Xiaomi has announced its 15 Ultra flagship phone at a launch event in China, where it’s going on sale starting at 6,499 yuan (around $893). The Android phone joins the company’s Xiaomi 15 and 15 Pro, which went on sale there in October 2024. It is a mostly iterative upgrade on last year’s model, but the big change is the addition of a 200-megapixel periscope camera that the company says excels in low light. The 15 series, including the Ultra, is getting an international launch this Sunday, March 2nd, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Exactly which markets it will go on sale in remains to be seen, but it’s a safe bet that this one won’t be coming to the US.
Xiaomi’s Ultra line has always been camera-centric, even more so than Samsung or Apple’s top models, and the 15 Ultra is no different. Like last year’s 14 Ultra, the quad rear camera is arrayed in an enormous circular module on the phone’s rear. It’s designed to resemble photography partner Leica’s dedicated camera hardware, right down to the two-tone silver and black finish, and compact “Ultra” corner logo found on one of the phone’s three versions. There are also simpler black or white models.
The 200-megapixel 4.3x periscopic lens follows similar periscopes in Vivo’s X100 Ultra and X200 Pro, and Honor’s Magic 7 Pro. This is a shorter zoom than the 5x periscope on the 14 Ultra, but uses a larger sensor, faster aperture, and higher resolution, which Xiaomi says results in better light capture, bringing improvements in zoom photography, especially in lower light. Xiaomi even codenamed the phone “Night God” internally, so low light photography is clearly a focus this year.
The other three rear sensors are all 50-megapixel, and are set up similarly to last year’s model, albeit with small variations. The most noteworthy change is to the main camera, which has dropped the variable aperture tech featured on the previous model in favor of a fixed — but fast — f/1.63.
The photography focus is enhanced by the release of Xiaomi’s third-generation Photography Kit, an optional extra that includes a case and a camera grip. Beyond a new red finish, not much has changed here either: the internal battery is a little larger at 2,000mAh (allowing this to double as a small power bank for the phone), and there’s a new thumb rest, but the core camera controls remain the same: a shutter button, video button, zoom lever, and exposure dial.
Beyond the inevitable upgrade to the current-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, there are few other upgrades or design changes. The 6.73-inch display is again 1-120Hz but a little brighter at 3,200 nits peak HDR brightness. An IP68 rating returns, too. The 6,000mAh battery is significantly larger, but the 90W wired charging and 80W wireless speeds are unchanged. As with other recent Android flagships, there’s still no sign of Qi2 adoption.
I thought the 14 Ultra was last year’s best phone camera by some distance, and my colleague Allison called it “a photography nerd’s dream,” so Xiaomi has set itself a high bar to live up to. This was such a strong camera, it’s understandable that the company has kept changes to a minimum this time around. But we’re looking forward to finding out whether its one big upgrade, the periscope, will deliver.
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