Xiaomi 14 Ultra hands-on preview

Xiaomi 14 Ultra Intro

The Xiaomi Ultra sequence has been round for just a few years now, shipped solely in China. They are normally the height of Xiaomi smartphone pictures — full partnership with Leica for top-tier lens supplies, and costly sensors beneath. The 14 Ultra comes with 4 totally different sensors on its principal digicam module, masking a number of focal lengths and use circumstances. Plus, it has a brand new pro-grade video app for the filmographer inside you.

What’s new about Xiaomi 14 Ultra

Table of Contents:

Xiaomi 14 Ultra Specs

Coming out swinging

Aside from the principle digicam, which rocks a LYT-900, the remainder of the sensors of the principle digicam module are the Sony IMX858, making certain comparable high quality as you swap via totally different focal lengths. And, in fact, we now have LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0 storage to enrich the extra-fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

Repeating the design of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, however refining it to an excellent extent — the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a flat again, as a substitute of a slope in the direction of the digicam aspect. It’s lined in fake leather-based, which feels mushy and grippy to the contact, and positively invokes the texture of digicam tools.

The energy button is engraved with a sample that is very pronounced and exhausting to overlook, whereas the clicky quantity rocker is easy against this.

That digicam bump on the again is fairly respectable-looking, however we discovered that it would not add a weight unbalance to the system. In truth, if felt fairly balanced, even considerably mild, contemplating the calibre of telephone we had been holding.

The glass panel is a brand new Xiaomi Shield Glass, developed to be stronger than the earlier iterations, the vegan leather-based on the again has a powerful put on resistance (and it did not really feel flimsy), and the telephone is rated IP68 for the very best ingress safety.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra Camera

A really spectacular setup

Xiaomi 14 Ultra with Ultra Photography Grip (Image credit score – PhoneArena)

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra comes with the brand new Sony LYT-900 sensor. It’s 1″ in dimension — which is kind of large for a smartphone and usually present in point-and-shoot cameras as a substitute. The new LYT sensors by Sony have a brand new 2-layer transistor, which helps for extra mild assortment in shorter time intervals.

The different 3 cameras — ultra-wide, 3.2x telephoto, and 5x telephoto, all have a 50 MP Sony IMX858 inside — fairly high-class sensors in their very own proper, even throughout the board for each digicam. Each of them is roofed with Leica lenses and the three.2x zoom digicam has a floating telephoto lens, making certain higher focus at nearer distanced (as little as 10 cm).

There’s heaps to stay up for right here. The principal sensor has a stepless variable aperture, going from a large f/1.63, with a deep bokeh and plenty of mild coming in, to a slender f/4.0 that can let you seize scenes the place it is advisable preserve extra issues in focus.

The digicam has an AI increase when it hits 30x magnification and above — the algorithm ought to intelligently acknowledge objects and reconstruct and sharpen them as you retain rolling that zoom wheel. Its most is 120x.

For digicam buffs, the Ultra Photography Grip accent provides a camera-like grip, {hardware} buttons for shutter, video, and customized dial, an additional 1,500 mAh battery, and a 67 mm adapter for normal digicam filters to be mounted instantly over the digicam module.

On the software program aspect, we now have RAW seize in addition to AI enhanced modes — Master Cinema Mode and Master Portrait have presets, recommendations, and post-processing to get essentially the most out of your photograph. Exporting in RAW will get you 16 bit colour depth and 16 steps of publicity HDR to play with, all calibrated in partnership with Adobe Labs.

The digicam right here is greater than only a toy and we would like to get some play time with it. The hands-on space was not it, so keep tuned!

Obviously, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 goes to be the ruling processor in Android land, not less than for the primary half of 2024. And it’s right here, powering the Xiaomi 14 Ultra with out compromise. The telephone itself responds in variety with Xiaomi’s proprietary IceLoop cooling system, which ought to preserve issues at a decrease temperature when gaming and taking pictures video.

No compromise in reminiscence chips, too, because the Xiaomi 14 Ultra comes with UFS 4.0 storage and LPDDR5X RAM — beginning at 512 GB and 16 GB respectively. Info about different variants isn’t obtainable presently.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra OS / Android model

MIUI is not any extra, say hey to HyperOS

Xiaomi is doing a giant push into a number of fields — AI, electrical automobiles, premium smartphones. The new HyperOS is meant to be the cornerstone of this growing ecosystem. From sensible residence to sensible automobile to smartphone, Xiaomi imagines all of this operating on HyperOS and dealing seamlessly collectively.

Xiaomi needs HyperOS AI to be studying out of your way of life and to be proactive and useful. For instance, for those who mild the identical sensible lamp at a selected time, and at a selected brightness setting — it might simply begin doing that by itself. The identical could be utilized to air conditioners, air purifiers, your sensible TV, and music playback.

File sharing throughout Xiaomi gadgets is supposed to be as straightforward as drag-and-dropping, and workflow ought to journey seamplessly from telephone to pill to large display.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a 5,000 mAh cell — nothing out of the bizarre, however nonetheless a fairly respectable energy pack. Xiaomi guarantees it has optimizations for improved longevity. And, even for those who handle to squeeze it dry with an excessive amount of video recording or gaming, it ought to cost fairly quick by way of the 90 W HyperCharge brick or 80 W wi-fi HyperCharge.

So, the Ultra goes international. That’s unbelievable. It looks as if it is the precise time for it to take action, too, with a plethora of huge upgrades within the digicam division, and the super-solid Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. As you may guess, we’re fairly hopeful and excited that it could ship on the top-class pictures and videography that Xiaomi promised. All that is still now could be to hold tight and look ahead to the exams!