Technology

Xiaomi 14 Ultra Review: Ditch Your DSLR

Published

2 months ago

April 20, 2024

At a glance

Expert’s Rating

Pros

Incredible photography performance
Stunning vegan leather design
Gorgeous curved screen
90W fast charging
Top performance

Cons

Expensive
HyperOS software is a mixed bag

Our Verdict

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is the best smartphone for photography you can buy, even without the optional Photography Kit. It’s great in almost all other areas, but you’ve really got to be all in on the cameras to justify the high price.

Price When Reviewed

Unavailable in the US

Every now and then something special comes along. In the crowded phone market, it’s a rare thing.

Enter the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. Xiaomi has finally launched its Ultra flagship smartphone outside of its home market. If you’re in the market for the absolute best phone experience, you might have found it here.

You will need to be all in on the photography though, and if you are, this is an enthusiast’s dream. Especially when you add in the optional Photography Kit which, no lie, means this phone can rival compact mirrorless DSLRs.

Costing a whopping £1,299, it’s not a phone you’ll be buying on a whim. But if you can afford it, this phone has just about every bell and whistle you can imagine, from insane photography skills to a gorgeous screen to super-fast charging.

It’s not perfect, no phone is, but Xiaomi will have the likes of Apple, Samsung and Google quaking in their respective boots after this.

See what the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is going up against in our best smartphones guide.

Design & Build

Vegan leather and Xiaomi Shield glass
Two colours
IP68

If you think this phone looks like a camera, it’s not a coincidence. Xiaomi has crafted it to resemble traditional cameras in various ways, from the circular camera module to the textured cover. I think it looks great.

There’s no getting around it, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a big phone. It’s to be expected with that Ultra moniker, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Chris Martin / Foundry

Much of the bulk is found on the back, as the camera module is a huge, almost ice hockey puck-like, addition. It adds weight and makes the phone a little top-heavy but as mentioned, it’s all for a good reason.

On the plus side, it does provide somewhere for your finger to naturally rest and support the phone.

If you think this phone looks like a camera, it’s not a coincidence

The overall footprint of the handset is similar to big-screen rivals. However, it’s slightly smaller (161.4 x 75.3 x 9.2 mm) and lighter (from 219.8g) than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Xiaomi offers the 14 Ultra in two colours, simply black or white, and both feature a ‘nano-tech’ vegan leather rear cover which looks and feels really nice. How it holds up a year or two down the line is another matter, but it’s likely you’ll use a case at some point anyway.

Chris Martin / Foundry

Unusually, the firm provides a hard plastic case in the box rather than a flimsy silicone one. This is fine but I’d rather use the phone without, or make use of the case that comes as part of the Photography Kit – more on that later.

Case or not, the phone is well-made and durable, featuring an IP68 rating meaning it’s pretty much fully dust and water resistant. As all flagships north of £1,000 should be.

The one-piece frame is a new ‘6M42’ integrated high-strength aluminium, and the front is Xiaomi’s own Shield Glass which “incorporates all-new materials, forming a interlocking structure through high-temperature sintering”.

Combined with the vegan leather back, they form the Xiaomi Guardian Structure. A fun marketing name but the phone does feel very strong to be fair.

As for the glass, it’s hard to say without long-term testing and that’s partly as Xiaomi applies a screen protector at the factory. This has become quite scratched during my few weeks with the phone so might not be on for much longer.

Screen & Speakers

6.7-inch AMOLED
1-120Hz
The best of curved and flat worlds
Impressive audio

The 14 Ultra offers the best of both worlds, with the glass beautifully curved on all sides but the stunning display underneath being flat

Much of the specifics about the 14 Ultra’s display is about what you’d expect for a flagship of this price. However, there’s a combination of design elements which make it unusual.

Xiaomi touts an ‘all around liquid display’, but it’s not as simple as the display physically being curved at the edges. That approach is a bit divisive as although it looks and feels nice, you get a bit of image distortion and the downside of accidental input.

