Xiaomi 15 Ultra review

02 March 2025


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Ottonis, 02 Mar 2025All in all - the usual cameraphone flagship suspects, inclu... morethrottling is only an issue on the benchmark, in real life use cases other proper Ultra phones perform the same and Samsung performs worse. Only Pro phones perform similarly but they have less hardware eating up cooling space.

    Anonymous, 02 Mar 2025To be sincere, I see no loss of details, even with the 94mm... morei know, their upscaling is good but there is indeed loss of details. Compare the 14 Ultra's 3.2x to the others and you'll understand.

    My main issue is them blatantly lying. If they were transparent about it i'd have gotten this phone in a month or two but nope. Not getting a Xiaomi phone, EVER. If a Vivo Ultra or Oppo Ultra goes global im getting that. Xiaomi broke my heart and has angered me to no end.

      Anonymous, 02 Mar 2025Rx100 has Type 1.0 as well. Very old sensor by the way . ... moreThe rx-100's sensor is just better bro. Dedicated cameras will always be better as they always target one form of photography and dont target processing whereas mobile sensors not only are made to be flexible so that they can be used in many phones/made easily but they're also made with computational photography in mind.

      "oh yeah this sensor has a high noise floor BUT YOU CAN JUST PROCESS IT TO REDUCE THE NOISE BRO". - Every phone sensor manufacturer.

        Inline 4, 02 Mar 2025Ok, keep dedicated camera aside. Lets talk about other larg... morewanna know why? cus of the sensor. Those phones have REAL sensors. So no focus on computational stuff, no quad bayer nonsense, just REAL HARD MEGAPIXELS.

        That's why they look so stunning. And they're not made with multiple phones with mind, no. They're tailor-made for those particular phones. That's why I've been preaching this for a while, BRING BACK PROPER HIGH RES SENSORS. Imagine Vivo partnering with Zeiss, like Nokia did, for a proper high resolution sensor that you can use for ACTUALLY lossless cropping AND it being a wonky resolution which allows you to use 16:9 and 4:3 without losing quality and now since phones are taller, we could also go for 18:9!! SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!

        But nope, money talks, and the crowd doesn't want anything like that. Just ask the average person about a Xiaomi, Oppo or Vivo Ultra and see how they look disgusted. Companies are just gonna do what consumers want yk?

        Anyways, variable aperture isn't as important on these phones as the sensor is only 1 inch. However, a dedicated shutter button seems to be making a comeback, look at ZTE, they're doing it like Sony, a beautiful two stage shutter button! And the xenon flash is unmatched! A true gem!!!! Oh how much i wish we could get a real high res modern phone, with a dedicated shutter button and a xenon flash!!! MAKE PHONES BETTER AGAIN!!!

          All in all - the usual cameraphone flagship suspects, including vivo X200 pro, Xiaomi 15 ultra, Hono4 Magic 7, Samsung 25 Ultra etc - actually deliver very similar performance and IQ - a decision on which one to get ultimately boils down to (regional) availability, pricing and maybe some specific individual preferences.

          I would have loved to see some direct comparison of intermediate and long range tele, true makro (e.g. insects). and color rendition between Xiaomi 15 ultra and its peers.

          Overall, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra seems a very attractive and capable cameraphone. It's probably a good idea to wait a couple of months for the prices to get slightly down (hopefully) and some firmware updates to come in, in particular improving on the overheating/throttling issue and maybe even further refining video stabilization etc.

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            • Anonymous
            • xjH
            • 02 Mar 2025

            Anonymous, 02 Mar 2025The one that got humiliated by x100 ultra? You keep spamming this everywhere. The X200 Pro is competing with the X100 Pro, not Ultra.

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              • Anonymous
              • xjH
              • 02 Mar 2025

              jiyen235, 02 Mar 2025A proper monster this one! Immense battery life, chargi... moreTo be sincere, I see no loss of details, even with the 94mm-100mm interpolation (or upscale). I've even checked the Xiaomi 14 and the 13 Pro, and I didn't see the traces of upscaling.

              Maybe Xiaomi is just good at it. 😉

                Xiaomi 15 ultra, the camera to beat. Yes, until the Vivo X200 ultra. Heard there won't be a global release for that one. Shocked that this hone could beat the S25 ultra in terms of photography

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                  • Anonymous
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                  • 02 Mar 2025

                  FSP, 02 Mar 2025Vivo x200 Pro still the best photo phone The one that got humiliated by x100 ultra?

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                    • Anonymous
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                    • 02 Mar 2025

                    jiyen235, 02 Mar 2025bro even in xiaomi's press conference, leica's ce... moreRx100 has Type 1.0 as well. Very old sensor by the way .

                    Since people love to lie that " computational photography" is superior to old school hardware based, then phones like this one should do better.
                    But cannot. Enhancements ruin the jpegs.

                    Glass elements of rx100 lens give giant advantage ( certain brainless user may show up later to say it does not).

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                      • FSP
                      • Qy}
                      • 02 Mar 2025

                      Vivo x200 Pro still the best photo phone

                        All recently released phones for 2025 are disappointed

                        My hope is on

                        Nothing phone 3 and oppo find x8 ultra....

                          Anonymous, 02 Mar 2025Do you own GSMArena? Why do your comments always have the h... moreLOL i wish. Even just working there would be the dream. Regarding the likes well maybe read what i have to say before suggesting i must own the website lol

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                            • arsen
                            • Lfh
                            • 02 Mar 2025

                            can it run 8k 3x2 (8192x5462) from main sensor with MotionCam Pro or custom camera2api app like opensourse FreeDCam?

                              jiyen235, 02 Mar 2025bro even in xiaomi's press conference, leica's ce... moreOk, keep dedicated camera aside. Lets talk about other large sensor smartphones ever produced. nokia 808, lumia 1020 and panasonic dmc cm1. All these were launched a decade ago yet if u look their image quality it looks very natural, very close to dedicated camera. Moreover they also had more physical features. panasonic had variable aperture while nokia had mechanical shutter, nd filter and xenon flash.

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                                • Anonymous
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                                • 02 Mar 2025

                                Wesker, 02 Mar 2025LOL. The OS is never “a worthy sacrifice” smh. The softw... moreDo you own GSMArena? Why do your comments always have the highest likes?

                                Just asking. :⁠-⁠)

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                                  • Anonymous
                                  • xjH
                                  • 02 Mar 2025

                                  According to google photos, the nominal focal length of the telephoto is 25.10mm. The sensor has a 11.44mm diagonal, so the calculations point to a 3.78x crop factor (compared to a full frame). This gives us 94.878mm focal length, which Xiaomi is upscaling (or interpolating, because of how quality it is) to 100mm.

                                  And I must say, it's an excellent job! I have viewed these images, and I see zero trace of upscaling, both at the 100mm and 200mm focal length images!

                                  Good job, Xiaomi! I wrote this off because of the upscale, but I'm taking back my words. This is the best I've seen so far!

                                    jiyen235, 02 Mar 2025well agree to disagree then, most of the products i've... moreI understand

                                      PepperPot, 02 Mar 2025As a car enthusiasts you should know Xiaomi taking design c... moreIndeed and yes I’ve seen the car. It reeks of a lawsuit from Stuttgart lol.

                                        OneBraincelledWunkus, 02 Mar 2025Wow that battery life improvement is substantial even with ... morei'd suggest you to wait for proper battery tests to pass your judgement as gsmarena's test has been highly unreliable imo.

                                        Additionally, try to look for tests WITH a sim, for example Lover Of Tech's 5g drain tests as sometimes the equations shift completely with sims, which is something that i think nearly everyone uses on their phones lmao

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