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!