A camera comparison between the Xiaomi 14 Pro and its predecessors is especially crucial because, while the Xiaomi 14 Pro has a lot of improvements over the Xiaomi 13 Pro and Xiaomi 13 Ultra, it also has a contentious downgrade. Furthermore, the iPhone 15 Pro Max—Apple's first periscope zoom phone—and Xiaomi's current flagship phone with a Leica camera have been compared.
Both in-country and online merchants in China are selling the Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Pro. Unless they want to import ahead of time, interested customers in other nations will likely have to wait until the beginning of 2024. The Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro's successors have not yet received many evaluations from Western critics, however a good number of reviews of Xiaomi's most recent flagship devices with Leica cameras are already available on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
We purposefully restrict ourselves to only using YouTube's worldwide content for this brief hands-on overview. Particularly Ben's Gadget Reviews, which was entirely shot with the new DJI Osmo Pocket 3 camera, offers the first globally pertinent insights once more. Ben discusses some of the other attractions of the Xiaomi 14 Pro, such the company's quadruple curved glass, in addition to comparing the camera to that of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra in his first hands-on.
Display comparison with the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
According to first tests, the promised brightness rating of 3,000 nits for the TCL CSOT AMOLED display of course only comes to the fore in specific HDR material, but there does not appear to be any substantial everyday differences compared to the Samsung panel of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. More detailed test results are to be expected soon from our test lab, which already has Xiaomi's latest high-flyer in its custody.
Brighter images despite camera sensor downgrade?
The much anticipated camera comparisons with the Xiaomi 13 Pro and Xiaomi 13 Ultra, which both feature the significantly larger Sony IMX989 in 1-inch format, are yet to materialize. Nevertheless, the first tests and comparisons with the Xiaomi 13 Ultra and Xiaomi 13 Pro below show that the sensor dubbed "Light Hunter 900" by Xiaomi lives up to its name and shows no weaknesses in dark environments, which is likely due to the larger aperture and the improved dynamics of the mysterious sensor, about which not a lot is known.
Xiaomi 14 Pro vs Xiaomi 13 Ultra
The photo comparisons below also reveal that the nominally smaller sensor can easily keep up with the one in the Xiaomi 13 Ultra because to its better optics and sensitivity. The smaller 1/1.3 inch sensor can also preserve the gorgeous, natural bokeh effect because to the F/1.4 aperture compared to the F/1.9 aperture of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra. However, both the ultra-wide-angle and telephoto cameras of the Xiaomi 14 Pro seem weaker compared to those on the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, as some of the photo samples in the top video illustrate.
Furthermore, the Xiaomi 14 Pro lacks the 5x periscope zoom optics, which is why the Xiaomi 13 Ultra will continue to bear weight until the arrival of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra in mid-2024. The situation is inverted for aficionados of the front camera: thanks to the 4K/60 option on the Xiaomi 14 Pro, selfie images and selfie movies in particular appear substantially better than on the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, as Ben demonstrates in his hands-on.
Xiaomi 14 Pro vs Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
Last but not least, the stepless variable aperture and HyperOS are also themes in the hands-on video above, while the vlog below is mostly on the comparison with Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Max, which naturally has benefits with its 5x zoom camera. The photo samples provided by the tester also reveal that the main cameras are at a similar level otherwise. Apple's results tend to look more colorful, while Xiaomi's are brighter and sometimes crisper. In the case of cats, the iPhone seems to focus more on the fur than the face. When it comes to video, Apple conventional advantages come to the fore, such as rapid zooming.
Xiaomi 14 Pro vs Xiaomi 13 Pro
The YouTube video below is in Chinese, but from the 2nd minutes it presents a detailed camera comparison with the Xiaomi 13 Pro, which is important and clear without knowledge of the language. This also reveals that the main camera of the Xiaomi 14 Pro can comfortably compete with that of the Xiaomi 13 Pro, implying that Xiaomi has effectively avoided a theoretical degradation. Moreover, the Xiaomi 13 Pro's successor is far better at snapping portraits during the day and at night, as the screenshots below indicate.
