Xiaomi 15 Ultra: A camera powerhouse that redefines smartphone photography
Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Picture: Noel Campion.
Xiaomi’s Ultra series has built a reputation for pushing smartphone camera technology forward, and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is no exception. It has a bold new 200MP telephoto zoom camera, a refreshed design, and top-tier hardware. It’s the flagship smartphone for those who want the very best in camera hardware.
The 15 Ultra sports a new two-tone design, featuring a vegan leather back paired with a matte plastic upper portion – a design that resembles a retro camera from Leica. My review model was the white variant, which looks more generic but still stylish and has a premium feeling.
Its aluminium frame makes the phone feel premium and solid at 229g. The edges of the glass back and front are rounded, and there are no sharp edges, making the device feel comfortable to hold.
The large circular camera bump dominates the rear, emphasizing Xiaomi’s photography-first approach. The left edge remains button-free, while the right houses a volume rocker and a distinctive knurled power button. As expected from a flagship, the 15 Ultra boasts an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, ensuring durability.
Xiaomi sells an optional Photography Kit to enhance its camera-focused appeal. It includes a new ergonomic grip with a built-in 2,000mAh battery, exposure dial, zoom rocker, and a dedicated shutter button. The accessory set is premium and functional, but whether it's worth the extra cost is up to you.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra features a 6.73-inch LTPO OLED display with a 3,200 x 1,440p resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The adaptive refresh rate, which can be set to 1Hz, helps conserve battery life. Xiaomi claims its second-generation Xiaomi Shield Glass is up to 16 times more drop-resistant.
The screen's peak brightness is 3,200 nits, making it highly usable outdoors. It supports 12-bit colour, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision for excellent visuals, especially when viewing HDR content.
Under the hood, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Elite chipset. This cutting-edge processor ensures blazing-fast performance, keeping up with other top-tier flagships I’ve tested. Every day usage is smooth, and gaming is handled with ease.
However, based on my testing, the thermal management isn't as good as that of the standard Xiaomi 15. The 15 Ultra is one of the few devices that failed to finish the 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Stress test — a series of 20 consecutive tests designed to max out the GPU. It got as far as the 14th test and then stopped due to overheating. By comparison, the Xiaomi 15 completed the same benchmark stress test with flying colours.
These tests stress the device beyond real-world scenarios, but they show that compared to others, the Ultra will throttle quicker when pushed in heavy GPU tasks like graphic-intensive games. Synthetic benchmarks aside, the phone is very fast, including loading apps and multitasking.
Xiaomi has upgraded the fingerprint reader to an ultrasonic sensor, which I found almost instant and incredibly reliable.
The phone also retains an IR blaster for controlling appliances, which I often find useful, but your mileage may vary.
My review device had 16GB of RAM and 512GB, and not surprisingly for a flagship in 2025, there was no microSD expansion.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra runs HyperOS 2 on top of Android 15. While the changes from its predecessor are mostly visual refinements, Xiaomi has introduced AI-powered features under the ‘Hyper AI’ branding.
Features include AI-powered text summarisation, proofreading, and layout adjustments in Notes, while the Gallery app offers AI-based sky replacement and image enhancement. Additionally, real-time translation features are integrated into supported apps.
Xiaomi promises four years of major Android updates and six years of security patches, ensuring decent long-term support.
The global model of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra gets a significant battery upgrade, increasing from 5,000mAh to 5,410mAh (while the Chinese model jumps to 6,000mAh).
Charging speeds remain solid. Xiaomi claims up to 25 hours of continuous video playback, and in my testing, I found it difficult to drain the battery within a single day. Often, I started the next morning with enough charge to last until after lunchtime.
The phone supports Xiaomi’s 90W wired HyperCharge and 80W wireless HyperCharge, though a charger is not included in the box.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra boasts the most versatile camera system I’ve ever used. The rear cameras consist of a 50MP main camera (f/1.6, 1-inch sensor), a 50MP 3x telephoto camera, a 200MP 4.3x telephoto camera and a 50MP ultrawide camera with autofocus.The most exciting camera is the 200MP 4.3x zoom, which offers impressive detail with minimal noise, even in low light. While I’m usually skeptical of exaggerated telephoto camera claims, this phone's 4.3x zoom is genuinely remarkable. The level of detail captured with the optics and sensor hardware is astonishing, not just at 4.3x. Zooming in to 30x or even 50x allows for impressive clarity, offering the versatility to take unique shots. The camera can reach up to 120x, and while it delivers decent results in good lighting, it relies heavily on computational photography at extreme zoom levels.
One key change from the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is the removal of the variable aperture from the main sensor, now fixed at f/1.6. Despite this, it still produces exceptional images with excellent detail, natural textures, and vibrant but accurate colours.
The 3x telephoto camera delivers superb results, especially for portrait shots. Due to its close-focusing abilities, it is the best option for macro photography, capturing intricate textures with great precision.
One of my favourite features is the telephoto camera's ability to capture natural-looking portraits with pleasing background blur. The 3x zoom is excellent for this, but the 4.3x camera also delivers unique compositions, making it highly versatile. The colour consistency across all lenses is commendable, ensuring seamless results regardless of the zoom level.
Low-light performance remains a strength. All three zoom levels perform well at night, maintaining rich details and balanced exposures. The ultrawide camera also impresses, with sharp, well-exposed shots.
All cameras have night mode, which delivers excellent low-light photography. Initially, I noticed some motion blur in low-light shots, but enabling the motion capture option in the camera settings quickly resolved the issue.
The 32MP front camera lacks autofocus, resulting in softer images compared to the competition, though colours, detail and dynamic range remain solid.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra supports 8K video recording at 24fps and 30fps, 4K Dolby Vision recording at 24fps, 30fps, and 60fps, and 4K Log recording at 24fps, 30fps, and 60fps.
While daytime videos are excellent, with sharp detail, natural contrast, and consistent colour accuracy across all sensors, video sharpness lags behind some competitors.
Stabilisation is generally good, though walking shots may still exhibit some shake. Low-light video performance remains strong, with the main and zoom cameras capturing clean and well-balanced footage.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is an undeniably powerful flagship, with class-leading camera capabilities, great battery life, and premium build quality. The optional camera grip accessory adds a unique touch for photography enthusiasts. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a solid choice for those seeking a cutting-edge camera phone with top-tier performance.
€1,600 Harvey Norman, €1,500 (PrePay), €750 (BillPay) Tesco Mobile (includes Xiaomi Photography Kit).
.
