Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Vs Xiaomi 14 Ultra Camera Shootout

Samsung’s Ultra line has been the undisputed mobile camera hardware leader in much of the western world for the past half decade. But in Asia, and in some chunks of Europe, Xiaomi’s own Ultra line has been making its claim as the one true king. This year, Xiaomi’s 14 Ultra has four rear-facing cameras, including two zoom lenses just like Samsung’s, but it has a main camera that has a larger sensor and a faster aperture. But Samsung has also made some clear software improvements to the camera’s processing this time around, so the battle isn’t entirely hardware-driven. Which camera is a better performer? Let’s find out.

Camera hardware overview

Despite the slew of flagships on the market, very few phones actually have two zoom lenses the way Samsung and Xiaomi do. And with Samsung swapping its previous 10X zoom lens for a 5X zoom, the focal range between these two phones are nearly identical, though Xiaomi’s lenses have a slightly wider reach by a few mm (for example, Samsung’s 3X zoom is 67mm to Xiaomi’s 75mm).

We can see that going by conventional camera specs, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s lenses are better across the board. Xiaomi’s cameras have faster aperture in every instance, and a larger sensor size in the main and 3X zoom. Xiaomi is also using newer sensors, and its main camera is barely a year old. It’s quite a one-sided comparison when looking purely in terms of hardware.

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Main camera

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (left) and Xiaomi 14 Ultra (right)

I’ve snapped over a thousand photos with both of these phones (I’ve been using them heavily even before this article) and I am very familiar with the traits of these two cameras. Xiaomi’s main camera, which has a larger sensor and faster aperture, can take in more light, resulting in more detailed photos that are slightly sharper and less noisy when zoomed in. The noise issue with the S24 Ultra is not bad at all, and in most daytime shots it is not even a factor. But if you do take low light photos, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra shots always look less noisy and grainy once you crop in. But Samsung’s color and exposure are more consistent. I find the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s main camera to sometimes overexpose.

For example, in the two shots below (S24 Ultra shot on the left, Xiaomi 14 Ultra on the right), in one set, the Xiaomi shot is noticeably brighter, and slightly overexposed than the Samsung shot. In the second shot, however, the Xiaomi image has deeper shadows and a more “darker” vibe. I snapped all of these images in auto mode, without making any adjustments.

You may also notice that the Xiaomi 14 Ultra images have stronger depth-of-field too, another trait of the larger sensor and faster aperture. Zooming into 100% crops, we can see the Samsung images have slightly more noise.

But as I said, the gap in noise isn’t that big during the day. For the most part, the S24 Ultra shots are perfectly fine. And being the more consistent camera in terms of exposure, may even “win” this first category. Moving to low light situations, however, the larger sensor and faster aperture matter more.

One complaint many of us reviewers have had with Samsung Galaxy flagships is that their camera has a slow shutter, resulting in subjects being blurry. This problem is mostly noticeable at night because Samsung, in an effort to bring in more light, defaults to shooting with a slow shutter speed. In the images below, you can see the Xiaomi 14 Ultra was able to capture the motorcyclist in still motion, while he’s a blur in the S24 Ultra image.

If you zoom in to pixel peep, both images look close in quality, with the Samsung image marginally noisier. The gap isn’t too big here because there are still plenty of light sources in this low-light photo.

S24 Ultra (left); Xiaomi 14 Ultra (right)

If we move to an actually dark scene without much light, then we can see the S24 Ultra image is much noisier and grainier. Notice the building on the left.

I would say for the main camera, I actually prefer the S24 Ultra camera during the day because of the more consistent color science and exposure, but in low light I prefer the Xiaomi. Also, keep in mind that all of this is purely in auto mode. If I actually make adjustments or play with camera settings, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra also allows more options there with the variable aperture and more light intake ability.

Zoom lenses

Both phones have a 3X telephoto lens and a 5X periscope zoom lens. Let’s take a look at the shorter 3X telephoto lens first. Spoiler alert: this is a one-sided beatdown.

S24 Ultra (left); Xiaomi 14 Ultra (right)

Look at the difference in bokeh between the Samsung image on the left and Xiaomi image on the right. If we zoom in? The difference in details is very jarring.

This result was not surprising to me at all, because the 3X telephoto lens is, in my opinion, Xiaomi’s strongest lens, while the S24 Ultra’s 3X telephoto uses a years-old sensor, unchanged since the S21 Ultra. It is likely the weakest link in the S24 Ultra camera.

The good news for Samsung is that things are much closer in the 5X (and beyond) battle. The S24 Ultra’s new 5X lens is a 50MP sensor (a big upgrade from the previous 10MP), and it actually does not lose the sensor size battle to Xiaomi here. But Xiaomi’s phone still has a faster aperture.

In the above set, both phones keep it very close in this shot in terms of exposure and sharpness. If we zoom in and pixel peep, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra shots are still cleaner, with less noise, but the difference is minor as opposed to the easy winner in the 3X comparison.

In low light 5X shots or 10X and 30X shots, Samsung’s shot is softer and noisier as usual, but again, it’s not too big of a difference.

I know I am beating a dead horse at this point, but once again, the larger sensor and faster aperture really matter when it comes to image quality. With the 3X lens where the gap in hardware is wide, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra shots were significantly better. In the 5X periscope zoom category, in which there’s more parity in hardware, the image quality gap closes.

Ultra-wide and selfie

For ultra-wide shots and selfies, I’m not going to nitpick too much, because the point of an ultra-wide lens is to capture sweeping images, and pixel peeping specific portions of the shot is a bit of a pointless exercise. And selfies are, well, just selfies, and the front-facing camera is always the weakest lens of the bunch. Still, if you really need to nitpick, yes, once again, Samsung’s image is noisier.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs Xiaomi 14 Ultra: Which camera is better?

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is an excellent all-around phone. In fact, I have called it the most feature-packed phone, and that still holds true today. But when it comes to purely talking about the camera system and the images and videos, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is better in just about every area. The silver lining is that the S24 Ultra’s main camera during the day can make the case that it is the more reliable camera. But otherwise, if I’m trying to capture a telephoto shot, an ultra-wide shot, or a 5X zoom, the Xiaomi camera just produces higher quality images. For Samsung to overcome such drastic hardware differences, it would need to have significantly better software processing, and in 2024, no one phone brand has such a software lead over the other – not even Google. Camera hardware matters.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

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The Galaxy S24 Ultra does not have the absolute best camera system in smartphones right now. But its cameras are still very good, and the rest of the phone is still one of the most feature-packed packages around.

SoC

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy

Display

6.8-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz refresh rate, 501 PPI, 2,600 nits peak brightness

RAM

12GB

Storage

256GB, 512GB, 1TB

Micro SD card support

No

Rear camera

200MP main (f/1.7), 12MP ultrawide (f/2.2), 10MP telephoto (f/2.4), 50MP periscope telephoto (f/3.4)

Front camera

12MP wide (f/2.2)

Battery

5,000mAh

Charge speed

45W wired, 15W wireless, 4.5W reverse wireless

Connectivity

5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6E/7, Bluetooth 5.3

Dimensions

6.39×3.11×0.34 inches (162.3x79x8.6mm)

Weight

8.22 ounces

IP Rating

IP68

Colors

Titanium Black, Titanium Gray, Titanium Violet, Titanium Yellow

Operating System

Android 14, One UI 6.1

Price

Starting at $1,299

Stylus

S Pen included

Security

Ultrasonic fingerprint reader