Xiaomi 14 Ultra is here: brighter 1-inch main camera, Titanium Special Edition

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is official, starting its journey in China before taking the global stage on February 25 in Barcelona.

It may look unchanged from its predecessor, but the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has refined the design. There are three finishes - the black and white model has a faux leather back panel and weighs 224.4g - 3 grams lighter than the 13 Ultra. The blue model has what Xiaomi calls Dragon Crystal on the back and it's heavier at 229.5g. Finally, there's a Titanium Special Edition that's 229.6g. Xiaomi says that one uses grade 5 titanium, just like the iPhone (and higher than the Galaxy S24 Ultra).

Gone is the abruptly raised frame around the old camera island - the 14 Ultra's lens-like module on the back gently slopes above its surrounding back panel.

A familiar design, now in Blue

Let's start with the cameras, as they are the highlight of this phone. Xiaomi kept the quad 50MP 0.5x + 1x + 3.2x + 5x formula intact and mostly kept the hardware. The main camera is still a 1-inch type sensor, but it's the latest Sony LYT-900 imager with a better design and faster readout. The lens is still technically a dual-aperture 23mm unit, but it's wider at the bright end - switching between f/1.63 and f/4.0 here, which will let up to 136% more light than the f/1.9 - f/4.0 lens of the 13 Ultra. Xiaomi calls the mechanism a stepless aperture, which hints that it could go anywhere between f/1.63 and f/4.0, though Xiaomi's website and presentation showed only samples at specifically f/1.63 and f/4.0. We'll be sure to look into that once we have the phone.

Xiaomi called the 13 Ultra a Simmicron lens and has dubbed this one a Simmilux - in Leica speak, Simmicron is an f/2 lens, while Summilux is an f/1.4 - so technically, the f/1.63 Xiaomi 14 Ultra doesn't qualify but phone marketing logic applies.

Anyway, the main camera can snap Ultra RAW with all the computational magic, backed into a DNG with full image data.

The zoom lenses are a 3.2x 75mm f/1.8 regular and 5x 120mm f/2.5 periscope, sharing the same 1/2.5-inch Sony IMX858 sensor with the 12mm f/1.8 ultrawide. The 120mm periscope got a bump from an f/3.0 lens to an f/2.5 one. Xiaomi shared a light-gathering comparison between the 14 Ultra's telephoto light-gathering abilities and the iPhone 15 Pro series' - the 120mm f/2.5 captures 196% more light than the Pro Max and an outrageous 474% more than the Pro. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra can do AI-powered 30x Ultra Zoom that Xiaomi recons wipes the floor with the competition, showing a number of comparisons at the 14 Ultra's presentation.

What's more impressive is the minimum focusing distance of both zooms - the 75mm can shoot as close as 10cm, while the 120mm focuses from 30cm.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra brings Galaxy S24 Ultra-matching video specs - 4K at both 60fps and 120fps (main camera only), as well a 8K video.

The display is the same on paper - a 6.73-inch 1440x3200px LTPO AMOLED panel with 120 Hz max refresh rate, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+ support. The panel is a bit brighter at 3,000 nits (compared to 2,600 nits).

Xiaomi calls the glass on top of the display Shield Glass and says it has 10 times higher drop resistance and is also clearer. The corners of the screen are lightly curved on all sides, Xiaomi calls this an All Around Liquid display.

Naturally, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has the newest and most powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, up to 16 GB of RAM, and up to 1 TB of storage. Cooling is better thanks to a 3x larger vapor cooling chamber. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra runs Android 14 with Xiaomi HyperOS on top.

The battery is around 6% bigger at 5,300mAh and it charges at up to 90W over wire or at 80W with a wireless clip. The battery is protected by the G1 and P2 surge battery chips.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra Titanium Special Edition supports two-way satellite communication. All versions of the phone have a T1 signal enhancement chip helping with the cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connections.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is available in Blue, Black, and White and has three variants - a 12/256GB, priced CNY 6,499 (€830, £710, INR 74,900), a CNY 6,999 (€900, £770, INR 82,100) 16/512GB model, and the CNY 7,799 (€1,000, £860, INR 91,500) 16GB/1TB. The special Titanium Xiaomi 14 Ultra is CNY 8,799 (€1,130, £970, INR 103,100).

Xiaomi will offer an upgraded Photography Kit camera accessory for the 14 Ultra - it's a two-piece accessory with a case and an attachable camera grip with its own 1,500mAh battery, and Bluetooth-enabled camera controls. It costs CNY 699 (€90, £77, INR 8,200).A special 80W wireless charger will be available for CNY 499 (€64, £55, INR 5,800).