Review: Xiaomi 15 and 15 Ultra

I'm a fan of Xiaomi’s new 15 and 15 Ultra flagship phones—even if they only bring incremental improvements over their predecessors. The Xiaomi 15 is a classy, compact competitor to the iPhone 16 or Pixel 9, but the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a photographer’s dream. Both are extremely well-rounded smartphones with exceptional hardware, and Xiaomi has polished its HyperOS software and infused it with AI—just like everyone else in the market.

But there’s still room for improvement. Unwelcome bloatware feels cheeky on smartphones this expensive, the design of the 15 is downright dull and identical to last year’s Xiaomi 14, and there’s no Qi2 support, which is sad because we’re craving magnetic accessories for our Android phones. Neither phone is officially sold in the US.

Classy and Capable

It’s by no means unusual for the latest version of a phone to be indistinguishable from the one before. (Samsung and Apple, I’m looking at you.) But the Xiaomi 15 is identical. Even the colors are the same; I got a black review unit, but it also comes in white or green. That said, I do like the design. It’s a compact phone that’s easy to manage one-handed, the matte finish is fingerprint-resistant, and everything is gently rounded, making it very comfortable to hold.

Xiaomi 15 (left) and 15 Ultra (right)

Photograph: Simon Hill

The 15 Ultra is an entirely different beast, dominated by that colossal camera on the back. It’s top-heavy, and, as I found with the 14 Ultra, you need a case to avoid damage and scratches on that big module. It sometimes catches when you slip it into your pocket, and the bump makes using some wireless chargers tricky because the phone cannot lie flat. Thankfully, this is all justified for photography fans (more on that later).

Pleasingly, Xiaomi has jazzed up the 15 Ultra finishes, leaning into its camera prowess and Leica partnership with a lovely two-tone silver chrome and fake black leather paint job. It also comes in black with a red highlight around the camera module. Sadly, I got the white model, which has a subtle marbled effect but is the dullest of the bunch. The 15 and 15 Ultra score an IP68 rating for water resistance and are protected by Xiaomi’s Shield Glass, though the Ultra gets the enhanced version 2.0.

The Xiaomi 15 has a 6.36-inch flat AMOLED screen at 3,670 x 1,200 pixels, and the 15 Ultra jumps up to a 6.73-inch at 3,200 x 1,440 pixels, with a very slight bevel at the edges. Both have a variable 1 to 120-Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling and power efficiency, can hit 3,200 nits peak brightness, and support Dolby Vision and HDR10+. That’s a slight brightness increase over last year’s phones, and these are top-notch, sharp, rich displays, as good as any I’ve seen. The sound quality from the stereo speakers is above average.

Xiaomi 15 (right) and 15 Ultra (left)

Photograph: Simon Hill

Like most current flagships, the Xiaomi 15 and the 15 Ultra have the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. The regular 15 has 12 GB of RAM and 256 or 512 GB of speedy storage (UFS 4.0). The Ultra ups that to 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB or 1 TB of even faster storage (UFS 4.1). I watched videos, browsed the web, and played several games on the 15 and 15 Ultra, and both coped easily. These flagships are fast and slick, whether you’re jumping in and out of apps or playing demanding games. The Ultra is slightly more capable, but I rarely felt it outside the camera app.

Xiaomi has beefed up its batteries, increasing the 15 substantially to 5,240 mAh (up from 4,610 mAh), and the 15 Ultra has a 5,410-mAh battery (up from 5,000 mAh). After a busy day around Edinburgh, Scotland, shooting photos, with some web browsing and gaming on the way there and back, the 15 Ultra had more than 30 percent left. A 20-minute session of Lichtspeer ate 4 percent of the 15 Ultra’s battery. A full charge can get you through two light days with either phone.

Plug in the supplied USB-C cable with a Hypercharge (Xiaomi’s proprietary charging standard) capable charger (neither includes one in the box), and you can charge at up to 90 watts, meaning you can fill the battery in under an hour. The 15 Ultra also supports 80-watt wireless charging with a Xiaomi wireless charger, while the Xiaomi 15 goes up to 50 watts for wireless charging. Both get warm when charging at top speed. They also still charge fairly quickly with other chargers because there’s support for the QC 3+, PD 3.0, and Qi charging standards, among others.

I’m salty about the lack of Qi2, which I would take in a heartbeat over faster charging. Magnetic accessories and perfect charging alignment are so convenient and would be especially handy for the 15 Ultra, which is often tricky to place on wireless chargers.

