News on China's scientific and technological development.
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Stephen Chen again.
Xiaomi President Lu Weibing gave some information on upcoming Xiaomi products, including the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Here is a summary provided by Digital Chat Station (数码闲聊站) on Weibo (translated by DeepSeek and lightly edited by me):
Bingbing's [Lu Weibing, Xiaomi President] livestream was packed with info! Here's the TL;DW version:
Casual summary—feel free to add anything I missed! [doge][doge]
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My analysis
As a Xiaomi 14 Ultra user, there are many improvements, but some downgrades. Clearly, they are putting in a lot of R&D into the photography system, and I expect improvements in night photography, videography, zoom, and color science. However, downgrading the ultrawide and removing variable aperture from the main camera due to thickness issues is bit unfortunate.
That being said, I'm not sure this will increase sales in China by much. The 15 Ultra's differentiating feature is photography, and consumers in the ultra premium segment don't care about photography that much. The iPhone 15 Pro Max sold the best out of any ultra phone last year, and it has the worst camera by a large margin (talking specifically about photos and not video). Even for the subset of consumers that care about the camera, Vivo has more mindshare. Oppo is also taking the shameless approach of copying Apple, going so far as to market their phones as "OPhones." In the long term, I think this will fail, but in the short term this will eat into Xiaomi's sales. Also, the subsidies this year will generally push consumers to buy cheaper phones, which obviously excludes the 15 Ultra.
The 15 Ultra is caught in an awkward position in that Xiaomi decided early on to reuse the chassis from the 14 Ultra, which made it impoosible to fit the gigantic periscope telephoto sensor of the 15 Ultra without making some sacrifices. Credible rumors state that the 16 Ultra will use a new, larger chassis and will finally upgrade the main camera sensor (likely to OmniVision) after 4 years. I also expect, though there's no confirmation yet, that the ultrawide sensor will revert to the level of the 14 Ultra. The 16 Ultra should be a major upgrade like the 12S Ultra, but we should wait and see.
Outside of China, Xiaomi's prospects are far more bright. Oppo and Vivo do not sell their ultra phones globally, so Xiaomi is competing directly against Samsung in the Android space. The Samsung S25 Ultra is essentially the same phone as the S24 Ultra, and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra will annihilate it. In the much less competive overseas market, Xiaomi has a lot of low-hanging fruit. I'm sure they realize this since for the first time, they are relasing the 15 Ultra overseas at the same time as in China.
In the last 3 years, due to their superior hardware and Leica branding, Xiaomi ultra phones have devoped a cult following among overseas photography junkies. For these consumers who don't know about Vivo and Oppo, Xiaomi is the best photography phone, bar none. This is reflected in my personal experience, where I've sold my used Xiaomi ultra phones for close to MSRP after a year of use.
Bingbing's [Lu Weibing, Xiaomi President] livestream was packed with info! Here's the TL;DW version:
- Xiaomi 15 Ultra
- Full camera specs leaked: 1-inch main sensor + 200MP large-aperture telephoto. Quad-camera setup: 14mm ultra-wide [Samsung JN5] + 23mm main [Sony IMX989] + 70mm portrait [Sony IMX858] + 100mm telephoto [Samsung HP9]. Internal codename: Nyx (Night God).
- Goal: Fix smartphone night photography via end-to-end UltraPure Optical System, using optics (not just algorithms). Blind test samples across scenarios were shown—reminiscent of Xiaomi’s old "take-on-all-challengers" era.
- Note: Variable aperture scrapped this generation.
- Positioning upgrade: Now branded as a "peak imaging tech flagship" (not just imaging-focused). Specs maxed out, price hike confirmed. Also features top-tier battery, screen, comms tech, and R&D muscle.
- Xiaomi Imaging Labdebut:
- Phase 1 cost ¥20M+ to build fully functional real-world scenes: café, museum, jewelry store, luxury boutique, restaurant, etc.
- Phase 2 will add artificial sun and water systems. (No wonder they’ve ditched DXOMark testing lol.)
- Late-month launches:
Dual Ultra phones + Mijia smart home lineup:- Central AC
- Pro Washer-Dryer Combo
- Dual-System Fridge Pro
- Super Xiaomi AI Speaker
- Inverter Dehumidifier
- Buds 5 Pro
- Redmibook 2025 Pro
Casual summary—feel free to add anything I missed! [doge][doge]
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My analysis
As a Xiaomi 14 Ultra user, there are many improvements, but some downgrades. Clearly, they are putting in a lot of R&D into the photography system, and I expect improvements in night photography, videography, zoom, and color science. However, downgrading the ultrawide and removing variable aperture from the main camera due to thickness issues is bit unfortunate.
That being said, I'm not sure this will increase sales in China by much. The 15 Ultra's differentiating feature is photography, and consumers in the ultra premium segment don't care about photography that much. The iPhone 15 Pro Max sold the best out of any ultra phone last year, and it has the worst camera by a large margin (talking specifically about photos and not video). Even for the subset of consumers that care about the camera, Vivo has more mindshare. Oppo is also taking the shameless approach of copying Apple, going so far as to market their phones as "OPhones." In the long term, I think this will fail, but in the short term this will eat into Xiaomi's sales. Also, the subsidies this year will generally push consumers to buy cheaper phones, which obviously excludes the 15 Ultra.
The 15 Ultra is caught in an awkward position in that Xiaomi decided early on to reuse the chassis from the 14 Ultra, which made it impoosible to fit the gigantic periscope telephoto sensor of the 15 Ultra without making some sacrifices. Credible rumors state that the 16 Ultra will use a new, larger chassis and will finally upgrade the main camera sensor (likely to OmniVision) after 4 years. I also expect, though there's no confirmation yet, that the ultrawide sensor will revert to the level of the 14 Ultra. The 16 Ultra should be a major upgrade like the 12S Ultra, but we should wait and see.
Outside of China, Xiaomi's prospects are far more bright. Oppo and Vivo do not sell their ultra phones globally, so Xiaomi is competing directly against Samsung in the Android space. The Samsung S25 Ultra is essentially the same phone as the S24 Ultra, and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra will annihilate it. In the much less competive overseas market, Xiaomi has a lot of low-hanging fruit. I'm sure they realize this since for the first time, they are relasing the 15 Ultra overseas at the same time as in China.
In the last 3 years, due to their superior hardware and Leica branding, Xiaomi ultra phones have devoped a cult following among overseas photography junkies. For these consumers who don't know about Vivo and Oppo, Xiaomi is the best photography phone, bar none. This is reflected in my personal experience, where I've sold my used Xiaomi ultra phones for close to MSRP after a year of use.
interesting enough, CNN doing their reporting on cancer drugs from 康方生物 (Akeso), ignoring the usual hit job portion, they at least brought on a lady who was fair.
It's absolutely embarrassing that these professionals in Beijing still value foreign drugs more than domestic ones.
Seem even foreign doctors r more aware of it than those local professionals...
Trust is hard to construct and easy to destroy. With notorious bad quality and fraud in the past, it is hard for the Chinese to believe in domestic drugs and foods. It takes a long time to gain trust and increase quality checks from the Chinese government.
Pretty easy to get the Chinese libs to trust it actually. Just get a bunch of Americans to smuggle it into the U.S. so people get affordable cancer treatment and then all the cucks will think it is the best thing since sliced bread.
supercat
Major
On one hand, CNN admits that the drug is more effective than its American counterpart in clinical trials, on the other hand, they badmouth the drug by cherry-picking what some "experts", or even random people said in the streets - you can always find some people in China who are skeptical of anything from China without exception.
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