Black Friday brings an avalanche of discounts, which can make it hard to sift through all the offers. Our post from yesterday has some of the best deals that we found in the UK, here we wanted to spotlight just a couple of flagship phones.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is one of the best 2025 camera flagships that we’ve tested. And while the next generation of phones is already rolling in, this one is at a killer price at the moment – well below its £1,300 MSRP.
We have to compare it with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Both phones have 1440p+ OLED displays (6.73” on the Xiaomi and 6.9” on the Samsung), both run on Snapdragon 8 Elite chipsets. The S25 Ultra has better productivity features (DeX especially) and AI features. It will get longer support too with 7 OS updates compared to only 4 updates for the Xiaomi.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra has a massive 1”-type 50MP sensor in the main, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra bets on resolution with a 200MP sensor (which isn’t small at 1/1.3”). Both phones have 50MP ultra-wide modules and both have two telephoto lenses – 50MP 3x/70mm plus 200MP 4.3x/100mm for the Xiaomi and 10MP 3x/67mm plus 50MP 5x/111mm for the Samsung. And as you will read in our head-to-head article, the Xiaomi produces the better photos.
The phone also has better battery life, getting 16:13h Active use score out of its 5,410mAh battery. The Samsung managed a solid 14:49h out of a smaller 5,000mAh battery. Xiaomi’s 90W charge system is not twice as fast as Samsung’s 45W system – the two are surprisingly close, actually. In our tests, the phones were at 42% and 41% at the 15 minute mark and equal at 72% at the 30 minute mark. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra managed to get to 100% a bit faster (51 minutes) than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (59 minutes), but the difference overall is negligible.
Let’s throw another Ultra into the mix – this one is not as capable as the other two, but at half the price (or even less), it is great value for money. We’re talking about the Poco F7 Ultra.
This phone has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset as the other two – and it has a top quality 1440p+ OLED display too, though it’s a bit on the small side at 6.67”. The 5,300mAh battery isn’t small, but sub-par efficiency results in only 13:32h Active use score. The 120W charger is top-notch, however, getting to 60% in just 15 minutes and to 100% in only 30 minutes. Remember, the two more expensive phones were only at 72% at this time.
Alright, the camera just isn’t as good – but that is not to say that it is a bad camera. There is a 50MP 1/1.55” main, a 50MP 2.5x/60mm tele and 32MP ultra-wide that produces solid results. Again, we’re looking at less than half the price of the other two Ultras.
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