Xiaomi 15 Ultra review

02 March 2025


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  • 05 Mar 2025

Aierlan, 05 Mar 2025For photos I like ZPH who also publishes on youtube because... moreI also watch ZPH and I appreciate his approach and a relative consistency of tests he runs. This is only good for JPGs, though. He's fundamentally wrong about the differences of RAW vs JPG and he's easily fooled by fake details of JPG vs real sharpness in .dng files (even if not that obvious).

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    • Inedian
    • 64i
    • 05 Mar 2025

    I like LL Techview the most.

      Aierlan, 05 Mar 2025For photos I like ZPH who also publishes on youtube because... morewhat does zph stand for lol

      and oh yeah LL Techview's goated but i like to form my own opinions and imo Oppo's video is great but there's a few icky spots here and there and i kind of disagree with his ranking/ratings. He has a few biases which i dont like but his comparisons are excellent.

      Honestly tho, the top 3 Ultra, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo are all so good that the drawbacks just come down to preferences imo.

        jiyen235, 04 Mar 2025i havent seen any better large scale comparisons so idk. Ap... moreFor photos I like ZPH who also publishes on youtube because he uses the same environment each time. However, his video comparisons aren't good. For video I usually just search video comparisons on bilibili and use one small channel there fairly often. The big reviewers in China nearly all just focus on photos so you have to look for smaller channels for video comparisons. LL Techview has good detailed comparisons in English on Youtube with his own ranking system. He also rates the find x7 ultra number 1 for video quality (but behind the x100 ultra overall). You can see from the gsamarena review and Dxomark reviews though that they are also very positive about the x7 ultra's video quality. Mark Victorson also has extremely detailed comparisons with it but mostly with the Vivo x100 ultra and x200 pro

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • sEF
          • 05 Mar 2025

          Wow.. these comments really hate HyperOS. I mean isn't that bad like other OS that damaging hardware by OS updates like make green/pink line on screen,damaging OIS camera, make it slower and battery damage that force you to buy new battery.

            Bought X15U and im bit dissapointed with skin tones reproduction, it cast weird green overlay, details are amazing, but colours makes humans so ugly and unhealthy. I'm sad.

              Finally getting that 4.6 rating it deserves 🙏

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                • Anonymous
                • JHk
                • 04 Mar 2025

                I tried the Xiaomi 15 Ultra's periscope camera in a store again (I have no previous experience with Xiaomi smartphones). I turned the AI zoom enhancement off (the results looked worse anyway, when it was turned on). I took a photo of a sign with small text. The sign was maybe 3 meters away.

                -When you shoot in raw (no matter which raw option, there are two raw options), the maximum resolution of the periscope camera seems to be only 12.5 megapixel. That's a huge issue!
                -if I remember correctly, you can't zoom beyond 100mm when you shoot in raw, that's very bad as this means that the periscope camera is really just a 12.5 megapixel camera when you shoot in raw

                -When you shoot in pro mode at approximately 18x or 30x, you get noticeably less detail (including true detail) than in auto mode. But the results look slightly less artificial than in auto mode. So 18x or 30x in auto mode do give you more true detail, but more fake detail as well
                -200 megapixel mode in pro mode didn't seem to produce more detail than the 50 megapixel mode, but the light conditions of the store were not perfect.
                -If I remember correctly, 400mm images in pro mode didn't really give me more detail than 200mm images, though in auto mode there could be a small advantage at 400mm if I remember correctly and even at 30x there could be maybe a tiny advantage in comparison with 18x and seemingly without producing additional fake detail (but I can't be 100% sure) (the additional AI zoom enhancement was turned off) (30x zoom settigs on other smartphones often make the details worse by producing fake detail)
                -it seems that there is an astrophotography mode, but only for the main camera

                  Aierlan, 04 Mar 2025He doesn't even crop in on the video and just gives hi... morei havent seen any better large scale comparisons so idk. Apart from cropping, the comparisons are really nice imo cus he goes through some difficult scenarios. But yeah, cropping would've been nice.

