Been using the Xiaomi 14 Ultra as my main device now. It's been really good, but the biggest problems for me are the battery life (still decent though) and overheating. I also think that video recording in the stock app is not that great. Also, there is one major flaw with the camera... The photo camera is absolutely the best on the market. It beats the Vivo X100 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max for me. The colour science is absolutely perfect and all sensors work great. I don't recognize the stabilization issues that you have and I don't see any AI effect when zooming in (but I have disabled the "AI Zoom") But I have another big issue: light reflections. The camera lens reflects bright lights even more than iPhone does. It's almost impossible to take a photo of a night scene in a city due to the reflections on the lens.
Hello my friend. Can agree with almost everything. But colors are subjective, and I find some issues with colors on Xiaomi, none of the modern phones give accurate skin tones, but sometimes it can lean to extremes, and Xiaomi gives too Magenta pinkish skin in some ocassions. I think that in best case scenario colors are equal at best on all three phones, oppo, vivo, xiaomi, just leaves a room for a persons preference. I love Leica colors on Xiaomi, I think it is my favorite, but I won't say that it is so much better, because on Vivo it is nice too you can tweak and customise it, Oppo has some charm too. So I think it is a tigh and subjective topic, that can lead only to heat debates (not in this case, I am not debating, I really love all 3 phones, oppo 💚, xiaomi❤️🔥, vivo 💙)
This one was my favorite almost all of 2024 until the release of the X100U. Xiaomi has been my favorite brand for 3 years. The next 15U model should be exceptional in terms of camera, the only thing that matters to me, and I expect a lot from it especially since it should be available in my region and reassure me about the after-sales service and a possible local resale. I look forward to your future tests on these next flagships X8U x200U S25U and of course the 15U. Happy Tech Year 2025 my friend ! ❤👽
Great review as always. If I want to buy a phone in the next month or so which do you recommend for photo/video? I like canon color science and been eyeing the vivox100u.
@@_misterJ I love Vivo smartphone for versatility. There is no another smartphone right now that gives this level of consistency in all photo aspects, from macro till 10-30x zooms. It is very important for me, to understand what I will get and rely on it. Of course smartphone will always be a smartphone, there is certain limits that can not be achieved. But looking at my old raw files from m50, eos M, 550d with kit lenses and 1.8, 2.8 basic lenses, I can say - no way I am ever gonna take such cameras for traveling, vacation, or even fun walks, phones does it good, and in complicated scenes with hdr or low light beats such cameras, especially in ease of use, handheld, without a need to edit it, such a relief.
As for video. Vivo is not bad, it has Vivo log in Pro mode. And I use third party app to film some stuff. But i reccomend something like dji pocket 3 to complement it. All modern smartphones, from iPhone till you name it - are just not reliable for video in all conditions.
@@AlienTechnologies33 Ya with the capabilities of some new smartphones, walking around with a fully rigged DSLR seems overkill. I was set on the x100u, but the xiaomi 14u seems pretty tempting...
No, pro mode has this options. I was talking about non pro modes, and to combine auto with pro mode, and to give us "ultimate" mode where you can tweak everything, basically like mirrorless pro camera but on ultra smartphone steroids
I want to get the 15 Ultra when it comes out; I currently have the S24 Ultra. I'm a beginner mobile photographer, and my current phone is good (and I know that the S24 Ultra is not good in auto mode or with JPEGs, but when it comes to the RAW format, it is actually very good and capable), but I want something better with bigger sensors. I only capture photos in RAW format; I don't care about JPEGs. So, can you please suggest whether I should go with the 15 Ultra, X200 Pro, or the 200 Ultra (when it comes out)? I hope you're going to help me decide on a new phone. And my only purpose of getting a new phone is just PHOTOGRAPHY!!
Hello my friend. I can say my expirience. I loved Computational Raw on Vivo, Xiaomi and Oppo. I completly missed a point for me to shoot in normal Raw with such small sensors, noise levels in low light, absence of color gradients and color separation. Computational raw is what makes it usable and fun for me. I suggest to look into good full frame, something like canon r6 ii or panasonic s5 ii, or older 50+ megapixel models, like Nikon z7, canon r5, panasonic s1r. But if you are 100% sure that you need a smartphone for normal raw, I do not think that there will be too much of a difference. Buy anything. May be not Honor, because it misses some options and you need to use third party apps.
