Xiaomi 15 Ultra - Finally A Ultra Level Flagship Phone!

- Hey!

Finally, my order
of Xiaomi 15 Ultra has arrived.

This is the most premium smartphone
for 2025 from Xiaomi.

And personally,
my daily driver

is the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

And probably I might be able
to tell you the differences

and the improvements
from its predecessor.

Powered by the Qualcomm
Snapdragon 8 Elite,

together with a 6,000mAh
of battery,

a big 200MP periscope
telephoto lens,

and Bluetooth 6 capability.

More details
after this quick intro.

(introduction music)

This Xiaomi 15 Ultra
that has 12GB of RAM

and 256GB of storage
is currently priced

at around Php59,000
that you can buy

in UKDB Gadgets
which I'll link

on the description box below.

But if you're looking
for an online shop,

I'll also post it
on the description box below.

Honestly, my first impression
is that its camera

has become larger.

Its size has increased compared
to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

But one thing to like here
is that its two-tone color

looks really nice and refreshing.

The other two colors
that are available

are only black and white
which I think are kind of boring.

This is the only color
that's better since I think

it's being inspired
by the Leica Camera.

You'll see the Ultra logo here
which is something new

that's not present
in the 14 Ultra.

And this time around,
PU leather finish on one side

and I believe that this is
a plastic finish

on the other side.

They're both not
a fingerprint magnet

so it's okay for me.

It also has side aluminum frames
and a lot of antenna bands

all over the phone.

The protection of its front glass
is a Xiaomi Shield Glass 2.0

which is tougher than ever
compared to its predecessor

which is the Shield 1.

And this is also an IP68
dust and water resistant

which I think is kind
of lacking compared

to other flagship IP69-rated.

But of course, I always say
don't try to dunk it

to the water
if you don't need it,

because the worst thing
that can happen to your phone

once you dunk it on water
is that there might be fog

present on the camera lenses
which there are many

who complained about it
on the Redmi Note 13

and even on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

You can also buy a camera kit
for the Xiaomi 15 Ultra,

but for me, I don't really find
any practical usage

for me, personally,
on my daily usage.

It has really great capabilities
if you'll be able

to get the most out of it
as a photographer

but I have an alternative way
that I'll teach you.

Take a look.

Personally, I didn't buy
the camera kit

of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Why?

Because I don't really find
any day-to-day real life usage

that'll be practical for it.

For the 14 Ultra,
I bought a camera kit

and well, honestly,
I just used it twice

for the span of two months.

So you won't really bring it.

So I found some alternatives
that you can use

for the 15 Ultra.

If you're not the type of guy
who'll always use

the camera kit,
you can consider this option.

So I bought this from China.

It's a case where you can attach
your filters on

which comes in really handy.

I'm not sure when it's going
to be available

in the Philippines.

But if there's already one,
I'll just pop it

on the description box.

What this does is that
you can attach your filters

like what I bought from SmallRig.

I have here a CPL filter,
black mist filter,

and also the VND filter
that has 1-5 stop.

Now, what I can do here
is just simply attach it here.

And it gets the job done.

So any time I want to use this,
I'll just adjust

the variable as you can see.

So it does its job
being a filter.

And another attachment
that you can buy is this one

from Ulanzi, the CG01
smartphone cap grip.

It also has a Bluetooth
shutter button here

which also can be a shutter.

And you can use it
as a grip to mount it

as a camera.

So what you can do is...

It'll look like this
after you attach everything.

Honestly, I don't really find
the practical usage

of the camera kit of Xiaomi.

If you want to spend Php12,000,
if you have the money,

and you find
any practical usage, okay,

but if you're like me
where you'll just use it

once a month,
I'd rather buy something

like this one, from Ulanzi
and a case like this one

so you can attach your filters
and you spend your money

on the filters of SmallRig instead
which I think

it's more practical.

And when you grip it,
it looks something like this,

it has almost the same feel
as the camera kit of Xiaomi.

What do you think?

So if you want to know
where you can buy these kits,

I'll pop it on
the description box below.

One of the best things here
is that this has

a really powerful processor,
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite.

