Xiaomi 15 Ultra leads the charge as the brand’s most ambitious smartphone to date, continuing a legacy of innovation that has defined Xiaomi’s Ultra series over the past five years. Since 2022, each model has shattered expectations—the 12S Ultra introduced a game-changing Leica partnership, the 13 Ultra elevated mobile photography in 2023, and the 14 Ultra set a new benchmark in 2024. Now, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is poised to raise the bar even higher, aiming to be the ultimate camera phone of 2025. With its arrival on the horizon, rivals are already scrambling to keep pace.
Why the Xiaomi Ultra Series Continues to Lead the Pack
Android manufacturers used to follow Apple’s lead closely, but Xiaomi has flipped the script and become the trendsetter. Now, rivals are taking cues from Xiaomi—some even borrowing naming styles inspired by Xiaomi’s “Nexus” codename—clearly showing who’s leading the pack.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra goes beyond being just a camera phone; it stands as a true flagship in imaging technology, seamlessly integrating advanced hardware, long-lasting battery performance, and top-tier connectivity.
Camera Powerhouse: Where Leica’s Expertise Meets Xiaomi’s Innovation:
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s Leica Ultra-Pure Optical System truly sets a new standard in smartphone photography:
-
14mm Ultra-Wide Lens: Ideal for capturing expansive landscapes and architecture with virtually no distortion.
-
23mm Main Camera: Featuring the largest aperture ever on a 1-inch sensor (f/1.63), it delivers DSLR-quality shots with stunning detail and depth.
-
70mm Telephoto Lens: Perfect for portraits and close-up shots, with the ability to focus as close as 10cm for incredible macro photography.
-
100mm Super Telephoto: Equipped with a massive 200MP sensor and 400mm zoom, it excels in low-light conditions thanks to advanced night mode capabilities.
Every element of the lens system has been meticulously upgraded, including premium glass coatings that reduce glare and provide enhanced scratch resistance.
Battery & Connectivity Upgrades
- Massive Battery Life
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra comes equipped with the brand’s largest battery ever—a powerful 6000mAh cell designed to retain 90% of its capacity even after 1,000 full charge cycles. It supports ultra-fast charging, offering 90W wired and 80W wireless speeds for quick power-ups.
- Superior Connectivity
Thanks to triple antennas and dual satellite navigation support (Beidou and Tiantong), the Xiaomi 15 Ultra delivers significantly stronger signals. Users can expect Wi-Fi and GPS connections that are improved by up to 42%, ensuring reliable performance wherever they go.
- Power and Signal Innovation
Combining a long-lasting 6000mAh battery capable of maintaining 90% capacity after 1,000 charges with rapid 90W wired and 80W wireless charging, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra excels in battery technology. Its triple antenna design and dual satellite support also boost Wi-Fi and GPS signal strength by 42%, enhancing connectivity across the board.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is more than just a smartphone—it’s a bold showcase of Xiaomi’s latest and greatest innovations. With unrivaled camera capabilities and a powerful battery that lasts all day, this device is built to set the standard for 2025. Stay tuned for detailed hands-on reviews and real-world performance insights!
Design and Appearance
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra features a distinctive color-matching design, introduced in a classic pine green shade. Inspired by over a century of photographic heritage, its look combines a sleek silver metal frame with dark green, lychee-textured leather. This striking contrast not only adds a touch of elegance but also gives the phone a unique and refined personality.
The camera lens of the device is equipped with a cutting-edge anti-reflective coating that uses tiny pyramid-shaped microstructures to reduce light reflection. This technology significantly improves image clarity, especially in challenging low-light environments. The recessed circular lens design not only looks sleek but also blends smoothly into the phone’s body, boosting both its visual appeal and practical use.
The mid-frame is crafted from aviation-grade 6M42 aluminum alloy, featuring a smooth quad-curved wraparound design that perfectly balances strength with a lightweight, stylish look. On the back, a retro-inspired “Ultra” nameplate pays homage to classic camera rangefinders, giving the phone a sophisticated nod to professional photography heritage.
The front of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra features a stunning 6.73-inch 2K LTPO display from Huaxing Optoelectronics, capable of adjusting its refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz for smooth performance and power efficiency. With peak brightness reaching 3200 nits, the screen stays vivid and clear even in bright sunlight. Thanks to Dynamic Tone and Gamma Mapping technologies, the display delivers accurate colors and sharp contrast comparable to professional-grade monitors. Its gently micro-curved edges combine the sharpness of a flat screen with the comfortable feel of a curved design, offering the best of both worlds.