At the time of writing I had just finished an event and I was using my friend's 14 Ultra. The biggest issue for me is lens fogging. For some reason when the phone heats up moisture gets into the lens and makes pictures look awful. It's probably the vapor chamber being all wack. I hope the 15 Ultra addressed this issue.
Open Sim card tray, make sim card tray to be on top, and turn on 4k 60 or 4k 120 fps video and record for some time. It is not only Xiaomi problem. This method can fix it, that's what lots of people said in the comments, you can repeat it couple of times.
It depends. I love all three, but I found Vivo to be more reliable, because on Oppo you can catch low contrast levels and light leaks and light artifacts, and on Xiaomi you can catch computational fails and magenta shift on skin. But in perfect lab conditions in a spherical vacuum I love all three.
I think you'd better watch my large video comparisons. It has timestamps, you can pick and choose portrait shots, turn off volume and use your vision and choose what you like. But check HDR sunset/sunrises section, to get an idea what you can get in a harsh uncontrollable scenarios
@AlienTechnologies33 I think I already watched your videos comparing these 3 devices camera capabilities. The one where you included a mirrorless camera right? Btw thank you for ur response. I love how u compare this devices and not just the typical brands like Samsung, apple and google haha
@danishblunt9698 absolutely not. It's not really a debate either. The Vivo does a lot of things right. But you cannot turn off the AI when zooming, you cannot turn of the AI beautifying in portrait mode (OriginOS), you cannot change the aperture which means that you cannot control the bokeh on the 1 inch sensor, you cannot shoot in raw at 5x (limited at 3.7x), the ultra-wide is only 14mm which is not very wide, I could go on and on. The Vivo is not aimed at photographers, but at casual people who want a point-and-shoot that makes "perfect" smartphone images. Which is fine. FujiFilm is also aimed at the more "casual" audience and that's why it is also being hyped. Just like Vivo is a hype in the casual crowd now. And I love Fujifilm btw. Tl;dr: It's not a better camera system than the Xiaomi. I do think that it's easier to use, though.
You can turn off the AI and it's very easy to do. Most enthusiasts shoot raw anyway and that solves many things you mentioned, plus vivo's superraw is extremely nice to work with in Lightroom. @@BlackParade01
A new test update has arrived, improving the cameras of the X100 Ultra much more, I hope you pay attention and see if it is worth making a video with everything new from that great update, greetings friend
Do not know my friend. When I saw that it will have "Telephoto Enhancement that ENCREASE IMAGE CLARITY UP TO 20 TIMES" (How it was measured), I was wary, I have OS5 but without camera updates, and I think I am good, I do not need changes, I like what it does now 🛸
For example Oppo made an update for Ai enchantment in second telephoto, they even stated in the firmware update notes that they are very proud with it and by their Ai team. But it made it almost unusable for me with such image. So I was more happy with soft crop from 3x, rather than Ai mess from 4.3x
I have only top 3, vivo, oppo and xiaomi. Other phones do not go to the threshold, that I can recommend them, I like new computation from Sony, but their hardware is just complete garbage (no offense sony fans), so it is hard to recommend anything. But saying all that, it depends on the type of photography. If you want versatile device, I think it is Vivo, if you want only portraits, I think it is Oppo, if you want to experiment and wide lens - I loved Xiaomi for 12mm and Leica colors
I feel like you hit the nail on the head with the photography part, the forced "Dual Native ISO Fusion Max" really does produce to artifical looking images in high dynamicrange scenes and ruins it similair to Samsung, I really wish manufacturers would stop with this stupidity. Vivo is simply superior as a camera phone.
Привет! На обзоре у DXO, тестировщики констатировали сильный лаг затвора у 14 ультра, т.е после нажатия на кнопку спуска сам кадр делается не мгновенно и движущиеся объекты размазываются и не попадают в фокус... заметил ли ты такой косяк у 14 ультра?
