The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is now official, having begun its journey from China, before being unveiled on February 25 in Barcelona.
The new Xiaomi 14 Ultra is all about photography, as its striking circular camera bump suggests. With a 1-inch camera sensor and a variable-length lens, as well as dual telephoto cameras, Xiaomi's latest flagship offers almost everything photography enthusiasts are looking for in a phone. There are even lenses developed in collaboration with iconic camera brand Leica.
Revealed at an event during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the new phone is made by Chinese company Xiaomi. According to a report by International Data Corp., Xiaomi had the third-largest market share last year, surpassed only by Apple and Samsung. And while the new Xiaomi 14 Ultra won’t be sold in the U.S., it will be available, along with the regular Xiaomi 14, in Europe and the U.K. in March. Both phones have already been released in China.
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The Xiaomi 14 comes in two models, each with 12GB of RAM. There's a £849 model with 256GB of storage and a £899 model with 512GB of storage - prices convert to $1,080, AU$1,640 and $1,140, AU$1,740 respectively. The 14 is available in black, white and green.
Meanwhile, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a single configuration with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, comes in black or white, and costs £1,299 (around $1,650, AU$2,510). There's no word on whether the special edition Xiaomi 14 Ultra, which is made with titanium instead of aluminum, will be released outside of China. The special edition follows a trend we've seen Apple follow with the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, and Samsung with the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Like the OnePlus 12, Asus ROG Phone 8 Pro , and the Galaxy S24 series, the Xiaomi 14 and 14 Ultra are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. Both phones are IP68 rated for water and dust resistance, meaning they can be submerged in one meter of water for 30 minutes. They also support 90-watt wired charging and wireless charging – 50W on the 14 and 80W on the 14 Ultra. Both have a range of AI features, including image search within photo albums and, like the Galaxy S24 series, the ability to create extensions to the top, bottom, and sides of a photo, beyond its original frame.
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Xiaomi promises four generations of Android OS upgrades and five years of security updates for each model. That's not as long as the seven-year commitment that Google and Samsung made for their latest phones, but it's good.
The 14 Ultra's biggest feature is by far its four cameras on the back. The main camera has a 50-megapixel sensor that's 1-inch in size, which isn't actually 1 inch in diameter. The term or naming convention for 1-inch, or 1-inch-type, sensors is based on the measurement of cathode ray tubes for television broadcasts decades ago — long before smartphones and digital cameras.
That said, the 14 Ultra's 1-inch sensor (which is closer to 0.6 inches diagonally) is larger than most other camera sensors used in phones today. Larger sensors gather more light, resulting in brighter photos with more detail and less image noise. The Oppo Find X7 Ultra, which was introduced in January, also has the same sensor.
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Xiaomi pairs this large phone sensor with a 23mm (full-frame equivalent) lens that has a variable aperture of f/1.63 to f/4.0. This means you can adjust the lens aperture to let in more light or to have a greater depth of field, allowing more of your subject to be in focus. Last year, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra had a similar variable aperture, but the 14 Ultra's is about a stop faster.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra
The 14 Ultra also features a 3.2x 75mm telephoto lens, a 5x120mm telephoto lens, and a 12mm ultra-wide-angle lens. You can purchase the optional Xiaomi 14 Ultra Photography Kit accessory to attach to the 14 Ultra, which gives you more discreet camera controls. The grip features a dual shutter button, a zoom lever, a dedicated video recording button, and an additional customizable dial. It also doubles as a 1,500mAh external charging battery.
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The 14 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery. On the front, there’s a 32-megapixel selfie camera and a 1-120Hz variable refresh rate display with a maximum brightness of 3,000nits. The Xiaomi 14 has a 4,610mAh battery and a 1-120Hz variable refresh rate display with a maximum brightness of 3,000nits. It swaps the 14 Ultra’s massive circular camera bump for a smaller square one that houses a trio of lenses: wide-angle, ultra-wide-angle, and telephoto.
Like the 14 Ultra, it has a 32-megapixel selfie camera. Instead of using Xiaomi Shield Glass over the display like the Ultra, the Xiaomi 14 has Gorilla Glass Victus. Both phones are available for pre-order and will be released in March.
Information source: cnet.com
