Xiaomi 15 Ultra Review: The Ultimate Phone for Stunning Photography

These days, most smartphones rely on software smarts to make your photos look nice and tidy. But Xiaomi‘s Ultra series challenges this norm year-over-year by bringing the best camera hardware that fits inside a smartphone chassis. That’s what I felt when I held the Xiaomi 15 Ultra in my hands. But does this €1,499 uber flagship device have what it takes to replace your point and shoot camera? That’s what we’re going to talk about in this review of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra: Key Specifications

Before we move on to the review itself, let’s take a moment to check the full specifications of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

Specifications	Xiaomi 15 Ultra
Dimensions	161.3 x 75.3 x 9.48mm
Weight	229 grams
Processor	Snapdragon 8 Elite (3nm)
RAM + Storage	12GB LPDDR5X + up to 512GB UFS 4.1
Display	6.73-inch WQHD+ (3200 x 1440) LTPO AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, 12-bit, HDR 10+, Dolby Vision, Xiaomi Sheild Glass 2.0 protection
Rear Camera	50 MP main f/1.6 (1-inch sensor) + 200 MP  f/2.6 4.3x periscope + 50 MP f/1.8 3x telephoto + 50 MP f/2.2 ultrawide
Front Camera	32 MP Selfie
Video	Up to 8K at 30FPS or 4K at 120 FPS
Dual SIM	Yes; Supports eSIM
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC
Port	USB Type C 3.2 Gen 2
Battery	5410 mAh with 90-Watt wired charging
IP Rating	IP68
Software	HyperOS 2.0 Based on Android 15

A Love Letter to Camera Connoisseurs

I am not a professional photographer, and my experience with cameras comes only from reviewing smartphones over the years. So, I felt a bit overwhelmed when working with this smartphone’s photography chops.

This premium flagship houses a 50MP main camera, with a large 1.0-inch sensor. This comes alongside a 200MP telephoto camera and two other 50MP lenses. This setup is complemented by a variety of Leica features, like the Authentic and Vibrant presets. And, you can create your own Pro presets for different photography styles. There’s even a Leica portrait style option.

Even change the shutter sound to a mechanical Leica camera shutter. Or, replace the button with a photo of your choice. Xiaomi and Leica’s level of attention in the camera app itself goes quite deep. Something I am sure camera nerds will have a field day with, but let’s talk about photos.

500 Shots with Xiaomi 15 Ultra: A Photographic Journey

To truly appreciate the engineering marvel of this phone, I took it to capture the engineering achievements of the past century at Delhi’s National Railway Museum.

Starting with the main camera, you can see that the photos generally have a more contrasty look to them. The 1.0-inch sensor flexes its muscles, capturing jaw-dropping details, the likes of which I haven’t seen from a smartphone camera. Just look at the spots of rust around the steam engines and their internal workings.

The bigger sensor also helps you achieve that soft bokeh effect, adding a natural depth that we get to see in dedicated shooters. The HDR tuning by Xiaomi is also stellar. The dynamic range doesn’t brighten up the shadows, nor does it overexpose the highlights. Offering a very close to natural, minimally processed shot.

Given it was a spring Sunday, and the sunlight was giving both me and the 15 Ultra a tough time. While the camera preserves shadows in most situations, it overblows highlights against harsh lightning. As for the ultrawide, the 50MP sensor does a pretty good job all around. The bigger sensor allows for more details, and the color science is in tune with the main lens.

The FOV on the ultrawide isn’t quite as wide. But it still managed to capture the grand stature of this magnificent machinery. But the zoom is where the main highlight of this camera setup lies. Pushing into subjects, whether it is 3x, 4.3x, 10x, 30x, or even 60x, the phone gets you the kind of shot you want without compromising much on the details.

You can crank up the camera up to 120x, and if you have steady hands or are using a tripod pod, then you can get serviceable images. The AI kicks in at 30x to help fix blemishes, but you can choose to turn it off, which is a nice touch. As you can tell, the 200MP 4.3x lens is the one doing most of the heavy lifting. It churns out detailed results even at those zoom ranges. This trend continues at night. And, I feel the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is one of the best smartphones for nighttime photography.

Besides the hardware, I would also like to highlight some of the software stuff that stood out to me. First of all, the shutter speed is stunningly fast. It helped me get some of the more difficult shots of little pigeons hanging out at the ruins of Hauz Khas fort and a scared cat running away from me. Then there’s the filters, especially the Leica B&W high contrast one, which I used a lot.

Then there’s a 32MP selfie camera, which feels like the black sheep of the bunch. It does a fairly good job taking good selfies, portraits, and has decent edge detection. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it barely gets any of the comforts as the back array.

Jumping onto videos, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra can record at up to 8K 30FPS from all lenses individually, which means you can’t switch between them. Or you can shoot at 4K 60 FPS and scroll through all of them for better clarity at longer focal lengths. It can record in Dolby Vision and the LOG format for those professional videographers. Not to forget the ultra-slo-mo 1920FPS at 1080p support.

I Really Leica This Xiaomi 15 Ultra Design

Xiaomi has taken their collaboration seriously this time around, as Leica motifs spill over to the 15 Ultra’s design as well. The silver chrome version has a dual-tone style that evokes a vintage Leica look. The soft matte silver plastic complements the vegan leather deco of the back. And, the round camera plateau with the aluminum frame comes together to create a design that I’m falling for.

But I believe Xiaomi went too far with their ambitions. That’s because the cameras I just praised also weigh down the handset! The Xiaomi 15 Ultra feels very top-heavy. It already weighs 229 grams, and while it is perfectly balanced at the center, I have had instances where the phone almost fell as I was texting or browsing through my apps.

