Xiaomi 14 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 15 Pro: Leica color science and the 1-inch sensor make the iPhone 15 Pro a champion for photography, but not night video

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is It turns out to be a fairly popular smartphone Among photography enthusiasts, and for good reason. It has all the trappings of a high-end smartphone, but the specs and the reality are often two very different things.

Daniel Sen, on YouTube, recently posted the Xiaomi 14 Ultra (for now $1,528.61 at TradingShenzen) to iPhone 15 Pro Apple (Starting at $899.99 at Best Buy) in a side-by-side camera comparison (which you can see below the text of the article), revealing that the two smartphones have very different approaches to scene rendering. While the Xiaomi managed to outperform the iPhone in all photography tests, delivering more accurate colors with greater accuracy and with less aggressive post-processing, video performance leaves a lot to be desired, especially in low-light conditions.

In the different scenes that Sen shot with the iPhone 15 Pro and Xiaomi 14 Ultra, it is clear that Xiaomi wins, especially when the lighting is not ideal. Colors are generally more true to life, as Sen himself noted, and details are more clearly defined without being overemphasized.

Daylight video sampling with the wide and ultra-wide lenses achieves similar results, with the Xiaomi producing sharp clips, with image stabilization far superior to the iPhone 15 Pro – an area where Android phones are generally less capable than Apple's iPhones.

In both photos and videos, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra produces very nice natural background blur thanks to the 1-inch sensor, but this also has a drawback when it comes to knowing which part of the image to focus on.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that Sin has tested the Xioami 14 Ultra's variable aperture, which has been upgraded to Progressive starting in 2024. In theory, the variable aperture could help the phone Produce smoother and more natural videos By keeping the shutter speed constant rather than changing it depending on the lighting conditions.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra's biggest flaw appears at the end of the video comparison, when Sin tests its low-light video capabilities. While the Xiaomi 14 Ultra's image is sharper than that of the iPhone 15 Pro, Xiaomi's image stabilization fails to adequately smooth out walking movements. While the iPhone is quite smooth, with only a few small vibrations, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra's image regularly suffers from shakes, when it fails to dampen a sudden step or hand movement.