Ultra means no-compromise these days, but which one is the Ultrest of them all? On paper the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a strong claim to that title.
Let’s start with its retail package. A Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra costs around €1,350 these days (with 512GB of storage) and nets you a USB cable. For €150 more the Xiaomi 14 Ultra comes with a 90W charger and a case. And if you shell out two more hundred, you can snag the Xiaomi 14 Ultra Photography Kit with a leather case, a leather grip with actual physical controls to adjust zoom and aperture, a real shutter button, and a pair of lens filter rings.
Unboxing the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and the Photography Kit
The Photography Kit elevates the photo-taking experience to a whole different level and the added grip alone would justify the added price (and heft) when traveling around. The grip has a 1.500mAh battery built-in, which is nice.
Then there’s the camera setup, which is arguably the finest on a globally available smartphone. The main camera uses a 1-inch type sensor, but upgraded to a second generation, and the aperture has gone from an f/1.9-f/4.0 to an f/1.63 to f/4.0. You are no longer limited to the ends of the range too – the iris can go in-between to any f-number you like. That’s granular control that you can’t find on any of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s direct competitors.
The rest of the camera system is just as impressive – a “short” 75mm zoom with an f/1.8 lens, a long-range 120mm zoom with a now-brighter f/2.5 lens, and a 12mm ultrawide with an f/1.8 lens – all 50MP.
But the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is more than a fancy camera system attached to a phone. It’s a state-of-the-art phone attached to a fancy camera system. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – check – and with 12GB or more commonly, 16GB of RAM. A 3,000 nit LTPO AMOLED with a 1440p resolution – check. A 5,000mAh battery with 90W wired and 80W wireless charging – check and check.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is also as well made as you’d like. The phone comes with a leather back (or a glass one, depending on the color), and there’s a Titanium Special Edition. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra makes a great first impression, in case it’s not obvious. So now we’re off to do some testing with it and see if the positive impressions hold. Stay tuned for our findings!
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra
