I fell in love with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and the | Tech News

When you suppose of the best cellphone cameras, you understandably might imagine of the newest high-end iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and even Google Pixel cellphone. But I’m right here to let you know that the best digital camera on any cellphone you’ll be able to buy in the UK proper now’s from a company you won’t have heard of.

If your primary concern when shopping for a new smartphone is the high quality of its digital camera (and money is no object) then the best you will get proper now’s the £1,299 Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

Xiaomi is a Chinese model that has long been in the Android smartphone recreation. It has bought its telephones on these shores for a few years, flitting between attempting to compete in the flagship and price range markets. Last 12 months, I was extremely impressed with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, calling it the best digital camera on any cellphone. The mantle has now handed to the 15 Ultra.

In an age the place the telephones on most smartphones are literally fairly great, what makes this one so good? In two phrases, sensor measurement. The important digital camera lens on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a 1-inch sensor, uncommon to seek out on a cellphone and a lot bigger than what you’ll discover in the iPhone 16 Pro, Galaxy S25 Ultra or Pixel 9 Pro. The larger sensor lets in more mild and captures more knowledge, in addition to permitting for natural depth of subject, creating the bokeh impact you’d anticipate from a full body digital camera, with out the need for the software-driven portrait modes on telephones with smaller sensors.

To underline its confidence that that is a camera-first cellphone, Xiaomi sells a £179 Photography Kit for the cellphone, incorporating a protecting case and a grip that slots into the USB-C port and offers a shutter button, zoom control and elective thumb grip, in addition to a little bit of further battery energy. It turns the cellphone into a full on level and shot digital camera, and it’s enjoyable to make use of. There’s even a wheel to regulate the ISO, the degree of mild let into the sensor.

It’s enjoyable, however I really discovered I most well-liked capturing with out it. Using the equipment disables faucet to focus and needing to regulate the ISO was a little difficult. I like taking pictures, however half of the 15 Ultra’s appeal is that it’s performing some of the be just right for you, like all smartphone cameras do. Using the grip requires more persistence and images experience.

Thanks to a partnership with famed digital camera firm Leica, Xiaomi provides an ‘Authentic’ and ‘Vibrant’ filter by which to shoot with the important lens, giving completely different nuances in tone. They each ship outcomes a lot nearer to a DSLR than different telephones do, with a lovely heat and depth of subject. Xiaomi isn’t afraid to let shadows be shadows and for darkness to stay correct. One of my greatest gripes with iPhone pictures is that they usually artificially brighten photos and flatten depth into one aircraft. Not so with the 15 Ultra. What you see is commonly what you get.

Much like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the 15 Ultra has an ultra-wide lens in addition to two separate optical zoom lenses for various focal lengths. Both are of higher high quality than the Samsung’s. You get a 50MP 3x optical telephoto and a 200MP 4.3x optical periscope telephoto, the latter the cause for the obtuse digital camera module, because it wants the bodily depth to suit the sensor and mirrors in.

This lens can also be the important improve over the in any other case very comparable Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s digital camera setup, and it’s a deal with. The 4.3x focal size is great for road images and getting fascinating views, and the sensor is sweet enough to concentrate on the foreground or background. The availability of Leica color filters opens up more creativity and feels such as you’re utilizing a digital camera, not a cellphone.

Chuck in a swathe of extra instruments similar to tremendous macro mode, video at up to 8K and a full Pro mode together with the capacity to shoot in RAW makes this a absolutely rounded expertise. At instances, I forgot I was testing a cellphone, therefore this write up’s camera-first method. As I stated, it’s a camera-first cellphone.

The important draw back to the 15 Ultra is Xiaomi’s software program. It’s a lot improved over older telephones from the firm nevertheless it nonetheless irks. Xiaomi adjustments an excessive amount of of what’s good about Android to make it more like the iPhone’s iOS, together with limiting you to solely 4 columns of apps on the home screens and dumbing down notification interplay. I additionally discovered placing the cellphone in my most well-liked darkish mode meant it was generally not possible to learn notifications as they tuned textual content to gray towards a comparable notification color.

Little bugs like this spoil the expertise and means the cellphone doesn’t at all times really feel like its £1,299 price tag, superior digital camera apart. There’s the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, 16GB RAM, 512GB storage, IP68 water and mud resistance, eSIM, Android 15 with the promise of 4 years of updates (disappointingly few in comparison with rivals) and a 5,410mAh battery that excels as a result of it makes use of the newer silicon-carbon battery tech that’s more environment friendly that lithium-ion. It can charge fast at 90W, however the charger ain’t in the box, as per the relaxation of the industry in 2025.

If this all feels like a little an excessive amount of cellphone and money for you, there’s the common Xiaomi 15 too. It lacks the 1-inch sensor however its triple 50MP cameras are nonetheless wonderful, offering the identical Leica filters and basic kinds, with a little much less versatility and a step down in total image high quality.

Its 6.36-inch AMOLED is way more pocketable than the 15 Ultra’s monumental 6.73-inch, however it’s decrease decision than the pricier cellphone. I was impressed with its battery life although, making this a two-day cellphone with average use. The identical reservations on barely iffy software program apply, together with, throughout each telephones, an annoying quantity of bloatware you need to (or can’t uninstall). The last insult is when Xiaomi generally shows adverts in its software program – unforgivable while you’ve paid £1,299 for the Ultra or £899 for the Xiaomi 15.

It’s that £899 price tag that, sadly, considerably hobbles the common 15. Though wonderful, it’s arduous to advocate it when it’s £100 more than the Galaxy S25, which will get seven years of software program help and whose cameras are nearer in high quality, and whose software program is much more polished.

I can forgive these pitfalls on the 15 Ultra although, as a result of it’s a digital camera with a cellphone connected to it. If this sounds good to you, you gained’t be dissatisfied. For everybody else, there’s Apple, Samsung or Google for tons of much less.