Novelty at the MWC

New Leica smartphones: Xiaomi 15 (Ultra) unveiled

Xiaomi 15 Ultra(Bild: Xiaomi)

The Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi has unveiled its new Android flagship model ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona: the Xiaomi 15. The new product comes in two versions - a basic model and the more luxuriously equipped "Ultra" luxury model. 

As in previous years, Xiaomi is focusing on the camera developed in collaboration with German optics specialist Leica. The prices are again at iPhone level: at least 999 euros for the basic model, 1499 for the expensive luxury model. Sales start on March 3. 

Ultra model with extra-large image sensor
In the more lavishly equipped Xiaomi 15 Ultra, the Chinese company has installed an optically stabilized (OIS) 50-megapixel camera (F/1.68) with an extra-large LYT-900 sensor, plus two zoom cameras with 50 (F/1.8, OIS) and 200 (F/2.6, OIS) megapixel resolution. A 50-megapixel wide-angle camera completes the system, which looks out of a conspicuous camera hump. The front camera has a resolution of 32 megapixels. The video functions include 4K at 120 frames per second (fps).

Xiaomi 15 Ultra(Bild: Xiaomi)

Other attributes of the more expensive Ultra model: a 6.73-inch OLED display with a resolution of 3200 x 1400 pixels, 120 hertz and Dolby Vision, Qualcomm's high-end Snapdragon 8 Elite eight-core CPU from 3-nanometer production, 16 gigabytes of RAM and a choice of 512 or 1024 gigabytes of flash memory. The device is waterproof, charges wirelessly, has a finger scanner in the display, stereo sound, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0, 5G, eSIM, a 5410 mAh battery and can be fast-charged with 90 watts of power.

Xiaomi15: Smaller sensor, less zoom power
The more compact Xiaomi 15 has to do without the extra-large image sensor, with a sensor size of 1/1.31 inches. The 50-megapixel main camera (F/1.62, OIS) is complemented by a 50-megapixel zoom lens (F/2.0, OIS) and a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera. The front camera corresponds to that of the more expensive model. You have to do without the 120 fps videos in 4K here, the maximum is 60 fps.

Xiaomi 15(Bild: Xiaomi)

The Xiaomi 15 uses the same processor as the more expensive model, but only has 12 gigabytes of RAM. Memory size: either 256 or 512 gigabytes. The 6.36-inch diagonal display with a resolution of 2670 x 1200 pixels is more compact, also OLED-based and HDR-capable with Dolby Vision certification. The battery is 5240 mAh, charges wirelessly or via a 90-watt fast charger and the device is waterproof.

The operating system on Xiaomi's new products is Android 15 with the Xiaomi user interface (HyperOS). Like the competition, Xiaomi has also built some AI functions into the software; in addition to algorithms for image enhancement and photo editing, there are also translation and other services. Xiaomi provides software updates for its flagship models for five years.