Ultra is now official. If you happen to live in China, or you’re off to the PRC this weekend for a quick holiday, you can now equip yourself with what may turn out to be the best camera phone for 2024.
Right now, by our extensive tests, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is the new best smartphone camera. Samsung’s latest champion launched in mid-January at $1299. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra launches from $903 – but that’s the homeland price, the Chinese price. Don’t expect this price tag of $900 to be retained once the device hits the global markets. The current rumors say it could launch at $1700 internationally.
Ultra is set for a global release this very weekend (on February 25) at the upcoming MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona. This is when we’ll get the proper price tags and we’ll inform you.
- LYT-900: 1x main camera (23mm), 1-inch sensor, f/1.63 to f/4.0 (variable aperture)
- IMX858: 0.5x ultra-wide (12mm), 1/2.51-inch sensor, f/1.8
- IMX858: 3.2x (75mm) optical zoom, 1/2.51-inch sensor, f/1.8
- IMX858: 5x (120mm) optical zoom, 1/2.51-inch sensor, f/2.5
The battle between the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is inevitable, but let’s take a look at another Android champion from China – the one that also offers a quadruple-camera setup and utilizes the LYT-900 sensor for its main camera.
Enter the Oppo Find X7 Ultra:
- LYT-900: main camera, 1-inch sensor, f/1.8
- LYT-600: ultra-wide, 1/1.95-inch sensor, f/2.0
- IMX890: 3x (65mm) optical zoom, 1/1.56-inch sensor, f/2.6
- IMX858: 6x (135mm) optical zoom, 1/2.51-inch sensor, f/4.3
It’s interesting to see how the physically smaller sensors on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, paired with the brighter lenses, will compete with the Find X7 Ultra’s bigger sensors, but darker lenses (the smaller the “f/” number is, the more light a lens lets in – hence, “brighter”).In digital photography, in general, you want big(ger) sensors with bright(er) lenses for gathering as much light as possible. This, however, changed a bit with the introduction of computational photography and now AI is taking over the baton. Small sensors are capable of doing some very intriguing stuff.
The camera performance on the Oppo flagship is tweaked in partnership with the legendary Swedish brand Hasselblad, and Xiaomi is relying on the German gods from Leica for their camera systems.
By the way, the 14 Ultra’s lenses are dubbed “Summilux”. The name Summilux is used by Leica and Panasonic Lumix to designate camera lenses that have a maximum aperture of less than f/2, typically f/1.4, but greater than f/1.0. The lens has been in production since 1959 and carries on to the present day.
Talking about legendary stuff!
It’s also interesting to see the “Leica LYT-900 vs Hasselblad LYT-900” battle between the two flagships, as software tweaking will play a major role here, apart from the different optical elements in the lenses. Also, will that f/1.63-f/4.0 variable aperture be a major advantage for the 14 Ultra? So many questions, so many tests to be executed…
What else is there?
Okay, we almost forgot that the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a phone, after all – not just a camera system.
Like almost all of the late 2023/early 2024 Android flagships, Xiaomi’s champ brings the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, with up to 16GB RAM and 1TB internal storage. Also, there’s the 90W fast charging, Hyper OS based on Android 14, and more (via Android Authority).
Before we proceed, one more camera-related detail: the selfie on the 14 Ultra is a 32MP camera dubbed “Xiaomi AISP” that’s apparently utilizing Xiaomi’s first large AI model computational photography platform. And something for the video maniacs out there: the Xiaomi 14 Ultra can shoot 4K 120fps from the primary camera, 8K 30fps video across all rear cameras, and even 4K 60fps video across all cameras.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra design is not radically different from that of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra – but the bulge is flattened. Instead, the camera island takes up practically all the space on the top of the device. Some variants have a vegan leather finish on the back for a premium experience, while others get a Ceramic back. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra measures 161.4 x 75.3 x 9.2 mm and weighs 224.4g (vegan leather variant) and 229.4g (ceramic variant).
The 6.73-inch QHD+ resolution OLED display has a slight curve and 3,000 nits peak brightness. A big 5,300mAh battery is on board, with support for 90W fast charging and 80W wireless charging. Even the USB-C port gets USB 3.2 Gen 2 capabilities for 10Gbps speeds. The phone also has an IP68 rating and comes with Hyper OS on top of Android 14.
In China, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra also gets two-way satellite communication capabilities. There is also a Titanium special edition, which swaps the aluminum mid-frame for a titanium build.
Pricing in China is as follows:
- 12/256GB: CNY 6,499 (~$903)
- 16/512GB: CNY 6,999 (~$973)
- 16/1TB: CNY 7,799 (~$1,085)
- Titanium Edition 16GB + 1TB: CNY 8,799 (~$1,224)
