Xiaomi 15 Ultra: The perfect smartphone for photographers

We’ve been mightily impressed by the recent Xiaomi output, with last year’s Xiaomi 14 Ultra easily being top of our list of the best smartphones for photographers. Now, the newest version, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is here with a slew of improvements designed to entice new users across from the likes of the bigger-known brands such as Apple and Samsung.

As we’ve seen for the last few generations, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra once again teams up with imaging experts Leica for its lenses, of which there a class-leading four found on the device. Once again, all four are Leica Vario-Summilux lenses, giving you an indication of the high-quality optics.

Xiaomi might not be super-well known in some markets, but globally, it’s the third biggest. It’s worth pointing out however, that in the US, it’s likely to be difficult to get hold of a Xiaomi phone – so if you’re reading this Stateside, we’re sorry.

The high-quality specifications found in the Xiaomi 15 Ultra come at a fairly high price. You’ll pay a minimum of £1299, rising up to £1499 if you want more storage and memory. That said, this puts it on par with other flagships offering similar storage, including the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra at a glance

• 50MP f/1.63 23mm equivalent camera with one-inch Sony LYT-900 sensor
• 50MP f/2.2 14mm equivalent ultrawide camera
• 50MP f/1.8 70mm equivalent 3x floating telephoto camera
• 200MP f/2.6 100mm 4.3x periscope telephoto camera
• 8K video at up to 30fps
• 4K video at up to 120fps
• 6.73-inch, 3200x1400pixel, 3200 nits peak brightness, 120Hz AMOLED screen
• 5410mAh battery with fast and wireless charging
• Xiaomi Hyper OS 2 operating system, based on Android 15
• Snapdragon 8 Elite processor

How we test phones

We review smartphones from the perspective of choosing one for its photography and camera performance. We look at what the Xiaomi 15 Ultra offers, and the features included for photography and video, paying particularly attention to the cameras on the phone, photo editing capabilities, as well as the output from each different lens. We consider other aspects too, such as the screen quality and battery life.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra: Features

As with the previous Xiaomi 14 Ultra, there really is a swathe of enticing photography features to really appeal to those for whom the camera/s are the most important part of a phone.

Once again, there’s four high-resolution sensors accompanied by Leica lenses. Broadly, these are very similar to the 14 Ultra’s setup, but with some changes that are worth taking note of.

First of all, there’s the main sensor. This is a 50MP Sony LYT-900 one-inch type sensor, the same as found on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. This makes it the biggest currently available on the market, and indeed one of the only phones on the market to have such a large sensor. However, now the Leica lens which sits in front of it, although the same focal length of 23mm equivalent, now has a fixed aperture of f/1.63, compared to the variable f/1.63-f/4.0 aperture of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s main lens. What this means in real terms is that you might not be able to get such a wide area of focus as you might have expected from the previous generation – which could be of importance to those who like to shoot landscapes and expect everything front to back to be as sharp as possible. A variable aperture is more expensive to produce, and for smartphones, whose pictures primarily live on a small screen, the benefit of including it is probably fairly negligible. It’s a shame for us hardcore enthusiasts to see it removed, but it’s perhaps understandable.

There have been some changes made to the other lenses which arguably make up for the loss of the variable aperture. For example, the 50MP ultrawide camera now is a much more sensible 14mm equivalent focal length (12mm before), but it does now have a narrow f/2.2 aperture (f/1.8 before). There’s two zoom lenses, the first a 50MP / 70mm equivalent floating telephoto camera, with an f/1.8 maximum aperture. The second is a 4.3x periscope lens, which has lost a little in distance – it’s now 100mm, rather than 120mm – but has quadrupled in pixel size, being 200MP instead of 50MP. This should give good scope for cropping, including in-camera for digital zoom options. Xiaomi also claims it lets in 136% more light than the predecessor.

For videographers, there’s a host of interesting video specifications, including 8K at up to 30fps. 4K at up to 120fps is available, with a range of enticing functions such as Dolby Vision and ultra-image stabilisation (some features will be dependent on the resolution and/or frame rate you’re working in).

Elsewhere, specifications of note include a large 5410 mAh battery, plus a new Snapdragon 8 Elite processor – a bigger battery and a more efficient processor than the previous version should equate to a very good battery life.

Overall, on paper, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra represents an evolution, rather than full-blown refresh. But, it’ll be interesting to see how these changes affect the overall quality and usability of the phone.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra: Handling and Design

Compared to many other models on the market, such as Samsung and iPhone, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra has quite a distinctive design, with it being very similar to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

There’s a circular camera module housing all four of the cameras lenses, though these have been moved around somewhat compared with the predecessor. There’s also now a distinctive red ring around the lens housing – presumably a nod to the Leica collaboration.

