Xiaomi is once again moving upmarket with its latest two premium smartphones, the Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Ultra. This year, the firm is signing smartphones that break new boundaries in photography, particularly in terms of dynamic HDR range. A new generation of optics designed in partnership with Leica, which deliver, for example, on the Ultra model, continuous adaptive aperture (never before seen in a smartphone to our knowledge).
All with in both cases a sublime screen, a Snapdragon Gen 3 chip and a particularly generous battery capacity.
The Xiaomi 14 is available from Monday February 26, 2024. The Ultra model, for its part, will be available on March 19. A Xiaomi 14 Ultra Photography Kit will also be available. This adds a grip to the smartphone as well as a shutter button and various buttons which will delight those accustomed to classic camera bodies.
Users of these two devices are entitled to 100 GB of storage on Google One for a 6-month trial and 3 months of YouTube Premium with ad-free access to YouTube and to the YouTube Music app.
The Xiaomi 14 will be available in two variants at the following prices:
Xiaomi 8/256: from 999€.
Xiaomi 8/512: from 1099€.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra will be available in a single 16/512 version at a price of 1 499 €. As for the Photography Kit, it will be offered separately at the price of 199€. The kit in question will be offered to all buyers of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.
Among the major technical innovations, we find on the two smartphones a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – a major leap forward in performance. The technical data highlights CPU 32% more efficient, and 34% less energy consuming. The GPU, for its part, delivers performance up 34% and energy efficiency up 38%.
Both smartphones feature optics designed through a partnership with Leica. Which doesn't just mean optimizations on the software side. The sensors and optics are of very high quality, and even offer a little something new, in particular this lens equipped with an iris capable of letting in more or less light without “ stops” – in a gentle, continuous, adaptive manner as close as possible to exhibition needs.
The result is that the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is able to cope with light conditions in which the photo sensors of practically all recent smartphones on the market flounder in the dark. #8221; (give us the expression). Indeed, the lights in the studio rented by the brand to demonstrate the photo and video capabilities of the smartphone over the weekend seemed to have been cleverly installed to foil the tricks of smartphone manufacturers to render strong brightness contrasts more or less correctly.
Over the weekend, Xiaomi put the little dishes in the big ones to explain what makes the video sensors of these smartphones so special. The standard Xiaomi 14benefit from a main sensor with for the first time a maximum aperture of ƒ/1.6 – an optic that sits on top of the brand's Light Fusion 900 sensors.
These have the particularity of being able to natively modulate the exposure over 13.5 stops. All with 14-bit color depth. Enough to still capture 80% more light compared to the Xiaomi 13. In addition to that, this aperture generates magnificent natural bokeh effects.
There is also a new Leica 75mm floating lens as a telephoto lens – with a minimum setback of barely 10 cm. Xiaomi also offers an equivalent 14mm lens (ultra wide angle) of 50 Mp, like all the other sensors on the device. The sensors are Dolby Vision certified and can capture videos in 4K at 60 FPS.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra goes even further< /strong>and turns into a real film production tool. These devices have a 75mm telephoto lens and a 120mm periscopic telephoto lens. The main sensor is particularly large with a surface area of 1″. And it has, as we told you, a variable opening without stops – from ƒ/1.63 to ƒ/4.0 as close as possible to needs.
L’ultra wide angle, based on a Sony IMX858 is here a 12mm equivalent with socket supports macros at a distance of only 5 cm.
In both cases, Xiaomi did not skimp, to put it mildly, on premium features. The brand has chosen very well made LTPO screens, which hide the selfie sensor in a punch at the top of the screen. Screen which has an adaptive refresh rate 1-120 Hz. They provide very precise colorimetry, meeting the DCI-P3 standard.
All with brightness of up to 3000 nits so you never run out of brightness. All with Dolby Vision®, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLGle certifications.
The casing is made of glass, with new colors like jade green. The design of the photo sensor module also changes with a square for the base model and a circle for the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, which in both cases gives an extremely attractive look.
We have already talked a little above about the Xiaomi 14 Ultra Photography Kit which adds a grip and buttons reminiscent of more classic photo cases. Xiaomi has also launched a tablet, the Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro 12.4.
This tablet will be available from April 6, 2024 at the price of €699 or €799 with the cover keyboard. The kick-off will coincide with the launch of a new brand event, the Xiaomi Fan Festival. In addition, Xiaomi is launching the Mi Band 8 Pro (€69), as well as the Watch S3 (price not communicated).
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Teilor Stone has been a reporter on the news desk since 2013. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining Thesaxon , Teilor Stone worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my teilor@nizhtimes.com 1-800-268-7116