Xiaomi 15 Ultra Review: A Leica Camera That Just Happens To Be A Phone

Xiaomi 15 Ultra Review: The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is actually more of a super-smart camera than a flagship smartphone. Yes, it packs in top-of-the-line smartphone hardware, but it is really designed for those who want to do some very serious photography on their phone, and that too with a distinctly Leica touch. Yes, it is a phone. But it is designed for photographers. 

Xiaomi 15 Ultra Review: Quick Pointers

What we love:

• Stunning image and video quality on all rear cameras 
• Smooth, flagship-level performance
• Leica effects and colours
• A very distinct design  
• Good battery life 
• IP68 dust and water resistance 

What we don’t:

• Bulky design 
• Slightly complex interface
• Selfie camera is not the greatest 

Looks Like A Leica

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s design screams photography, We got the silver chrome variant, and several people mistook it for a camera, with its narrow vertical silver band on the left, next to a textured black, with a very large spherical camera unit with Leica branding dominating the upper portion (and protruding prominently), with a tiny “ultra” logo next to it. Look at it from a distance, and you would be forgiven for thinking that it is a classic point-and-shoot camera (although Xiaomi itself poked fun at “point and shoot” photography in an advertisement for the phone). 

Look at its sides and front, and the camera illusion fades. The front is dominated by a 6.73-inch quad curve display, which curves towards the straight sides. The right side houses the volume and display buttons, while the base has the Type-C port, SIM card tray and a speaker grille. The top and left sides are bare. 

Rather surprisingly, in such a camera-centric design, there is no dedicated camera button. That large camera unit makes the XIaomi Ulta 15 seem like a very large phone, but while it is a big phone, it is not excessively so – at 161.3 mm, it is shorter than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, OnePlus 13, Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and even the equally camera centric Vivo X200 Pro. That said, it is rather thick at 9.4 mm, although not too wide at 75.3 mm. At 226 grams, it is on the heavy side and thanks to that large camera unit, seems a little top-heavy. 

It is made of premium materials – the back of our unit was a blend of aerospace-grade glass fibre and PU leather, the frame is aluminium, and the front comes with Xiaomi’s own Shield Glass 2.0. Even the camera unit has Gorilla Glass 7i protection, and the entire phone comes with IP68 dust and water protection, which means it can survive a fall in the water.  

The phone feels great to hold in hand, although one’s fingers keep straying over the camera unit, and our unit’s texture kept scratches and smudges at bay, so we did not need to use the included transparent camera case on it. Some might find it too bulky, but if you love photography, you will love the look of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. 

Specced Like A Flagship For Photography 

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a premium flagship in every sense of the word. The display is LTPO AMOLED with a resolution of 3200 x 1440 (higher than the 3120 x 1440 of the Galaxy S25 Ultra) and a refresh rate of 120 Hz, with peak brightness hitting 3200 nits. The phone runs on the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and comes in a single RAM and storage variant of 16 GB LPDDR5x RAM and 512 GB UFS 4.1 storage. 

It has stereo speakers, every connectivity option you can think of, and also packs in a large 5410 mAh battery with support for 90W wired and 80W wireless charging, with a 90W charger in the box. It runs on Xiaomi’s clean HyperOS 2 on top of Android 15, and comes with assurances of four years of Android updates and six years of security updates. 

All of which would make any premium Android flagship preen with pride, but then the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is mainly about its cameras, and the camera part of its spec sheet gets close to eye-popping. 

The phone comes with four cameras on the back, all made in collaboration with the legendary Leica – a 50 megapixel one-inch Sony LYT-900 main sensor with OIS, a 200 megapixel telephoto sensor with 4.3x optical zoom and OIS, a 50 megapixel floating telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and finally a 50 megapixel ultrawide. 

It is a formidable camera array and, on paper, easily among the best seen on a smartphone, with a number of Leica touches and support for 8K video at 30 fps and 4K video at 120 fps on the video side. The front-facing 32 megapixel camera seems a little tame in comparison to this camera’s wealth. 

Super Enough To Be Just A Camera

All that camera goodness packed into it results in some brilliant photography, especially if you are a fan of Leica’s unique photography style, which revolves around deep contrasts, an amazing level of detail which breathes life into textures and colours that seem just a little deeper without being too flashy or poppy. 

