One of the best camera phones in 2025
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is one of , if not the best , tv camera phone usable in 2025 – though it does come at a insurance premium . From the 1 - in - endorse primary photographic camera to the versatile blow telephotograph and eminent - res periscope lenses , it ’s almost casual to seize a stunningly detailed image regardless of shooting condition . It ’s not just a camera telephone set either , with a top - goal screen , powerful chipset and all - day electric battery life to the boot .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Xiaomi promised ‘ pinnacle carrying into action ’ forward of the international reveal of the Xiaomi 15 range of a function at MWC 2025 , and the top - end Xiaomi 15 Ultra does n’t disappoint .
picture taking is clearly the primary focus here . The television camera ironware includes some of the most capable on the market , including a 1 - column inch - endorse main camera , a floating telephotograph , and an impressively high - res periscope genus Lens , with Leica - branded tuning and filters serving as the icing on a very tempting cake .
It ’s not just a tv camera phone , though . It packs a top - goal silver screen , a powerful mainframe , some genuinely handy AI photograph editing features , and all - day stamp battery life that make the Xiaomi 15 Ultra an easygoing recommendation – for those who can afford its undoubtedly premium £ 1,299 price tag anyway .
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Design
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a familiar - look gadget , sporting the same cosmopolitan expression and feel as its forerunner . And yes , that means that the honestly massive photographic camera caparison has render .
It ’s easy the most divisive aspect of the phone , and those who have run across me using it for the past week have give mixed responses . However , there is a good reason for it – more on that later .
That does mean that the telephone ca n’t pose affluent on a flat surface , shore up up slenderly by the camera housing , but it does also provide a nice place to remain your finger and support the phone when used one - handed . swing music and carousel , y’know .
It total in the same Black and White finishes as last year ’s model , with the latter send in for review . I eff the bespeckled flavour of the glass can , shimmer in the igniter while wholly negating fingerprints , with a skillful cerise annulus around the photographic camera that nod to the Leica stigmatisation .
Those are the elusive aspect , anyway . More magic – or on the nose , calculate on your opinion – is the unexampled Silver Chrome finish . design to closely resemble the look of a Leica camera , including a Leica logotype just above the camera housing , it really plays into the phone ’s camera - first nature .
That model is a little thicker and heavier as a result , but given that the black and white models already measure in at a not - insignificant 9.3 millimetre thick and 226 g , it ’s not that much of a dealbreaker . This is a chunky phone ; there ’s no getting around that fact .
Thankfully , the 6.7 - in phone ’s curved boundary make it sit more well in the hand , and a combining of IP68 detritus and water resistance and Xiaomi Shield Glass 2.0 tech give me the confidence to use the phone without a case . You do get a transparent silicone polymer case in the box if you ’re not quite as confident as I am , though .
Screen
moderately paradoxically , the Xiaomi 15 Ultra ’s 6.7 - inch AMOLED screen is one of the just around and slightly annoying .
The latter point in time primarily comes down to the jury ’s curved pattern . It ’s not as aggressive as curved screen from the former 2010s , instead offering a more subtle curve to all four bound of the gadget . The purpose is clear – make swiping from the edges experience smoother than flat - screen choice – but older issues with curved silver screen engineering make a takings .
I ’m mainly speak about mispresses here ; despite offering a customisable dead - zona to bar accidental presses from the palm when reaching across the presentation , I notice that I ’d still often tap icons and open apps unintentionally .
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That ’s not an issue you ’ll find with mat - screen alternatives , and after using the likes of theSamsung Galaxy S25 UltraandiPhone 16 Pro Maxrecently , it ’s slightly annoying . Granted , curving screens look more insurance premium , but in terms of usability , flat concealment have my balloting every day of the week .
Thankfully , that ’s my one and only major complaint about the Xiaomi 15 Ultra ’s screen – in every other gaze , it ’s a marvelous panel that makes scroll , pig out TikTok and playing game an absolute pleasure .
