Intro:
This is Xiaomi's brand new 14 Ultra and after almost 14 years of Xiaomi phones having the same old mew software this is where they reinvent themselves the phone spec sheet is absolutely jacked it's got new AI features some of them genuinely mind-blowing it's got.
Their Next Gen hyper OS operating system, and it's arguably also the most Decked Out camera system on the planet so in the 2024 smartphone market how does Xiaomi's best compare to Samsung's best the phone that I've been using every day since launch the Galaxy S 24 Ultra well for starters the unboxing experience is just leagues ahead for three reasons.
So we got an insert on top which has the Sim ejector tool but more importantly on a frosted plastic hard shell case it's nothing fancy, but it's functional assuming that you're going to buy a decent quality case for your phone online anyway then it's a $20 saving and ironically better for the environment you got the phone obviously and a cable like every phone comes with.
But this also has number two a 90 W charging that's two times the maximum power that Samsung is able to charge with, and the final thing is well when you peel the phone you will also notice a pre-installed screen protector which as with the Chargers Samsung does not come with I mean don't get me wrong screen protectors extremely cheap but the main benefit from it being pre-installed is that let's be honest.
The company are going to do a better job than we are, and we're not actually done, yet there's a whole separate photography kit which is this pretty Indus package containing a nicer looking textured case this one is leather with a specific coating that highly resists bacteria and dirt it's got a mount that allows you to attach physical filters and that also looks like a slot for a lanyard it's all a bit excessive for most people.
But I can't deny it's cool like these two are just decorative camera rings to style your weird phone camera hybrid as you please and then this is a grip for that case which plugs into your USB port to give you proper Hardware camera controls as well as three very cool features which will get to and then oh.
There's the lanyard but even putting all this photography kit stuff aside because it is a separate purchase just the core package contents of the Xiaomi do wipe the floor with what the Samsung comes with so that's one point to no points but then as soon as I picked the Xiaomi up I started laughing don't get me wrong there is absolutely Merit to Xiaomi's design I really like these leather-like finishes it feels clean and drippy and hassle-free and also having a central symmetrical camera is nice and practical for using the thing on a flat surface.
However, these cameras have become so big, so deep and so weighty that it feels like they've started to invade the core phone experience to the point where most of the people I've handed this to it's the first thing they notice. And they are completely put off by it especially compared to the Samsung which is so great for bright-hued almost any position and still avoid the cameras to quote Joseph in my team.
Here it feels like you're holding a piece of tech stuck onto a piece of tech and while I can tolerate it you know I'm always someone who wants to make sure I'm using the best tech there is, and I'm willing to be a little bit uncomfortable to do so this right here is my issue this phone is so top-heavy I genuinely feel like I'm having to exert extra grip strength just to keep it in my hands.
You feel the urge every single time you pick it up to hold it higher up than usual to balance out that weight distribution, but you can't do that because the camera protrude so much and takes up half the phone and so you just end up with this continuous sense of dredge knowing that at any time one wrong hand over, and it's a Vista it gets in the way of wireless charging the camera lifts the phone up so high that in quite a few situations it no longer makes proper contact with the charger or the phone that you're trying to charge with it if you're reverse wireless charging I really needed this thing last week to save my dying Samsung while I was out traveling and about an hour into.
Difference:
Delicately fiddling with these two phones trying to perfectly match the coils to actually get charge from here to here while avoiding this massive camera module the size of the Moon I just wanted to chop the thing off also this bezel on the back I hate it clearly this whole thing on the top thick on the sides thing is a purposeful decision that Xia's made.
But I just don't understand why because to me, it just looks like they took this leather strip and misapplied it so pretty clear point for Samsung with the build and the usability which makes it 1-1 so far, but then you turn the phones over, and you'll see that Xiaomi's done something pretty unique with the screen a long-running complaint that I've had with their past phones is they've always had this.
Thicker bottom bezel and these weird bunny rabbit looking corners but in one phone they have fixed both of those things and taken it further they're calling this an all around liquid display which is indicative of well a how companies are running out of ways to describe glass and pixels but B how the panel kind of melts into the edges and the corners equally in all directions it's subtle.