Photo Fantastic

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is the camera king, but the Xiaomi 15 is no slouch. It boasts a triple-lens camera system, each rated at 50 megapixels. The large 1/1.31-inch sensor and f/1.62 aperture in the main camera ensure decent low-light performance, the telephoto can get you close to distant subjects and handles close-up macro photography well, and the ultrawide is ideal for landscapes. Tuned by Leica, you can also opt for natural or more vibrant colors to suit your tastes, and there’s a wealth of filters and options to tweak in the camera app. Most folks will be perfectly content with the regular Xiaomi 15 camera.

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra appeals most when leaning into its photography prowess. The pay-off for that camera carbuncle is an unmatched quad-lens shooter that can capture lovely photos in any situation. The main camera is a 50-megapixel shooter with an f/1.63 aperture and a 1-inch camera sensor capable of making the most of limited light. There’s a 50-megapixel floating telephoto lens that supports 3X optical zoom and also handles macro and a 50-megapixel ultrawide lens. But the headline upgrade is the 200-megapixel periscope telephoto lens capable of 4.3X optical zoom, with digital zoom topping out at 120X. This camera has an impressive focal length range from 14 to 200 mm.

Compared to the 14 Ultra camera, perhaps the best last year in our camera shootout, there are some differences in the 15 Ultra camera system. One ostensible downgrade is the lack of variable aperture in the main lens. Xiaomi says it was dropped because the device can "achieve comparable exposure effects through software optimization and algorithm upgrades.” The large aperture and sensor ensure plenty of light gets in, but tinkerers have less control over exposure. The optical zoom has also dropped from 5X to 4.3X, but the upgrade to 200 megapixels allows for better quality digital zoom and provides a much larger image to crop from.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Without getting too far into the weeds, the 15 Ultra camera is fantastic. It is easy to capture stunning landscape shots, portraits, and nighttime photos. The ultrawide is a touch softer and warmer, but the four lenses are otherwise well matched. If you want to dig into the settings, there are options galore. I also tested the Photography Kit, an expensive but highly desirable add-on that includes a case and grip with extra battery (2,000 mAh) and traditional camera controls finished in red and black to give your phone a real Leica camera makeover.

There is a 32-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies. It can’t compete with the main camera, which produces a lovely bokeh effect but serves fine for video calls. Video recording tops out at 8K at 30 frames per second (fps) and 4K up to 120 fps.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Hyper AI

Everyone is introducing more AI this year, and Xiaomi is no exception, with several new AI features in its HyperOS 2 software, which sits atop Android 15. You can enlist AI help for transcription, translation, summarization, and suggestions to improve your writing. There’s also a suite of photo editing tools to remove unwanted photo bombers and reflections or to apply various “enhancements.” Annoyingly, I had to sign into my Xiaomi account to use these features, and you need to create one if you haven’t already.

I enjoyed playing around with the photo editing, though the photo expansion option produced some creepy results. The reflection removal and eraser are potentially handy, but the “enhance” option is a bit hit-and-miss, and AI camera features are pretty common now.

The transcription works fairly well but is slower and less accurate than Google’s Recorder app on Pixels. The AI writing was fine for polishing suggestions, but disappointing when I asked for ideas, offering up just one suggestion. When I tried the same question with Google Gemini (also available on the 15 and 15 Ultra), it gave me a full list of options.

Screenshot courtesy of Simon Hill

HyperOS continues to improve and has an iPhone-like design where you swipe down from the top left for notifications or right for quick settings. It still annoys me that the icons are not labeled because they aren't clear. You can also go with an app drawer or a more traditional layout, and most things can be customized.

Sadly, there is a bunch of bloatware. At least you can uninstall apps like Facebook, but Xiaomi’s ad-packed App Mall, Mi Browser, and a handful of other superfluous apps cannot be removed. Xiaomi says the 15 and 15 Ultra will get four Android version updates and 6 years of security patches, which is still a bit short of what Google, Samsung, and Honor now offer but it's heading in the right direction.

Screenshot courtesy of Simon Hill

Ultimately, the Xiaomi 15 and 15 Ultra are excellent phones, but there are many solid, cheaper alternatives in our Best Android Phones guide. If you already have a Xiaomi 14 or even a Xiaomi 13 Ultra, there's not much reason to upgrade. If you’re looking at the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, the most obvious alternatives are the polished Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra or the excellent Honor Magic 7 Pro, which makes do with a triple-lens camera but retains the variable aperture in its main shooter. You could also perhaps wait for the imminent Oppo Find X8 Ultra.

The Xiaomi 15 is available in the UK and Europe starting at £849 (€999). The Xiaomi 15 Ultra will set you back £1,299 (€1,499). The Xiaomi 15 Ultra Photography Kit costs an extra £179 (€199).