It help that it packs CRT screen tech that lease it compete with the salutary . It matches the WQHD+ firmness of purpose of the S25 Ultra and has an LTPO - enable 120Hz refresh rate for responsive scrolling and full - screen always - on display support .
It ’s also strikingly bright with a maximal brightness of 3200nits , and with Xiaomi ’s Wet Touch technology , you could use the screen without mispresses when raining .
In crude contrast to most smartphones , which default to a saturated hue , the Xiaomi 15 Ultra ’s blind is more colour accurate out of the boxwood – though this does mean that , to my indoctrinated center , the screen front less vivacious than alternatives .
Thankfully , Xiaomi lets you choose between three color modes and make your own usage profile to achieve your best-loved spirit .
Stereo speakers back up the top - end concealment experience , though I ’ve find these to be quieter than the loudspeaker system found on the S25 Ultra and theHonor Magic 7 Pro . Volume apart , the verbaliser should be more than enough for some casual gambling or cyclosis , but I ’d recommend sticking to headphones for medicine playback .
Cameras
As you ’ve probably already guessed by the size of the camera living accommodations , the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is all about picture taking with a combination of a 50MP main , 50MP 3x float telephoto , 200MP 4.3x periscope and 50MP ultrawide . away from the upgraded periscope , it ’s a familiar setup , but leave the incredible carrying into action of last twelvemonth ’s flagship , I ’m not quetch .
The ace of the show once again is the 1 - in - backed 50MP primary camera , offering a larger detector than most other flagship smartphones , though it has been oddly downgrade this year . In place of the variable quantity aperture from last year ’s snapper , this year ’s equivalent weight is interlace in at f/1.63 .
It do mother wit – it ’s a complicated slice of outfit to mix , and with particular rapid growth crystalline lens better suited to portrait and macro picture taking , it did appear somewhat gimmicky . With that said , the default f/1.63 aperture has a comparatively shallow focus , detectable mainly in close - ups , which can sometimes lead to a mislaid focus head .
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faithful - ups away , the master camera is an absolute joy to use . It captures crisp , vivacious , well - pore shot with the water tap of a release . It feels almost effortless , and with Leica - branded shot modality and filter on offer , the shots have more personality than those bring with the Galaxy S25 Ultra .
Evening indoor photography tends to be slenderly too orangish for my tasting , but switch from Leica Vibrant to Leica Authentic fixes that issue .
The 1 - inch sensor really comes into its own when light levels drop , pull out out Light Within in even the dimmest of scenario . This can extradite unnaturally bright photos in near pitching - black status , which is impressive , but it ’s more natural with tripping sources like lamps and street lights in the picture . There ’s very little in the way of lens flare at grim light level , too .
Xiaomi cover to direct the camp in rapid climb performance , too . While the 50MP 3x floating telephoto persist essentially unchanged , it captures stunning close - up shooting with pin - utter truth , making near - ups of plants and other object an right-down doddle . And , with an unusually across-the-board f/1.8 aperture , it ’s one of the best telephoto lenses in abject - light scenarios .
Of of course , most of the upheaval about this class ’s exemplar is pore on the upgraded 200MP 4.3x periscope lens – and it ’s easy to see why . The lense can catch shots corresponding to those of the 3x telephoto and the main camera in well - fall scenarios , and the contingent at extreme zoom levels is unmatched by much of the competition .
Even at the 30 - 35x mark , I can plunk up details of a vaporing in a tree diagram I took a pic of . Though image are clearly AI - enhance at 100x , they ’re still relatively detailed .
The 50MP ultrawide is the easiest to overlook among the outstanding lens of the eye available , but it stay impressive for routine use and is idealistic for capture talkative scenic vistas . Compared to the other lenses , I have observed an mutual exclusiveness in color scientific discipline , with shades of blue appearing slenderly different , but it ’s not egregious .
It ’s just a shame that it is a fixed - focus lens , an odd skip considering the speech sound ’s vehemence on photographic camera performance .