The 14 Ultra offers the best of both worlds, with the glass beautifully curved on all sides but the stunning display underneath being flat.

Chris Martin / Foundry

It’s a mammoth 6.73-inch (slightly smaller than the S24 Ultra’s 6.8-inch) panel with a long list of top specs, including AMOLED tech with a high pixel density of 522ppi, plus support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+.

LPTO technology means the refresh rate can dynamically adjust from 120Hz down to just 1Hz so you can get smooth performance when the high refresh rate is needed, but save power when it isn’t.

It’s also very bright, with a typical high brightness of 1000 nits and a theoretical peak brightness of 3000 nits. In a real-world measurement with auto brightness switched off and sunlight mode on, I measured it at an impressive 736 nits and found it easy to use in all situations.

Chris Martin / Foundry

The embedded fingerprint scanner is very good indeed, and I like that it sits higher up than the Xiaomi 14 making it more natural and comfortable for me to use.

There’s no headphone jack, which I always find a shame on a phone of this size, but it’s not a big deal when wireless headphones are so prevalent. The 14 Ultra is impressively packed with high-end audio codecs including AAC, AptX Adaptive, LDAC and LHDC 5.0, so Hi-Res Audio isn’t far away with the right streaming service and headphones.

Its stereo speakers are good quality and have plenty of velocity, along with a spacious and detailed soundscape. You will be suitably immersed in audio when listening to music, gaming, watching videos and more.

Specs & Performance

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset
Whopping 16GB of RAM
Only 512GB storage in UK

Matching many other 2024 flagships, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra features with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset in the engine room.

You get a whopping 16GB of RAM (more than the S24 Ultra or Pixel 8 Pro). Just note that, in the UK at least, there’s only one storage capacity at 512GB.

Chris Martin / Foundry

Performance, unsurprisingly, is extremely quick and the 14 Ultra can handle whatever you throw at it with relative ease. Whether it’s opening apps, photo editing, streaming video or gaming.

Top games such as Genshin Impact are buttery smooth and you can play with high settings, no problem. A beefier cooling system than the regular Xiaomi 14 – a ‘Dual-Channel IceLoop System’ – helps keep the internal temperature down and it seems to work well.

The 14 Ultra can handle whatever you throw at it with relative ease

You can see how it benchmarks compared with key rivals below:

Xiaomi 14 Ultra benchmarks

In terms of other specs, the 14 Ultra is packed with plenty of bells and whistles including 5G support, Wi-Fi 7 (in select markets including the UK), dual nano-SIM support (no eSIM), Bluetooth 5.4 with dual connections, NFC and even an IR blaster.

The latter is super handy even just for adjusting the volume of or switching the TV on and off when your toddler has misplaced the dedicated remote.

Cameras & Video

Incredible quad camera system
Co-developed with Leica
Optional Photography Kit is awesome

When it comes to the cameras, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is definitely a case of all killer no filler

As you may have gathered by this point in the review, photography is the main event on the 14 Ultra. You don’t (or shouldn’t) have a camera bump this big without having something to show for it.

And there’s lots to show here, with no fewer than four rear cameras co-developed with Leica. When it comes to the cameras, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is definitely a case of all killer no filler.

Chris Martin / Foundry

All four lenses are 50Mp, so it’s a similar affair to the regular 14 here but delve into the specs and the Ultra has more to offer than just an extra lens.

The main camera is a photography nerd’s dream come true with optical image stabilisation (OIS), a huge 1-inch sensor and even variable step-less aperture between f/1.63/2.0/2.8/4.0 – to give you the headline details.

Elsewhere there’s an ultrawide, a floating telescope at 3.2x and a periscope camera for 5x optical zoom. They are all based on the Sony IMX858 sensor and only the ultrawide doesn’t have OIS.

If you like to deal in focal lengths, this gives you the equivalent of 12-, 23-, 75- and 120mm which is a formidable array to play with, and those lengths are mentioned throughout the camera app so you know which you are using.

