Just days after they launched it in their home country of China, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has made its first full appearance on the global stage. Xiaomi has launched their brand new flagship smartphone at this year’s Mobile World Congress, with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra poised to take on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max in the smartphone photography department.
Leica co-engineered, new Sony sensor
What makes the cameras on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra that special I hear you ask? Well for starters, it’s yet another smartphone co-engineered with the famous Leica brand, this time resulting in new Leica Vario-Summilux 8P lenses. There’s four 50MP cameras on that giant circular camera bump on the back, with the main one utilising the new 1-inch Sony LYT-900 image sensor along with Dual Native ISO Fusion Max technology for an impressive 14EV dynamic range. The main camera also offers a f/1.63-f/4.0 stepless variable aperture, with as low as 0.01-stop increments when shooting in Pro Mode for fine control over how much light you’re getting.
The other three 50MP cameras meanwhile all use the Sony IMX858 image sensor instead, with the first of these being a floating telephoto camera with optical image stabilisation and a f/1.8 aperture, offering a 3.2x optical zoom equivalent to a 75mm lens. Then there’s the 50MP, f/2.5 periscope telephoto camera with optical image stabilisation offering a 5x optical zoom equivalent to a 120mm shot. Lastly, we have the 50MP, f/1.8 ultrawide shooter for a 12mm equivalent wide shot. Oh, and all three of those shooters also offer their own macro modes in 10cm, 30cm and 5cm distances respectively. Rounding things off is a 32MP, f/2.0 front facing camera for your selfies.
It’s not all about the hardware of course, as with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra you’ll find a slew of software tools for taking your next shot. With its collaboration with Leica, it’s no surprise to see the return of features such as Leica photographic styles, Leica filters and the Master Lens system for taking portraits in different styles. You’ll also find support for up to 8K 30fps video recording on all four cameras, with 10-bit log video recording possible here too. Furthermore, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra Photography Kit add-on lets you add a dedicated grip and case along with a two-stage shutter, zoom lever and custom dials to your Xiaomi 14 Ultra.
Large display with curves all over
That being said, it’s not just its cameras though that makes the Xiaomi 14 Ultra one of the smartphones to watch this year. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra was built with an aluminium frame crafted from a single aluminium block for up to 1.38x improved frame strength.
The display meanwhile is a 6.73-inch, AMOLED display pushing a WQHD+ resolution with a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate, a higher peak brightness of 3,000nits compared to the 2,600nits of its predecessor, full coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and has a layer of its own Xiaomi Shield Glass for better drop resistance than its predecessor’s Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. Oh, and the display is also one of Xiaomi’s All Around Liquid Display, which is to say it has a slight, consistent curve on all four sides and corners.
Flagship performance with new Xiaomi HyperOS
Under the hood, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra of course gets the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 system-on-chip, mated to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. Keeping it all cool is their new Xiaomi Dual-Channel IceLoop system for better cooling complete with a dedicated thermal loop just for the camera modules. It also comes with Android 14 out of the box, skinned with their new HyperOS over it; the Chinese giant is also guaranteeing a minimum of four major Android OS upgrades and five years of security patches.
Other features of note include a 5,000mAh battery with support for 90W wired fast charging, 80W wireless fast charging and even reverse wireless charging when you need to power your accessories. According to Xiaomi, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra can go from zero to 100% in just 46 minutes via wireless charging, notably faster than the Xiaomi 13 Ultra’s 50W wireless charging. There’s also stereo speakers, an under display fingerprint sensor and an IP68 dust and water resistance rating too.
Xiaomi 14 Ultra pricing
As for pricing, Xiaomi is seemingly only coming in one configuration to the global stage with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, priced at EUR1,499 (~RM7,753.73) in Europe. Local pricing and availability details however have not yet been confirmed—we’ll have to wait till the Xiaomi 14 Ultra arrives in Malaysia for that. For reference though, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra arrived in Malaysia with a RM5,199 price tag last year.
