The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is official at $900: will it dominate the 2024 camera phone arena?

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is official at $900: will it dominate the 2024 camera phone arena?،

Ultra is now official. If you live in China or are heading to the PRC this weekend for a quick vacation, you can now equip yourself with what could turn out to be the best camera phone for 2024.

Right now, according to our extensive testing, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is the new best smartphone camera. Samsung's latest Champion launched in mid-January at $1,299. THE Xiaomi 14 Ultra starts at $903 – but that's the domestic price, the Chinese price. Don't expect this $900 price to hold once the device hits global markets. Current rumors say it could launch at $1,700 internationally.

Ultra is expected to be released globally this weekend (February 25) at the upcoming MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona. This is when we will receive the appropriate price tags and notify you.

As a camera-focused device, let's talk about the cameras first – thanks to the numerous leaks over the past few weeks, we already knew what to expect, but it's nice to see the rumors confirmed and materialized. The headliner of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is, of course, the Sony LYT-900: the latest 50MP 1-inch sensor that is the spiritual successor to the popular IMX989 of previous camera phones. To recap, here are the cameras (sensors, lenses and apertures) of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra:

LYT-900: 1x main camera (23mm), 1-inch sensor, f/1.63 to f/4.0 (variable aperture)
IMX858: 0.5x (12mm) ultra-wide sensor, 1/2.51-inch, f/1.8
IMX858: 3.2x optical zoom (75mm), 1/2.51-inch sensor, f/1.8
IMX858: 5x optical zoom (120mm), 1/2.51-inch sensor, f/2.5

The battle between the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is inevitable, but let's take a look at another Android champion from China – one that also offers a quad-camera setup and uses the LYT-900 sensor for its main camera.

Enter the Oppo Find X7 Ultra:

LYT-900: main camera, 1-inch sensor, f/1.8
LYT-600: ultra-wide sensor, 1/1.95 inch, f/2.0
IMX890: 3x optical zoom (65mm), 1/1.56-inch sensor, f/2.6
IMX858: 6x optical zoom (135mm), 1/2.51-inch sensor, f/4.3

It is interesting to see how the physically smaller sensors of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, combined with the brighter lenses, will compete with the larger sensors of the Find ). In digital photography, in general, you want larger sensors with brighter lenses to collect as much light as possible. However, this has changed a bit with the introduction of computational photography and AI is now taking over. Small sensors are capable of doing some very intriguing stuff.

The Oppo flagship's camera performance has been fine-tuned in partnership with legendary Swedish brand Hasselblad, and Xiaomi relies on the German gods of Leica for their camera systems.

By the way, the lenses of the 14 Ultra are nicknamed “Summilux”. The name Summilux is used by Leica and Panasonic Lumix to refer to camera lenses that have a maximum aperture less than f/2, usually f/1.4, but greater than f/1.0. The lens has been in production since 1959 and continues today.
I'm talking legendary stuff!

It is also interesting to see the “Leica LYT-900 vs Hasselblad LYT-900” battle between the two flagships, as software adjustments will play a major role here, apart from the different optical elements of the lenses. Also, will that variable f/1.63-f/4.0 aperture be a major advantage for the 14 Ultra? So many questions, so many tests to run…

What else is there?

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is official at $900: will it dominate the camera phone arena in 2024?

Well, we almost forgot that the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a phone, after all, not just a camera system. Like almost all Android flagships in late 2023/early 2024, Xiaomi's champion offers the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, with up to 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of internal storage. There's also 90W fast charging, Hyper OS based on Android 14, and more (via Android Authority).

Before we continue, one more camera-related detail: the selfie on the 14 Ultra is a 32 MP camera dubbed “Xiaomi AISP” that apparently uses Xiaomi's first major AI model computational photography platform. Xiaomi. And something for video nerds: the Xiaomi 14 Ultra can record 4K 120fps video from the main camera, 8K 30fps video on all rear cameras, and even 4K 60fps video on all cameras.

THE Xiaomi 14 The Ultra design is not radically different from the Xiaomi 13 Ultra – but the bulge is flattened. Instead, the camera island takes up virtually all of the space on the top of the device. Some variants have a vegan leather finish on the back for a premium experience, while others have a ceramic back. THE Xiaomi 14 Ultra measures 161.4 x 75.3 x 9.2 mm and weighs 224.4 g (vegan leather variant) and 229.4 g (ceramic variant).

The 6.73-inch QHD+ resolution OLED display features a slight curve and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. A large 5,300 mAh battery is onboard, with support for 90W fast charging and 80W wireless charging. Even the USB-C port benefits from USB 3.2 Gen 2 capabilities for speeds of 10 Gbps. The phone also has an IP68 rating and comes with Hyper OS on top Android 14.

In China, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra also benefits from two-way satellite communications capabilities. There is also a special Titanium edition, which replaces the aluminum central frame with a titanium construction.

Prices in China are as follows: