Xiaomi 14 Ultra in for review

14 March 2024
Xiaomi's best cameraphone is here and it's a technological masterpiece.

Sort by:

Nick Tegrataker, 15 Mar 2024The problem here is you're assuming whatever you see i... moreOkay so you're saying, someone wants you to take a portrait shot but you take it in auto mode because they didn't specify and they're okay with it? Did they say they want a portrait shot or not? If yes then both of you are Arkham Asylum escapees because what in the world is going on with you?

If you want to be so specific, why do you say phone instead of smartphone or specify what exact smartphone you're talking about? You could be referring to a telephone for all I know, right? See how it just makes zero sense? You don't know the common lingo and that's your fault.

Okay your "Portrait" shot example is horrible as well since portrait does mean a photo of people but how are portrait shots composed usually? They are in 60-ish to 135 mm focal length usually with a wide aperture to have beautiful background blur. No one takes portrait shots in 35 mm even let alone 24 mm of the main cam of phones. The background blur is quintessential because it separates the foreground (the subject) and background and puts more focus on the subject and thus makes them pop out more. That's why portraits are so cool and are different from people shots. You know nothing about common people lingo nor photography lingo and you're acting like I'm spouting nonsense. It's okay to not know about something but to act like portrait and portrait mode shots are completely independent and exclusive stuff on phones is just plain stoopid.

Have you even seen any GSMarena review? They call normal auto mode shots of people, people shots and portrait mode shots, portraits because that's exactly what they are and on phones that's how they're differentiated. Man I'm sorry but you made me lose a few brain cells typing this good lord

    • T
    • T-T-T
    • 3it
    • 15 Mar 2024

    Where do you live so i can come to grab one with free kit ! :D

      What a nostalgic feel, Nokia Lumia 1020 Xiaomi Edition.

        • M
        • Milton Greeves
        • 3HJ
        • 15 Mar 2024

        Vivo x100 pro runs rings around this in the photography department. Xiaomi need to up their game.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • 83E
          • 15 Mar 2024

          Anonymous, 15 Mar 2024Camera kit is nice, but €200 is very over priced for a fanc... moreits not only the case, the phone has incredible system specs and there is a super fast charger in the box, the charger alone its not cheap... so yeah the phone is more expensive than samsung but you also get more... what i call "the whole package"

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • mpA
            • 15 Mar 2024

            They are literally giving away the camera kit for preorders, and a pad 6 for good measure. That makes it great value in my book.

              • S
              • Sagar
              • XP4
              • 15 Mar 2024

              I have a feeling this will be the phone to beat this year except may be for the hyper OS.
              Awaiting GSMARENA review.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • sXb
                • 15 Mar 2024

                Camera kit is nice, but €200 is very over priced for a fancy case

                  jiyen235, 15 Mar 2024When someone says "I'm gonna take a shot of you&q... moreThe problem here is you're assuming whatever you see in your world applies to what I see in my side of the world. So far I've never seen anyone who refers to portrait mode as "Portrait shots" in the real world or online space, whenever someone asks me to take a portrait shot with their phones (at a party for example), 99% of the time they just hand me their phone camera set to the auto mode, not portrait mode, so I take photos of them in the auto mode. To me, "Portrait" doesn't naturally imply a portrait mode.

                  Now you might be thinking that I'm talking nonsense, but to me, your assumption is completely ridiculous. So it's best advised that you use the most specific term possible whenever you talk and explain stuff to a random stranger on the internet, or someone who doesn't live in the same world as you're in. Our conversation made it super clear that we don't share the common sense here.

                    Nick Tegrataker, 14 Mar 2024I'm just pointing out the fact that you need to be mor... moreWhen someone says "I'm gonna take a shot of you", everyone understands what they're saying because they mean they're going to take a photo. They're not going to go and say "I am going to take a photograph of you with my phone's camera" or something nonsensical like that. Like if your english is bad it's fine but to act like other people need to be super specific about the most minute things is just weird. When talking about phone portraits, I've yet to see someone NOT talk about portrait mode after the iPhone 7 series launched. Photos of people are called just that, photos taken of people or human subjects. Portrait mode photos are called portrait shots.

