loading: 2h20 minutes.

As expected, the M14 managed to complete the test quite comfortably. It used up 75% of the battery, that is, we still have a few hours of use. If I had to recommend a cell phone for someone who spends several hours away from the socket, the recommendation is definitely the Galaxy M14.

But look, it’s not all smooth sailing: when that battery finally runs out, you have nowhere to run: Samsung keeps putting this crappy charger out of 15W In the box.

M14 charger and other Samsung cell phones / Source: Oficina da Net

We tested it and the M14 takes 2h20m to complete the charge from 0 to 100%, which is a bad result by today’s standards.

I like to cite Xiaomi cell phones as an example, which in addition to having great batteries, come with fast charging that fills the cell phone from 0 to 100 in less than an hour. This is a point that Samsung still needs to improve.

Hardware and Performance

On the processor, the Galaxy M14 has the Exynos 1330which is an octa-core with four cores of 2.4 GHz and six cores 2 GHz.

On the day we are recording this video, we only have the version with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage available for purchase, but it is likely that they will release a version with 64GB of storage. If this happens, do not buy, under any circumstances, the 64GB. Today’s applications are getting heavier and heavier, and it’s a pain to have one to install another.

Tests no AnTuTu Benchmark

In the AnTuTu benchmark tests, the Galaxy M14 scored 442 thousand, which is strange, since, despite having the same processor and memory as the Galaxy A14, this one scored about 18% more than its twin brother.

This score puts the M14 close to phones like the M53 and Galaxy S21 FE in our AnTuTu ranking.

Teste no CPU Throttling

Another test we use is CPU Throttling, an application that stresses the phone to the maximum to see if it can maintain power without overheating.

Here we had a much worse score than in AnTuTu: the M14 soon reaches its temperature limit and lowers the clocks so that the processor does not overheat. It scored 154,000 average points, and is situated at the very bottom of our ranking, next to cell phones like the G42, POCO M5 and the Z Fold3.

But how much do these results influence in practice? For that, let’s go to the games.

Games

Over on the Roda Liso channel, we made a complete video testing this cell phone here against the A14. The two perform very similarly in games, with the M14 doing better in some titles and the A14 in others:

No Genshin Impactwhich is one of the heaviest games we test, the M14 averaged 27 frames, against the 16 of the A14. Of course, the stability of both was terrible, around 60%, but you can’t deny that 27 frames is better than 16.

No COD Mobilethe two had practically the same performance, 59 frames of the M14 against 53 of the A14. So if you want to play COD and don’t want to spend a lot, both phones do well in this game.

no longer PUBG the M14 got the competitive Roda Seal, while the A14 was only in the roda. For some reason, performance on the M14 is unlocked in this game, and he averaged 79 FPS. The A14 didn’t do too badly, 45 frames average, but it’s strange to see such similar phones reaching such different averages.

Bodies

One of the weak points of this device is the screen: While some brands have already gone for AMOLED even in the cheapest cell phones, with Samsung you only have a really good screen in the Galaxy A24 and up.

Galaxy M14 LCD screen / Source: Oficina da Net

But despite not being AMOLED, this screen on the M14 is far from bad. It is a display LCD IPS with resolution FULL HD+ and with 90 Hz in refresh rate.

Colors are vivid and the image has good contrast for an IPS screen. Samsung does not report the amount of screen brightness, but I can assure you that it is enough to use outdoors, even on a very sunny day.

AMOLED vs IPS screen (Redmi Note 11S on top, Samsung Galaxy M14 below. / Source: Oficina da Net

Ah, the cell phone also has that variable refresh rate system – this means that it drops from 90 Hz to 60 Hz when you have the screen stopped, reading a text, for example. It’s a good way to save a little load on a day-to-day basis.

Construction and Design

In construction, the M14 is probably the biggest and heaviest we’ve tested here: It weighs 206 grams and is 9.4 millimeters thick.

Between the design and appearance of the M14 and the A14, I prefer the A14 a thousand times over. Of course, this is a matter of taste, but this green one here, with the textured back and squared corners, ends up with the appearance of a much more expensive cell phone than it actually is. The M14 doesn’t have that – the corners are super round, the back is smooth and the color options don’t help: it has navy blue, blue and silver.

Galaxy M14 and Galaxy A14 / Source: Oficina da Net

Apart from aesthetics, the construction of the two devices is the same. Volume button on the side, on and off button that is also the fingerprint reader, we also have space for a chip and micro SD memory card.

Galaxy M14 and Galaxy A14 / Source: Oficina da Net

The M14 has two microphones, one on the top and one on the bottom of the device. The speaker is not stereo, we only have one, but the audio quality is good. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

If you like NFC payment, you will be happy to know that the M14 does support this type of payment, unlike the A14.

Galaxy M14 has NFC payment / Source: Oficina da Net

Is it worth buying or Samsung M14?

The price of the Galaxy M14 is currently around R$1100, the same price as the A14, but there is a promotion going on on the Samsung website where you can buy two M14s for R$1700, which is 850 reais each. I’d say it’s an excellent gift for dad and mom, grandpa and grandma. It’s a simple cell phone, but with 128 GB of storage, satisfactory performance and good cameras. For someone who is going to use the cell phone for Internet browsing and WhatsApp, it doesn’t need more performance than that.

Samsung Galaxy M14 / Source: Oficina da Net

Now, for those who use their cell phones all day, work with them or like to play games, I recommend investing a little more and taking the Galaxy A34. It’s 300 reais more, but for that amount you get a screen that’s AMOLED instead of IPS, better cameras, a more powerful processor, Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the screen and IP-67 certification against dust and water.

Samsung Galaxy M14 5G

Pros BatteryPrice128GB of storage

If you don’t have enough money to take the A34, the best cost-effective choice at the moment is between the Galaxy A14 and M14. I would go with the A14 just because it’s prettier, but as you saw in the review, the two are practically the same, the difference is that the M14’s battery is bigger and it has NFC.

The grades that the Galaxy M14 received were:

Cameras: 7,7
Battery: 9,6
Performance: 7,0
Design and construction: 6,8
Bodies: 7,0
GENERAL RESULT: 7,6

With this result the Galaxy M14 took 33rd place in our ranking of the best cell phones analyzed here at Oficina da Netmatching the Galaxy A14.

1°Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra9,89,51010109,9R$&nbsp5.898,00

2°Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max9,88,01010109,6R$&nbsp7.106,00

3°OnePlus 119,58,81010109,6R$&nbsp3.891,82

4°Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra9,87,51010109,5R$&nbsp4.399,00

5°Motorola Edge 30 Ultra9,09,2109,59,59,4R$&nbsp3.695,11

35°Samsung Galaxy M14 5G7,79,67,06,87,07,6R$&nbsp959,20

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