The Xiaomi smartphone model that Chinese President Xi Jinping gave to President Lee Jae-myung on the 1st to mark the Korea-China summit is the 15 Ultra. The model is a new product developed in collaboration with camera brand Leica and is said to have excellent camera performance. Xi appears to have considered that while the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is not the latest phone, it is equipped with Samsung Display components.
According to the telecommunications industry on the 2nd, the two smartphones that Xi handed to the president the previous day along with a traditional stationery set were Xiaomi 15 Ultra units that Xiaomi released in Korea in Mar. this year.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a new product unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 in Barcelona, Spain, in Mar. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra was launched in three colors—black, white, and silver chrome—and the single model with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage is priced at 1.699 million won.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra supports flexible shooting with a quad camera system featuring Leica color science and 14 mm ultra-wide, 23 mm 1-inch main, 70 mm telephoto, and 100 mm super-telephoto cameras. In addition, the 200MP super-telephoto lens enables clear zoom shooting from a 100 mm focal length up to 200 mm. The smartphone features a 6.73-inch WQHD+ AMOLED display, Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform, 5,410mAh battery, and 90W wired and 80W wireless charging. For video, it supports 4K 120fps and 4K 60fps Dolby Vision. The "Photography Kit Legend Edition," which can be attached to the product, is designed so the smartphone can be used like a professional camera.
The reason Xi gifted the older 15 Ultra instead of the latest Xiaomi 17 Premium model is that the Xiaomi 17 series has only been released in China so far, while the 15 Ultra was officially released in Korea in Mar. this year. Among globally released products, the 15 Ultra is the most expensive model. In addition, some interpret the choice as being because the 15 Ultra's display components are from Samsung Display. In addition, the Xiaomi 17 model's display is known not to be a Samsung Display product.
When giving the Xiaomi smartphone to the president, Xi said, "The display is a Korean product." Lee then joked, "Is the communications security solid?" and laughed, to which Xi replied, "Check whether there is a backdoor or not." A backdoor refers to malicious code that bypasses security to steal information.