BARCELONA—Xiaomi took the stage at Mobile World Congress to show off the 15 Ultra, its latest high-end phone that competes with the best from Honor, Oppo, and Samsung. The device, co-developed with Leica, sports a four-camera system with a 200MP periscope lens for extreme zooming. In addition to the camera, the 15 Ultra has top specs across the board and, of course, a large helping of AI.
I had a chance to take a look at the phone in person. Here’s what you need to know.
Leica Optics Bring Focus
Like its competitors, Xiaomi relies on stand-out camera features to sell its phones. That’s why it worked with Leica to engineer the optical elements for the 15 Ultra. The phone carries three 50MP sensors for the main, ultra-wide, and telephoto cameras. These cameras all bin photos by a factor of four, meaning the final images are 12MP in size. Similar to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the 15 Ultra sports a second, more powerful telephoto camera with a periscope lens and a 200MP sensor. This system provides an equivalent focal length of 200mm, which would require a really big lens on a standard camera. Using the pinch-to-zoom gesture in person was surprisingly slow with the 200MP camera.
Software tools include a Master Portrait mode for creating eye-pleasing bokeh and several specialized shooting modes, such as Pro, for fully controlling the camera’s settings, such as ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.
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The phone has video chops, too. Similar to the iPhone 16 Pro, it can capture 4K video at 120fps for cinematic slow motion. It also handles 8K at 30fps and a range of other resolutions and speeds to suit your capture needs. Notably, it can record 4K60 in Dolby Vision for added contrast.
Specs Galore
Xiaomi stacked the 15 Ultra with top specs. It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor with 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM. The phone comes in two UFS 4.1 variants, one with 512GB of storage and another with 1TB of storage.
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It has a 5,410mAh battery that supports rapid wired and wireless charging. With Xiaomi’s proprietary tech, it can handle up to 90W of wired charging and 80W HyperCharge wireless charging for incredibly fast top-ups.
Connectivity is up to date with sub-6GHz 5G with 4×4 MIMO, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, and NFC. It supports a full panel of 4G and 5G bands, including C-band, but don’t expect it to run on US wireless networks.
The phone includes stereo speakers that support Dolby Atmos. It’s certified for Hi-Res Audio and includes a four-mic array for spatial audio capture.
A Large Glass Slab
The 15 Ultra’s design is similar to that of last year’s 14 Ultra. It’s an enormous glass slab measuring 6.35 by 2.96 by 0.37 inches (HWD) and weighing 7.97 ounces. The frame is made from aluminum, and the front and rear glass are made from Xiaomi Shield Glass 2.0. The glass is curved along the outer edge, a design choice that has fallen out of favor with some phone makers, but it gives the phone a more rounded profile. The frame and the rear panel have a nice matte texture that looks good up close and feels good when held. The phone comes in black, white, and a camera-esque two-tone silver and black. I like the overall impression of the phone.
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The display measures 6.78 inches and packs 3,200 by 1,440 pixels for a density of 522ppi. It handles a refresh rate that dynamically ranges from 1Hz to 120Hz, and it pushes out up to 3,200 nits of brightness when outdoors. Xiaomi applied a screen protector to the display, however, and it collects dust as if that were its job. Moreover, the maximum brightness setting didn’t seem to help too much when I viewed the phone under sunlight.
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(Credit: Eric Zeman)
It has a fairly standard set of controls and ports. On the right, you’ll find a power button and volume toggle, a USB-C port, a SIM card tray on the bottom, and antenna lines around the entire circumference. The device has an IP68 rating for protection against dust and water, which is table stakes for today’s flagships.
HyperOS 2 and Plenty of AI
The phone ships with Android 15 and Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2 user interface skin. Xiaomi’s skins tend to over a little over-designed and busy. What I saw in Barcelona was cleaner and faster than last year’s 14 Ultra, which is a good sign.
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Xiaomi loaded the phone with AI features, but none that we haven’t seen before. It includes a fairly standard list, including writing assistant, translation, voice search, and more. The camera includes Google-backed features like expanding the background of a photo, easily erasing background objects and reflections, and applying film-like filters.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra goes on sale in China soon. Xiaomi didn’t immediately say if the phone will be offered in other markets. Pricing is expected to be around $1,300.
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About Eric Zeman
Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics
