Xiaomi 15 Ultra review: camera-killer is visual masterstroke

Xiaomi may not be as popular in the Netherlands as brands like Samsung and Apple, but the brand manages to release very interesting smartphones time and again. Earlier we discussed the Xiaomi 15, now it is the turn of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. A phone that has everything for the photography user. You can read how we like it in the Xiaomi 15 Ultra review.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra: these are our experiences

Xiaomi announced two new high-end smartphones in March: the Xiaomi 15 and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. We reviewed the former in detail earlier this month in the Xiaomi 15 review. The phone managed to score high marks and leave an incredibly good impression. Now it is the turn of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, its bigger brother.

Unboxing

For the review, we received the Xiaomi 15 Ultra in the colour silver, personally an instant favourite of ours. With a combination of black vegan leather and silver, the device has the retro look of a camera. We also received the Photography Kit with it for testing, but it is not included as standard. We will come back to that later in the Xiaomi 15 Ultra review.

What does come standard is at least the device, a SIM needle, a USB-C data cable and a plastic case. This plastic case allows you to immediately protect the device properly. A plastic screen protector is also stuck on the Ultra's screen right from the factory. However, we found that this protective layer itself is somewhat susceptible to scratches. In doing so, it attracts a lot of dust. Combined with the thin screen edges and the case, this can cause some dust to accumulate on the top from time to time.

Design and interface

The name 'Ultra' refers not only to its many features, but also a bit to its size. After all, the smartphone cannot exactly be called small. I don't necessarily need a small phone, but the Ultra seemed pretty big to me beforehand. Still, it is smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which we reviewed in the Galaxy S25 Ultra review. Thereby, the Xiaomi has a very big advantage; that huge yoke of a camera module ensures that you have a very fine grip on the phone. In fact, you easily put your index finger under the camera module for grip, and the Ultra also has more rounded corners than Samsung's S25 Ultra.

Weighing 226g, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is certainly not the lightest, but in daily use this did not bother us. The camera module you can put your finger behind also makes it just a little easier to operate with one hand.

The smartphone feels very solid and sturdy. On the right side of the phone are the power button and the volume key. The power button is textured, so you can find it quickly.

At the front of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is the 6.73-inch screen. This is an AMOLED panel with a resolution of 3200 x 1440 pixels and a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. At the sides, the screen extends. The screen has excellent readability and high quality even on the sunniest days. Of lesser quality is the standard screen protector placed on the device. This one scratches quickly, which is a shame.

Interface

These days, Xiaomi devices have the HyperOS skin over Android. Previously, this was MIUI, which featured a completely unique style full of features and options. That didn't always please everyone. With HyperOS, this is a big step forward and after some getting used to it, we were completely used to this. The Theme app lets you download additional ringtones, as well as get to work with backgrounds, fonts and themes. This one is all too happy to show notifications, but fortunately you can silence them.

Via the top corners of the screen, you can access notifications and quick settings with a swipe. Everything works as you might expect. In the menu, applications are displayed vertically below each other in alphabetical order, and the search bar lets you quickly find your favourite app. The menu interface is further characterised by categories where you can find certain apps. You can also disable this, or create your own categories, putting apps at your fingertips quickly.

Communication and multimedia

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is excellent for making phone calls. Call quality is more than good, even in environments with a lot of ambient noise. The phone has space for both a nano SIM card and eSIM. With that, there is WiFi, and what is noticeable is that it is clearly stronger than an iPhone, Pixel 9 Pro or many other Android devices. That's nice with summer, when you just have WiFi in the backyard. We also saw this with the Xiaomi 15.

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra's display is of high quality. Images are sharp and clarity is fine even on sunny days. From an expensive smartphone, you can expect the sound quality to be fine as well. No need to worry about that with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. The speakers are of incredibly high quality to give you the best music experience. The volume is loud and the sound is warm and full, just the way you like it.

Camera

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra's camera is, of course, the key feature of the device. The smartphone features a camera that has collaborated with Leica. With such a large camera module, the photos must be great, right? In total, there are four cameras. These are a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel telephoto lens, 50-megapixel wide-angle lens and another 200-megapixel periscope telephoto lens.

With the camera app, at least, you can go either way. You can zoom 0.6x, 1x, 2x, 3x and 4.3x. Then, by pressing the 4.3x button, you can zoom even more, to 200 millimetres and up to 400 millimetres. Here you use hybrid zoom. This provides an incredibly hefty zoom. We will, of course, share the results later in this chapter.

Another important feature about the Xiaomi camera app is the ability to switch between styles. For instance, you can choose Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant as colour styles. Here, the former is more natural and the Vibrant feature features more saturated colours.