It's the best for this year.

And another good news for you
is that Xiaomi gave

the full potential of the chipset.

And I was surprised
that I was able to get

a 2.7 million score
on AnTuTu Benchmark,

rivalling the same
as the REDMAGIC 10 Pro

which is a gaming phone.

This is not a gaming phone
but Xiaomi gave everything to you.

You'd see on some
of our other reviews

that has the Snapdragon 8 Elite,

like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra,

it's only got 2.1 million
AnTuTu Benchmark score.

The Samsung S25+
only got 1.9 million AnTuTu score.

And if I remember it correctly,
the realme GT 7 Pro

only got 2.2 million AnTuTu score.

And this is the breakdown score.

Good job, Xiaomi.

This is the benchmark score
we got on Geekbench

for its CPU benchmarking

and GPU benchmarking.

Its loop score is 5,700
on Wild Life Extreme

with 76% stability.

Honestly, its thermals are okay
except that it's kind

of rocky when it's about
to finish,

and it throttled to 79%
of its best performance.

Let's talk about battery.

It's a huge jump
from its predecessor,

the Xiaomi 14 Ultra
only has 5,000mAh of battery.

This China ROM variant
of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra comes

with a 6,000mAh
of silicon-carbon battery already.

But when you buy
the global ROM,

it's only 5,410mAh
which is still an upgrade

from the predecessor.

And what's good
with the China ROM is that

it comes together
with a charging brick

that's 90W HyperCharge of Xiaomi
which is missing

on the global variant.

But they're both supported
by 80W wireless charging

and 10W reverse wireless charging.

For my experience using this
for a week already,

I would say its battery
is fine.

Personally speaking,
I think it is better

than the Xiaomi 14 Ultra
which I think drains the battery

a lot faster.

Especially when I upgraded
to the HyperOS 2,

I noticed my battery
drains even faster throughout the day.

And another surprise
that I got here is that

it was able to give me
a 20 hours and 46 minutes

on the PCMark
battery stress test

under 50% brightness
and 60Hz of screen refresh rate.

For me, it's durable.

Let's talk about its display.

I noticed that one thing
that it improved here

is probably the display
compared to the 14 Ultra.

I feel like its screen
is more vibrant

while browsing on socials.

Maybe because I'm also
using the 14 Ultra

for exactly a year already.

But one thing I noticed
is that its screen size

didn't change.

It still maintained
a 6.73-inch LTPO AMOLED display

with 120Hz of screen refresh rate.

And of course,
supporting Dolby Vision, HDR10+.

Its peak brightness
also increased to 3,200 nits

to its predecessor
which had 3,000 nits.

If you're only browsing
on socials,

expect your experience
to be good here.

Browsing on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra,
be it on Facebook,

Instagram, or TikTok,
swiping on the reels,

I think you won't have
any problem here.

As long as your internet connection
is good, I guarantee you

your experience
will be very smooth here.

If you're watching HD content
on this phone,

because it has Level 1
Widevine Security Level,

for sure that you'll be
really surprised

with how great
its display is here.

Very punchy, bright colors,
and the black

is definitely blacker.

By the way guys,
I tried Globe, Smart, and DITO,

they all were able to get
5G signal here.

And currently, this one
is running HyperOS 2

inside Android 15.

And this one comes together
with four Android major updates,

so you should be updated
up to Android 19.

Now guys, let's talk
about the audio.

It has seven holes on the bottom
and the other one

is coming from its earpiece.

So I just want to show you
how loud it is.

Would the sound blow
my mind or not?

(Season of Memories by GFRIEND)

Honestly, its sound is loud,

almost the same
with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra

but you'll feel its bass
and it sounds really pleasing

to the ears.

We've played four games
on this smartphone

and I played Wuthering Waves,
Farlight 84,

Genshin Impact,
and Call of Duty Mobile.

One thing I noticed here
is that its touch sampling rate

has increased from 240Hz
on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra

up to 300Hz
on the new Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

On Genshin Impact,
I would say my experience here

was great.

I hardly felt any lags
on this game.

