Xiaomi has debuted its latest imaging-focused flagship smartphone in China, just days before its highly anticipated keynote event at the Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, Spain, which we will be covering live next week.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is now official, and with it, the company hopes to push the boundaries of mobile imaging and improve the experience of smartphone photography and videography enthusiasts.

In China, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is available in three colors — black, blue, and white. There’s also a Titanium Special Edition that’s heavier than other variants and uses grade 5 titanium, just like the Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. By contrast, Samsung has used lower-quality grade 2 titanium to produce the side rails of the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s frame.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is already available for preorder at these prices in China:

• 12GB/256GB: ¥6,499 (around $903 or P50,435)
• 16GB/512GB: ¥6,999 ($973 or P54,315)
• 16GB/1TB: ¥7,799 ($1,084 or P60,524)
• 16GB/1TB Titanium Special Edition: ¥8,799 ($1,223 or P68,284)

You can also purchase the Leica Pro Kit camera grip for the Xiaomi 14 Ultra with a built-in 1,500mAh battery for ¥699 ($97 or P5,425). It comes with its own shutter and video-recording buttons, in addition to wheels that can be used to manually control settings like adjusting the aperture, shutter, ISO, white balance, and more, similar to what you would find on a powerful DSLR camera.

Of course, the most prominent feature of the phone is its huge camera block at the back. The primary image sensor is a 50-megapixel LYT-900 one-inch sensor from Sony. It sits behind a variable-aperture lens that goes from wide to narrow, same as the previous model, but this time, the bright end is wider at f/1.63, which Xiaomi claims should take in up to 136% more light.

The other three rear-facing sensors are of the 50-megapixel Sony IMX858 variety in different configurations. One is for ultra-wide shots; two have telephoto as well as macro capabilities. The company says the zoom cameras take advantage of its own AI-powered computational photography platform, dubbed AISP, to deliver sharper and higher-quality shots from a distance. There’s also a 32-megapixel camera up front for selfies.

For video, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra can record 4K footage at up to 120 frames per second to capture slo-mo footage using the main camera, or 8K/30fps or 4K/60fps video across all rear and front cameras.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra specs

• 6.73-inch LTPO OLED display, 2K resolution, 1-120Hz refresh rate,
• 3,000 nits brightness, Xiaomi Ceramic Glass protection
• 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 5G chipset
• Adreno 750 GPU
• 12GB/16GB LPDDR5X RAM
• 256GB/512GB/1TB UFS 4.0 storage
• Quad 50-megapixel Sony LYT-900 main with variable-aperture design
• (f/1.63 – f/4.0), 50-megapixel ultrawide, 50-megapixel 3.2x portrait
• with OIS, 50-megapixel 5x telephoto with OIS rear cameras
• 32-megapixel front camera
• Under-display fingerprint reader
• 5,300mAh battery with 90-watt fast charging, 50-watt wireless fast charging
• IP68 certification
• HyperOS based on Android 14
• Colors: black, blue, white, titanium

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