Xiaomi 15 Ultra: A Leica-powered camera phone built for photography enthusiasts

In brief: Xiaomi has introduced its latest smartphone at Mobile World Congress. The Chinese tech company is billing the Xiaomi 15 Ultra as the ultimate professional imagery flagship and indeed, it certainly looks more like a photography tool than a mobile phone – especially with the optional camera kit attached.

The high-end handset features a 6.73-inch AMOLED display (3,200 x 1,440 pixels, 522 PPI, 1-120Hz dynamic refresh rate) encased in a CNC-crafted aluminum chassis that's driven by a Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, 16GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage.

Around back, you'll find a quad camera array akin to something you'd see in an optometrist's office. The main camera, a 50-megapixel shooter with an f/1.63 aperture, utilizes a Sony LYT-900 image sensor. The 50MP floating telephoto camera, meanwhile, leans on an IMX858 image sensor and a ...