                      Shui8, 14 Mar 2024Well those are a replica of bokeh effect as if a Leica lens... moreExactly, provide those "looks" as an option, not as a forced choice.

                        jiyen235, 14 Mar 2024Nobody other than reviewers says "Portrait mode" ... moreI'm just pointing out the fact that you need to be more specific with your wording if you want to comment on something. "Portraits" refer to photos of people and not a background blur mode that most phone cameras have. It's OK though, you can just say portrait "mode" from next time.

                        I've looked into the review of the 13 Ultra and you're right, it does seem that Xiaomi locks bokeh style for each FoV settings, as well as disabling the additional filters. I have no idea why they are doing this, especially the former when Vivo gives you all the control over how bokeh looks on each lens. That's a weird restriction Xiaomi has imposed on their camera app and hopefully it has been changed on the 14 Ultra/they can change it in future updates.

                          • S
                          • Shui8
                          • xjH
                          • 14 Mar 2024

                          jiyen235, 14 Mar 2024Nobody other than reviewers says "Portrait mode" ... moreWell those are a replica of bokeh effect as if a Leica lens in a camera world.

                          The focal length choice for its portraits options is perfect for me. What bothers me in its Xiaomi Portrait mode, always resulting in a very high exposure look, which is not to my liking. Not sure can adjust the EV in that mode or not, and if its still can, have to adjust it every time taking pictures I think.

                          In my country Xiaomi 14 Ultra are $1120 free with the Photography Kit. But I think I'll just get the normal Xiaomi 14, price at $750 with free Xiaomi Watch S3.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • gDf
                            • 14 Mar 2024

                            Would like to see a camera comparison at 360mm with the Pixel 8 Pro.

                              Mikey, 14 Mar 2024Xiaomi phones are not getting any love from Dxo unfortunate... moreThey specifically optimized the mi11 ultra for the test. They haven't done with subsequent models. It's like any test, if you prepare well for it you will do better. They heve been optimizing their flagship series for a more stylistic approach since the Leica collaboration. Dxomark has a very specific weighting for all the aspects they measure which is clearly explained in their how we test article so the phone can be optimized with that in mind if it wants to get a top score. Having said that I'd expect this to do a bit better than the Xiaomi 13 ultra as they have improved the zoom photos a bit and lowlight photos. A lot boils down to personal preference for these camera centric flagships in terms of photos and the style of photos and video as they are all very good. What I wasn't too keen about on this one when I tried it in a few shopping malls was it often messed up the skin tone when taking photos of my family members. However, the actual quality of photos in terms of detail and noise control was very good

                                Nick Tegrataker, 14 Mar 2024I'm not aware of any limitations that exist in Xiaomi&... moreNobody other than reviewers says "Portrait mode" when referring to photos in portrait mode.

                                Have you even read the 13 Ultra's review on this site? Have you seen any other review of the 13 Ultra? Xiaomi locks you into a few pre-set focal lengths with dedicated filters slapped on top of them that you can't remove for example Swirly Bokeh, Soft Focus, etc. Vivo allows you to choose multiple focal lengths and on top of those you can add any filter you want. That's the sort of granularity I think any photographer would want. More choice and options is always better.

                                  Now I'm starting to wonder if they actually fixed the detail smudging that plagued the 14 Pro's main camera..

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • LkB
                                    • 14 Mar 2024

                                    Nick Tegrataker, 14 Mar 2024What's great about the camera grip is that it allows y... moreIDK which mode was used, but samples by gizmochina show more sharpening than 13 ultra. Difference not small.

                                      jiyen235, 14 Mar 2024portrait mode.I'm not aware of any limitations that exist in Xiaomi's portrait mode (You could enlighten me about it if you have a flagship Xiaomi phone), but in your first comment you didn't specify that you are talking about a particular mode, you just said "portraits" which implies photos of people taken in any mode.

                                        pl2rts, 14 Mar 2024Yeah Samsung filters are good that make you think all your ... morewho said samsung's filters are good? I just said they give the option to have the normal portraits at all focal lengths. What's wrong with that? Do you like being limited by what the manufacturer wants you to do?

                                          2 of 4