The screen is safeguarded by Dragon Crystal Glass 2.0, which features an improved formula that lowers alkali metal content. This enhancement increases the glass’s mechanical strength by 20–30% and boosts its drop resistance by 25–30%, making it more durable against everyday wear and accidents.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s sleek design keeps antenna bands minimal, placing most of them discreetly at the top. The bottom edge houses a SIM card slot, microphone, Type-C charging port, and speaker. For audio, a dual-speaker setup provides clear, immersive sound, while the included 90W wired fast charger ensures you can quickly recharge and get back to using your phone.
Cameras
In the world of professional photography, the revered “Big Three” lens lineup—ranging from 14mm ultra-wide to 200mm telephoto—has long been celebrated for its flexibility, clarity, and creative power. These lenses allow photographers to capture everything from sweeping landscapes to distant subjects with precision. Yet, smartphones have consistently fallen short of matching this full focal range and optical quality, mainly due to physical space limitations and smaller sensor sizes.
With the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, that gap is closing. It redefines mobile photography by introducing a revolutionary 14–400mm lossless zoom system powered by a 200MP sensor. This marks the first time a smartphone has successfully adapted such a wide focal range, covering nearly all shooting scenarios with pro-level versatility in a compact form.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra features a 1-inch LYT-900 sensor with wide dynamic range and high light capacity, paired with a 50MP 3x zoom lens and a 200MP periscope lens offering 4.3x in-sensor zoom. This trio delivers up to 28x lossless zoom and detailed 200MP images. A 100mm telephoto unit enables DSLR-like depth in low light, supported by Dual Native ISO Fusion Max. Completing the setup is a 14mm ultra-wide lens with a 120° field of view for full scene coverage.
With its redesigned cooling architecture, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra can handle 8K video recording at 30 frames per second without overheating. The system uses separate heat pathways to manage temperature more efficiently, allowing the device to deliver smooth, high-resolution video capture previously limited to professional equipment.
Imaging Performance: Real-World Testing
Primary Camera:
Xiaomi’s 1-inch LYT-900 sensor delivers impressive results in bright conditions, revealing sharp detail in structures and surface textures. When using Leica’s Vivid Color mode, scenes appear rich yet true-to-life—reflections on water and sunlit buildings look especially realistic. Even in tricky lighting, like during sunset, the sensor maintains clarity in both bright and shadowed areas. Background blur feels smooth and natural, helping subjects stand out without looking artificial.
Night Photography:
Xiaomi’s new “Pyramid” anti-reflective coating helps reduce unwanted glare and reflections, resulting in cleaner, low-noise night shots. Whether capturing glowing city lights or bright neon signs, the lens handles complex lighting with accuracy and control. Colors remain true even in high-contrast scenes—sunset tones look rich, and lit-up buildings show smooth color transitions without distortion.
3x Telephoto:
The 3x lens with its f/1.8 aperture captures well-lit, clean images, avoiding color fringing and distortion. It handles portraits and mid-range shots with ease, preserving rich, accurate colors that feel natural to the eye.
4.3x Periscope Telephoto (100mm):
The 200MP periscope lens offers 4.3x optical zoom (around 96mm in tests) and typically produces 12.5MP images. Even in challenging backlit scenes, it captures sharp details like distant text and textures with impressive clarity. Thanks to a 4x in-sensor zoom that reaches up to 400mm (equivalent to 17.2x zoom), the photos stay crisp even after cropping. Whether it’s ship hulls, facial expressions, or signs, everything remains clear at extreme zoom levels, highlighting the lens’s advanced processing capabilities.
Ultra-Wide (14mm):
The 50MP ultra-wide lens reduces barrel distortion and maintains sharpness across the entire frame. In daylight, its color accuracy matches that of the telephoto lenses, while the 120° field of view effortlessly captures wide, sweeping scenes with great detail.
Hardware and Performance
As a top-tier flagship, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra runs on the advanced Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition processor, supported by LPDDR5X memory and UFS 4.0 storage. This particular model comes with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, providing plenty of power and space for intensive use.
Advanced Cooling Technology
Xiaomi has placed a strong emphasis on cooling with its new “Dual-Channel 3D Loop Cooling System.” This advanced setup effectively manages heat from both the processor and camera, helping the phone maintain high performance even under heavy workloads.
