Xiaomi 15 Ultra review
- ?
- Anonymous
- JHk
- 05 Mar 2025
Here is a tele comparison I made in a store between the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, my Google Pixel 7 Pro and my Panasonic Tz80.
The distance was maybe 3 meters. The light conditions were not perfect (Panasonic's exif data: f/6.4 1/80s Iso 400, Xiaomi's 30x auto mode exif data: f/2.6 1/100s Iso 320, Google's exif data without Night Sight: f/3.5 1/77s Iso 184)
The HDR+ dng file of the Pixel 7 Pro was opened with Lightroom mobile (color noise reduction 25, luminance noise reduction 0, sharpening strength 130)
The Panasonic Tz80's in-camera noise reduction setting was set to the lowest value and its contrast setting was at -2.
The additional AI zoom enhancement of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra was turned off in the settings (it made the results worse anyway).
Note that apparently, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra only can save periscope dng files with 16-1 analog binning (and apparently you can't zoom beyond 100mm when raw is enabled), so I didn't even try dng files from the 15 Ultra.
I have uploaded crops of the images (the crops are from the center of the frame). In each case I took multiple photos, so I made sure that the image wasn't out of focus.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra at roughly 17.6x in pro mode (1/100s):
i.postimg.cc/3wztqqj5/xiaomi18xpro.jpg
Google Pixel 7 Pro edited dng at 15x in (short) Night Sight mode (1/31s):
i.postimg.cc/tCD2bJdz/pixel7pro15xdngnightsight.jpg
Google Pixel 7 Pro jpg at 15x in (short) Night Sight mode (1/31s):
i.postimg.cc/Gm8YfmXt/pixel7pro15xnight.jpg
Google Pixel 7 Pro at 15x without Night Sight (1/77s):
i.postimg.cc/dtDT70P6/pixel7pro15xwithoutnightsight.jpg
Xiaomi 15 Ultra at 30x in pro mode (1/100s):
i.postimg.cc/VNvhpM3M/xiaomi30xpro.jpg
Xiaomi 15 Ultra at roughly 17.6x in auto mode (1/100s):
i.postimg.cc/gJwfXRsd/xiaomi18x.jpg
Xiaomi 15 Ultra at 30x in auto mode (1/100s):
i.postimg.cc/mkhLXtTg/xiaomi30x.jpg
Panasonic Tz80 at 30x in P-mode(automatic) (1/80s): i.postimg.cc/Kzc6ZwkK/tz80-30x.jpg
You can see that the Xiaomi 15 Ultra can suffer from fake detail. In the 17.6x auto mode image the number at the top looks like 4.85, in the 30x auto mode image it looks like 4.05 , but it's actually 4.35.
The results of Xiaomi's pro mode (that's the mode where you can choose exposure time, white balance, manual focus, Iso) seem to be less artificial, but they have noticeably less detail than Xiaomi's auto mode.
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- AnonD-814624
- XkN
- 05 Mar 2025
GREGB, 05 Mar 2025I also watch ZPH and I appreciate his approach and a relati... moreAh yeah. I don't always agree with the opinion but the reviews are consistent which makes it easier to see the differences between phones especially in his lowlight shots and hdr scenes. The way he presents the photos makes it easy for viewers to form their own opinions
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- AnonD-814624
- XkN
- 05 Mar 2025
jiyen235, 05 Mar 2025what does zph stand for lol
and oh yeah LL Techview'... moreZPH is the channel name. He also has a Youtube channel and uses English subtitles on the videos so you will find it if you type it into youtube. Ah, yeah. I also always form my own opinion mostly based on my own experience. If I'm interested in phones I will often go to nearby phone stores when I'm waiting for my kid (who is attending some activities) and shoot a bunch of photos and videos on the phone and then file share with my own phone (all the Chinese brands have a file share function now where you can transfer large files to other brands in seconds). Then I can compare them when I go home on a larger screen. This is basically what I have based my conclusion that the Oppo find x7 ultra has better video on. Unfortunately though it's no longer available in stores in China so I can't compare it with the newer flagships e.g. Xiaomi 15 ultra and Vivo x200 pro. However, I did compare the last generation i.e. Vivo x100 ultra, Xiaomi 14 ultra and Oppo find x7 ultra and in my personal opinion the find x7 ultra was significantly better for exposure and details (it's especially better for details). Also it doesn't go to heavy on saturation. That's my opinion but like you say we may have different preferences. I haven't compared with an Iphone though (as I have no real interest in IOS phones) but I recognise that the iphone video is generally regarded as being excellent too.
My surprising choice for video would be the Oppo Find x8. I compared that with the Vivo x200 pro in a darkish indoor environment and it beat the Vivo x200 pro for details although there was slightly more noise. Glad that gsmarena recognized the excellent video quality on that phone on their review
- C
- Catboy
- SqW
- 05 Mar 2025
Catrespecter, 03 Mar 2025Will this phone camera capture the detail of cat fur better... moreThat's a great question.
Question of the year if I may add.
- catlover123
- G
- GREGB
- Fvd
- 05 Mar 2025
AnonD-814624, 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).
- I
- Inedian
- 64i
- 05 Mar 2025
I like LL Techview the most.
- jiyen235
- XQQ
- 05 Mar 2025
AnonD-814624, 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.
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- AnonD-814624
- Eaj
- 05 Mar 2025
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.
- P
- PatDat
- iDF
- 04 Mar 2025
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.
- ?
- 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
- jiyen235
- XQQ
- 04 Mar 2025
AnonD-814624, 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
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- AnonD-814624
- f}A
- 04 Mar 2025
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.
- jiyen235
- XQQ
- 04 Mar 2025
AnonD-814624, 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.
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- AnonD-814624
- FXI
- 04 Mar 2025
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
- r
- raditz594
- x0k
- 04 Mar 2025
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.
- David 040882
- srr
- 04 Mar 2025
AnonD-814624, 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 😂
- jiyen235
- XQQ
- 04 Mar 2025
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.