The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has just topped the ranking of PhoneArena Camera Score, which now places it even higher compared to both the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

This phone attained such rankings due to its high camera hardware, fronted by a 50 MP main camera with a large 1-inch sensor, a variable aperture of f/1.6 to f/4 and a field of view of 23 mm. Aiding these, there is a dual telephoto arrangement-a 50MP lens of 75mm focal length and an f-stop of f/1.8, and another 50MP periscope lens of 120mm and with f/2.5 aperture.

The ultra-wide camera also has 50 megapixels, but the coverage is pretty wide at 12mm in this case, and the front camera boasts a generous 32-megapixel sensor.

Superior Resolution and Zoom

It is apparent that the Xiaomi 14 Ultra held its ground in a few important areas which would add up to the score. Also, it does quite well with render detail and is just a touch shy on exposure and color accuracy in comparison to the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Galaxy S24 Ultra, but is not attempting to over-sharpen the image unrealistically and avoids strong halo artifacts that are troubling some of the competition, thus ending up cleaner and more natural.

The main sensor is very large and uses a wide lens aperture, a characteristic that gives one a noted edge in low light.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra does have a rather strong advantage with its telephoto lens duo. The f/1.8 aperture is pretty big; it's responsible for very good-looking shots taken in low light by the 3.2X zoom lens, where again it blows apart the iPhone's 5X zoom.

In mid-zoom, the Xiaomi stays in a class of its own; the iPhone just edges ahead at long range. The Galaxy S24 Ultra doesn't have such an advantage due to switching from a 10X to a 5X zoom camera.

Mixed results for the ultra-wide and selfie cameras

Although the camera on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a little wider than that on its competitors, this comes at the cost of corner sharpness. All in all, performance remained very competitive in this respect because the same scores were obtained by all three top models: the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, Galaxy S24 Ultra, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Macro photography is also one of the features this phone offers with its telephoto lenses.

The front-facer on the Xiaomi Ultra 14 is a different story by a long shot. It's not as good as what's on the Galaxy S24 Ultra or iPhone 15 Pro Max because, in our testing, exposure is maddeningly all over the place. Color accuracy is not too far past what the others deliver, but both overall and subject exposure are problems for the Xiaomi, and they can ruin a selfie.

Video Performance and User Experience

The video performance of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is really strong, especially in terms of quality zooming video and ultra-wide video shots. Pitted against the Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max, it showed good performance with short-range zoom and no issues with over sharpening.

The only weak point remains the front camera video having inconsistencies in exposure, over-sharpening, which deter from the end video quality. Also, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra supports a video recording pause button, which is lacking in the iPhone, that enables quick and convenient use in video recording.

All in all, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a very strong competitor in the smartphone market with its advanced camera system, including main and zoom lenses.

While this does show some minor imperfections for color accuracy and the usage of the front camera, it does better than the rest of the premium models that are the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max in some crucial departments, making it a strong contender for best camera phone for 2024.