Last year, Xiaomi managed to excite smartphone photographers everywhere when it announced the 13 Ultra, a phone that gave a glimpse of what was possible with a top-end flagship, and this year, they have managed to top it with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. Having used the phone for over two weeks, I can confidently say that it is a showcase of what is possible when Leica and a tech giant join forces, and it is stunning. From its striking design to its top-notch specs and stunning camera system, this is a real powerhouse that aims to redefine what a flagship smartphone can be in 2024.
Let’s start with the design. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra keeps the look consistent with last year’s offering, with a sleek aluminum frame and your choice of a glass or vegan leather back. The phone measures 161.4 x 75.3 x 9.2mm and weighs 229g, making it slightly larger and heavier than its predecessor but still manageable for a device with a 6.73-inch display.
The circular camera module dominates the rear, giving the phone a distinctive look that sets it apart from the sea of rectangular camera bumps out there. The phone feels substantial in the hand but not overly heavy, and the curved edges make it comfortable to hold. The IP68 rating ensures that the device can withstand the elements, providing peace of mind for users.
The global version of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is available in two colours, Black and White, and both work to invoate the classic photography feel. The faux leather back has a great look that resists fingerprints, provides a nice grip, and looks fantastic against the aluminum sides. Compared to other flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra holds its own in terms of build quality and hand feel while offering a unique smartphone that breaks the mould of what we have come to expect and give it a look all its own.
Moving on to the display, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra features a breathtaking 6.73-inch LTPO AMOLED panel with a WQHD+ resolution of 1440 x 3200 pixels. The LTPO technology allows the display to dynamically adjust its refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz, saving battery life without compromising on smoothness or responsiveness. The panel also boasts a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, making it a stunning display to look at, and one of the brighter displays we have tested this year. This ensures excellent visibility even in direct sunlight. It is also great for displaying games, with games like Genshin Impact and Diablo Immortal looking truly stunning on the display.
Once you get past the brightness, the quality of the screen is simply outstanding, with vibrant colours, deep blacks and wide viewing angles. Colour accuracy is superb, with support for the DCI-P3 colour gamut and HDR10+ certification. The high resolution and pixel density of 522 ppi ensures that everything from text to images and video looks razor sharp.
In side-by-side comparisons with other flagship displays like the one on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra more than holds its own. There was a time when I would say there were tradeoffs when looking at Xiaomi phones, but with the 14 Ultra, that is no longer the case, with this being one of the nicest smartphone screens I have used in a while.
As you would expect from a phone of this calibre, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a beast under the hood. It’s powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset as the standard Xiaomi 14, which delivers blistering performance across the board. This is paired with the Adreno 750 graphics processor, which offers a notable increase in graphics performance over its predecessor.
In practice, you will notice less stuttering at the highest settings, and you will be able to push the phone a little further in games or software that supports it. The average user may not notice much difference when upgrading from last year’s flagship. Still, for the select titles that push a phone to its limits, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 shows what a flagship mobile processor can do, especially in gaming and creativity apps.
“As you would expect from a phone of this calibre, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a beast under the hood.”
While there are a number of models for the Chinese release of the phone, ranging from a base model with a generous 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage with the ability to go all out with a whopping 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, for the global launch, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is limited to the 16GB option with 512GB of storage. This gives global audiences a solid mid-range device that has all the features the average person could need without pushing the more premium specs that only a select group would ever take advantage of. Still, I would have loved the chance to test the Titanium version of the phone just to see how premium the device could be.
In benchmarks such as Geekbench 5 and AnTuTu, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra scores at the top of the charts, with scores of 7059 and 2014264, respectively, putting it right up there with the Samsung S24 Ultra and OnePlus 12. In real-world use, this means incredibly smooth multitasking, instant app loading and the ability to run even the most demanding games and apps without a hitch. While testing the device, I have not seen any issues with stuttering performance or dips in frame rate, and I have tried to push the phone for this review.
