When it comes to performance, method and approach matter.

In 2020, Redmi launched the K30 Ultimate Commemorative Edition, which marked the beginning of the "Ultimate Edition" series. It not only boasted outstanding performance but also elevated the series to new heights in terms of screen, speakers, camera, and design. Many Xiaomi fans hailed the K30 Ultimate Commemorative Edition as a "comprehensive flagship".

Over the past four years, Redmi has spun off from Xiaomi's main brand and entered the mobile phone market with the "new" image of Redmi. However, the only thing that hasn't changed is that the Ultimate Edition of the K series has been retained and continuously evolved to better meet the higher aspirations of Xiaomi fans. Coincidentally, I got my hands on the newly released Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition and, after a period of experience, have gained a new understanding of this so-called "comprehensive flagship".

In terms of design, Redmi has truly embraced a minimalist approach this time

When I first held the K70 Pro, I felt that the new design brought a more premium visual effect to Redmi, with a metal frame and a pure flat screen without a plastic bracket, which was both simple and elegant. The K70 Ultimate Edition continues most of the design of the K70 Pro and optimizes the camera module Deco and the texture of the back glass, achieving significant improvements in both visual and tactile senses.

Upon disassembling the Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition, I was immediately attracted by the camera module Deco. According to the official description, the inspiration for this generation's Ultimate Edition camera module design comes from the portholes on spaceships. The Deco line is divided into two parts, with the upper and lower sides offering different visual experiences under different lighting conditions. The right side still bears the inscriptions "50MP OIS" and "AI Camera", and whether it looks good or not is a matter of personal opinion.

(Source: LeiTech Photography)

The color scheme I received is still "Ink Feather", which features a fine matte finish. Both the back glass and the metal frame have undergone the same treatment, meaning there's no obvious sense of separation when holding it. Of course, to maintain a comfortable grip, Redmi, like other models with right-angle frames, has made a rounded transition from the back glass to the frame. However, the transition area of the K70 Ultimate Edition is very small, making the frame less abrupt.

Another interesting design is the special striped design adopted on the power button of the Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition. The etching is very deep, making it easy to distinguish between the power button and the volume buttons just by touch. The benefit of this design is that it adds a finishing touch to the already minimalist frame, as the deep fine matte black can indeed be a bit dull.

(Source: LeiTech Photography)

In terms of display, the Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition features a 6.67-inch 1.5K resolution 8T LTPS panel with a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz and a full-screen peak brightness of 1600 nits. Notably, the K70 Ultimate Edition is the first to adopt FIAA screen wiring technology, reducing the lower bezel to 1.9mm. Although it doesn't quite achieve true four-sided narrow bezels in terms of specifications, it looks harmonious to the naked eye.

This screen also offers Tsingshan Eye Protection Technology, upgraded to industry-leading 3840Hz ultra-high-frequency PWM dimming, using DC dimming at high brightness levels to reduce the harm of blue light/flicker to the eyes.

(Source: LeiTech Photography)

In terms of peripheral configuration, the Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition is equipped with a 0809 X-axis linear motor, supports IP68 dust and water resistance, 1014+1216 stereo speakers, and short-focus under-screen fingerprint recognition.

Overall, the Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition has made many design subtractions, making the entire phone almost devoid of redundant textures except for the power button, earning full marks for visual effects. In terms of screen and body material selection, it also respects the development path of the Ultimate Edition aiming to become a "versatile flagship", with metal frames, matte glass backplates, and other features that are difficult for competitors at the same price point to fully cover.

Dual-Chip Flagship: How Does It Perform?

Redmi's K series Ultimate Edition has always maintained in-depth cooperation with MediaTek's Dimensity, and the K70 Ultimate Edition naturally packs the most powerful SoC of the current Dimensity series—the Dimensity 9300+.

Compared to the Dimensity 9300, the most significant upgrade of the Dimensity 9300+ is in clock frequency, which has been increased from 3.25GHz to 3.4GHz, making it the highest-frequency mobile chip in the current Android camp. Considering that performance has always been the top priority of the Ultimate Edition, the actual performance of the K70 Ultimate Edition is quite anticipated.

In terms of benchmark scores, the K70 Ultimate Edition scored 2.2 million on AnTuTu and 2199 in single-core and 7355 in multi-core on GeekBench6, ranking among the first tier in the Android camp. Notably, although the benchmark scores of the K70 Ultimate Edition are not overwhelming, its temperature control is quite impressive, with no overheating even during 20 cycles of the 3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test.

(Source: LeiTech Photography)

This is largely thanks to the all-new Iceberg Cooling System first introduced in the Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition. The upgraded circulating cold pump, combined with simulation calculations, designs 3D convex and concave platforms of varying thicknesses at the corresponding SoC locations. The convex platforms penetrate the metal midplate to directly touch the SoC heat source area, minimizing the heat conduction path. This might explain why the Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition remained only warm during the testing process.

In addition, the K70 Ultimate Edition covers a large area of high thermal flux graphite on the back of the screen and the surface of the frame, which improves thermal conductivity by 15% compared to the previous generation's conventional graphite material. In actual tests, this cooling solution indeed brought impressive performance release to the K70 Ultimate Edition and maintained peak performance for a sufficiently long time.

