Oppo’s top-end Find X8 Ultra is official – but how does it compare to the similarly camera-focused Xiaomi 15 Ultra?
While both are undoubtedly some of the best camera phones around in 2025, offering huge sensors and impressive zoom capabilities, there are key differences between the two that could sway your decision one way or the other. That includes not only elements like camera tech and accessories, but battery life and even availability.
Here’s how the Oppo Find X8 Ultra compares to the Xiaomi 15 Ultra on paper.
Pricing and availability
Unlike the Oppo Find X8 Pro that launched widely in the UK and Europe, Oppo’s Find X8 Ultra is China-exclusive – for now, anyway. It’ll likely stay that way, as was the case with last year’s Find X7 Ultra, but we can hold out hope.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is comparatively easy to get a hold of. The phone was revealed at MWC in March, and went on sale in the UK and Europe soon after. It’s pricey, though, coming in at £1,299 with 512GB of storage.
The Oppo Find X8 Ultra is thinner and more durable
Though neither phone could be described as truly thin and light, the Oppo Find X8 Ultra is the slimmer of the two. It measures 8.8mm thick compared to the 9.4mm of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, though both weigh in at the same 226g.
Where the Find X8 Ultra truly stands out is with the camera bump; despite housing a 1-inch sensor and multiple periscope cameras, the camera housing is comparatively shallow compared to that of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra – based on our short hands-on time with the X8 Ultra, anyway.
It’s not just thinner, either. With combined IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance, the Oppo flagship can be dunked in 1.5m of water for up to 30 minutes and handle high-pressure water jets.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s IP68 means it can match the former, but not the latter. It also uses Xiaomi’s proprietary Shield Glass 2.0 compared to the Gorilla Glass offered by Oppo’s flagship.
Elsewhere, the Find X8 Ultra is available in Pure White, Matte Black and Shell Pink, while the Xiaomi 15 Ultra comes in Black, White, Green or a special Leica-inspired Silver Chrome finish – though availability differs between regions.
The two phones are fairly evenly matched in the camera department
Both the Oppo Find X8 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra are camera-focused flagships with the hardware to prove it. Though, rather ironically, despite offering better camera tech than most smartphones on the market, the hardware is pretty similar between the two.
Both offer a 50MP main camera backed by a large 1-inch camera sensor, a rarity in the smartphone market, complete with dual pixel PDAF and OIS. The X8 Ultra’s f/1.8 aperture isn’t as wide as the f/1.6 of the 15 Ultra, but that shouldn’t make much of a difference in real-world use.
There are a few differences when it comes to the auxiliary lenses, and the zoom lenses in particular. Both offer the same 50MP 3x zoom lens, though Oppo’s 1/1.56-inch sensor is larger than the 1/2.51-inch alternative from Xiaomi.
Oppo also uses periscope technology in place of Xiaomi’s floating telephoto technology. This should allow for better quality zoom between the 3x and 6x mark from the former, while the latter should handle telemacro shots better.
When it comes to the second zoom lens, it seems Xiaomi has the upper hand. At 200MP, the 4.3x periscope lens isn’t just higher res than the 50MP 6x alternative from Oppo, but with a 1/2.76-inch sensor, it’s larger than Oppo’s 1/1.95-inch sensor. This should translate to better zoom performance, but we can’t say for sure until we thoroughly test the Find X8 Ultra.
The quad camera setup on both phones is rounded out by near-identical 50MP ultrawide lenses, complete with PDAF, for scenic vistas and group selfies.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra works with a dedicated Camera Kit
Xiaomi really embraces the 15 Ultra’s camera-first nature with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra Camera Kit, an optional £179 kit that takes the shooting experience to the next level. It includes a stylised case with a grippy faux leather finish that allows you to add a regular 67mm DSLR lens filter to the rear lenses – but that’s not all.
There’s also what Xiaomi calls a photography grip, which essentially turns the phone into a digital camera. The clip-on accessory features physical controls for shutter control and video recording, a zoom lever that can switch focal lengths, and a customisable dial that can control EV, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance on the fly.
This essentially means that you no longer need to interact with the phone’s screen when taking photos. It also has low latency thanks to a direct USB-C connection and a built-in 2000mAh battery that can even provide extra juice to the phone when required.
Nothing of the sort is available for the Oppo Find X8 Ultra – in terms of first-party accessories, anyway – giving the Xiaomi 15 Ultra an edge, even if it is an optional accessory.
Both offer Snapdragon 8 Elite power
The Oppo Find X8 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra are evenly matched in terms of power, with both using Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Elite.
As we’ve seen from our Xiaomi 15 Ultra testing, the chipset is exceptionally powerful. It offers a massive year-on-year jump compared to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and better performance than Apple’s A18 Pro – and we expect similar performance from the X8 Ultra.
Both phones can make good use of the chipset with 12- or 16GB of RAM available, and both offer up to 1TB of storage too – though availability varies between regions. Hey, you’ll need all the space you can get for all those fantastic photos you’ll be capturing!
The Oppo Find X8 Ultra has a bigger battery and faster charging
Both the Find X8 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra feature the newer silicon carbon battery technology that allows for higher capacity batteries in thinner forms, and as such, both offer massive batteries.
That said, Xiaomi’s 15 Ultra has a different capacity depending on where you buy it. If you pick it up in China, you’ll get a whopping 6000mAh cell, though in the UK and Europe, it’s limited to 5410mAh – likely due to battery shipping regulations in the EU.
The X8 Ultra, on the other hand, offers a larger 6100mAh battery than both variants of 15 Ultra. As it’s not coming to the UK or EU, there’s no need for a lower capacity variant either.
The Find X8 Ultra also has faster wired charging at 100W compared to Xiaomi’s 90W, though both require proprietary chargers to hit those top speeds. The Find X8 Ultra also offers 50W wireless and 10W reverse wireless charging, falling slightly behind the 80W wireless and 10W reverse charging of the 15 Ultra.
Early thoughts
Both the Oppo Find X8 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra are camera-focused flagships at the top of their respective games, with very little between them.
The camera tech is comparable, as is the general performance. Instead, your decision will likely be influenced by smaller factors like the camera tech within individual sensors and the availability of camera-focused accessories – as well as availability, of course.
That said, we’ll hold off on delivering our final judgement until we’ve spent some more time with the Oppo Find X8 Ultra.