All this power and top-end features make the Xiaomi 14 Ultra a fantastic gaming smartphone. The combination of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, Adreno 750 GPU, and high-refresh-rate display makes for an incredibly immersive and responsive gaming experience. The phone’s advanced cooling system, which includes a vapour chamber and graphite sheets, ensures that the device stays cool even during extended gaming sessions. In titles like Genshin Impact, Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty: Mobile, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra maintains a steady 60fps at max settings, with no noticeable frame drops or stuttering.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra goes well beyond being just a gaming phone. It’s packed with features that make it a versatile daily driver. The 6.73-inch AMOLED display is an absolute joy to use, with its high resolution, vibrant colours, and smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate, and the stereo speakers deliver loud, clear audio with support for Dolby Atmos. The phone also supports 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4, ensuring you’re always connected at the fastest speeds possible. Even when travelling, when other smartphones would struggle for a signal, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra could always connect, even in a different country.
Despite all the features on offer, the show’s real star is the camera system. Much like last year’s offering, Xiaomi has gone all out with the 14 Ultra, packing in a quad-camera setup that’s been co-developed with Leica. It’s hard to tell just how much involvement Leica has had in the phone, but their branding is everywhere, even in many of the colour modes the phone can use.
Looking at the back of the phone, with all the Leica branding around it, the main camera uses a massive 50MP 1-inch Sony LYT-900 sensor with a 23mm equivalent focal length. This is paired with a variable aperture lens that can switch between f/1.63 and f/4.0, allowing for incredible low-light performance and depth of field control. There’s also OIS, ALD, 8P lens and autofocus for good measure, so you’ve got everything you need to take some truly fantastic pictures.
The secondary cameras are also top-of-the-range, with Sony’s IMX858 sensor making for great photography. There’s a 50MP telephoto camera with 3.2x optical zoom and OIS, a 50MP periscope camera with 5x optical zoom and OIS, and a 50MP ultra-wide-angle camera that supports 5cm macro shooting. This versatile setup allows for a wide range of shooting scenarios, from sweeping landscapes to close-up details and distant subjects. And even the 32MP, f/2.0, 22mm front shooter is more than capable of creating content or just keeping in touch with family while delivering some fantastic clarity and colour depth.
In practice, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s cameras are simply stunning. Photos are sharp, detailed, and vibrant, with excellent dynamic range and colour accuracy. The large 1-inch sensor allows for incredible low-light performance, capturing bright, noise-free images even in near-darkness. The variable aperture lens is a game-changer, allowing for portrait shots with beautifully blurred backgrounds and landscape shots with edge-to-edge sharpness.
“In practice, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s cameras are simply stunning.”
The telephoto lenses are equally impressive, providing high-quality zoom shots at both medium and long range. The 3.2x lens is great for portraits and close-ups, while the 5x periscope lens allows you to get closer to distant subjects without sacrificing detail. The ultrawide lens is also top-notch, with minimal distortion and excellent sharpness, even at the edges of the frame.
Video recording is another area where the Xiaomi 14 Ultra excels. The phone can record 8K video at 30fps, 4K video at up to 120fps and 1080p video at up to 1920fps for super slow motion. The OIS and EIS work together to provide stable, shake-free footage, and the phone’s advanced microphones capture clear, directional audio. As mentioned above, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra also features Leica’s signature colour profiles to add a touch of class to your photos and videos.
If you opt for the Xiaomi 14 Ultra Photography Kit, the phone is even more of a powerhouse when it comes to snapping pictures. While it is an extra accessory, unlike last year’s offering, the grip is now a 1500mAh battery pack, connects easily to the phone, and looks absolutely stunning. It gives a new level of control, unlike last year’s iteration (which I also loved).
“If you opt for the Xiaomi 14 Ultra Photography Kit, the phone is even more of a powerhouse when it comes to snapping pictures.”
It feels much more solid when everything is connected. It is my preferred way of taking pictures, and the ability to add an ND filter is a great addition that takes the Xiaomi 14 Ultra to a new level of flexibility when it comes to photos. I want to dive into the kit a bit more, but leave it to say if you want to take smartphone photography seriously, the $250 price tag is well worth it.
Even beyond the standard modes, Xiaomi has packed in some extra camera settings that can be a great addition to your photography life. From supermoon to long exposure, there’s a lot to explore in the camera app, but perhaps the most useful feature that most people who buy the phone should at least try out is the Master Portrait mode. This gives you a natural DLSR bokeh effect that feels much more like what you would get with a prime lens on a professional camera. While many of the bokeh effects you find on smartphones feel very artificial, the Master Portrait feature looks really good and can be a great addition to your photographic arsenal.
Battery life is another strong point for the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. The global version of the phone packs a massive 5,000mAh battery, which is more than enough to get you through a full day of heavy use. In our testing, the phone consistently lasted for over 7 hours of screen-on time with a mix of gaming, video streaming, and social media use. When you do need to charge up, the 90W wired charging and 80W wireless charging support means you can go from empty to full in just over half an hour. The phone also supports reverse wireless charging, so you can use it to top up your wireless earbuds or smartwatch in a pinch.
On the software front, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra runs Hyper OS, which is based on Android 14. Hyper OS is a clean, intuitive skin that adds some useful features without feeling bloated or overwhelming. The phone comes with a number of Xiaomi’s own apps, including the excellent Mi Fitness and Mi Home, but you can easily install your favourite apps from the Google Play store. Xiaomi has also promised four years of Android updates and five years of security patches for the 14 Ultra, ensuring that the phone will stay up to date for the next few years.
Xiaomi didn’t stop there, though, and since this is 2024 and AI is all the rage, the 14 Ultra brings with it a selection of AI features that are, at the very least, interesting. These features are currently locked behind a beta that you have to apply for access to, but once you apply and dive in, there is some interesting stuff on offer. In fact, I delayed this review so that I could at least try out the AI features, as I wanted to give the best possible review of what the phone has to offer.
Perhaps the most ubiquitous AI feature is the technology that helps the phone work, using algorithms to anticipate your needs. To be honest, I’ve been testing it for a few days now and haven’t noticed much of a difference, but this will adapt over time, so we’ll see. It will be exciting if the 14 Ultra adapts to the way I work and changes settings to suit my needs, but so far I have seen very little of what the AI does, and as there are no adjustments I can find, it will be a waiting game to see if things change over the coming weeks.
But don’t worry, it’s not all about productivity; there’s at least one feature that, while not necessarily good, is worth trying just for its uniqueness. The Xiaomi Ultra has an AI Portrait feature, which basically allows you to take fake photos of yourself after training it on your likeness. Basically, you have a small photo generator that can take photos of you and, based on prompts, create images that look almost like you.
You train the algorithm on at least 25 pictures of your body and face, and after about an hour of processing, it gives you a little area where you can write a prompt and get pictures of you in different settings. It’s clearly still in beta, but what it can do is still pretty amazing, even if I do look like I’m melting a bit.
So, how does the Xiaomi 14 Ultra stack up against the competition? In short, it’s a serious contender for the title of best smartphone of 2024. The camera system is arguably the best on any phone right now, with its large sensor, variable aperture lens, and versatile zoom capabilities. The performance is top-notch, thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and ample RAM, and the battery life is excellent with fast charging support.
Compared to rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra holds its own in most areas. The Galaxy S24 Ultra may have a slight edge in terms of zoom capabilities, but the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s larger sensor and variable aperture give it an advantage in low light and depth-of-field control. The iPhone 15 Pro Max may have a more polished software experience, but the Xiaomi 14 Ultra offers more customization options and a more affordable price tag, even if still a pricy offering.
For those who can afford it (or are open to importing it if not available locally), the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a truly exceptional smartphone. It’s a showcase of Xiaomi’s engineering prowess and a testament to the company’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in mobile photography. It’s a cutting-edge device that excels in everything from performance to photography to battery life. If you’re in the market for a new flagship smartphone and willing to pay a premium, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra should be at the top of your list.
