XIAOMI 14 Ultra 5G - 6.73" (512GB/16GB) Dual SIM, 5000mAh - Black

A few small but meaningful upgrades to the camera system, tweaks to the build and display, and the mandatory chipset refresh  when last year's model was already one of the best camera phones in existence.

Indeed, the 14 Ultra doesn't stray too far from its predecessor. The main camera had a 1-inch sensor and dual-aperture lens on the 2023 model, the 2024 one uses a newer 1-inch sensor and makes that a truly variable aperture (with intermediate steps). The zoom cameras (two of them, as seemingly required to be called an Ultra), meanwhile, bring close focusing to the table and the longer of them also gets a slightly brighter lens.

On the outside, Xiaomi has replaced the Corning-branded glass of the old model with an in-house concoction that should be more durable (asterisks, of course), and the non-leather leather has also been improved. There's a new aluminium alloy used for the frame in the International version.

Improvements in the display section are hard to spot, but there's a promise for slightly more brightness (hardly a game changer), while the new Snapdragon is better than the old one.

Xiaomi has chosen not to mess around with battery capacity or charging speed on the global variant and we think we could have used a bump in longevity

The contents include a 90W charger (same as last year's) and a proprietary USB-A-to-C cable to go with it. Xiaomi has also bundled a translucent plastic snap-on back cover to protect the Ultra out of the box. It's on the cheap side, but something is better than nothing, plus the phone itself is supposedly more durable than the previous iteration.