The photographer who wants to go professional doesn't have to miss a thing. You can activate a watermark, get started with the image format (JPG or HEIF format) and choose from a total of eight shutter sounds you will hear when taking a picture. There are also several modes, including Pro mode. This manual mode lets you manually adjust settings and also choose RAW, so you can edit images afterwards with Lightroom, for example. You can also shoot JPG photos with more megapixels here.

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra shoots fantastic pictures. The colours and details are spot-on. Not only on sun-drenched days, but also on cloudy days, the phone manages to take beautiful pictures. In the dark hours, you don't have to worry about bad photos. Even with zooming in, you still get a bucket of details.

Zooming in, the phone also does a satisfactory job. It's really impressive how much detail is shown with zooming in that many times. If you zoom all the way to the end, AI goes to work on the photos. This usually goes well, but sometimes, for example with a group of people in the distance, it can result in distorted faces when you zoom in on the captured photo. The photos below are straight from the 15 Ultra, without editing. You can find many more photos we took with the phone in the digital photo album.

But really, what great pictures come out of this device. If you really want to take stunning photos with a smartphone and not lug around an expensive camera anymore, then the Xiaomi 15 Ultra will do just fine fulfilling this for you.

Photography Kit

With the additional Photography Kit, you can turn the Xiaomi 15 Ultra into an extra photographic masterpiece. The kit does need some assembly first with which you can add your own touch to the kit. There is a black and red shutter button present in the kit. We also find a red and black camera ring and a ring that allows you to screw a 67mm filter onto the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

With the case included in the kit, the battery pack snaps onto the device with the buttons and is ready to use. Of course, the size does increase a little but, like a good compact camera, it still just fits in my pocket. The extra stability the camera grip adds is definitely a plus. You can zoom in smoothly by gently operating the slide on the front and in quick steps by making a short movement. The whole thing feels very solid and of good quality.

What's nice is that the battery pack also comes to the rescue when the phone only has 20 per cent left, so it doesn't start recharging right away. Is the kit a nice addition to your 15 Ultra, absolutely! Still, the price of 199 euros is a bit on the hefty side on top of the price of this high-end.

Video camera

Looking at the videos taken by the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, again we see razor-sharp images full of detail. Also, the optical image stabilisation does a good job. You can watch a video we shot with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra below.

Performance and battery life

On board the Xiaomi you will find Qualcomm's powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. This chipset has already proven itself in several devices, and so we are not entirely surprised that in the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, it also holds its own extremely well. The phone is blazing fast and tasks are performed smoothly. We haven't encountered any annoying hiccups or lags over the past few weeks. The smartphone also has 16GB of working memory on top of that.

The smartphone is available with 512GB of internal storage, or with 1TB.

Battery

Such a hefty device naturally also has a hefty battery. Yet there is something wrong with that. In home country China, the smartphone is sold with a 6000mAh battery. In the rest of the regions, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra comes with a 5410 mAh battery. The exact reason is not entirely clear. That said, the capacity is more than average.

It is unfortunate that the endurance does disappoint. As an intensive user, the end of the day is usually manageable, but hopefully Xiaomi will manage to improve here with a software update. We note a screen-on-time of regularly under four hours under mainly 5G use, and that's really not good. If you're on WiFi more, this does add some time. In particular, it seems that the device loses its economy under mobile network usage. In addition, we sometimes notice an inexplicably hefty battery drain at night.M As we had our doubts about the battery life, we tested for additional weeks with a second one, but unfortunately did not achieve any different results.

Fortunately, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra does come with fast charging again. This can be done with 90W wired or with 80W wireless. However, you still need to arrange the charger yourself.

Update policy

Xiaomi is also clear about its update policy. You get four Android updates and six years of security updates. For a device with a recommended price of 1,500 euros, that's not very generous. Even Samsung's much cheaper devices get seven years of updates and Google also does this for its Pixel models. The number of updates Xiaomi gives the 15 Ultra equals that of the OnePlus 13.

Review

We spent quite a few weeks with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. With the price of the device, combined with the specifications on paper, we had high expectations. The camera in particular was supposed to be totally the end all be all. In the Xiaomi 15 Ultra review, you were able to read all about the phone; and indeed, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a fantastic smartphone. We have been impressed time and again by the performance of the camera. Besides, the device looks very sleek and because of the large camera module, you have a just a bit more comfortable grip. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra has a nice screen, good speakers and is unbelievably fast.

Still, there are points of concern with the Ultra. For instance, the battery is not what we expected it to be. With really heavy use taking lots of photos, the battery goes hard. That's where a power bank or the Photography Kit can provide relief, but with a battery of this capacity, we would have expected more. We hope Xiaomi still addresses this with an update. If you can live with this, then you will own an incredibly good phone/camera.

Want to get started with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra yourself? You can buy the smartphone at: Belsimpel, Bol.com, Mobiel, Coolblue and MediaMarkt. At several shops, you can find it for less than the original asking price.