Weekly poll: what do you think about the Xiaomi 14 Ultra?

The quad 50MP cameras on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra promise to be some of the best of 2024. The phone was just announced for the Chinese market, but a European launch is coming soon – Xiaomi will make the announcement on February 25 in Barcelona. The Xiaomi 14 series will arrive in India on March 7, presumably with both the 14 and 14 Ultra. We know it’s early to make final decisions, but we wanted to know how you feel about the new Ultra.

First, let’s have a quick comparison with the old Xiaomi 13 Ultra. The main camera uses a 1” sensor, but it’s the new Sony LYT-900 instead of the IMX989, which was also used in 2022’s Xiaomi 12S Ultra. And the new model has a brighter f/1.63 lens, which lets in 136% more light than the f/1.9 lens on the 13 Ultra. Of course, both can close down to f/4.0, depending on the look you are after for your photos.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s quad camera setup

Another thing, the 120mm periscope now has an f/2.5 aperture compared to f/3.0, which should again let in more light. The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 brings more compute power and the phone debuts the Xiaomi AISP (AI + ISP), which is a bundle of several models that combine RAW images, do tone mapping and enhance portraits.

Speaking of, the Snapdragon chip is cooled by a dual channel vapor chamber that also pulls heat away from the image sensors. Xiaomi says this enables the phone to record high definition video without overheating as well as play the most demanding games.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is powered by the SD 8 Gen 3 and a 5,300mAh battery

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra starts at CNY 6,500 ($900/€840/₹76,000) for a 12/256GB unit. There is also a 16/512GB option for CNY 7,000 and 16GB/1TB for CNY 7,800. These have aluminum frames. There is a Titanium special edition too (16GB/1TB) for CNY 8,800.

6.73” QHD+ 120Hz 12-bit LTPO display

It’s still early in the year, but we already saw another phone with a 1” camera – the Oppo Find X7 Ultra with the same LYT-900. This one also has quad 50MP cameras, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, a 6.82” QHD+ LTPO OLED display, a fast-charging 5,000mAh battery and so on. This one starts at CNY 6,000 for a 12/256GB phone, though whether it ever leaves China or not is not clear.

We will also include the vivo X100 Pro from last year. This one uses the old IMX989 and has two 50MP modules – a 119° ultra wide and a single 100mm periscope (the Xiaomi and Oppo both have two tele lenses). No Snapdragon on this one, instead vivo picked the Dimensity 9300. The 12/256GB model is CNY 5,000 in China, but the X100 Pro is also available in Europe in 16/512GB trim for €1,200 and in India for ₹90,000.

Oppo Find X7 Ultra • vivo X100 Pro

It goes without saying that you should compare prices like for like, i.e. the Xiaomi 14 Ultra will definitely be over €1,000 in Europe – the 13 Ultra was €1,500, so the 2024 model will be around that price point.

What do you think – did Xiaomi build the best camera flagship ever, price be damned? Or maybe it should work harder to keep global prices closer to those in China?