Xiaomi 15 Ultra arrives with 200MP 100mm telephoto camera

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is here and it kept up the core values that made its predecessor great! It’s beautifully made, and it has the latest chipset, while adding a bigger battery and improving what was already a kickass camera system.

The new Xiaomi Ultra naturally adopts the full-fledged Snapdragon 8 Elite and pairs it with 12GB or 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM. There’s either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage. The new chipset provides up to 45% better performance and as much as 52% lower power consumption.

The new battery features an industry-leading 10% silicon carbide content and its capacity has grown by 17% to 6,000mAh (global models are expected to have a 5,410mAh unit). It keeps the same 90W wired and 80W wireless charging support as the 14 Ultra, though.

The display is a 6.73-inch 3200x1440px AMOLED panel with a 1-120Hz refresh rate and up to 3,200 nits of brightness.

Moving on to the body – the Xiaomi 15 Ultra comes in Black or White and a special Silver Chrome Edition. The Black features a grippy textured back, while the White has an etched surface.

The frame is CNC-crafted aluminum while the glass is Xiaomi’s Shield Glass 2.0 with a touted 16 times improved drop resistance.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra in Black and White

The Silver Chrome special edition model uses aerospace-grade glass fiber and PU leather to mold a modern premium smartphone into a classic professional camera.

The Silver Chrome is a bit heavier – 229g vs 226g – and a hair thicker – 9.48mm vs 9.35mm – compared to the other two models.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra in Silver Chrome

Let’s talk cameras. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra keeps the Leica-tuned quad camera system and in theory it’s very similar – you have wide, short telephoto, long telephoto, and ultrawide modules. But there’s one major difference and two subtle ones.

The main camera packs the same 1-inch type 50MP Sony LYT-900 imager with a 23mm lens, however this year, it’s a fixed f/1.63 aperture, not a variable f/1.6-f/4.0 one. The mid zoom option has the same 1/2.51-inch IMX858 sensor but the 75mm f/1.8 lens is replaced by a 70mm f/1.8 one.

The ultrawide is, on paper, a slight downgrade – where the Xiaomi 14 Ultra had a 12mm f/1.8 lens, the 15 Ultra moves to 14mm f/2.2 optic – both have the same 1/2.51-inch Samsung JN5 sensor.

The biggest difference, and the biggest upgrade comes in the form of the new 100mm f/2.6 zoom camera. It packs the same 200MP Samsung HP9 1/1.4-inch sensor as the one behind the zooms in the vivo X100 Ultra and X200 Pro and is notably bigger than the 1/2.51-inch imager in the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s 120mm zoom camera. In fact, Xiaomi has put a number on the improvement – 136% more light capturing!

Upfront, there’s a nearly identical 21mm f/2.0 selfie camera with a 32MP sensor.

All four rear cameras capture 8K up to 30fps, while all cameras, selfie included, capture 4K up to 60fps – the main and 100mm telephoto cameras also do 4K up to 120fps.

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra runs Android 15 with the maker’s HyperOS 2 software on top. It has an updated lock screen, home screen, and updated system applications. Its HyperCore technology improves performance, graphics, networking, and privacy, while HyperAI brings tools such as AI writing – a system-wide assistant that offers copywriting, text polishing, and summary, transcribing of meetings, and translation.

Xiaomi will offer 4 generations of Android system updates and 6 years of security updates to the Xiaomi 15 series.

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra launches in China today. The 12/256GB model is CNY 6,499 (€854, £700, INR 78,000, $895), the 16/512GB model is CNY 6,999 (€920, £760, INR 84,000, $960), the 16GB/1TB model is CNY 7,799 (€1,025, £850, INR 93,600, $1,070), and it’s expected to expand to global markets on Sunday. Xiaomi offers a Professional imaging kit accessory for CNY 999 (€130, £110, INR 12,000, $140)

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