My experience was so smooth.

Battling against the boss
and clashing with many enemies

on the battlefield,
you'll really feel that, okay,

it's very smooth,
I didn't feel any frame drops.

If there are,
it's almost negligible,

I didn't feel that much
on this smartphone.

And the touch response
was definitely fast.

The sound is giving me
a good experience on this one.

It's really a flagship-level phone.

Even if it's not
a gaming smartphone,

it's still powerful
when it comes to gaming.

The hottest I achieved here
was around 43°C

after 30 minutes of gaming.

Wuthering Waves,
my experience was also good.

Though at times,
I sometimes feel minor frame drops

when fighting bosses.

And another thing I liked here
is that its response

is fast on every single touch
on this phone.

Plus, its display is great.

But one downside
when you're playing Wuthering Waves

on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra
is that it's quite hot at 48°C

after 30 minutes.

On Farlight 84,
you won't have any problems here

maxing out the graphics.

One thing I noticed here
is that the gaming experience

is smooth and I almost
didn't feel any lags

along the way.

Playing for around 30 minutes
of ranked matches here,

I really enjoyed here.

The touch response was fast
and the display is good.

I reached 43°C
after 30 minutes of gameplay.

On Call of Duty Mobile,
it's very doable here.

And honestly,
I also maxed out its graphics

and it gave me
a really good experience here.

The display was nice
and its sound is loud.

You'll really feel the footsteps
coming from the left

and right.

And its gameplay
was also immersive.

The hottest I achieved
after 30 minutes of gameplay was 41°C.

Of course, right now
we want to highlight the camera

of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

It starts off with
the 50MP main camera sensor

with OIS that has
an aperture of f/1.6.

This one is a Sony LYT900 sensor.

Followed by a 50MP
telephoto lens

that has up to 3x optical zoom
which uses

the Sony IMX858 sensor.

The next one is the 200MP
periscope telephoto lens

of up to 4.3x optical zoom
using the Samsung ISOCELL HP9.

And of course,
there's a 50MP ultra wide lens

that has 115° FoV
using the Samsung S5KJN5 sensor.

It can shoot you up to 8K video,
and its front-facing camera

is a 32MP shooter
which is an OmniVision OV32B sensor

which can let you shoot
up to 4K and 60 FPS.

I've captured so many photos
on my Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

And I'll show you some
of the best ones

that I've captured here,

starting off with some
of the outdoor shots that we got.

Now taking a look
at this very simple shot,

I would tell you
that it's so beautiful.

I would say it's so cinematic
to my eyes.

And looking at all
of the details here

on the building,
it looks very sharp.

Especially on its clouds,
when you zoom it in,

you'll see there are
so many details preserved.

One of the good things I like
about it is that

it's not oversaturated
unlike its predecessors

like the 13 Ultra which tends
to oversaturate it a bit,

even the 14 Ultra.

But on the 15 Ultra,
it preserved it

to be a little bit more natural
compared to its predecessors

which I hope we'd be able
to make a comparison soon.

But this time around,
we'll just simple concentrate

on the 15 Ultra.

This shot looks very nice
though the sky looks

a little bit saturated
but I love the way

how it was presented
on this photo.

This is another great shot
that we got on outdoors.

It looks very nice,
especially on the details

of the clouds,
I really like to look at it.

We've played with
its different lenses

and I was able to get
some really nice shots on it.

And this is an ultra wide shot,

1x,

2x,

3x,

4.3x,

10x,

30x,

60x,

and a 120x zoom.

So honestly, after 120x zoom,
it's still very readable

and I believe this
is being calibrated using AI

on the Xiaomi HyperOS 2.0.

On indoors,
the lowlight photography shots

that you'll get
on the 15 Ultra are also great.

And taking a look
at this swimsuit,

it looks really nice
and very vibrant,

the subject really pops out.

When you look
at some signages,

when you take a picture of it,
it's beautiful,

the PRADA logo pops out.

Even simple shots like this one
looks very nice

and very captivating.

And I was able to take
a quick snap on the 15 Ultra

inside the Xiaomi store
and this is how it looks like.