Still , the compounding of high - reticuloendothelial system lenses means there ’s in effect no numb zone between the 0.6x and 10x where detail noticeably drops – an proceeds with the S25 Ultra ’s down in the mouth - res 10MP 3x telephoto – and this encouraged me to utilize the rapid growth far more often than I unremarkably would .
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The Camera app has also been redesigned with a few authentically ready to hand pinch to how it operate . For example , tapping the 1x sensing element icon will switch between 1x , 1.2x and 1.5x , while tap the 4.3x sensor rapidly submit you up to 8.6x .
The path you pinch to zoom has also exchange . rather of zooming chop-chop with a pinch , Xiaomi ’s Camera app provides a slower , easier - to - control rapid growth . Fast rapid growth is now useable from a radiate photographic camera menu , which can be accessed by swiping from the bottom of the viewfinder .
It ’s all very legato and calculated , and it helps the Xiaomi 15 Ultra ’s photographic camera setup beam as one of the best , if not the best .
Performance
General execution is exceptional , as you might expect from a earpiece that costs just timid of £ 1300 . The Xiaomi 15 Ultra ’s Snapdragon 8 Elite is the most knock-down chipset you ’ll find on the market right now , apeing not only the competing MediaTek Dimensity 9400 within theOppo find oneself X8 Probut even the A18 Pro chipset within the iPhone 16 Pro Max .
Paired with 512GB/1 TB of store and 16 GB of RAM , the Xiaomi 15 Ultra can handle anything you make at it without breaking a stew . The telephone set is super smooth and reactive in general habit , whether I ’m aimlessly scrolling through TikTok or getting my butt handed to me in Call of Duty Online .
The earphone can get a little strong when doing the latter , specially over longer period , but it does n’t get noticeably hot like some competing flagships . I ’d also commend change the default animation speed from obtuse to fast in the organisation options to really feel the welfare of the chipset ’s tycoon .
For some rationality , the Xiaomi 15 Ultra does n’t score quite as well as some other Snapdragon 8 Elite devices in benchmark testing . Granted , it ’s still a monolithic hike from the 8 Gen 3 - equipped devices we view last yr , but it drop back behind the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra andOnePlus 13 in CPU - base Geekbench tests .
I ’d love to ply more contingent on how it handles diagrammatically challenging project , but Xiaomi has put a pre - release block on most of the benchmarking apps we use to quantify performance .
That ’ll be lift post - release , at which breaker point I ’ll run my trial and update this section , but it ’s a little frustrating – especially since I ’ve not noticed any graphics - related performance issue in veridical - world use .
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Elsewhere , anticipate the latest in connectivity including support for Wi - Fi 7 , Bluetooth 5.4 and NFC for nomadic payments . In distinctive Xiaomi mode , additional features promote the connectivity speeds and reliability , like colligate to two Wi - Fi networks simultaneously – ideal if your home Wi - Fi is split into 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands .
Software & AI
software program has traditionally been Xiaomi ’s weak point , with a rather bloated MIUI . However , Xiaomi has meliorate considerably with the rebranded and redesigned HyperOS 2 based on Android 15 .
The MIUI aspiration is still clean , with returning stalwarts like the split notification nuance and spry control – though that has since become more commonplace in the Android cosmos – but it offers a much faint , cleaner , and more visceral experience .
There are still Xiaomi - brand apps that straddle from mildly utilitarian to bordering on bloatware , but it ’s not squeeze in your cheek like old versions of the software package , playing much skillful with Google service and apps this sentence around . you may even incorporate your Google Photos library within the phone ’s nonremittal Gallery app , allowing easier access to older picture and videos saved in the cloud .
That ’s particularly important as a big part of Xiaomi ’s AI gamble for 2025 revolves around photograph editing tools baked into the Gallery app . You ’ll find the staples of AI editing including object removal technical school , alongside more interesting feature like photo enhancement and photo expansion .
Beyond the AI exposure editing tools , gestate a like roll of features to other AI - power flagship , including the ability to summarise chunks of textbook , transcribe recording , rewrite text edition messages and the like . None of it is precisely revolutionary – I found myself using Google ’s Circle to Search most of the time – but it ’s nice to have .
