Which Ultra Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, has the best camera? I found out in this massive, in-depth comparison.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra may have the best camera on a smartphone I’ve used this year, which is quite a statement to make considering the competition it faces. But is it true?
One of the phones it needs to beat in order to truly claim this title is the excellent Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Samsung’s most recent top smartphone has already managed to see off its predecessor in a comparison battle, as well as the Google Pixel 8 Pro. Can it also defeat the fantastic Xiaomi phone?The cameras
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has four cameras on the back, with a big 200-megapixel camera leading the pack. It’s joined by a 50MP telephoto camera with a 5x optical zoom, a 10MP telephoto with a 3x optical zoom, and a 12MP wide-angle camera. The Galaxy S24 Ultra can also take photos at 10x zoom, but unlike the Galaxy S23 Ultra, these are “optical quality” photos rather than a true optical zoom.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a 50MP main camera (Sony’s recent LYT-900 1-inch sensor), a 50MP telephoto camera for a 3.2x optical zoom, a 50MP periscope telephoto for a 5x optical zoom, and finally another 50MP camera taking care of wide-angle shots. Xiaomi’s secret weapon is its partnership with Leica, which supplies the lenses for the cameras and helps tune various aspects of the camera’s performance, too.
Leica’s involvement helps give Xiaomi’s camera character, and while the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s camera has proven to be excellent, it has never struck me as having its own unique style. This may hurt it during the test, but it may then win back points through consistency — an issue that has often hounded Xiaomi cameras, almost regardless of the model.
For this comparison, each phone was used in automatic mode, and with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s camera set to the Leica Natural color profile (it also has the option of a Leica Vibrant setting). I didn’t use the Xiaomi Photography Kit. Photos were examined on a monitor and have been resized here for friendlier online viewing.Main camera
Comparing the two main cameras is where you really notice the difference in character between them. It’s hard to describe, but the way the Xiaomi 14 Ultra tunes its photos is more visually pleasing in most (but, crucially, not all) situations. The first photo is a great example of what I mean. There’s nothing wrong with the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s photo at all, but the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s photo has more emotion in it. It captures the atmosphere of the room more realistically through its exposure and warmth, bringing out more detail in the chairs, curtains, walls, and the woode floor. It’s lovely.
The Leica-tuned camera seems to add a subtle vignette to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s photos that is absent from the S24 Ultra’s photos without editing. And a lot of the time, it’s very effective at adding atmosphere. But it doesn’t always work. The next photo of the blooms shows the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s wonderful white balance and total lack of noise, but the darker tone toward the edge of the frame dims the bright pinks visible in the S24 Ultra’s photo, which some may not prefer.
In the next photo, you can see where the Xiaomi 14 Ultra picks out more detail, exposes more texture, and again captures emotion where the Galaxy S24 Ultra misses out. The walls and the wooden gate have been smoothed out by the S24 Ultra, which favors a deeper shadow in the foreground, and it loses the aged, weathered, and accurate look in the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s photo. The sky has a blue and gray tint compared to Xiaomi’s whiter sky, something we’ll see more of next.
There’s a warmth and accuracy to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s image that’s perhaps slightly missing in the S24 Ultra’s photo of the lake and sky. It’s a typically Samsung-style image, but its shortcomings are apparent when you compare it to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s photo, from the color of the stones in the wall to the depth, ripples, and reflections in the water. I look at the S24 Ultra’s image and see a good photo, and then I look at the Xiaomi 14 Ultra picture and see a scene. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra isn’t perfect, but it has a unique ability to capture life more beautifully and atmospherically than the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and that makes it the winner here.
Winner: Xiaomi 14 UltraWide-angle camera
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s main camera is fantastic, but the wide-angle camera and its performance can’t quite match it.