Having the big camera module like this takes up a lot of space, but as it spans the whole width of the phone, it means that the phone doesn’t wobble when it’s placed flat on a table. If you purchase a case to go with the phone, you might find you can also get it to sit even flatter, too.

The front of the phone is equipped with Xiaomi Shield Glass 2.0 – an upgrade from the first generation Xiaomi Shield Glass of the 14 Ultra – which itself was apparently a “10x improvement” on the 14 Ultra’s predecessor. Safe to say, it’s pretty tough – and although I haven’t tried to smash it, it’s happily withstood the usual knocks and scrapes that come from phone ownership. There’s also the pretty standard IP68 rating for water and dust resistance as found on most flagships these days.

As for the screen itself, there’s not much that has changed here. It’s 6.7”, which is on the large side, but not quite as ridiculous as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra or the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which both have very cumbersome 6.9” screens. The display is WQHD+ and it’s a touch brighter at 3200 nits than the 3000-nit predecessor. It’s perhaps disappointing not to see things go even brighter at this price point – there are 5000-nit phones out there, such as the Honor Magic 7 Pro.

Although I haven’t yet had my hands on it, there’s a Photography Kit also available separately for the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, which is a real bonus treat for photographers. With this, you get extra grip, extra battery life and “real” controls such as a shutter button and a command dial.  

Xiaomi 15 Ultra: Native Camera App

There’s lots to explore with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s native camera app, with an array of different shooting modes.

By default, the shooting mode is Photo, where you can access all of the cameras lenses, as well as some digital or crop modes in between. I particularly like the fact that you can tap the 1x lens to quickly crop to 28mm and 35mm options (the default is 23mm). This is something I use all the time on the iPhone 16 Pro and I’m glad to see it appearing on other devices too. Alternatively, you can pinch to zoom if you prefer – there’s up to 120x available, but it takes a LOT of pinching to reach that far – I’d much rather a quick tap option to get to that point, such as you see on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

A host of other settings can be accessed via the Photo mode, including the ability to choose a different “Leica colour”, as well as switching on/off HDR, as well as choosing a different aspect ratio.

When shooting in low light, you should find that Night mode automatically activates. For some reason, the ability to select this mode manually seems to have been removed. The “supermoon” shooting mode has remained, however – a mode which almost certainly uses AI assistance to help shoot “photos” of the moon.

In a similar vein, macro shooting will automatically start should you bring the phone close to a subject. Do it this way and the ultrawide lens will be activated, however, you can also choose to use “Super macro” from the drag down menu, which tends to yield much better results as it uses the telephoto lens.

If you want to take greater control, there’s a Pro mode, where you can adjust ISO, white balance, exposure and shutter speed. Remember, for this model, it’s not possible to adjust the aperture, as it’s now fixed. In the Pro mode you can also elect to shoot at higher resolutions, as well as in raw format if you feel so inclined.

There’s a set of additional shooting options also available for stills, including “Fast Photo”, which recreates the look of a rangefinder camera, displaying a set of focal lengths in traditional lens terms along the bottom. There’s also options such as Time-lapse and Long exposure.

The Portrait mode seems to have been simplified somewhat since the 14 Ultra. Perhaps it was felt that it was too complex, but now we just have the option to shoot at 1x, 2x, 3x or 4.3x – rather than using different Leica lenses to indicate the focal lengths. You can still choose different bokeh options, including “Standard”, “Swirly Bokeh” and so on, while there’s the option to choose between “Leica Portrait” and “Master Portrait” – though in all honesty I can’t see much of a difference between the two.

For Video users, the set up is reasonably straightforward. The standard video mode gives you different resolution and frame rate options, as well as access to all the various lenses. You can switch on “ShootSteady”, but note you’ll be restricted to 2.8K 30fps if you do so.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra: Image Quality and Performance

I was extremely impressed by the image quality from the 14 Ultra, so I was keen to see whether it would be maintained from the new model. With the same one-inch type sensor as before, it seemed pretty likely that – from the main camera at least – image quality would be about the same. Happily, I can say that once again, the quality is superb.

Now – it’s true to say that losing the variable aperture means that you can’t always get super sharp front to back sharpness, particularly if you’re photographing something fairly close-up, but I wouldn’t call this a deal breaker. Most people will simply not really be able to tell the difference, certainly on a phone screen, and the slightly blurred background looks pretty nice anyway.