Если использовать особый "спорт" режим, то я не заметил больших проблем. Я бы не стал фотографировать быстродвижущиеся объекты и существ просто в автоматическом режиме. Практически на всех телефонах есть для этого что-то подобное где и затвор быстрее и скорость съёмки
If it is bought from Play store or other stores, it has multilanguage support. It has demo version on Playstore with multilanguage also, to test what works, but no record video option (locked). On telegram group it has group with free test developers versions, that can record, but only rus'ian language
@@AlienTechnologies33 Black magic on android has zero traces of log, it's just standard HLG or HDR10 as built into stock app. Mcpro24fps can produce log but it's overlapping over the stock auto curve (rec 709) so not true log, however it's essentially normalizing the footage so you can drop a lut to normalize into your workflow without much hassle. Comes at the cost of quality. MotionCam can record true log and ProRes as it's encoding via raw stream so it's pure (now even has access to both true Panasonic Wide Gamut + Panasonic VLOG gamuts and transfer functions), but you lose EIS as well as some times it may not have access to high framerates like 60/120 fps depending on the devices. It's also more resource intensive due to the nature of the app (raw encoding into log on the fly unlike mcpro24fps video stream) You essentially have to pick your poison. Blackmagic is poo poo besides manual UI for stock camera pretty much 😁 It's great on iPhone but sucks on Android.
Оу, after oppo find x6 (not pro) it's my device now (but china vershion, with 5300mah sic and without 20 bend, but on global rom). Let's see, let's see🤔
iPhone 14 Pro's 48MP DNGs have more details than Xiaomi 14 Ultra's 50MP RAWs. This is not a joke. I tested it in good lighting conditions. I don't know how, and I wish I knew how because 14 Pro has a smaller sensor size (1/1.28").
Do not know my friend, cant comment on Raw from 14, but 13 pro completely floped in both Raw and Auto tab. And on Auto mode I found 13 pro, 14 pro and 15 pro not far from each other, in some situations I preffered 13 pro. It was my friend's units, and I could not test them for more than couple of minutes, and I was not in the mood of spending 2500$ more to in depth test it at that time. May be in the future, when this channel can cover at least 50% of what it consumes, I can test Samsung/apple, and other brands from first models to latest. Hard to comment anything on this topic, because I have no 14 pro on hands
@@MrAnonik Also please check focus on Xiaomi, it tends to focus on foreground, and background looks like soft and have bad details. You can look in the ground or grass in front of you, if it is more sharp and defined than background - it is a focus. I had similar staff on my "Infinity Phones" video on the "too bright" highlight recovery tab, around 3:34:14 my first thoughts were that Xiaomi has less details
@@AlienTechnologies33 No, the focus was on point. I did several tests and all won by iPhone's 48MP DNG in terms of details. Btw I know the Auto mode is bad on iPhones. That's why all important stuff I shoot using 48 MP ProRAW. It's night and day difference. iPhone 13 Pro has only 12MP so it's out of the picture. Maybe you have a friend who has iPhone 14/15/16 Pro (they have the same main camera) so you'd see what I mean...
I parted ways with Xiaomi and no longer follow it. I stopped at this channel because of your work and not because of Xiaomi. GSM Arena has the Xiaomi Ultra as the top recommendation and something is not right. Money talks but I got burned with Xiaomi and the divorce is final.
Been using the Xiaomi 14 Ultra as my main device now. It's been really good, but the biggest problems for me are the battery life (still decent though) and overheating. I also think that video recording in the stock app is not that great. Also, there is one major flaw with the camera...
The photo camera is absolutely the best on the market. It beats the Vivo X100 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max for me. The colour science is absolutely perfect and all sensors work great.
I don't recognize the stabilization issues that you have and I don't see any AI effect when zooming in (but I have disabled the "AI Zoom")
But I have another big issue: light reflections. The camera lens reflects bright lights even more than iPhone does. It's almost impossible to take a photo of a night scene in a city due to the reflections on the lens.
Hello my friend. Can agree with almost everything. But colors are subjective, and I find some issues with colors on Xiaomi, none of the modern phones give accurate skin tones, but sometimes it can lean to extremes, and Xiaomi gives too Magenta pinkish skin in some ocassions. I think that in best case scenario colors are equal at best on all three phones, oppo, vivo, xiaomi, just leaves a room for a persons preference.
I love Leica colors on Xiaomi, I think it is my favorite, but I won't say that it is so much better, because on Vivo it is nice too you can tweak and customise it, Oppo has some charm too. So I think it is a tigh and subjective topic, that can lead only to heat debates (not in this case, I am not debating, I really love all 3 phones, oppo 💚, xiaomi❤️🔥, vivo 💙)
By the way, ai zoom was turned off during all my tests
@@AlienTechnologies33 yes the skin rendering can be weird sometimes, I agree.