                  btw which other chinese reviewers crop in and have detailed comparisons? i'm curious lol

                    jiyen235, 04 Mar 2025i saw some video comparisons from The Tech Phenomena and im... moreHe doesn't even crop in on the video and just gives his opinion on what he likes i.e. oversaturated video that is veey high in contrast (he states that that is his preference himself). Proper reviewers like Mark Victorson (a big Vivo fan) compare the video quality properly and some of the Chinese reviewers also do. In auto mode the find X7 ultra is the best imo but it lacks the manual controls and log video you get in the Vivo x200 pro and X200 ultra and Xiaomi 14 ultra. Basically auto video is great but less flexible in terms of manual control.

                      Aierlan, 04 Mar 2025The Oppo Find x7 ultra has the reputation in China as the f... morei saw some video comparisons from The Tech Phenomena and imo the 14 Ultra has the best videography of all the Ultras. But yeah, Xiaomi basically fixes their phones within a month or two from launch in terms of updates.

                      And I agree, the changes with the Find X7 Ultra were ludicrous. But I must also say that the X100 Ultra also gets a nice amount of updates, it's just that the updates are sometimes for the worse as, for example, some say the newer updates made the camera more artificial, like the X200 Pro.

                        jiyen235, 04 Mar 2025but it will deffo be fixed cus modern day phones suck at la... moreThe Oppo Find x7 ultra has the reputation in China as the flagship with the best updates ever especially for cameras. It had an incredible amount of camera updates and not just optimisation but also adding new features e.g. the action mode and Chinese reviewers have dubbed it the king of OTAs. The video quality is also superior to all other Chinese flagships to this day for the main camera anyway. Details surpass the Vivo x100 ultra, Vivo x200 pro and Xiaomi 14 ultra (and obviously the 15 ultra as that has weaker video than the 14 ultra) in daylight and lowlight. I hope the find x8 ultra can at least match it. Xiaomi gives the fewest camera updates of the large Chinese brands based on my experience. They usually give a few in the first few months after launch and then basically not much after that. Definitely worse than OPPO (best) and Vivo (probably second best) for camera focused updates. I think it's always interesting to revisit a phone camera system after a few months though as that's when most of the updates have already been delivered and normally it won't change much after than. The Xiaomi 15 ultra is new and the global launch was at the same time as the Chinese launch so it has room for updates. The regular Xiaomi 15 global edition probably won't get much further camera optimisation as it was launched in China in October and has already had its optimisation. The find x7 ultra is an exception to the general pattern of camera updates

                          Anonymous, 04 Mar 2025Amazing this guy keeps writing an absolute wall of texts th... moreThat's not a wall of text. There are paragraph breaks.

                            Aierlan, 03 Mar 2025Android authority's review mentions the system ads in ... moreMate, if they stupidly confused the recommendations from Xiaomi's apps, which you can very easily turn off, for ads, then that just says enough about them as reviewers 😂

                              Anonymous, 04 Mar 2025Never buy any tech on the promise of future updatesbut it will deffo be fixed cus modern day phones suck at launch. Remember, the find x7 ultra was worse than the OP 12 at launch and now it's GOATED

                              You're 100% right tho, future promises are just that : promises. No one knows what will actually happen. It's just that we all know that the 15 Ultra is NOT supposed to be worse than the 14 Ultra in terms of video.

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                                • Anonymous
                                • 6pa
                                • 04 Mar 2025

                                Anonymous, 03 Mar 2025Some of the camera complaints GSMArena has will definitely ... moreNever buy any tech on the promise of future updates

                                  "We got the highest peak power of around 76W in the early stages of the process, with the usual ramp down as the percentages grew."

                                  Gsmarena, did you chance charging setting from standard to top speed?

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                                    • Anonymous
                                    • mFd
                                    • 04 Mar 2025

                                    TheLastOracle, 04 Mar 2025Dare I say, the Samsung Zoom Sensor is the Star of the Show. That's quite the statement 😉

                                      Dare I say, the Samsung Zoom Sensor is the Star of the Show.

                                        Xiaomi 15 Ultra 2025: ugly phone, beautiful camera

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