Talking of the app, Xiaomi has done a great job with this considering how many modes and settings there are available. It’s neat, intuitive, and you can just point and shoot or spend hours fine-tuning (including choosing the aperture on the main camera and saving custom presets) depending on your preference.

As I found with the regular 14, the quality on offer here is absolutely stunning. The way the phone captures light is often astonishing, and viewers of the results wouldn’t believe they came from a phone rather than a fully-fledged DLSR camera.

Chris Martin / Foundry

If you’re not sure which camera to use, the phone may switch automatically (macro shots for example), but I often preferred the results by making my own choice. Quality is so high across the board that you may not even be able to tell which camera has been used for a shot, beyond the obvious difference between an ultrawide and 5x optical zoom.

The way the phone captures light is often astonishing, and viewers of the results wouldn’t believe they came from a phone rather than a fully-fledged DLSR camera

You can almost completely do away with portrait and night modes as there’s plenty of natural bokeh and the main sensor can absorb light like some kind of magical sponge.

As usual, the main camera is the best, but the two telephoto lenses keep up impressively well with excellent detail, colour, exposure and white balance. You can zoom digitally beyond the 5x optical available up to a ridiculous 120x, but that’s extremely hard to use handheld and quality takes a big dip after around 30x.

Meanwhile, the ultrawide does a good job of fitting a lot more in at high quality without much distortion in the corners at all.

I’ve preferred to shoot in the Leica Authentic colour profile which is close to real life, but you can switch to Leica Vibrant in the top corner if you want more punchy saturated colours akin to Samsung’s phones.

Moving to the selfie camera and this is the same 32Mp (f/2.0) camera as the regular 14. It’s excellent in terms of quality and can automatically switch between 0.8- and 1x depending on what you’re trying to fit into the frame.

It’s got plenty of features, including portrait mode with depth control, and can shoot video in up to 4K. At the rear, you can go all the way to 8K/30fps if you like, though 4K with 60fps (up to 120fps) is preferable for most situations. If you want to use Xiaomi’s steady video or steady video pro modes, you’ll have to drop to 1080p but with OIS on the main camera, I didn’t find this necessary.

Overall, this is the best smartphone money can buy right now for photography and I haven’t even mentioned the Photography Kit which takes it to another level.

Chris Martin / Foundry

This optional accessory is £179 extra in the UK, but you’ll often find Xiaomi bundling it with the handset. It’s primarily a camera grip attachment, and you will have to put a case on before this slides into place. But it all looks and feels great, with the black option covered in a woven fabric finish which is durable and grippy.

The grip itself adds not only a two-stage shutter, zoom lever, record button and customisable wheel but also contains a 1500mAh battery to keep the phone topped up with charge.

Furthermore, there’s an attractive orange camera ring, or you can put a 67mm filter on instead. With all this, as well as the wrist strap, you’ve really got a camera that happens to also be a phone.

Battery Life & Charging

5000mAh battery
90W HyperCharge
80W wireless charging
Adapter included

A 5000mAh battery is the average size for a smartphone in 2024. Although you might expect it to be higher for a phone this big, it matches the S24 Ultra, so it’s clear the space and weight is primarily for the camera system.

In our usual PCMark battery test with the screen set to the suggested 200 nits, the phone lasted a decent, if not outstanding, 12 hours and 42 minutes.

I haven’t found myself worrying about battery life, which says a lot

It’s about the only area where the 14 Ultra doesn’t truly excel, but it’s certainly not bad. I haven’t found myself worrying about battery life, which says a lot. It will comfortably last a day unless you are hammering things like gaming and 4K video recording.

I have seen the phone last a couple of days when my usage has been on the lighter side.

Chris Martin / Foundry

When it comes to charging, you get a speedy 90W HyperCharge adapter in the box, which can get you from dead to 52% in just 15 minutes or 88% in half an hour, both of which are very quick.

It’s especially favourable when you compare to Samsung and Google rivals, which offer much slower charging and don’t include any charger in the box. However, it’s worth noting that this approach is more eco-friendly, and you may already have a compatible charger at home.