This one was my favorite almost all of 2024 until the release of the X100U. Xiaomi has been my favorite brand for 3 years. The next 15U model should be exceptional in terms of camera, the only thing that matters to me, and I expect a lot from it especially since it should be available in my region and reassure me about the after-sales service and a possible local resale. I look forward to your future tests on these next flagships X8U x200U S25U and of course the 15U. Happy Tech Year 2025 my friend ! ❤👽
Thank you kindly my friend 👽
Happy year 🎄🛸✨🌌
What screen protectors are good for the Xiaomi 14 Ultra? The factory one on mine got peeled off.
@@theedcx I order the cheapest, but with oleophobic coat from Aliexpress
Great review as always. If I want to buy a phone in the next month or so which do you recommend for photo/video? I like canon color science and been eyeing the vivox100u.
@@_misterJ I love Vivo smartphone for versatility. There is no another smartphone right now that gives this level of consistency in all photo aspects, from macro till 10-30x zooms. It is very important for me, to understand what I will get and rely on it.
Of course smartphone will always be a smartphone, there is certain limits that can not be achieved.
But looking at my old raw files from m50, eos M, 550d with kit lenses and 1.8, 2.8 basic lenses, I can say - no way I am ever gonna take such cameras for traveling, vacation, or even fun walks, phones does it good, and in complicated scenes with hdr or low light beats such cameras, especially in ease of use, handheld, without a need to edit it, such a relief.
As for video. Vivo is not bad, it has Vivo log in Pro mode. And I use third party app to film some stuff.
But i reccomend something like dji pocket 3 to complement it.
All modern smartphones, from iPhone till you name it - are just not reliable for video in all conditions.
@@AlienTechnologies33 Ya with the capabilities of some new smartphones, walking around with a fully rigged DSLR seems overkill. I was set on the x100u, but the xiaomi 14u seems pretty tempting...
@_misterJ I suggest to wait 15 ultra, looks like it will use hp9 for telephoto. Interesting to see how it will be
i have sharpness, saturation and contrast adjustments in pro mode on Mi 11 Ultra
Did they remove it from newer versions?
No, pro mode has this options. I was talking about non pro modes, and to combine auto with pro mode, and to give us "ultimate" mode where you can tweak everything, basically like mirrorless pro camera but on ultra smartphone steroids
@@AlienTechnologies33 makes sense
Был в детстве Зенит ЕТ с штатным объективом Гелиос)) понастольгировал🥺спасибо
🌙🔨📷🛸🌌🔮✨ *ППК - Воскрешение"
I want to get the 15 Ultra when it comes out; I currently have the S24 Ultra. I'm a beginner mobile photographer, and my current phone is good (and I know that the S24 Ultra is not good in auto mode or with JPEGs, but when it comes to the RAW format, it is actually very good and capable), but I want something better with bigger sensors. I only capture photos in RAW format; I don't care about JPEGs. So, can you please suggest whether I should go with the 15 Ultra, X200 Pro, or the 200 Ultra (when it comes out)?
I hope you're going to help me decide on a new phone. And my only purpose of getting a new phone is just PHOTOGRAPHY!!
Hello my friend. I can say my expirience. I loved Computational Raw on Vivo, Xiaomi and Oppo. I completly missed a point for me to shoot in normal Raw with such small sensors, noise levels in low light, absence of color gradients and color separation. Computational raw is what makes it usable and fun for me.
I suggest to look into good full frame, something like canon r6 ii or panasonic s5 ii, or older 50+ megapixel models, like Nikon z7, canon r5, panasonic s1r.
But if you are 100% sure that you need a smartphone for normal raw, I do not think that there will be too much of a difference. Buy anything. May be not Honor, because it misses some options and you need to use third party apps.
But i am 100% sure that it is better to wait new models. 15 ultra and x200 Ultra, and see what they can bring
At the time of writing I had just finished an event and I was using my friend's 14 Ultra. The biggest issue for me is lens fogging. For some reason when the phone heats up moisture gets into the lens and makes pictures look awful. It's probably the vapor chamber being all wack. I hope the 15 Ultra addressed this issue.
