This is the new Xiaomi 15 and the 15 Ultra. Now, if you’re wondering, the Pro version is only exclusively available in China.

Since I’m here in Barcelona, where Xiaomi has unveiled both of these phones, let me show you and tell you what’s different.

Design & Build

Firstly, the Xiaomi 15 is obviously smaller in size, and because it is smaller, it does feel nicer and firmer in the hand. It does remind me of last year’s base model—nice and very compact.

The bezels here are very thin at 1.3 mm, with a decent screen-to-body ratio. It weighs over 191 g for the Black, White, and Green variants. It’s using Xiaomi’s very own Xiaomi Shield Glass and an aluminum frame that also has an IP68 rating.

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As for the Ultra, the size is bigger, so the phone is significantly heavier at about 226 g for the black and white variants, with the silver chrome version being about 3 g heavier at 229 g.

This also has the stronger second-generation Xiaomi Shield Glass instead, but it has the same aluminum frame with an IP68 rating.

Of course, the signature feature for this Ultra series is the photography kit. So yes, this year has one too, called The Legend Edition, with a nice customizable tactile camera button that also has a 2,000 mAh battery on the camera grip.

Display

As for the screen, it comes with a 6.36-inch AMOLED display with a massive 3,200 nits of ultra-bright display. So yes, it is extremely bright—even here in Barcelona under a very nice blue sky.

I’m not complaining about smartphone screens being super bright and all, but it is bright to the point that I might consider wearing sunglasses indoors!

The refresh rate ranges from 1 to 120 Hz. What’s interesting is the fact that this also has Xiaomi’s very own custom M9 display panel. Not only has Xiaomi ditched Corning since last year’s Xiaomi 14 Ultra for this version two of the glass protection, but it has also made its own custom display. Nice! With that, it has lots of TÜV Rheinland certifications too.

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As for the Ultra’s screen, it comes with a bigger 6.73-inch AMOLED screen. It has a sharper screen with a higher DPI value and a higher overall resolution of 3200 x 1440.

The brightness value is the same at 3,200 nits, as is the refresh rate, but with a massive 1,920 Hz PWM Dimming and all the similar TÜV Rheinland certifications as the base model. The screen also has Dolby Vision playback with HDR10+ support.

Camera

Camera-wise, the Leica collaboration is here to stay. Both phones use the Leica Vario-Summilux lens tech. The Xiaomi 15 has a triple-lens setup with eight focal lengths: 

• a 50MP 23 mm main camera, 
• a 50MP 60 mm floating telephoto camera that has up to 10 cm macro photography, and; 
• a 50MP 14 mm ultra-wide camera

The front camera is a 32MP sensor.

This also has 8K video recording at 24 FPS and 30 FPS, which is great to know—especially for a phone that has base-model capabilities like this. It has 4K Dolby Vision video recording at 24, 30, and 60 FPS, as well as 4K video LOG recording at 24, 30, and 60 FPS.

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Being the flagship, the cameras on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra are obviously its strongest feature. 

• The main 50MP lens is a 1-inch sensor but has the same 23 mm focal length. 
• There’s also a similar 50MP floating telephoto lens and;
• a 50MP ultra-wide camera. 

However, what’s added here is a massive 200 MP periscope lens with a 100 mm focal length.

The video recording formats are the same, but this model has 4K 120 FPS cinematic slow motion on both the main and telephoto lenses.

I’ll be doing an in-depth camera review of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, covering both photo and video capabilities—just like how I did last year, so stay tuned!

Specs (Processor, RAM & Storage)

What’s nice is that both phones come with the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a 3 nm chip that has been performing very well with other Android smartphones.

It also uses LPDDR5X memory with UFS 4.0 storage, while the Ultra has a slightly newer version of UFS 4.1. Both have Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.

That was really nice to know, as they ship with the latest Xiaomi HyperOS 2 with tons of AI features—which I’ll go in-depth on in my review of these devices, of course.

Battery & Charging

As for battery and charging, the Xiaomi 15 comes with a 5240 mAh battery with up to 90W of HyperCharge and 50W of wireless HyperCharge. 

The Ultra, obviously, comes with a bigger 5410 mAh battery with the same 90W wired charging but a faster 80W wireless charging instead.

Pricing & Variants

As for the prices:

• The Xiaomi 15 (12 GB RAM, 256 GB storage) – RM3,499 (~785 USD).
• The Xiaomi 15 (12 GB RAM, 512 GB storage) – RM3,699 (~829 USD).
• The Xiaomi 15 Ultra (16 GB RAM, 512 GB storage) – RM5,199 (~1,165 USD).
• The Xiaomi 15 Ultra (16 GB RAM, 1 TB storage) – RM5,699 (~1,277 USD).

To me, these are really great prices, especially with all of these flagship features.