Xiaomi launches 14 Series flagship phones with focus on camera, AI

Xiaomi (OTCPK:XIACY) (OTCPK:XIACF) on Sunday launched its new AI-boosted, photography-focused 14 Series flagship smartphones and other devices for the international markets.

The Chinese company unveiled the Xiaomi 14 and 14 Ultra devices — which expands its collaboration with German camera-maker Leica — in Barcelona, ahead of the Mobile World Congress in the city.

Xiaomi said that the 14 Ultra has a professional quad-camera configuration, and uses an ultra-large 1-inch LYT-900 image sensor, developed by Sony Group (SONY).

The flagship has a Xiaomi-custom C8 WQHD+ 6.73″ AMOLED display, additionally featuring a WQHD+ (3200 x 1440) resolution, variable 1-120Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 3000 nits.

Meanwhile, the compact version, Xiaomi 14, features a triple-camera configuration. Both these models are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform.

The 14 Series has AI technology enabled by Xiaomi HyperOS. Large AI models are integrated into various applications, including a tool for real-time transcription of spoken content during video conferences, and another through which users can locate specific images within their photo collections by describing what they are looking for.

The company also introduced Xiaomi 14 Ultra Photography Kit, which is separately available for buying.

In addition, Xiaomi introduced Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro 12.4, Xiaomi Watch S3, Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro, and Xiaomi Watch 2 will soon be made available to users.

Xiaomi competes with the smartphone arena which includes tech giants Apple (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics (OTCPK:SSNLF).

Apple (AAPL) took the top spot in the global smartphone market for the first time in 2023 with 229.2M smartphone shipments, followed by Samsung with 225.5M and Xiaomi coming in third with 146.1M, according to research firm Canalys.

In the Southeast Asian smartphone market, Samsung took the first spot for 2023 with 18.2M shipments, followed by Oppo with 14.9M and Xiaomi with 12.3M units, as per a separate report from Canalys. Chinese peer TRANSSION came in fourth with 11M units shipped.