Xiaomi 14 Ultra review

Competition

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra's €1500 price tag may be the reason you won't be seeing many of them in the wild, but it's not making things difficult for us when it comes to pinpointing its rivals. Well, that, and the huge circle on the back. We're looking at the best cameraphones on the market in a 'money is no object' attitude.

The most high-profile rival is the Galaxy S24 Ultra even if it doesn't flaunt its camera prowess quite as much as most others here. The two are roughly on par for stills, though the Xiaomi has the upper hand in video recording. Each has its own unique accessory - the S Pen vs. the Photography kit - and that sounds like the divider in this dilemma. Pick the Xiaomi if you want a camera phone, and the Galaxy if you're after the everything phone.

Next on our list is the vivo X100 Pro. Also international, but nowhere near as widely available as the Galaxy, the vivo can still be found for a good 20% less than the Xiaomi. Admittedly, it's one camera short, but has an amazing 2x mode and a telephoto that's in between the Ultra's two - maybe its 100mm focal length is your sweet spot.

Another unorthodox zoom can be found on the Honor Magic6 Pro. Nominally a 2.5x camera, its 180MP sensor (or 200MP, depending on how you look at it) can easily stretch to 5x, though the Xiaomi would still be fairly comfortable beyond that and the Ultra is an easy pick here for video recording.

This next one is more of a wild card, being limited to China in its official availability. But if you could live with the software peculiarities that stem from that, perhaps you could entertain the idea of gray-importing one. The thing is, after seeing the 14 Ultra in action, we'd consider the X7 Ultra bested, and we'd be less inclined to go through the hoops of getting one.

There's a more outlandish option that can be mentioned in passing too. The iPhone 15 Pro Max costs about as much as the Xiaomi and will also be great for video, while bringing superior selfies and best-in-class battery life. Being an iPhone, it will also have a choice of accessories to cater to every photo- or videography use case, possibly negating the benefits of the Xiaomi Kit. It remains an iPhone though, and one does not simply jump between ecosystems on a whim.

Galaxy S24 Ultra • vivo X100 Pro • Honor Magic6 Pro • Oppo Find X7 Ultra • iPhone 15 Pro Max

Verdict

We knew, to a great extent, what to expect from the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. For example, price was always going to be a deterrent, and Xiaomi's approach to selfies hasn't aligned with our tastes for a while. We could even predict the subpar endurance, going off of the 13 Ultra's results.

We could have also anticipated its strong points with a fair degree of certainty. A favorite cameraphone in the office, the 13 Ultra didn't leave a lot to ask for, yet Xiaomi did find a few areas to touch up for the 14. Close-focusing telephotos have become the latest trend, and the two ones here are possibly the finest at that, but also excel at a distance. The variable aperture on the main camera is also welcome if you'd like that much control over DoF, though we don't see that as quite the transformational development.

An unrivaled selling point of the 14 Ultra is the Photography kit. Realizing its appeal and its potential to drive Ultra sales, Xiaomi has continued to develop the contraption and add features to it. Indeed, it adds further cost to an already expensive phone, but the two combined will get you as close to a 'real' camera as a smartphone can in ergonomics and experience.

In the end, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is quite probably the finest camera with a phone attached to it that you can buy today.

Pros

• Thoroughly great camera system, nearly flawless.
• Particularly great video recording.
• Top-class performance under sustained load.
• Unique accessory package (if optional and not exactly cheap).

Cons

• Pricey, even for what it is, with little hope for discounts down the line.
• Battery life is below average.
• Selfie camera takes average quality stills, lacks AF.