The 14 Ultra also supports whopping 80W wireless ‘HyperCharge’ and 10W reverse wireless charging, with the latter allowing you to easily charge any gadgets that support Qi charging, such as wireless earbuds.

Software & Apps

HyperOS
Android 14
Decent promised software support

The 14 Ultra, like its stablemate the regular Xiaomi 14, uses the HyperOS software.

This is Xiaomi’s ‘new’ operating system which runs on Android 14, but HyperOS isn’t much more than a rebranded version of the MIUI skin which came before it.

Overall, it’s a mixed bag. There are things I like and things I don’t like.

Chris Martin / Foundry

The split notification and quick settings panels (to the left and right of the punch hole camera) will be divisive, as will be other iOS influences such as the default option to have no app drawer. You’ll also have to get used to the grid of recent apps and closing them by swiping sideways.

HyperOS isn’t much more than a rebranded version of the MIUI skin which came before it

Bloatware remains an issue, but I’ve definitely seen a lot worse in the past. No one needs three, yes three, web browsers and there are other apps that you’ll want to uninstall immediately (which you can). However, the likes of Spotify, TikTok and Facebook aren’t so bad in my book.

Another negative is what used to be gorgeous rotating images on the lock screen have now become almost exclusively adverts. There’s also a ‘Recommended feed’ if you swipe up from the home screen which appears to be Xiaomi’s version of Google Discover, just a million times worse, with overwhelming links to tabloid articles I’m not interested in.

On the plus side, there are some nifty features such as the GameTurbo mode (for boosting gaming performance and reducing distractions) and floating apps which help with multi-tasking, even if Xiaomi could do a better job of showing how these features work, or even that they exist.

There are also AI features coming which I haven’t been able to test, such as live subtitles for video calls and ‘AI Portrait’ which, once you’ve taken enough selfies, can create images of you with specific prompts. I’ve seen it in action and it’s very impressive if you want to have fun or pretend you went on holiday somewhere exotic when you actually went to Skegness.

Xiaomi promises a decent four years of OS updates and five years of security patches which, until recently, would be perfectly acceptable. Samsung and Google now offer seven of each, which is significantly better, assuming both stick to their promises.

Still, four to five years of longevity should be enough for most users.

Price & Availability

There’s no choosing between models when it comes to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. In the UK it’s £1,299 for the 16/512GB model or nothing. Your choice is between black or white colourways.

You can buy it from the official Mi store where there are various offers including £150 trade-in, 6-months of 100GB Google storage and 3-months of YouTube Premium. You can also get it from Amazon, but it’s not officially available in the US.

The price puts it up against the likes of the Google Pixel 8 Pro which is £1,179 for the matching 512GB capacity, though as low as £999 if 128GB is enough for you.

Then there’s the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra which is £1,349 for the 512GB and even has a £1,549 1TB model if you need it. On the Apple side, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is £1,399 for 512GB.

There are other great photography phones such as the Oppo Find X7 Ultra but it will be much harder to get your hands on that.

You should also consider the Xiaomi 14 as the regular model is still seriously impressive, much more affordable and a more manageable handset size-wise. As are the Pixel 8 and Galaxy S24.

See more options in our guide to the best smartphones you can buy.

Chris Martin / Foundry

Should you buy the Xiaomi 14 Ultra?

In just about every way, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is an incredible smartphone. It’s got stunning design and high build quality, an awesome screen that’s got the best of both flat and curved worlds, and flagship-level performance.

For my money, it’s the best smartphone for photography on the market right now, even without factoring in the excellent Photography Kit. However, I’d say you do have to really make the most of this part of the phone to justify buying one.

At £1,299, it’s cheaper than the equivalent Galaxy S24 Ultra and if you’re all about ISO and f-stops then the 14 Ultra is for you.

However, you can still get incredible quality for less in the Google Pixel 8 Pro and the regular Xiaomi 14/Pixel 8 if you want a smaller phone.