Open Sim card tray, make sim card tray to be on top, and turn on 4k 60 or 4k 120 fps video and record for some time. It is not only Xiaomi problem.
This method can fix it, that's what lots of people said in the comments, you can repeat it couple of times.
Which do u prefer for portrait shots? Xiaomi 14 ultra, vivo x100 ultra or oppo find x7 ultra?
It depends. I love all three, but I found Vivo to be more reliable, because on Oppo you can catch low contrast levels and light leaks and light artifacts, and on Xiaomi you can catch computational fails and magenta shift on skin.
But in perfect lab conditions in a spherical vacuum I love all three.
I think you'd better watch my large video comparisons. It has timestamps, you can pick and choose portrait shots, turn off volume and use your vision and choose what you like. But check HDR sunset/sunrises section, to get an idea what you can get in a harsh uncontrollable scenarios
On Xiaomi you can turn off HDR to try and mitigate some skin issues, and on Oppo just need to be careful with light sources
@AlienTechnologies33 I think I already watched your videos comparing these 3 devices camera capabilities. The one where you included a mirrorless camera right? Btw thank you for ur response. I love how u compare this devices and not just the typical brands like Samsung, apple and google haha
Its decent camera but gets dominated by 100U/FX7U
Yeah, there is lots of room for improvement
I disagree. I've tried both the Xiaomi and Vivo X100U and stuck with the Xiaomi. The camera is quite a bit better imo.
But both are incredible!
@@BlackParade01 nope, vivo slams, and this is not a controversial take either, it's generally accepted that vivo is the king atm.
@danishblunt9698 absolutely not. It's not really a debate either.
The Vivo does a lot of things right. But you cannot turn off the AI when zooming, you cannot turn of the AI beautifying in portrait mode (OriginOS), you cannot change the aperture which means that you cannot control the bokeh on the 1 inch sensor, you cannot shoot in raw at 5x (limited at 3.7x), the ultra-wide is only 14mm which is not very wide, I could go on and on.
The Vivo is not aimed at photographers, but at casual people who want a point-and-shoot that makes "perfect" smartphone images. Which is fine. FujiFilm is also aimed at the more "casual" audience and that's why it is also being hyped. Just like Vivo is a hype in the casual crowd now. And I love Fujifilm btw.
Tl;dr: It's not a better camera system than the Xiaomi. I do think that it's easier to use, though.
You can turn off the AI and it's very easy to do. Most enthusiasts shoot raw anyway and that solves many things you mentioned, plus vivo's superraw is extremely nice to work with in Lightroom. @@BlackParade01
A new test update has arrived, improving the cameras of the X100 Ultra much more, I hope you pay attention and see if it is worth making a video with everything new from that great update, greetings friend
Do not know my friend. When I saw that it will have "Telephoto Enhancement that ENCREASE IMAGE CLARITY UP TO 20 TIMES" (How it was measured), I was wary, I have OS5 but without camera updates, and I think I am good, I do not need changes, I like what it does now 🛸
For example Oppo made an update for Ai enchantment in second telephoto, they even stated in the firmware update notes that they are very proud with it and by their Ai team. But it made it almost unusable for me with such image. So I was more happy with soft crop from 3x, rather than Ai mess from 4.3x
What are your top 5 phones strictly for photography?
I have only top 3, vivo, oppo and xiaomi. Other phones do not go to the threshold, that I can recommend them, I like new computation from Sony, but their hardware is just complete garbage (no offense sony fans), so it is hard to recommend anything.
But saying all that, it depends on the type of photography. If you want versatile device, I think it is Vivo, if you want only portraits, I think it is Oppo, if you want to experiment and wide lens - I loved Xiaomi for 12mm and Leica colors
@@AlienTechnologies33 Thank you for your reply.
What are your top 3/5 devices from these brands, from best to worst?
I feel like you hit the nail on the head with the photography part, the forced "Dual Native ISO Fusion Max" really does produce to artifical looking images in high dynamicrange scenes and ruins it similair to Samsung, I really wish manufacturers would stop with this stupidity.
Vivo is simply superior as a camera phone.
Thank you for watching my friend 👁️☯️🌌
Привет! На обзоре у DXO, тестировщики констатировали сильный лаг затвора у 14 ультра, т.е после нажатия на кнопку спуска сам кадр делается не мгновенно и движущиеся объекты размазываются и не попадают в фокус... заметил ли ты такой косяк у 14 ультра?
