The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is here with support for satellite comms and more

With the Mobile World Congress event set to kick off next week, there are sure to be plenty of announcements for us to sink our teeth into, but we don't have to wait that long to learn what the folks at Xiaomi have been working on. The Xiaomi 14 Pro has been unveiled already, and it has some cool features to go with it including impressive satellite caopabilities and new cameras.

The new phone hasn't been officially unveiled for a global launch, however, so all we have to go on is the Chinese launch right now. But with the aforementioned MWC around the corner, we can expect more details of a global nature to be shared then.

2

We still know the board strokes, at least. They begin with a new second-gen Sony 1-inch camera sensor with a variable aperture of up to f/1.63. The 120mm periscope camera also now has a faster f/2.5 aperture when compared to the previous Xiaomi models, but there are new AI smarts that promise to bring large model computational photography improvements.

On the hardware side, the story includes a 5,300mAh battery and support for 90W wired and 80W wireless fast charging which is pretty incredible. Wirelessly charging a phone to 50% battery capacity in just 20 minutes will help with many a top-up charge.

Other notable features include a 6.73-inch AMOLED display with a 3,200 x 1,440 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. Qualcomm's latest snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip is used, while options with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage are available.

The most interesting feature is the new satellite capability that allows for two-way calling and texting which is impressive and much more than Apple's iPhones can sport. However, the feature is most likely to be limited to Chinese buyers for now, so don't go getting lost in the wilderness anywhere else.

Chinese buyers will be able to pick up the new phone from February 27, but again, we're still waiting on global availability and pricing. The high-end model costs around $1,080 when converted to USD, but that isn't always the best idea when trying to figure out what a new phone will cost. Those who want to pay even more can pay an extra $140 to get the best configuration with a dark gray vegan leather finish, but that won't go on sale until much later - March 12, to be precise.

For now, the rest of the world waits to see what MWC has to offer and we can imagine it's going to start with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. And it'll seemingly be worth the wait.