But I think it's a really aesthetic effect it's kind of like how 10 years ago we used to sketch out what we'd imagine our future phones would look like, and it's definitely cooler than Samsung's flat display it's more unique, and it's more interesting, but that doesn't make it better both are top of their game in most aspects bright a high refresh rate that can fully adapt on the fly and ultra-high resolution, but I would actually side slightly with Samsung for this one because for gestures you have to use the very edges of the screen and that ends up being on the curve for Xiaomi so it doesn't register quite as reliably two that even though Samsung's Max brightness is technically rated lower in all the lighting conditions I've tested it in it.
Features:
Seems to be brighter brightness is a weird stat these days and then what SEALs it for me is this anti-reflective coating that Same slipped onto the S24 Ultra it is so good that you almost forget about the surrounding light and that makes your screen experience way more legible.
As if you had even higher brightness but without the extra battery drain that comes with that which leads us to a score of 1 2 now, but we all know that more and more every single year the battle for the best smartphone it's a software battle way more than it is a hardware battle so let's talk about that and because it's such a massive category now we're splitting it into three user interface software support and AI okay you might remember Xiaomi Mi it's the software skin they've had on every phone ever.
Since the company first started, but I'm guessing that since Mi's reputation was always fairly mid and potentially holding their hero flagship phones back they finally decided that it's time for a redo a new skin called hyper OS with a ton of new features new animations greater efficiency and built to work particularly well with other Xiaomi products.
So yeah we're talking about the First full software remake from a company whose entire Foundation was based on its software now that sounds awesome which is why I was slightly underwhelmed when I booted it up for the first time and realized well that just looks like my last Xiaomi phone and that's okay I've never hated the way that Xiaomi's OS looks.
But it is also far from my favorite right now it very much feels like it's trying to be iOS but just without the attention to detail or the consistency of iOS and I particularly do not appreciate the built-in adverts because you would almost assume given that hyper OS is meant to be Xiaomi's big Breakaway from Mini and its advert filled reputation that this would be the opposite their way to overcorrect and to make it right, but that does not appear to be the case like the mus have recommended apps that it shows you before you go to Xiaomi's App Store.
How it takes just one swipe from your lock screen, and you're in an ad it calls itself a wallpaper Carousel, but really it's an ad in Disguise because as soon as you click on anything you will be taken to a page with so many popups it genuinely makes you want to throw up even on the home screen One swipe, and you see news.
But it's news in like the worst possible way to consume news with two large banner ads on screen at any point in time and that's on top of the fact that you already have the Google News feed with which actually does take you to the sites that you want to go to oh, but the worst is the notifications why on Earth does the Mi browser need to specifically ping me to tell me.
Conclusion:
I need to see this random article again with about 40 adverts baked in now of course these are all easy to avoid and you can disable almost all instances of advertising in the phone so I don't think it's a reason to not buy it but I just don't like the feeling that clearly to Xiaomi I am as well as the customer I'm also the product that they can sell to their advertisers okay.
so that was my pretty bleak first impression of the software but the more I've used it the better it has got it for starters you realize that hyper OS is ultra lightweight like just for example Samsung's OS takes up around 17 GB of your data this is less than 10 and within that there is still a little bit of blow wear but the good news is you now have complete control.
over it basically anything on the phone is uninstallable the lock screen customization has now opened up and it not just allows you to instantly nail one type of look really well but like a whole Suite of very different Aesthetics with also room to add your own personal touches to them it reminds me of the kind of variation that would have previously required you to use third party apps and workarounds.
but it's built in and that makes it work so much smoother but it is still lacking on the lock screen widgets front they've cleaned up the control center when you swipe down just like iOS they've got rid of all the text that tells you what each icon is which means it takes a little bit of getting used to but once you're used to it it feels clean now you can fit more icons on screen and instead of swiping between Pages you just scroll down now there's new animations and the whole thing is really fluid I only really clocked this on like my third full day of using the phone but it was a sudden moment of realization of wait a sec have I had a single bit of lag in my entire experience no it feels reliably almost unbreakables do like you know even when