This photo is also sharp.

This is probably one
of my favorite photos I captured

so far on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

You can see that its focus
on the filament looks great.

And blurring all the way
to the background

with the natural blur,
the shot on this subject

looks very good.

I honestly love this shot.

Plus, if you're trying
to take some product photography,

its focusing is also great.

It focuses easily,
just point and shoot

and you get
a really nice photo like this one,

it can be put up as a poster.

And taking a look at this shot,
the LED lights

were also captured nicely
on the background

and it's not overexposed.

And taking a look
at some of these food shots,

honestly, you'll be surprised
on how good its camera is.

This shot was captured well.

Even though it's lowlight,
you'll really be amazed

with the food shots that I captured
on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

Just take a look at some
of these really nice shots

that I got.

If you're trying to take
some night photography,

it's also equally nice.

It was able to perform.

And I was able to take
some quick snaps

while I'm on the road,
and we've got some nice shots.

So while on outdoors,
I was able to take

some night photography
using the different lens.

And starting off
with the normal lens,

this is how it looks like.

2x,

3x,

4.3x,

and this is a 10x zoom.

You'll see that the signage
still looks great.

And this is a 30x zoom.

A 60x zoom.

And a 120x zoom.

You'll see that the lights
are kind of overblown

when it comes to the 60x
and 120x zoom.

But on the 30x zoom,
it's still pretty much good.

I'll just show you this footage
while I was playing

with the different
zooming capabilities.

Sami Luo said that
at 30x zoom at night,

the subject gets overexposed
which I think

I kind of noticed.

But when I took the shot
and showed you earlier,

it looks very decent.

One of the major improvement,
for me personally,

is the selfie camera.

On the Xiaomi 14 Ultra,
I was still not satisfied

with its selfie camera.

There are times it's smudgy,
there are times

it's not that good
and it's soft.

But on the 15 Ultra,
it has improved,

personally, significantly
I would say.

My 14 Ultra was my daily driver
and getting some

of these sample shots
on outdoors,

I'm really impressed.

Honestly, the photos
are very sharp.

Just a bit of touch up
on my face and it's almost perfect

for the photos that we got
from the front-facing camera.

If you bring it indoors,
surprisingly, the photos

that I got were great.

Normally on the 14 Ultra,
you'll get some a little bit

more smudgy and soft photos,
but on the 15 Ultra,

even on lowlight,
it's still able to give me

some nice snaps,
and that's probably one

of the biggest improvement
that I noticed here comparing

to the 14 Ultra.

And this was a quick snap
inside the Xiaomi store

inside the Megamall.

And I was able to take
a groupie shot testing out

its ultra wide on the selfie
which, for me,

looks pretty nice.

When you're vlogging using
the front-facing camera,

I would say that on outdoors,
it's clear,

the transition is smooth,

you won't have any problems
even if you're just using

your bare hands.

And on indoor,
well, honestly I'm impressed

with its video capabilities
on indoors.

On Xiaomi 14 Ultra,
you'd get a little bit more smudgy

but here, well, it's sharp.

For the rear camera,
needless to say,

the 4K 60 FPS here is sharp
and you can even use

a 4K 120Hz or an 8K video
on this rear camera

of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

And you'd be able to capture
some nice still moments.

Even if the chef is just cooking,
the shot on the 15 Ultra

is still great.

Now guys, what's my verdict
on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra?

Honestly, this is by far
the best camera phone

that Xiaomi has
coming off from the Xiaomi 14 Ultra,

of course.

And being able to review
the vivo X200 Pro Mini,

this phone can easily compete.

Probably, for me,
everything that I'm looking for

is already here.

It's just that there's a little bit
more optimization

that's needed for it
to have a smoother experience

on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

But I'm so happy
with the improvement

of its camera performance,
especially on its selfie camera.

How about you guys,
what did you like

about the Xiaomi 15 Ultra?
Let me know in the comments.

And if you want to know
where you can buy

the Xiaomi 15 Ultra,
you can buy this

from UKDB Gadgets
on Facebook or on the links

that I'll post
on the description box below.

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