Battery
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra, celebrated for its outstanding camera system, also raises the bar with an impressive battery capacity rarely seen in flagship smartphones. Despite packing advanced imaging hardware into a sleek frame, Xiaomi manages to deliver strong battery life without compromise.
This is made possible by Xiaomi’s innovative silicon anode battery technology, which includes 10% silicon content. Thanks to this advancement, the 15 Ultra boasts a hefty 6000mAh battery—700mAh more than its predecessor. It also supports fast charging with a 90W HyperCharge adapter, along with 80W wireless charging and wireless reverse charging capabilities.
Charging Performance
To test real-world charging performance, we started from 1% battery with the screen turned off. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra charged up to 34% in 10 minutes, 58% after 20 minutes, and reached 76% within 30 minutes, completing a full charge in just 45 minutes. Considering its large 6000mAh battery, this under-one-hour charging time showcases excellent thermal control and optimized power delivery. This rapid charging means users can quickly boost their battery during short breaks, easing any concerns about running out of power.
Battery Endurance Assessment
For battery life evaluation, we used Battery Dog, a professional benchmarking app from Fast Technology. This test mimics everyday use by mixing CPU-heavy tasks, AI processing, video playback, web surfing, and image viewing, all under consistent settings: 50% screen brightness (with auto-brightness off) and 30% volume.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra lasted 7 hours, 41 minutes, and 16 seconds before reaching 20% battery. Based on this, it’s estimated to provide around 9 hours of continuous use on a full charge. This level of endurance easily covers typical daily usage, offering most users dependable all-day battery life.
By combining a large battery with fast charging technologies, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra strikes a great balance between long-lasting power and quick recharge times, making it a strong contender in flagship smartphone battery performance.
Conclusion
Looking back, the launch of the Xiaomi 11 Ultra—often called the “Android Beacon”—was a game-changer in smartphone photography. Its advanced imaging features not only impressed the industry but also highlighted Xiaomi’s daring vision to transform mobile photography.
Over the last five years, Xiaomi has been on an unwavering quest to perfect imaging technology, forging a unique path through innovation and precise engineering. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra stands as the pinnacle of this journey, embodying half a decade of dedicated research and development.
At its heart, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is powered by a revolutionary 1-inch Sony LYT900 main sensor, paired with a 200MP Samsung S5KHP9 periscope telephoto lens—the largest and longest focal length available in its category. This “dual flagship” configuration delivers an extraordinary 14-400mm ultra-wide, lossless zoom range, effortlessly combining ultra-wide, standard, and telephoto perspectives for comprehensive photographic coverage.
Xiaomi has pushed the boundaries of optical design with several key innovations: a wide aperture, full “end-to-end” lossless optics, and a multi-layered “pyramid” anti-reflective coating. These advancements go beyond traditional smartphone limitations, moving away from heavy reliance on computational night modes toward genuine optical night photography.
In daylight, the LYT900 sensor excels at capturing fine details with remarkable sharpness. When using Leica Vivid Color mode, photos come alive with vivid, natural tones, broad dynamic range, and soft, realistic bokeh. At night, the pyramid coating effectively reduces noise, glare, and ghosting, producing vibrant, true-to-life cityscapes with stunning clarity.
The 200MP telephoto lens on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra performs exceptionally well in difficult lighting conditions, maintaining fine detail even when shooting against strong backlight. Cropped images remain sharp, capturing distant textures with impressive clarity whether in bright daylight or under city lights.
Powering all this is a hefty 6000mAh battery, complemented by 90W wired and 80W wireless charging options. This setup allows the phone to reach a full charge in just 45 minutes, providing over nine hours of continuous use—perfect for long photography sessions.
Xiaomi’s unique Star Communication System, featuring dual T1 and T1S chips, delivers reliable connectivity even in challenging environments. Its dual-mode satellite capability bypasses traditional cell towers, ensuring stable communication in remote locations or emergency situations.
From the groundbreaking Xiaomi 11 Ultra to the night-time prowess of the 15 Ultra, Xiaomi’s five-year pursuit of imaging excellence is clear. With pyramid-coated lenses capturing crystal-clear night scenes and a 400mm zoom bringing far-off horizons into view, this evolution goes beyond hardware—it reflects Xiaomi’s vision for the future of mobile photography.
As this revolution unfolds, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra marks a significant milestone, lighting the way forward for the next generation of photographic innovation.
Read more : DJI Mini 4 Pro Review: Next-Level Features That Justify the Hype