The 15 Ultra, Xiaomi’s third-generation camera-focused smartphone, is a strong contender in the segment that appeals to camera enthusiasts in India. Premium smartphone consumers are spoilt for choice today, especially if there’s an inclination to get a phone that nails smartphone photography. In the long list of phones available today, including the
Xiaomi 15 Ultra daylight camera samples (tap images to expand)
The portrait mode is a kind of USP of the Xiaomi Ultra devices, and 15 Ultra nails it. Portraits with people come out well, and depth estimation, subject isolation and natural blur are effortless.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra portrait camera sample (tap image to expand)
When it comes to zoom performance, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra will surely be among the top phones this year. I managed to click a ship in the ocean that was barely visible on the phone camera at 0.6x with the help of the long-range tele camera. When premium phones like the iPhone lost track of the subject beyond 25x zoom, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra impressed me with its strong zoom credentials. If you’re someone who clicks many zoom photos, just grab this one. The 3x zoom photos come out well with amazing colours, dynamic range, low noise, and details. The 4.3x telephoto is even better for portraits and gives you enough room to fit your subject in the frame. The results are below, and I was blown away by what the 15 Ultra can achieve with this terrific combination.
A ship in the ocean appears like a dot in 0.6x (tap image to expand)
The ship is visible with the name being readable, showing the 15 Ultra’s zooming capability
Xiaomi 15 Ultra zoom samples (tap images to expand)
The phone is also capable when it comes to close-up photos, and a 3x telephoto lens is used for that. Excellent close-up pictures with enough details and natural-looking shots with accurate colours.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra is also a capable smartphone for close-up shots (tap images to expand)
In this entire ensemble, the ultrawide camera on the 15 Ultra is the only one that could have been slightly better. Mind you, it is not a letdown and can reproduce some pleasant photos with excellent dynamic range. It’s just that when you compare ultrawide with the main camera, it slightly lacks overall quality.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra ultrawide samples (tap images to expand)
Of course, there are Leica photographic styles – Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant – to spice up your portraits and take the upper hand on social media platforms.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra low-light samples (tap images to expand)
This is where it gets really interesting. The night photography on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is fantastic. The phone is capable of capturing high levels of detail in low-light situations. During my testing, the 15 Ultra mostly maintained highlights, sharpness, shadows, and details and kept noise in check in low-light conditions. The phone was also capable of keeping fine textures in check.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra selfie sample (tap image to expand)
If there’s one department where I could really ask the Xiaomi team to improve in the camera department, it has to be a selfie shooter. It’s not bad, but it’s not remarkable too. For a phone made for smartphone photography enthusiasts, you expect more from every camera sensor. The front camera is capable during the daytime with no major issues with details, but in the low-light scenarios, it gets a bit unpredictable.
Of course, the camera phone is also built for videos. It supports 4K 60fps log video recording across all focal lengths and 4K 120fps cinematic slow motion video recording with both the main and periscope telephoto cameras. The video quality is top-notch, but how much would a content creator want to bring it into their daily workflow will depend on the ecosystem of devices for quicker video editing.
Overall, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra will be the camera smartphone to beat in 2025, and I’m guessing competition, including the likes of Oppo and Vivo, are already working on new Ultras. The 14 Ultra is already a capable smartphone for photography, but with the 15 Ultra, it’s been pushed to the extreme with two tele cameras. It’s the ultimate point-and-shoot smartphone for enthusiasts. If you want to raise the stakes, spend some more and grab the Photography Kit Legend Edition for the 15 Ultra that takes you to another level.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra Performance: Boringly Brilliant
Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform
16GB + 512GB (single variant)
HyperOS 2.0 based on Android 15
4 years of software support and 6 years of security updates promised
Xiaomi 15 Ultra is among a handful of devices launched this year with Qualcomm’s top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite platform. In everyday usage, there’s barely anything that this phone can’t handle, be it multitasking, streaming videos, photo editing on the go, video editing, gaming or anything else you can think of. For context, I tested the phone with almost 32 apps open in the background, and even when jumping between them, it didn’t stutter – absolutely top-tier performance – as expected.
The phone ships in a single RAM and ROM variant in India – 16GB and 512GB storage. However, Xiaomi sent me a 1TB variant, only available in China, for review. Talking about specifics, the 15 Ultra gets LPDDR5X and UFS 4.1 storage.
In India, the phone is available in single RAM and storage trim – 16GB + 512GB
Talking about biometrics, the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is quick compared to the one we saw on the 14 Ultra. There’s also face unlock, which works well, but I preferred the fingerprint sensor during the review for daily use. For people who love gaming, there’s a 3D Dual-Channel IceLoop system which helps cool down the phone. In my time with the device, I noticed that the 15 Ultra did heat up while running Google Maps for continuously 45 minutes or more, gaming for more than 40 minutes, and even while camera use for more than 25 minutes. But, it never became too challenging to handle, and of course, the cooling system kicked in quickly.
I tested the Xiaomi 15 Ultra with a suite of benchmarking apps, and as expected, the phone shines with impressive scores, which you can check below.
Calling on the 15 Ultra was clear, and I faced no issues with 5G connectivity with Airtel and Jio networks. I love typing on the 15 Ultra as it packs an excellent haptic motor that is amazing for typing, texting, and gaming.
The phone features stereo speakers and comes with Dolby Atmos support. The setup is the usual one, with one at the bottom firing down and another built into the earpiece. The speakers are loud and sufficient to fill a medium-sized room.
Moving to the software side of things, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra ships with Android 15-based HyperOS 2.0 out-of-the-box. Xiaomi promises 4 Android updates and 6 years of security updates for the 15 Ultra, which may not be as comprehensive as what Samsung and Google offer for their devices. But, keeping in mind the phone change cycle, anything above 3 years is good support from the company side.
The new aerospace-grade glass fibre and PU leather back make a great rear design
The HyperOS 2 feels the same as HyperOS 1, albeit with some neat additions for overall optimisation and AI features. Now, you can check notifications and quick toggles on the control centre separately, like on iOS. You get plenty of customisation options for your home screen and lock screen.
Then, there’s a suite of Google features like Gemini Access and Circle to Search. For me, Circle to Search has been the coolest addition by Google lately and just makes things to search instead of typing it all. Xiaomi also bakes in plenty of AI features, namely AI writing, which provides proofreading and summarising your writing features; AI Gallery Editor, which offers image editing tools powered by AI; and AI speech recognition, which provides features like transcription and more. There are more features like Interpret Conversations with AI, AI Interpreter, and AI subtitles. It’s good to have a full-blown AI suite to help you be more productive.
But, the AI features in HyperOS 2 still need refinement. The AI-powered post-processing image editing tools like Object Remover lack polish, and I ended up with not-so-great edits. The same was true with some recorded conversations, and the speech recognition feature almost lost track of the recorded conversation and showed a random summary. This is not just Xiaomi but practically every other major OEM. Even Apple has failed to nail its much-hyped Apple Intelligence features. I hope 2025 is when AI features get advanced and do what they are expected to do with more finesse.
The rear design of the 15 Ultra makes it stand out in the crowd
Xiaomi 15 Ultra Battery: Exceeds Expectations
5410mAh Battery
90W HyperCharge
Fully charges in less than an hour
The battery department is another one where there is a significant incremental update compared to the predecessor. The 15 Ultra packs a 5410mAh battery, which is way more than what we got on the 14 Ultra (5000mAh).
In our internal video loop test, the 15 Ultra ended up with impressive figures of over 20 hours of continuous video playback, thus putting it among the top devices we tested in 2025 and late 2024. The phone ships with a 90W adapter and is among a handful of devices that still get a charger in the box. It can fully charge (from 0 to 100 percent) within an hour, but the device gets heated up – a compromise you make to get additional charging speeds. It’s worth noting that the device comes with standard wired charging mode enabled by default, which usually means it will take more time to charge fully. For quicker charging, you must opt for “Top Speed.”
The phone comes with 90W fast-charging support that can charge the phone fully within an hour
In real-world usage, the bump in battery capacity gives the Xiaomi 15 Ultra some edge over competition devices like Pixel 9 Pro XL and the like. With heavy usage, which included significant camera app usage, the phone lasted over a day, included an hour of gaming, calls lasting about an hour, browsing, streaming, image editing on the go, Instagram, X, and other work-related apps open in the background at all times. During the review, I got over seven hours of screen-on time on the 15 Ultra, which is impressive.
Overall, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra exceeded my expectations in terms of battery output.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra Verdict
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a sensible camera phone that is done very, very well and will be a solid contender in next year’s best smartphone camera category at our NDTV Gadgets 360 Awards.
It is packed to the brim with features like Snapdragon 8 Elite that handles all performance needs efficiently, a fantastic camera setup tuned with legendary camera maker Leica, a large 5410mAh battery, 90W HyperCharge support, and much more. The idea of selling the Photography Kit Legend Edition separately is well-timed and should appeal to true Xiaomi fans and camera enthusiasts.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra is also a great device for gaming and can handle games like BGMI, COD: Mobile at high graphics settings
The 15 Ultra is available at Rs. 109,999 on Amazon, Mi.com and through the company’s offline channel partners. The company is running some bank offers that can bring down the price of the smartphone to under a lakh, which makes it a sweet deal. Of course, if you are a pro and want to add the Photography Kit Legend Edition, add another Rs. 11,999. Overall, you get a solid smartphone camera built to last a few years at around Rs. 1,21,998 minus any offers.
Compared to some rivals, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra (plus Photography Kit Legend Edition) costs less than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (Review), which is available at Rs. 141,999 and iPhone 16 Pro Max (Review) available at as low as Rs. 137,900 on Amazon. There are some cheaper alternatives, like the Vivo X200 Pro (Review), available at Rs. 94,999, and the Find X8 Pro (Review), retailing at Rs. 99,999.
