Xiaomi 15 Ultra Launches Globally
The successor to last year’s mobile photography champion has just been launched globally. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is all about its camera layout, almost like it’s hell-bent on replacing your old mirrorless or DSLR completely. Of course, it’s got our year-on-year upgrades on chipset, thermals, and battery life on top of all this.
In this case though, the camera is definitely the star of the show. So how does the Xiaomi Ultra 15 fare in this department?
A New Mobile Camera Champion?
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra improves upon an already amazing multifaceted camera array found on the previous Xiaomi 14 and 14 Ultra. It’s designed in partnership with Leica, giving you a 50MP main camera, a 50MP telephoto camera, a 50MP ultrawide and the highlight of the show: a 200MP periscope telephoto lens, which uses the ISOCELL HP9 sensor.
Do note that it does lose the variable aperture of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. Instead, there’s a new glass filter for diffusing reflections, helping you achieve clear shots throughout.
Apart from the hardware, the cameras will also feature a UIS Xiaomi-developed video anti-shake system, ensuring stable shots across a wide variety of conditions. It also features 8K video support, and even Android’s first ACES LOG-movie level video, which improves your photo’s dynamic range and color quality.
Audio hasn’t been forgotten in this regard too, thanks to the 4-mic array, delivering more immersive recordings, giving you the option of omni-directional, forward, rear, and trajectory recording modes.
It’s still quite early into the year but unless other manufacturers come up with something for their camera refreshes, we may just be looking at this year’s phone photography champion, with its ability to go head-to-head even with dedicated cameras.
Joining the Elite Club
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a 2025 flagship and as such, it’s no surprise that the Snapdragon 8 Elite makes its way into this handset.
It runs HyperOS 2.0 with Xiaomi promising 4 future OS releases for the phone as well as 6 years of security patches. It’s a more polished experience compared to the first HyperOS now but things should still be roughly the same.
There’s AI features too, even if they didn’t take center stage like the camera did. There’s your usual Google Gemini features such as Circle-to-Search and Image Generation, but there’s also Xiaomi’s own in-house AI, which contains most of your writing tools.
Battery life and efficiency is fine though only marginally better than the 14 Ultra. Strangely, the Global version of the phone only packs a 5,410mAh battery; a bit lower than the full 6,000mAh cell found in the China model of the phone. It is compatible with up to 90W of fast charging though, if you need to top up in a jiffy. No charger included unfortunately.
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Divisive Design?
One aspect that most fans seem to be mixed on is the design. Like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, the 15 Ultra goes for a look that makes it resemble a traditional camera look. This is even more apparent with the main “Hero” colorway, with the glass silver strip and faux-leather black.
For those who aren’t fans of the two-tone look, there is a satin black option and a wavy white variant with a silver frame. No faux leather for these ones though; both of them sport glass-fiber backing instead.
This is also quite a big phone. It’s got a 6.7-inch LTPO AMOLED which looks gorgeous by the way and it’s compatible with Dolby Vision and offers HDR10+ and vivid HDR. It’s got 120Hz refresh rate as well, making it feel very fast and responsive, especially on fast-paced games.
A Competent Photography Package
Smartphone cameras may feel like they're only getting incremental improvements nowadays so it’s very interesting whenever a big leap is made such as with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. The bigger sensor should be well-positioned to make full use of that 200MP capability, giving you more lifelike details.
How about it? Are you interested in this mobile photography powerhouse? We’ll definitely keep an out for these and the much smaller Xiaomi 15. In the meantime, you can catch the latest deals on our older generation Xiaomi 14T Pro, which nonetheless offers great camera capabilities at a slightly lower price point.
And if you just need an affordable phone to take great photos and provide smooth day-to-day use across your games and apps, then check out the Redmi Note 14 as well, available for under PHP 10K!
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