Xiaomi has introduced its 15 Extremely flagship cellphone at a launch occasion in China, the place it’s happening sale beginning at 6,499 yuan (round $893). The Android cellphone joins the corporate’s Xiaomi 15 and 15 Professional, which went on sale there in October 2024. It’s a largely iterative improve on final yr’s mannequin, however the huge change is the addition of a 200-megapixel periscope digicam that the corporate says excels in low mild. The 15 sequence, together with the Extremely, is getting a global launch this Sunday, March 2nd, at Cell World Congress in Barcelona. Precisely which markets it should go on sale in stays to be seen, nevertheless it’s a secure wager that this one received’t be coming to the US.
Xiaomi’s Extremely line has at all times been camera-centric, much more so than Samsung or Apple’s prime fashions, and the 15 Extremely isn’t any totally different. Like final yr’s 14 Extremely, the quad rear digicam is arrayed in an infinite round module on the cellphone’s rear. It’s designed to resemble pictures associate Leica’s devoted digicam {hardware}, proper all the way down to the two-tone silver and black end, and compact “Extremely” nook emblem discovered on one of many cellphone’s three variations. There are additionally easier black or white fashions.
The 200-megapixel 4.3x periscopic lens follows comparable periscopes in Vivo’s X100 Extremely and X200 Professional, and Honor’s Magic 7 Professional. It is a shorter zoom than the 5x periscope on the 14 Extremely, however makes use of a bigger sensor, sooner aperture, and better decision, which Xiaomi says ends in higher mild seize, bringing enhancements in zoom pictures, particularly in decrease mild. Xiaomi even codenamed the cellphone “Night time God” internally, so low mild pictures is clearly a spotlight this yr.
The opposite three rear sensors are all 50-megapixel, and are arrange equally to final yr’s mannequin, albeit with small variations. Probably the most noteworthy change is to the principle digicam, which has dropped the variable aperture tech featured on the earlier mannequin in favor of a hard and fast — however quick — f/1.63.
The pictures focus is enhanced by the discharge of Xiaomi’s third-generation Images Equipment, an elective additional that features a case and a digicam grip. Past a brand new purple end, not a lot has modified right here both: the inner battery is somewhat bigger at 2,000mAh (permitting this to double as a small energy financial institution for the cellphone), and there’s a brand new thumb relaxation, however the core digicam controls stay the identical: a shutter button, video button, zoom lever, and publicity dial.
Past the inevitable improve to the current-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, there are few different upgrades or design adjustments. The 6.73-inch show is once more 1-120Hz however somewhat brighter at 3,200 nits peak HDR brightness. An IP68 score returns, too. The 6,000mAh battery is considerably bigger, however the 90W wired charging and 80W wi-fi speeds are unchanged. As with different current Android flagships, there’s nonetheless no signal of Qi2 adoption.
I assumed the 14 Extremely was final yr’s finest cellphone digicam by far, and my colleague Allison known as it “a pictures nerd’s dream,” so Xiaomi has set itself a excessive bar to dwell as much as. This was such a powerful digicam, it’s comprehensible that the corporate has saved adjustments to a minimal this time round. However we’re wanting ahead to discovering out whether or not its one huge improve, the periscope, will ship.
