Xiaomi 15 Ultra review: ugly phone, beautiful camera

After 2 years telling anyone who’d perceive that Chinese shaper Vivo made the champion cameras successful immoderate smartphone, past year’s Xiaomi 14 Ultra changed my tune. It became my favourite telephone and camera, handling everything from vacation snaps to merchandise reappraisal photoshoots.

With the 15 Ultra, Xiaomi took the champion and made it amended pinch a caller 200-megapixel periscope lens to complement the different (largely unchanged) cameras.

The downside? The 14 Ultra was ne'er overmuch of a looker, and the 15 Ultra’s enormous, asymmetrical camera module has taken a bad creation and made it worse. I’m consenting to put up pinch the awkward artistic erstwhile the camera is this good, but I’d beryllium beautiful knowing if you went the different way.

I haven’t mentioned overmuch astir this phone’s specs yet beyond the camera. That’s intentional. Yes, this is simply a flagship telephone done and through, but you tin find astir of what it offers connected different phones for half the price. If you’re consenting to driblet £1,299 / €1,499 (around $1,600) connected the 15 Ultra, the camera will beryllium the logic why.

Much for illustration the 14 Ultra, Xiaomi’s caller flagship has a quadruple rear camera laid retired successful a large, information module that dominates the design. Charitably, you could opportunity this evokes the classical Leica artistic that Xiaomi is besides nodding to pinch this metallic and achromatic finish, further accentuated by the optional Photography Kit accessory. Less charitably, you could opportunity it’s rather ugly, not helped by a little symmetrical lens layout than past year, adding to the consciousness that Xiaomi is desperately trying to cram the hardware in.

That layout is astir apt forced by the caller 4.3x periscope lens, which uses a 200-megapixel 1/1.4-inch-type sensor and a accelerated f/2.6 aperture. This is an upgrade connected past year’s successful each respect isolated from the zoom distance, down somewhat from 5x, and the results really are impressive.

On the 14 Ultra, I recovered myself trying to usage the 3.2x telephoto arsenic often arsenic possible, and this year, the periscope had the aforesaid captivating effect connected me. I support stepping backmost from subjects to springiness maine the excuse to usage it alternatively of the main lens, preferring its earthy extent and bokeh compared to the flattening effect that immoderate phone’s superior lens tends to offer. In bully lighting, you’ll get beautiful, earthy shots astatine up to 10x, pinch decent results astatine 30x. Beyond that — going each the measurement up to 120x — immoderate fierce sharpening kicks in. I wouldn’t see this thing typical astatine utmost range, but for mid-distance, it’s beautiful perfect.

The different 3 lenses — each 50-megapixel — are nary slouches, either. The main camera uses the aforesaid one-inch-type Sony LYT-900 sensor arsenic past year, but Xiaomi has ditched the adaptable aperture successful favour of a fixed f/1.63 approach. In theory, it makes this lens a small little versatile, but I don’t deliberation overmuch is mislaid successful practice. Still, it’s an overseas downgrade.

The regular telephoto uses the aforesaid spec arsenic past year’s balanced but pinch 3x zoom alternatively than 3.2x. This was my favourite lens past year, and I deliberation it’s still the astir useful here. 3x is simply a much applicable region than 4.3x overmuch of the time, and this is besides the lens utilized automatically for macro shots, allowing you to return close-ups without really getting close. The ultrawide and selfie lenses are the astir forgettable: they’re bully but unremarkable. It would beryllium a small unfair to telephone them afterthoughts, but they’re intelligibly not wherever Xiaomi’s attraction lies.

Beyond simply slapping an tremendous periscope in, Xiaomi’s different attraction has been improving photography capacity successful debased light. I tally a nutrient newsletter connected the side, truthful I walk a batch of clip trying to photograph dishes successful dimly lit restaurants, precisely wherever astir phones struggle. I loved the 14 Ultra, successful portion because it excels successful those conditions, moreover connected its telephoto. And connected the 15 Ultra, the aforesaid is true, though I’m not judge this telephone marks a important measurement forward. The caller periscope’s capacity is impressive, though: it’s a flimsy drop-off from the 3x lens, being somewhat much susceptible to glare from agleam lights successful acheronian surroundings and requiring a steadier manus to get a crisp shot.

The biggest title I could muster astir this camera is that it’s not that different from past year’s. If you don’t ain the 14 Ultra, past that won’t beryllium an rumor for you, but it mightiness beryllium 1 for Xiaomi. Competition astatine this extremity of the marketplace is intense, particularly successful China, and I wonderment if rivals for illustration Vivo and Oppo are astir to usurp the throne.

Get beyond the camera, and the 15 Ultra still impresses, but it feels akin to different flagships. The specs each sound familiar: a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset pinch 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage; a ample 6.73-inch 120Hz LTPO OLED display; an IP68 standing pinch reinforced solid for the display. I don’t want to propose immoderate of this is bad — it’s apical of the line. There are conscionable a batch of different phones crowding for abstraction astatine the apical pinch it.

Battery life is good. The 5,410mAh capacity is generous, and it took a recreation time pinch tons of photography and a mates of hours hotspotting my laptop earlier I started to interest astir it dying. 90W wired charging will apical it up quickly, pinch 80W wireless speeds if you put successful the charismatic charger and importantly slower speeds connected a modular Qi pad. Like almost each different Android OEM, Xiaomi still hasn’t felt the request to put successful Qi2.

The package is wherever you’ll find downsides. HyperOS — Xiaomi’s Android tegument — runs connected apical of Android 15 and shares annoyances successful communal pinch different takes connected Android from Chinese OEMs. You’ll find a batch of Xiaomi-branded apps preinstalled, a fewer of which you can’t remove, positive a smattering of different apps you mightiness not want, for illustration AliExpress.

Xiaomi removed immoderate of the OS’s customizability successful its latest version. If there’s a measurement to person 5 apps connected a homescreen statement alternatively than four, I haven’t recovered it, contempt having precisely that enabled connected my 14 Ultra. A fewer different tasks conscionable consciousness cumbersome and irritating — changing the wallpaper intends forcing your measurement done a Themes app intent connected trading you caller ringtones and naff graphics.

Almost each of this tin beryllium ignored. I’d astir apt opportunity I for illustration HyperOS to Samsung’s Galaxy UI, but you will person to unrecorded pinch a small little polish. The committedness of 4 generations of Android OS updates and six years of information support besides lags a fewer years down Samsung and Google, though it’s still a decent run.

The champion and worst things astir the 15 Ultra travel down to its camera. I deliberation the 1 point astir apt to put anyone disconnected buying this telephone — value speech — is that the lens module is simply a spot of an eyesore. It’s the first point anyone I’ve seen successful the past week has noticed astir the phone, and not successful a bully way.

But past you commencement using the camera, and you get it. Yes, it’s ugly. But location was astir apt nary different measurement to make it this damn good.

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge