Xiaomi 14 Ultra - a smartphone with an excellent camera for NIS 6,000

Xiaomi's flagship, the 14 Ultra, focuses, like many others, on photography. This time, Xiaomi seems to have nailed it with their focus. The camera of the new model has left me impressed numerous times. The collaboration with the German camera company - LEICA, brings optical expertise and software integration that produce sharp images and pleasant colors, reminiscent of a professional camera rather than a smartphone. The portrait shots with blurred backgrounds look like they came from a DSLR camera, with perfect focus on every detail, delivering impeccable results, making me fall in love with this capability over and over.

The camera itself features 4 50-megapixel sensors from Sony (LYT-900 model and 3 more from the IMX858 model). The initial buyers also receive a protective cover kit that gives the appearance of a professional camera with a silver lens surrounding the sensor array. Additionally, there's a grip that attaches to the smartphone, connecting via USB-C and providing manual buttons for camera control. This includes a zoom wheel, brightness control, and manual buttons for taking stills and videos. I liked this option, adding to the photography experience and providing better control. However, like most external accessories that come with smartphones, it might end up forgotten unless needed.

Design

The faux leather look of the 14 Ultra sets it apart from other smartphones and has managed to wow people who saw me with it. The reason behind this is the device's back, covered in vegan nano-tech leather along with a prominent camera module, giving a professional camera feel. This smartphone is not light, weighing 220 grams, similar to other flagship devices with large screens. The device is water and dust resistant with an IP68 rating, as expected from a flagship device.

Display

A successful display, but the light sensor needs improvement. The 14 Ultra comes with a 6.73-inch AMOLED LTPO display offering rich colors and automatic refresh rate adjustment up to 120Hz, providing smooth interface transitions. Overall, it's a very successful display, but when compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung's screen felt slightly sharper. The brightness reaches up to 3000 nits, but the light sensor responds a bit slowly, so when I opened the device in direct sunlight, I had to wait a bit until the brightness allowed comfortable viewing.

Interface

A new interface - HyperOS. Xiaomi has integrated its new interface - HyperOS, which still operates on Android 14 underneath it (this interface replaces the old MIUI). It's a similar interface to its previous version, with only cosmetic changes in the control panel and a top bar on the screen for specific notifications like charging status. What's less visible are the hardware optimization capabilities with the system. Besides, you still get the same Xiaomi experience of seeing all apps both on the home screen and in the app drawer, and the option to record calls which also updates the other party's voice in the call recording.

Hardware

Very fast, but lacks eSIM. One of the strange things I encountered with the 14 Ultra, towards the end of my review, was hearing something moving inside the device. Since the phone didn't fall on the floor, it's unclear if something broke inside, but it was annoying because I heard plastic moving inside the casing. There are no surprises in terms of hardware; the 14 Ultra is a smartphone equipped with Qualcomm's flagship processor - Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with plenty of RAM (16GB) and a generous storage capacity of 512GB. The under-display fingerprint sensor responds quickly. Yes, there's dual physical SIM support, but strangely, there's no eSIM here, which is quite odd.

Battery

Disappointing. It's hard for me to understand how Xiaomi managed to fail so miserably with the integrated battery here. It lasted from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM with just over 3 hours of screen time (at high resolution - WQHD Plus, with automatic switching between resolutions to save battery). It's disappointing because I relied on the phone's constant charging throughout the day, and it's surprising because there's a large 5000mAh battery capacity. What helps a bit in this situation is the device's fast charging, which comes with a 90-watt charger (Xiaomi even includes it in the package, which is not trivial these days). I managed to charge to 47% in 15 minutes and to 79% in 30 minutes. To enjoy this fast charging speed, which also significantly heats the smartphone, fast charging needs to be activated, and a notification about the capability to use it pops up on the screen. By the way, there's also very fast 80-watt wireless charging and reverse wireless charging of 10 watts to charge devices from the smartphone's back.

Price: NIS 6,000 (official importer Milthon)

In conclusion, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a smartphone with a wow-effect design, an excellent camera that deserves praise, a fast processor with plenty of RAM, a respectable storage capacity, and fast charging, including a compatible charger included in the package. Where are the drawbacks? The battery struggles to last a full day, there's no eSIM, and the light sensor could have been a bit faster.