Make way, iPhone 16 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro! 7x optical zoom could make Xiaomi 15 Ultra the absolute zoom champion and best camera phone of 2025

To cut to the chase, the reason for my classic rant about “lack of innovation” (if you want to call it that) is two upcoming Chinese flagship phones and a few new leaks about them.

The first is the Xiaomi 15 Ultra – the future successor to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra 0, which is (in my opinion) the best camera phone currently.

The latest leak from GSMChina tells us that the Xiaomi 15 Ultra could be even more impressive than its predecessor when it comes to cameras. And that’s not to be taken lightly considering how impressive Xiaomi’s current Ultra flagship is in this regard.

According to the leak, backed by multiple sources, Xiaomi’s new camera phone will follow on from the “zoom sensation” that Samsung abandoned with the Galaxy S24 Ultra (moving from a unique 10x zoom snap to a far more common 5x zoom snap).

Now, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra (expected to debut in Q1 2025) is said to feature a class-leading 7x periscope zoom lens, which should and most likely will make it the zoom king of 2025.

This is no surprise, because even with a camera with 5x optical zoom, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra takes incredible long-range zoom photos – all thanks to sensor cropping and a magical AI upscaling algorithm.

OnePlus 13 relies on modern design, an insane 6,000+ mAh battery and super-fast charging to make iPhone, Galaxy and Pixel look old-fashioned

Next on my list of “Chinese phones I’m excited about because I’m looking forward to them” is the 13th… OnePlus 13 – expected launch in late 2024, global launch in early 2025.

After launching a stunning flagship phone for 2024 with a fantastic camera, a great battery and charging system, and excellent performance, the only “truly global” Chinese phone maker is now ready to up the ante.

So far there is no concrete information about the camera of the OnePlus 13but you can bet it will be better than the one in the OnePlus 12, which is already great.

What I like to see (in the recent leaks) is that the OnePlus 13 will take design cues from Chinese flagships like the Xiaomi 14 Pro and Huawei P70 Pro, meaning it is expected to feature a quadruple-curved glass panel.

The screen part of the panel is flat, but the glass around it is curved around the phone and melts down the sides. If that sounds delicious, it’s because this method of glass production makes phones look as aesthetically pleasing as a fine dinner.

OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi 15 Ultra get huge batteries with over 6,000 mAh; will iPhone, Galaxy and Pixel fall far behind in battery life?

But the other major upgrade that Chinese flagships like the OnePlus 13Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Oppo Find X8 Ultra are expected to have batteries of over 6,000 mAh!

This will be a world first for globally available flagship phones and could very well ensure that the OnePlus 13 and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra lasts two days on a single charge, which is crazy.

I’m not sure if these phones are using a new, special battery technology or are simply taking advantage of the extra space they have. Either way, these huge batteries + super-fast (up to 100W) charging will make them battery monsters!

Be that as it may, will the battery life of iPhone, Galaxy and Pixel soon fall far behind?

Will Apple, Samsung and Google’s hardware once again lag behind Chinese phones?

Ultimately, it seems that the new iPhone 16 Pro, the Pixel 9 Pro and even the Galaxy S25 Ultra, after managing to catch up at least a little (but not quite) to Chinese phones in recent years, have fallen behind smartphones like the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi 15 Ultra once again – at least in areas such as camera hardware, battery technology and charging. And just like that, we may be back to the beginning or to 2019 – when Xiaomi and the BBK Group Huawei were not driving the smartphone industry forward.

1-inch camera sensors, a quadruple curved display and huge batteries with incredibly fast charging options are still nowhere to be found on the iPhone, Galaxy and Pixel, while Chinese foldable hardware is apparently developing much faster than what Samsung and Google have to offer in this segment.

To give a more concrete example: Apple’s 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Pro is expected to get 40W charging and a 5x zoom camera for the first time in 2024 – a feat Huawei accomplished in 2018-2019. And as I said, Samsung seems to have taken a step backwards by swapping the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 10x zoom lens for a 5x lens in the S24 Ultra.