Colours and dynamic range are also excellent, with lovely vibrant blues that don’t go overboard with the saturation. The different colours between the lenses also seem to be pretty well-matched too, which is further good news.

As for the different lenses, they all put in a great performance. The new ultrawide lens is a more sensible focal length, leading to a more natural point of view. Meanwhile, the detail and colours are still very good, too.

The two zoom lenses are very good too, offering lots of detail and a great way to get closer to the subject. The second lens is now 200MP, compared to 50MP as before. This results in great crops at 8.6x (200mm), but also beyond that up to around 20x. You can go further than that, but image quality very obviously deteriorates from around 30x upwards. The 120x option is completely unusable and just a marketing gimmick, so I’d pay no attention to that – the same is true of the 100x option found in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, so it’s not a criticism unique to Xiaomi.

Portrait shooting is great, producing some top-quality results. There’s a little bit of outlining around hair and so on, but it’s pretty natural and doesn’t intrude into the picture – especially at normal phone screen sizes. Having the different bokeh options is fun to play with.

The selfie camera not having AF is perhaps a bit of a disappointment for a flagship. However, it still does a good job. I’d avoid using the “Beauty” setting, unless you like slightly plastic-looking results.

Macro shooting is another area where this phone excels, making it one of the best available for such a subject. The telephoto macro option leads to highly detailed results – I wish we’d see similar from the bigger names, too. The 15 Ultra produces macro shots which are much better than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Google Pixel 9 Pro, but it’s reasonably similar to other Chinese models, such as the Vivo X200 Pro.

In low light, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is great – likely down to the one-inch main sensor. There’s plenty of detail and colours look good. It’s also pretty good with the other lenses too, including the ultrawide. If you select the telephoto options in very low light, you’ll likely find that the phone uses the main lens and crops to get the best results.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra: Value for Money

At its £1299 starting price, this is by no means a cheap phone. But, it’s safe to say that no flagship is particularly cheap these days. There’s also a big difference between something being expensive, and something being bad value – so while this is a high price, you do get quite a lot for it.

It’s also comparable to other flagships out there – in fact, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max are both more expensive for the same storage amount (512GB), so you could well argue that the Xiaomi represents better value for money for that reason too.

On the other hand, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra doesn’t represent a huge upgrade from the 14 Ultra. If you already have one of those, I don’t think it’s really worth spending the cash to get the newest version – it’s probably better to wait and see if the 16 Ultra goes even further with the upgrades.

It’s also worth thinking about how well a phone will hold its value. You will be able to resell a Samsung or an iPhone very easily – a Xiaomi, especially in certain markets, might not be so favourable. Indeed, I checked a number of resale sites here in the UK to see how much they’d give me for last year’s Xiaomi 14 Ultra. A number of them wouldn’t even accept it, while those that did give you considerably less than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or the iPhone 15 Pro Max.  

Overall, while there’s no getting around the fact that this is an expensive phone, it does offer good value for money in terms of the product and quality of the on-board camera. Simply, there’s nothing which rivals it available as widely as it right now – so if you want the best, you will need to pay for it.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra: Verdict

Understandably, people can be a bit reluctant to move away from more familiar brands, such as Samsung, Apple or even Google, but in terms of the photography, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is pretty much the best you can get – particularly because of its one-inch type sensor, something we just don’t generally see on smartphones.

As well as the excellent main sensor, the four Leica lenses do a great job across a range of different scenarios making it well-suited to general photography, macro, portraits, low light, video and probably more besides.

That said, the 15 Ultra isn’t a huge revolution from the 14 Ultra. If you’ve already got last year’s model, there’s probably not quite enough here to tempt you to upgrade – and it’s a slight disappointment that you can no longer adjust the aperture of the lens sitting in front of that large, one-inch sensor.

While there have been some improvements elsewhere, such as the new 200MP telephoto sensor, the better processor and slightly upgraded screen, it’s certainly more of an evolution than a revolution. Still, if you’re coming to Xiaomi for the first time, or perhaps are coming from an older or different model in the line-up, you will likely be very, very impressed.

Now for some bad news – the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is not available everywhere. It’s in the UK, but it’s not in the US for example – which is a shame for those who prioritise image-making above everything else but can’t necessarily get hold of one.

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra also isn’t cheap – starting at £1299 it’s one of the more expensive phones you can buy. But, in fairness, it sits next to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and arguably, it’s better value for money as the quality is so good.

Last year’s Xiaomi 14 Ultra was the phone to beat for photographers, and this year the Xiaomi 15 Ultra builds on that to take the same position.

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