Pixel 8 Pro vs Xiaomi 14 Ultra: An undisputed but unexpected winner
Xiaomi launched its latest Android flagship Xiaomi 14 Ultra earlier this year. It is a feature-packed smartphone with arguably the best camera smartphone. There are a lot of good things to talk about and as one would expect, it also becomes a subject for comparison with other flagships.
This is the reason we will compare the Xiaomi 14 Ultra against one of the most popular Android flagships Google Pixel 8 Pro. Without any further delay, let’s get started.
Design and Display
The Pixel 8 Pro has a flat display design which is a shift from predecessor’s curved display. It has a centered punch-hole and minimal bezels. The back panel has a visor-style rear camera bar which has become a Pixel identity. There are three camera sensors along with LED flash. You get Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection on both the front and the back.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a huge round camera module that makes it stand apart. It has four rear cameras and LED flash along with Leica branding. The phone has a curved display and corners on all four sides. You get an aluminum frame along with glass.
The Pixel 8 Pro sports a 6.7-inch Quad HD+ (1344 x 2992 pixels) LTPO OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. It has a 2,400 nits peak brightness, HDR10+, and Always On Display support.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a 6.73-inch Quad HD+ LTPO AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate. There is Shield Glass protection and 3,000 nits peak brightness. It has a punch-hole cutout in the center for the front camera.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is a better choice if you are looking for a unique design, curved display, and brighter panel.
Performance
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. It is a 3nm flagship chipset with eight CPU cores and Adreno 750 GPU. You get 12GB and 16GB RAM options along with up to 1TB UFS 4.0 storage options.
Google has powered the Pixel 8 Pro with its in-house Tesor G3 processor. It is also a 4nm octa-core chipset and has Immortalis-G715s MC10 GPU. Google emphasized its AI task-handling capabilities over raw performance.
Go with Xiaomi 14 Ultra if you prefer raw performance over AI magic but even if you pick Pixel 8 Pro, you will have no regrets.
Cameras
The Pixel 8 Pro also has a triple camera setup but it offers a 50MP wide-angle sensor, a 48MP telephoto sensor with 5x optical zoom, and a 48MP ultra-wide sensor. All three cameras offer PDAF but only the first two have OIS.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a quad-camera setup featuring a 50MP wide-angle sensor (1-inch-type Sony LYT-900), a 50MP telephoto sensor with 3.2x optical zoom, a 50MP periscope telephoto sensor with 5x optical zoom, and a 50MP ultra-wide sensor. You get PDAF across all cameras but miss out on OIS with the fourth sensor. There is Leica tuning that boosts the overall camera performance.
There is no doubt Pixel offers one of the best smartphone photography experiences but Xiaomi has hit it out of the park with Xiaomi 14 Ultra. Its camera not only offers exceptional performance but also more diversity.
Software
The Pixel 8 Pro boots Android 14 out of the box. It has a clean and minimal UI and UX that you expect from a Pixel smartphone. You also get Pixel Experience, thanks to a bunch of exclusive software-based features that you get only on a Pixel smartphone. And yes, Google has promised seven years of updates for the smartphone.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra ships with HyperOS based on Android 14. It is the new custom Android skin seen as an evolution of the well-known MIUI. It is smoother, more fluidic, and well-optimized than before. It will receive four major OS upgrades and five years of security patches.
Battery
The Pixel 8 Pro packs a 5,050mAh battery which is slightly smaller. It further offers only 30W wired fast charging (50% charging within 30 minutes) and 23W wireless charging.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra also has a 5,000mAh battery but with a faster charging speed. It offers 90W wired fast charging (100% in 33 minutes), 80W wireless charging, and 10W reverse wireless charging.
Verdict
If you are someone with no budget constraints, our pick for you would be the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. It is a phone that offers superior performance across all aspects. The only thing where it lags significantly behind the Pixel 8 Pro is the software support duration.
If you have budget constraints or prefer everything that the Google Pixel line is known to offer, the Pixel 8 Pro becomes a no-brainer choice.