Xiaomi uses Samsung's 200MP camera to unsettle Galaxy S25 Ultra

Xiaomi 15 Ultra uses Samsung's 200MP ISOCELL camera sensor for zoom

Xiaomi has revealed its upcoming flagship phone, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. The company published several images of the phone on its official social media profiles. As you can see above, the phone has a massive camera setup.

According to leaked specifications, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra has four rear-facing cameras:

1. 50MP primary rear camera (Sony LYT900 1-inch), OIS, F1.63 aperture
2. 50MP ultrawide camera (Samsung ISOCELL JN5 1/2.76-inch), 14mm ultrawide-angle lens
3. 50MP telephoto camera (Sony IMX858 1/2.51-inch), OIS, F1.8 aperture, 3x optical zoom
4. 200MP super-telephoto camera (Samsung ISOCELL HP9 1/1.4-inch), OIS, F2.5 aperture, 4.3x optical zoom

The phone not only uses excellent camera hardware (including two camera sensors from Samsung) but also looks like a Leica camera from the rear, thanks to its massive camera housing and dual-tone finish. Xiaomi partnered with Leica to tune the camera post-processing.

Its primary and telephoto cameras are physically bigger than the ones used in the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which should theoretically lead to better image and video quality. However, a lot also depends on the software optimizations, so we have to wait to see which camera turns out to be better in real life.

It would be great if Samsung used a 200MP ISOCELL camera sensor for its own flagship phone. It has been seen that Samsung brings out better images from the same hardware compared to other brands, so we think it can trump all other smartphone brands with similar camera hardware.

Xiaomi 15 Ultra specifications

The rest of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra's specifications are equally impressive. It has a 6.73-inch OLED screen with a 1Hz-120Hz variable refresh rate and 3,200 nits peak brightness, the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, up to 16GB RAM, up to 1TB storage, a 5,410mAh battery, 90W fast wired charging, and 80W fast wireless charging.

It has a 32MP front-facing camera, an ultrasonic fingerprint reader, stereo speakers, an IP68+IP69 rating for dust and water resistance, GPS, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, and a USB 3.2 Type-C port. The Chinese variant of the phone will have a 6,000mAh battery.

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra will be announced on February 27 and showcased at MWC 2025 in Barcelona, Spain, on March 2, 2025.

The phone not only has better camera hardware but also a bigger battery and faster charging compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Samsung needs to improve on those two fronts in the future.

Image Credits: Xiaomi