(Source: LeiTech Illustration)

Since we're talking about a "dual-chip flagship", we can't ignore the all-new custom "Furious Gaming Independent Display Chip D1" in the Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition, which has been upgraded to a 12nm process. The main role of the "Furious Gaming Independent Display Chip D1" is to handle enhancement and optimization of audio and video, as well as games, while reducing SoC resource occupation during the process, enabling better performance in high-load scenarios.

In addition to performance, the Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition is equipped with a large 5500mAh battery and 120W fast charging, featuring the self-developed fast charging chip P2 and power management chip G1. In actual tests, it retained 64% of battery life after 4 hours of general usage, which is quite impressive.

(Source: LeiTech Illustration)

In terms of fast charging, the 120W Super Fast Charging can charge the phone from 0% to 100% in less than half an hour even in Turbo mode, which is not slow.

(Source: LeiTech Illustration)

After actual use, the gaming performance of the Redmi K70 Ultimate Edition is quite robust. Its exclusive 1.5K+120FPS full-frame optimization for "Genshin Impact" allows players to maintain a smooth gaming experience. Of course, the paper specifications of the Redmi Ultimate Edition series have always been "overwhelmingly strong", and we'll take a closer look at the actual performance of the K70 Ultimate Edition in the gaming section.

Gaming Test: "Genshin Impact" Performance Maxed Out

For the gaming test, we chose several popular games, including entry-level titles like "Honor of Kings" and "League of Legends: Wild Rift", mid-range titles like "Peak Speed", and the king of mobile games, "Genshin Impact".

To be honest, as a nationwide game, "Honor of Kings" is already optimized quite well by various manufacturers, and it's rare for any device to struggle with it. Indeed, the K70 Ultimate Edition showed almost no frame rate fluctuations during the 1-hour "Honor of Kings" test, with average frame rate fluctuations of only 2 to 3 frames even during 5v5 team fights.

(Source: LeiTech Photography)

However, perhaps due to optimization issues with the new version of the "Honor of Kings" lobby (Ji Xia Academy), the K70 Ultimate Edition experienced slight stuttering when initially loading into the game, but it returned to normal after the resources were loaded.

As a racing game, "Peak Speed" is quite demanding on mobile phone performance scheduling, and the K70 Ultimate Edition maintained a good frame rate during gameplay, even in high frame rate mode. The latest generation of 3D Iceberg Circulating Cold Pump in the K70 Ultimate Edition improves heat dissipation efficiency, and the phone quickly reaches a warm state when entering high-performance demand scenarios. However, there are no relatively concentrated heat sources throughout the phone, allowing it to maintain this warm state for a sufficiently long time.

In actual experience, the K70 Ultimate Edition did not experience frequency reduction after completing the daily 5-race ranking tasks in "Peak Speed". The heat was evenly distributed from the back to the frame, and it didn't feel hot to the touch. Of course, the black body of the Ink Feather color scheme I used this time is more prone to exceeding safe temperatures in outdoor summer environments. It is recommended that users play games indoors for a more stable experience.

Its overall optimization level is quite high. We tested both modes with and without ultra-frame enabled, comparing various scenarios such as running and fighting monsters.

(Source: LeiTech Photography)

With ultra-frame mode enabled, the rendering frame rate of the K70 Ultimate Edition was around 48FPS, and after triple frame interpolation, the actual game frame rate was around 144FPS. During the 20-minute test, the frame rate was initially affected by misoperations returning to the desktop and switching apps, but it stabilized after about 4 minutes when entering the running and fighting monster stages, with minimal fluctuations until the end.

If ultra-frame mode is not enabled, the K70 Ultimate Edition can maintain 60FPS during the 20-minute test, with almost no noticeable stuttering or frame drops except for some fluctuations during NPC dialogues.

(Source: LeiTech Illustration)

Overall, with the Dimensity 9300+, the latest generation of 3D Iceberg Circulating Cold Pump, and Fury Engine 3.0, the K70 Ultimate Edition achieves performance that perfectly surpasses its predecessor, making it feel virtually stress-free in gaming scenarios. If I had to pick a flaw, I would hope that Redmi could make the prompt for the super resolution frame interpolation feature more obvious, as such a great feature shouldn't be hidden away.

System Experience: Dimensity + Mi Turbo OS, Smoother?

Xiaomi's Mi Turbo OS was released on December 27, 2023, initially featured on the Xiaomi 14 series based on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform. Although subsequent models with Dimensity SoCs have also premiered the system, they have not been flagship-level chips. Many users are curious about how the Dimensity 9300+ and Mi Turbo OS perform together.

Regarding whether the system has been castrated, my experience with the K70 Ultimate Edition shows that its system performance is basically the same as the latest version of Mi Turbo OS on the Xiaomi 14, with all the essential features intact. For example, the "Advanced Material" feature is perfectly preserved on the K70 Ultimate Edition, with consistent matte texture and animation effects based on this feature.

(Source: LeiTech Photography)

It is not difficult to see that as a performance flagship, the K70 Ultimate Edition's system is not only optimized for gaming but also targets flagship models at higher price points, resulting in noticeable improvements in fluency and system animations.

The main controversy surrounding Mi Turbo OS is still about its fluency. During the few days I used the K70 Ultimate Edition as my main phone, I did not encounter any issues such as "application not responding," and there was no stuttering or frame drops when switching between apps. Regarding background retention capabilities, I tested 16 applications with two rounds of hot starts and did not find any issues with applications being killed. It can only be said that while Mi Turbo OS may have had some shortcomings in its early stages, with continuous version updates, there are now no issues with fluency.

(Source: LeiTech Illustration)

Mi Turbo OS also has many commendable aspects, such as sensor permission restrictions, which can prevent certain apps from using the acceleration sensor to avoid unintentional jumps to shopping platforms or advertising apps. The Portal feature is also quite innovative and practical for cross-information transfer.

Overall, the performance of the K70 Supreme Edition coupled with the Pengpai OS is commendable in terms of smoothness. The system does not have any noticeable bugs, and the ability to retain applications has significantly improved, with optimizations well-executed in many details.

Imaging: New Upgrade to Xiaomi Imaging Brain

This year, apart from focusing on performance and durability, another significant aspect of the mid-range smartphone market is imaging. Although considering price and positioning, these models often do not feature very luxurious imaging configurations, the algorithms derived from flagship-level technology are quite beneficial.

Indeed, this generation of the K70 Supreme Edition’s imaging solution is deeply empowered by Xiaomi AISP, bringing optimizations and enhancements in several areas such as high-speed photography, textured portraits, tonal texture, and low-light photography. In terms of hardware, the K70 Supreme Edition is equipped with a triple-camera setup. The main camera uses the IMX906 sensor with a single pixel size of 1.0μm and a sensor size of 1/1.56 inches. The secondary cameras include an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens and a 2-megapixel macro lens.

Thanks to the Xiaomi Imaging Brain, the K70 Supreme Edition also benefits from 2X zoom generated through pixel cropping, providing an effective focal length of 46mm, which offers a significant advantage in portrait photography.

Without further ado, let's proceed to the actual testing phase.

In daylight conditions, the K70 Supreme Edition’s imaging is very stable, accurately reproducing the morning blue skies, white clouds, and roadside green grass. The built-in filters include "Natural" and "Vivid" options, which, when used in certain scenes, give the photos a Leica-like style.

The imaging performance in 2X mode is also quite good. Although 46mm is not considered a long focal length, for many users, the nearly 50mm focal range makes it easier to capture desired photos.

Considering that the K70 Supreme Edition employs Xiaomi AISP, I am also curious about its performance under digital zoom. As observed, at the 115mm focal length (5X), the K70 Supreme Edition is still able to retain considerable wall details, with blurring only starting to appear at the 230mm focal length. Thus, it seems the focal range from 23mm to 115mm on the K70 Supreme Edition is quite suitable for casual photography.

In automatic mode, the K70 Supreme Edition also supports EV adjustment, allowing us to manually adjust EV exposure to match the current environment.

Although the Redmi K70 Supreme Edition's hardware may not be as impressive as we initially imagined, the new Xiaomi Imaging Brain still suffices for everyday casual photography. Additionally, a hallmark of Redmi is its down-to-earth application of film filters. We can choose suitable filters from the options to assist with imaging. For instance, selecting the "Forest Green" filter for photographing plants yields quite good results.

In its price range, the imaging quality of the Redmi K70 Supreme Edition is quite commendable, offering many interesting modes and filters. With the addition of EV adjustment, its professional capabilities have slightly improved, making this imaging setup particularly suitable for users who do not have high demands for long focal lengths.

Redmi K70 Supreme Edition: A Balanced Flagship that Prioritizes Performance

When mentioning the "Supreme Edition," many who are not familiar with Redmi might still think of it as solely performance-oriented. However, Redmi has long positioned this series as a balanced flagship phone that excels in performance but is not limited to it. For example, the Redmi K70 Supreme Edition, powered by the Dimensity 9300+ and the latest 3D Ice Seal Circulation Pump system, delivers outstanding performance. However, it also features a metal frame, high-quality eye protection screen, and IP68 dust and water resistance, leaving no peripheral features overlooked. This makes it a sufficiently balanced flagship device.

To summarize briefly:

Advantages:

1. Aggressive performance release and excellent gaming performance.

2. IP68 dust and water resistance.

3. Flagship-level imaging algorithms.

Disadvantages:

1. Short focal fingerprint sensor.

2. Lack of wireless charging.

After experiencing it, I believe the Redmi K70 Supreme Edition is one of the most outstanding all-around flagships of the year. It has its highlights in performance, design, imaging, and screen quality, while essential features demanded by general consumers, such as full-feature NFC and IP68 dust and water resistance, are not missing. If you are looking for a balanced phone that provides an excellent gaming experience and covers all daily usage scenarios, then the Redmi K70 Supreme Edition might be a good choice.