Xiaomi 14 Ultra (Black, 16GB RAM, 512GB Storage) | 50 MP Leica Quad Camera | 2K 120 Hz LTPO AMOLED | Flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | 90 W Hypercharge

Since my last review was not accepted I am this time concentrating only on the XIAOMI 14 ULTRA. I will also give some useful tips for its efficient usageAt the out set the price Rs one lakh rupees favorably compares with the MRP in European countries only. The phone comes with a fairly protruding camera. Hence I suggest using a flip case ( from left to right Fig 1 )or a good quality back case. It comes preinstalled with a protective screen. I suggest retaining it until it shows scratches.Tips for setting. Use battery setting of “Balanced” Refresh rate of 60 Hz is more than adequate for smooth performance. I use DARK mode and a display resolution of 2400X1080. Draining battery using higher resolution is not worth it. It comes with a unique feature to edit the toggles. You can access toggles by swiping the screen top to bottom. At the bottom use “edit” and this allows for editing and moving the icons. See Fig 2. It is not straight forward to apply wallpapers of your choice. From the settings go to “Wallpaper and personalization. Then press “find more”. In Fig 3 I have shown the option to install your own choice. Press “my account” and will take you to your photo collection. You can choose between lock screen and home screen. I use LEICA vibrant display for camera setting. If you shake the phone, camera makes rattling noise. This is normalI have been using the phone for the last 18 days. I will gives its positive and negative pointsPROS:Extremely well built phone with vegan leather back and aluminum frame. It gives firm grip and less prone to smudges. Outstanding camera engineered with LEICA SUMMILUX four lenses of different focal lengths of 50 MP. Unique feature is variable aperture from 1.63 to 4. In fig 4 see the depth of field of the flower bunch at aperture 4. Outstanding resolution in macro close-up. See Fig 5 individual flower. Fitted with 1 inch SONY LYT-900 sensor allowing plenty of light. The camera is by far the most versatile compared to any reputed flagship cellphones. Excellent display resolution of 1400X3200px. Very bright display up to 3000 nits.CONS:The phone is supplied with 90W charger and it becomes very warm during charging. Even while using 40W charger the becomes warm. I do not understand why the phone becomes warm while using the camera. This did not happen with Xiaomi 13 ultra. I did not shoot videos. This is not good. Users in temperate countries have reported fogging of lenses. I did not face this problem and users in India may not face this problem. Though rated 5000mAh the battery life even under settings that conserve battery is not good. XIAOMI give software support for only FOUR years. This is in contrast to several other phone manufacturers that give 7 years.VERDICT. It will be hard to find a cellphone which can outperform Xiaomi 14 ultra camera and display. It functions very smoothly and a pleasure to use. It does provide a camera accessory kit at a cost of over Rs 17000 ($200) I used a similar kit on my Xiaomi 13 Ultra. It is not worth the price. In summary I HAVE NO HESITATION TO RECOMMEND XIAOMI 14 ULTRA.

Truly a "Never have I ever" moment for me as I was very sceptical in spending flagship money for a Xiaomi phone. It's been only couple of hours since I touched this. Still in honeymoon phase I believe. But here are few quick observations in first few hours -What I am liking so far-Haptics, display, Camera quality (without over-sharpening or iphone like flat processing), ergonomics (pretty good to hold despite the camera bump), smoothness of HyperOS, battery usage (only been few hours and seeing no red flags as of now)What I am nitpicking about-Phone came with pre installed netflix, facebook, phonepe, fitbit (uninstall-able) and two useless apps called "getapps" (a app market of some sorts) and "Music" (full of random youtube videos as home feed). Also I saw a "wallpaper carousel" option in settings for lock screen which I assume like "glance" on midrange phones. Uninstalled the "Music" app rightaway and will be disabling few stock google apps (like google tv, google home etc) and "getapps" via adb/Universal debloater for Xiaomi. I kinda expected the whole hyperos experience to not be 100% awesome so these are just nitpicks. No random ad notification or stuff anywhere. Oh and the camera unit makes a rattle sound like a baby's toy when shaken. Trust me I have used iphones and Samsungs but never I heard so much OIS related shaky sounds when phone is shaken. Could be a deal breaker for some. Not an issue for me (because the sensors are just 🤌)So that was my honest feedback for this phone, by only using it for few hours. So far loving this experience and planning to keep it for at least 3-4 years (provided the hardware doesn't fail on me).If I have to sum up in one sentence what I am liking most about this phone - that is the photo quality. There's a certain overprocessing and "flat" style in the photos taken by flagship phones I previously used from reputed brands. This phone is completely out of that league. Hope future updates don't ruin the processing of this camera. Everything depends on Xiaomi.

I have been using Xiaomi phones for more than a decade and this one is definitely the best one yet. To say that the camera is excellent is an understatement; the picture quality from all the four cameras are mind-blowing! The raw image quality paired with the incredible Leica post-processing and color science results in images never seen before in a phone. Truly worth the money if you are a camera enthusiast. The rest of the hardware is top notch too, top of the line specs.Highly recommended !