Xiaomi has marketed the phone as something that real photographers would like, and while professional photographers would love the surfeit of setting tweaks available to them, we think that the phone is at its best when simply used like a classic point-and-shooter. 

The main sensor is brilliant at delivering detailed images, irrespective of light conditions, and the telephoto sensors let you get a close up view of distant objects – optical zoom is 4.3x but digital zoom goes up to 120x, and is actually quite usable even at 35-40x, although after that, some smudging creeps in, especially when the lights are not too great. 

Rather interestingly, Xiaomi has not opted for the slightly over-the-top image processing that we have seen in the Vivo X200 Pro and OnePlus 13 at high digital zoom levels, and in that regard is more like the Pixel and iPhone, which is a good place to be. This being a Leica phone, you get to choose between two Leica colour signatures – Vivid and Authentic, with the former being slightly brighter in the colour department. 

You also get Leica’s Master Lens system for different kinds of portrait photography with outstanding image detection and different levels (and kinds) of bokeh, and also a number of Leica filters (including the iconic monochrome ones) and watermarked photo frames. The camera is at its best out in the streets, capturing people, objects and textures brilliantly, and in a very pleasant surprise, the ultrawide is surprisingly good in low light conditions. 

Add to that some very good video (close to iPhone class), and a truckload of editing and tweaking options onboard, and the XIaomi 15 Ultra has easily one of the best camera setups on a phone out there. It is good enough to be a high-class point and shooter who makes calls. 

Mind you, the 32 megapixel selfie camera is not really in the same class as its siblings on the back – you get pleasant shots, but nothing even close to what you get from the main sensors.  If you are really into photography, you can also get the Xiaomi 15 Ultra Photography Kit Legend Edition, which adds a camera grip with a special shutter button, the option to add polariser filters and even some extra battery life. 

It is extremely handy for those who want the phone mainly for photography, as you get a truckload of “real” camera-like controls and do not have to fiddle with the touchscreen for them. Yes, it comes with a stiff Rs 11,999 price tag, but it actually converts the phone into a full-fledged camera (and makes it a little difficult to use as a phone – that grip gets in the way!). 

And A Darned Good Smartphone As Well

Its design and camera performance are good enough to make one forget that the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a proper premium Android flagship in its own right. You can actually play Genshin Impact at maxed out settings, and that stunning display, combined with great speakers, will ensure you get a great experience. 

There is actually enough processing horsepower here for you to edit videos and images in detail, and well, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra glides through routine, day-to-day tasks like web browsing, social media and messaging without breaking a sweat. 

HyperOS works very smoothly on the phone, and all that hardware means that AI tools work brilliantly in an almost Pixel-like manner. The battery life of the phone is good too – you get more than a day of normal to heavy usage on a single charge, and the 5410 mAh battery gets recharged in about 50 minutes using the 90W charger. That’s not as fast as some devices out there (the OnePlus 13 charges in about 40 minutes), but half an hour of charging gets you to around 70 per cent, which is more than adequate to get you through close to a day of heavy usage. 

A lot is going to depend on how much video you shoot, as that seems to drain battery faster. The phone is a little heavy to handle and you need to get used to the feel of the large camera bump on the back, but that apart, this is a blazing fast flagship that can stand alongside the likes of the Galaxy S25 and Pixel series.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra Review: Final Verdict

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is available in a single RAM and storage variant of 16 GB/ 512 GB for Rs 1,09,999. That price puts it right into the top end of the premium segment, against the likes of the iPhone 16 Pro, the Pixel 9 Pro and the Galaxy S25 Ultra. 

However, it would be unfair to compare the Xiaomi 15 Ultra with those premium flagships, as, unlike them, it is as much a camera as a phone. In that regard, it is very similar to the Vivo X200 Pro, which is priced at Rs 94,999, and comes with comparable camera muscle but lacks the one-inch sensor that the Xiaomi 15 Ultra packs in. 

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a phone for photographers. It can make calls, browse the Web, check social posts…but in terms of both design and hardware, it is made to point and shoot. It is a Xiaomi phone, but can be mistaken for a Leica camera in appearance as well as performance. And if that does not tell you everything, nothing will.