The round plateau also makes it difficult to rest my finger at the back, so I have to continually shift where my finger rests or risk smudging the lenses. The rest of the in-hand experience is great, and the device feels robust, like a flagship should. Xiaomi has even made the power button textured, which is a lovely addition.

However, it seems like they missed an opportunity to include a shutter key, which would have suited the phone’s design. Besides this, the device includes a heavy-duty aluminum frame, Corning Gorilla Glass 7i for the camera, and IP68 protection for accidental spills. Then there’s Xiaomi Shield Glass 2.0 for the display, protecting it against scratches and drops.

A Visual Feast for Content Consumption

Since we are on the topic, the display of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is as high-end as it gets. It’s a large 6.73-inch micro-quad curved panel, a fancy way of saying that it has slight curves on the edges. This wide panel makes enough room for you to enjoy your favorite movies and TV shows. And the WQHD+ (3200 x 1440) resolution just makes everything appear even sharper and detailed.

I’ve been catching up with Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again, and I couldn’t think of a better display to watch it on. The dynamic range is tuned so well that most of the dark scenes come out detailed and well lit. Just like the director intended. Plus, it also has all the bells and whistles you expect from a 2025 flagship display. Like a 120Hz refresh rate, LTPO, 12-bit colors, and Dolby Vision support.

That said, the brightness was an underwhelming aspect. Over my usage, I kept feeling like the display isn’t bright enough. This was more evident when taking photos in direct sunlight. I couldn’t make out anything on the viewfinder, guessing my way through the samples, having to keep looking for a shade to check what I clicked.

Other than that, the speakers are stereo with a 30-70 split. Unlike the screen, the audio does not particularly stand out. It gets loud, does its job, and that’s it. I wish they were louder and fuller, but I am being a bit picky here.

As Top of the Line Performance as Expected

As is typical with every 2025 flagship, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra also comes with the all-mighty Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. This is coupled with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Given you’ll want to click a lot of photos and record videos with this phone, it’s a good decision on Xiaomi’s part to launch the phone with a higher storage option.

Enough chit chat, let’s talk numbers! The benchmark results show top-of-the-line results as expected from a phone of this caliber. Though they do fall behind some other flagships featuring the same chipset. This could be because Xiaomi subdued the performance to keep heating at bay. Despite this, I have noticed the smartphone getting warm while excessively using the camera.

I tried my fair share of gaming, starting with Call of Duty Mobile. It ran without a hitch at Low graphics and 120FPS. But that’s going easy on this phone, so I turned to Warzone Mobile. After just half an hour, I could feel the heat and throttle in performance. Still, the game never stuttered once, and the gameplay was mostly consistent with the phone hitting 30FPS at quality settings.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra: HyperOS 2.0 and AI Features

The 8 Elite also handles Xiaomi’s latest HyperOS 2.0 quite effectively, as the animation-rich UI runs smooth like butter on this phone. Have to say that the company has done some next-level polishing as every icon, notification shade, quick settings, or apps just flows open like they were slipping on the panel, and the 120Hz refresh rate just further accentuates the smoothness of it all.

This iteration is based on Android 15, and I must say, it feels a lot more complete compared to what the company has been doing in the past couple of years. I still have my quirks, as I couldn’t set up my work account, and finding some basic options in settings can be a hassle. Apart from these, this is the first time in a while that I enjoyed Xiaomi’s Android skin. The phone will also receive 4 major Android updates.

The credit also goes to the myriad of AI features available on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. I couldn’t test all of them out thoroughly, but I quite liked the AI Speech Recognition, which I used to jot down my thoughts for this Xiaomi 15 Ultra review. The AI Search function is also quite neat as it can help you find files and other documents based on the term alone, but I wish Xiaomi implemented it to their settings page. To make it easy to find certain options, much like Samsung’s One UI 7.

The AI Writing Tool, which is something I find on most Android UIs, also comes in pretty handy. I used it to summarize a few articles and rewrite certain text messages. I also gave a shot to some of the AI-powered image editing tools available from the gallery app. Like the reflection eraser, but it didn’t quite work as intended, failing to recognise the reflections I wanted it to remove.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra: Battery Life

Finally, we get to talk about the battery life of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. I must say that on a regular use, this is a solid one-day device. I used it normally for texting, taking calls, even playing games in the name of “working”, and by the time I reached home, it still had about 30% left in it. Heck, you could push it to another day if you lower the resolution to 1080p.

It is odd to me that while other phones are chasing the 6,000mAh capacity, Xiaomi packed a 5,410mAh capacity cell in the 15 Ultra. Maybe to save costs, or to make room for the cameras, who knows? Xiaomi is generous enough to offer a 90-watt charger in the box, which can top up the device in little over an hour. Scratch that, you can even charge it at 80 watts wirelessly. Though that does require Xiaomi’s own wireless charger.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra Review: A Top-Tier Camera Phone with a Premium Cost

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a very well-crafted device, whether I go over its design, the cameras, or HyperOS. There’s a lot of phone here to admire, and while in context it doesn’t bring huge upgrades compared to last year’s 14 Ultra, it has a level of refinement that only comes from new iterations.

I must say that using this phone’s camera is the most fun I have had clicking photos. Especially when I paired it up with Xiaomi’s Photography Kit for the 15 Ultra, which is an additional set of accessories, including a case, a grip that also packs a 2,000mAh battery, a thumb grip, and a 67mm mount for ND filters. The kit made the experience of using the phone more like a traditional point-and-shoot camera, as it felt more natural to use.

Its level of detail in photos is unmatched by any Pixel, an iPhone, or even a Samsung. So if you are serious about your smartphone’s photography prowess, then you wouldn’t mind Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s €1,499 price tag. But for most of you out there, it is with a heavy heart that I must say, you can look elsewhere for a better option.