It’s been a couple of months since the Xiaomi 15 series launched in China and we’re still waiting on a global release.
In the meantime, Samsung has unveiled its own flagship update with three new S Series phones: the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, S25+ and S25.
Keep reading to learn how the top-end Galaxy S25 Ultra compares to Xiaomi’s premium handset, the Xiaomi 15 Pro.
Price
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra was announced in January 2025 with the phone arriving in stores on February 7, though you can pre-order it now. Prices for the Ultra start at £1249 for 256GB of storage.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro was revealed in China in October 2024 but has yet to see a global release. Prices for the phone start at 5299 RMB for 256GB. This works out to around £590, though that doesn’t necessarily mean the phone will carry the same RRP outside of China.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with the S Pen
One perk to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is that it comes with Samsung’s S Pen stylus. This makes the large screen ideal for note-taking as well as generating images from drawings with Galaxy AI.
It is worth noting that the S Pen has seen a downgrade this year, with Samsung removing Bluetooth connectivity from the stylus. This means you can no longer use Air Actions, including gestures or snapping a photo with the button on the pen. On the plus side, the Ultra’s S Pen is now lighter and there’s no need to worry about a dead battery.
Moving on to the screens, the S25 Ultra has a slightly bigger display, but the Xiaomi 15 Pro benefits from a brighter one.
The S25 Ultra features a 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a QHD+ resolution, smooth 120Hz refresh rate and 2600 nits of peak brightness. The Xiaomi 15 Pro, meanwhile, has a slightly smaller 6.73-inch AMOLED display with a similar resolution 120Hz refresh rate and an even bright 3200 nits of peak brightness, making it ideal for viewing in bright sunlight. The Xiaomi 15 Pro also offers Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra boasts a 200MP camera
Both phones are equipped with large triple cameras, including very capable telephoto lenses.
For the Galaxy S25 Ultra, this consists of a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a telephoto camera made up of two lenses – one 50-megapixel and the other 10-megapixel. This enables up to 5x optical zoom and 10x optical-quality zoom.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro features three Leica lenses, including a smaller 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide and a 50-megapixel telephoto camera. Like the S25 Ultra, the Xiaomi 15 Pro is capable of reaching 5x optical zoom and 10x lossless zoom.
However, you’ll have to wait for our full reviews to see how the photos compare when placed beside each other.
Both phones are powered by the same chipset
When it comes to processing power, both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Xiaomi 15 Pro are powered by the same chipset. This is Qualcomm’s latest flagship mobile chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
For the Galaxy S25 Ultra, this is actually a custom version of the chipset designed to run on Galaxy phones. Compared to the last generation of Galaxy, the new chipset offers performance improvements all around, but especially on the NPU which powers Galaxy AI features like Generative Edit, Live Translate and Google’s Circle To Search.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro combines the Snapdragon 8 Elite with an upgraded cooling system and Xiaomi’s own HyperCore system kernel for increased performance potential. The phone also takes advantage of some AI features, including AI writing, AI subtitles with real-time translation and AI camera zoom.
You’ll want to wait for our full reviews to learn how the benchmarking scores compare, along with how smooth these phones and AI features run in our experience.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro offers faster charging
Finally, the Xiaomi 15 Pro packs a larger 6100 mAh battery compared to the 5000 mAh one in the Galaxy S25 Ultra. In Xiaomi’s case, the company claims this huge battery should provide “exceptional peace of mind”.
You’ll have to wait for our review to learn which phone can go longer between charges, however, as it isn’t just battery size that determines endurance with the chipset and display also affecting battery longevity.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro also supports faster charging, including 90W charging and 50W wireless charging. The Galaxy S25 Ultra offers half those speeds with 45W charging and 25W wireless charging onboard.
Early verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Pro are two well-matched flagship smartphones when it comes to their displays, cameras and chipsets, in particular.
We’ll be updating this guide with our final verdict on how these two phones compare once we share our full reviews.
