Weekly poll: is getting the Xiaomi 15 Ultra worth it?

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra joins the competition at the cutting edge of smartphone photography with a 200MP periscope. Unlike its rivals from vivo and Honor, the Xiaomi also has a medium-range telephoto module. Plus, the 15 Ultra equips its main camera with a 1” sensor.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra

While photography is clearly this phone’s passion, it’s also an all-round flagship. It has a bright display with great image quality, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is as fast as ever while running the feature-rich HyperOS, the speakers are nice and loud too. The 5,410mAh battery offers class-leading endurance and the charging is quite fast (though you need the right charger to get the best results).

Back to the camera, the 1” sensor is a standout in 2025. The vivo X200 Ultra has a 1/1.28” sensor (unlike the X100 Ultra), the Honor Magic7 Pro is close at 1/1.3” and the Oppo Find X8 Pro goes even smaller at 1/1.4”.

vivo X200 Pro • Honor Magic7 Pro • Oppo Find X8 Pro

The Galaxy S25 Ultra uses a 200MP sensor (1/1.3”) for its main camera instead of its periscope (the 111mm one has a 50MP sensor), so it’s not quite a direct competitor to the others on this list. Apple and Google haven’t used 200MP sensors yet for any of their cameras.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra • Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max • Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra camera system does have its weak spots – the selfie camera could have used an upgrade and video processing can be improved – but it’s one of the very best that money can buy. We only have the pricing for China for now, CNY 6,500 for the base 12/256GB, which is the same price as the Xiaomi 14 Ultra last year. That gives us hope that the global pricing will remain unchanged too, but we'll have to wait and see (the global event is set for March 2).

But will you buy it or do you prefer one of the other cutting edge camera flagships available?