Если использовать особый "спорт" режим, то я не заметил больших проблем. Я бы не стал фотографировать быстродвижущиеся объекты и существ просто в автоматическом режиме. Практически на всех телефонах есть для этого что-то подобное где и затвор быстрее и скорость съёмки
Но конечно быструю серию снимков где зажимаешь кнопку я бы тоже не советовал. Качество падает в разы
@@AlienTechnologies33 ага, спасибо!
great review as always, It's a shame that the aperture is stuck at f2.0 on mcpro24fps. Is aperture also stuck at f2.0 on Magic 6 ultimate?
Yezz, but it still beats most of the phones in terms of image quality even in low light (I am talking about Honor)
But wish it was not the case of cource 🛰️
what app are u using for 4k log ?
i see you always use it in your videos ❤🔥
McPro24Fps, but motion cam or Black Magic app can give something similar. I just love Panasonic colors
@@AlienTechnologies33mcpro does it have English setting?
If it is bought from Play store or other stores, it has multilanguage support. It has demo version on Playstore with multilanguage also, to test what works, but no record video option (locked).
On telegram group it has group with free test developers versions, that can record, but only rus'ian language
@@AlienTechnologies33 Black magic on android has zero traces of log, it's just standard HLG or HDR10 as built into stock app.
Mcpro24fps can produce log but it's overlapping over the stock auto curve (rec 709) so not true log, however it's essentially normalizing the footage so you can drop a lut to normalize into your workflow without much hassle. Comes at the cost of quality.
MotionCam can record true log and ProRes as it's encoding via raw stream so it's pure (now even has access to both true Panasonic Wide Gamut + Panasonic VLOG gamuts and transfer functions), but you lose EIS as well as some times it may not have access to high framerates like 60/120 fps depending on the devices. It's also more resource intensive due to the nature of the app (raw encoding into log on the fly unlike mcpro24fps video stream)
You essentially have to pick your poison.
Blackmagic is poo poo besides manual UI for stock camera pretty much 😁 It's great on iPhone but sucks on Android.
Оу, after oppo find x6 (not pro) it's my device now (but china vershion, with 5300mah sic and without 20 bend, but on global rom). Let's see, let's see🤔
iPhone 14 Pro's 48MP DNGs have more details than Xiaomi 14 Ultra's 50MP RAWs. This is not a joke. I tested it in good lighting conditions. I don't know how, and I wish I knew how because 14 Pro has a smaller sensor size (1/1.28").
But not with vivo X100 Ultra
@semmisam0227 did you test them both?
Do not know my friend, cant comment on Raw from 14, but 13 pro completely floped in both Raw and Auto tab. And on Auto mode I found 13 pro, 14 pro and 15 pro not far from each other, in some situations I preffered 13 pro. It was my friend's units, and I could not test them for more than couple of minutes, and I was not in the mood of spending 2500$ more to in depth test it at that time. May be in the future, when this channel can cover at least 50% of what it consumes, I can test Samsung/apple, and other brands from first models to latest.
Hard to comment anything on this topic, because I have no 14 pro on hands
@@MrAnonik Also please check focus on Xiaomi, it tends to focus on foreground, and background looks like soft and have bad details. You can look in the ground or grass in front of you, if it is more sharp and defined than background - it is a focus.
I had similar staff on my "Infinity Phones" video on the "too bright" highlight recovery tab, around 3:34:14 my first thoughts were that Xiaomi has less details
@@AlienTechnologies33 No, the focus was on point. I did several tests and all won by iPhone's 48MP DNG in terms of details. Btw I know the Auto mode is bad on iPhones. That's why all important stuff I shoot using 48 MP ProRAW. It's night and day difference. iPhone 13 Pro has only 12MP so it's out of the picture. Maybe you have a friend who has iPhone 14/15/16 Pro (they have the same main camera) so you'd see what I mean...
First😎🙏
👽
I parted ways with Xiaomi and no longer follow it. I stopped at this channel because of your work and not because of Xiaomi. GSM Arena has the Xiaomi Ultra as the top recommendation and something is not right. Money talks but I got burned with Xiaomi and the divorce is final.