Long - term support is n’t on the dot idealistic for a £ 1300 flagship , however , correspond the unconstipated Xiaomi 15 ’s hope of four o upgrades and six years of security measure patches . deal bum flagship like theGalaxy S25and Pixel 9 offer a whopping seven OS upgrades , it ’s not quite up to scratch up .
Battery Life
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra packs a slightly declamatory 5410mAh cell than its 5000mAh precursor , which bolster up the solid battery life on offer .
It ’s not the enceinte assault and battery around – the OnePlus 13 offers a 6000mAh prison cell while the RedMagic 10 Pro packs a 7050mAh cell – but it served my purposes well , never struggling to make it to the end of the day with charge left in the armored combat vehicle .
That ’s usually comprised of four or five hours of screen time , using anything from Google Maps to TikTok , along with a few hours of background medicine playback over the class of a 16 - 18 - time of day day . That ’s with the WQHD+ resolution and always - on display active incessantly , by the fashion .
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It does n’t quite have the same two - Clarence Day potential as the Oppo Find X8 Pro did with my usage , but if you ’re a lighter user than I am , it could well see itself into a second sidereal day of use .
The good news is that with 90W HyperCharge accompaniment , it should fully recharge in less than an time of day . However , without a battery charger in the boxful , I could not swan this .
Thankfully , the 15 Ultra also supports various USB - C institutionalize engineering science . When paired with the Anker Prime 250W charger , the phone could strain a peak of 76W , though it did n’t systematically accomplish those speeds . In the end , it do 52 % in 30 moment and a full charge in 91 proceedings . This is relatively firm , but not as tight as it could be .
There ’s also rapid 80W wireless charging , but as with wired charging , you ’ll require a HyperCharge - branded wireless battery charger to attain those swiftness , and it does n’t come in the box .
Should you buy it?
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra ’s combination of a 1 - column inch - backed 50MP primary tv camera and surpassing zoom and ultrawide lenses ensures unbelievable smartphone photography .
Xiaomi ’s HyperOS 2 has come a farseeing means from the dark 24-hour interval of MIUI , but there ’s still bloat and foresighted - terminus support is n’t quite as long as it should be .
Final Thoughts
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is one of , if notthebest , camera sound usable in 2025 – even if it does come at quite a premium at £ 1299 .
The camera frame-up has no far-famed weaknesses , with a 1 - inch backed principal camera , equal to telephoto and periscope lense and a solid ultrawide to dispatch the experience . pair with an intuitively designed television camera app and slew of shot modes , it ’s almost effortless to capture a stunning look-alike with the 15 Ultra .
It ’s notjusta camera phone though ; the presentation is olympian if you put my personal gripes with trend screens aside , it packs the top - end Snapdragon 8 Elite and the electric battery is copious enough to get me through a demand day ’s use .
Sure , it ’s thicker and heavier than most competing flagships , and Xiaomi ’s dedication to four bone upgrades and six years of security patches ca n’t quite contend with the likes of theSamsung Galaxy 25 Ultraor theiPhone 16 Pro Max , but these are negligible factors with such exceptional hardware on go .
Take a look at ourbest camera phonesto see how the Xiaomi 15 Ultra compares to the competition .
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How we test
We test every wandering earphone we review thoroughly . We utilize industry - standard trial to compare feature decently and we expend the phone as our master equipment over the review period . We ’ll always tell you what we receive and we never , ever , accept money to critique a product .
Find out more about how we test in ourethics policy .
FAQs
There ’s no battery charger in the box , only a USB - C cable . You ’ll need to source a 90W HyperCharge charger one by one to take advantage of fast institutionalise speeds .
Yes , there ’s IP68 dust and water resistance , and Wet Touch engineering science allows you to expend the silver screen even with droplet of water on it .
Xiaomi has committed to four OS upgrade and six geezerhood of security updates for the Xiaomi 15 Ultra .
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Test Data
Full Specs
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