The Xiaomi 15 Ultra, in the foreground, and the Xiaomi 15 in the background.
Xiaomi
BARCELONA — Xiaomi launched its latest flagship smartphone on Sunday continuing its push into higher-end devices as it seeks to challenge market leader Samsung.
The Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Ultra are the most recent pair of smartphones from the Chinese technology giant sporting the latest chips and boosted cameras. They were unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The Xiaomi 15 starts at 999 euros ($1,047) and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra starts at 1,499 euros ($1,571).
Both devices are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform, one of the latest processors. The 15 Ultra model also comes with a higher spec camera and bigger display.
“Xiaomi has been hugely successful of building its brand with affordable technology and but now it’s moving up the value chain as it moves more into premium devices and that’s well-suited to the European market where we see an affluent audience,” Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, told CNBC.
In 2024, Xiaomi’s global smartphone shipments grew 15.4% year-on-year, outpacing rivals including Samsung and Apple, according to the International Data Corporation. The company’s worldwide market share rose to 13.6% from 12.5% in 2023.
Xiaomi started up in 2010 selling low-to-mid price smartphones at very cut-throat prices. Since then it has expanded overseas, placing a big emphasis on its European foothold. Xiaomi has also built a portfolio of connected devices from TVs to smartwatches.
Last year, the business jumped into the electric vehicle space with the SU7, as it looks to diversify beyond consumer electronics. It even brought the car to the Mobile World Congress in 2024, displaying the vehicle at the company’s large booth and creating a buzz.
Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for data and analytics at IDC, said the EV has given a boost to Xiaomi’s brand.
“They are using the car as leverage to build on their brand which I think is a clever idea,” Jeronimo said.
“They will grab a lot of attention with the car even if it’s not going to be available in Europe, but it’s that kind of innovation. And consumers understand that a brand that can build a car can also continue doing very good phones.”
A recent recovery in the smartphone business, combined with the success of the electric vehicle so far, has helped fuel a nearly 300% rise in Xiaomi’s stock in the last 12 months.
Xiaomi’s shares, which are listed in a Hong Kong, hit a record high this week. The firm is hoping to continue that momentum with the latest smartphones and the launch of the SU7 Ultra, a high-performance version of its electric car that was launched on Thursday.
Still, the company is facing a big challenge in the smartphone space at trying to eat continued share away from Samsung, especially with other Chinese brands like Oppo on its heels.
“The problem is the premium space is now unbelievably crowded, and although all Android phone makers aspire to take share from Apple, the reality is if you’re going to grow in Android, you need to take it from another Android player. So that means for Xiaomi, they need to be eroding Samsung’s share,” CCS Insight’s Wood said.
“But unfortunately, you’ve got 2 other big Chinese players in Oppo and Honor who are very very hungry to build share.”
The flagship store of Xiaopeng Motors in Shanghai, China, on Feb. 18, 2025.
CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Chinese electric car company Xpeng delivered more than 30,000 cars for a fourth-straight month in February, as its mass-market brand helped the company stand out in an otherwise tepid market.
Xpeng delivered 30,453 cars last month, including more than 15,000 units of its lower-priced Mona vehicle, the company said over the weekend.
Deliveries of the Mona M03, which include a basic driver-assist system, have topped 15,000 a month since December, according to company figures. Xpeng also said strong demand for driver-assist propelled deliveries of its P7+ electric sedan to more than 30,000 less than three months since its launch in November.
Looking ahead, Xpeng’s planned new vehicles also give the company “a good chance to extend its solid delivery momentum,” Nomura analysts said in a Sunday note.
The January to February period tends to be seasonally soft for Chinese car sales since it coincides with the week-long Lunar New Year, the country’s biggest holiday of the year. The local auto market remains highly competitive as traditional automakers and new entrants have rushed to cut prices and launch vehicles with new tech features.
Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi delivered more than 20,000 electric cars for a fifth straight month in February. The company last week slashed the starting price of its luxury electric sedan, the SU7 Ultra, to 529,900 yuan ($72,750), down from 814,900 yuan ($111,878).
The SU7’s “new order situation is even better than actual sales,“ Nomura analysts said, citing its own industry survey. That means the only challenge for Xiaomi is its ability to produce enough cars, the analysts said.
Figures on Tesla‘s China deliveries are typically released around the middle of the month.
Industry giant BYD reported 318,233 new energy vehicle passenger car sales in February, up slightly from the prior month. The company last month announced it was rolling out driver-assist across a range of its cars and integrating artificial intelligence from DeepSeek.
Geely-owned Zeekr delivered 14,039 units in February, up from the 11,942 delivered the previous month, according to company figures.
EV brands that struggled in February
However, deliveries of several other major Chinese electric car brands declined over that time.
Li Auto deliveries fell to 26,263 units last month, from 29,927 in January, according to the company. Its premium-priced vehicles have been popular with Chinese consumers since they come with a fuel tank for extending the battery’s driving range. Last month, Li Auto revealed the exterior design of its first fully battery-electric SUV.
Aito, the Seres-owned brand that uses Huawei technology, reported its lowest deliveries in a year, at 21,517 units in February, according to CNBC analysis of publicly available figures.
The Lenovo ThinkBook ‘flip’ concept. The screen is able to fold once horizontally to create two different screen spaces.
CNBC: Lenovo Flip PC
Lenovo on Monday showed off a laptop with a foldable screen and one that can get extra battery life from solar power.
These laptops are just concepts, meaning they are not commercially available. Lenovo, the world’s biggest PC maker, has a history of showing off imaginative concepts with some becoming reality, so it’s worth keeping an eye on what the Chinese technology giant is up to.
For example, Lenovo previously showed off the idea of a rollable laptop — one where the screen rolls upwards to increase the size of the display. The company will begin selling such a laptop this year.
The latest concepts were unveiled at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.
Foldable laptop screen
The Lenovo ThinkBook ‘flip’ concept is a laptop with a foldable screen. When fully unfolded, the screen is an 18-inch display.
The screen can then be folded in half horizontally to create two screens — one on the front and one on the back.
The entire display can be folded down flat so the laptop turns into a tablet-like device.
The Lenovo ThinkBook ‘flip’ concept unfolds into an 18-inch display.
But foldable screens of this size and on laptops are uncommon.
There’s plenty more work Lenovo will likely need to do before this can be commercialized including improving the durability of the display.
Solar powered laptop
The Lenovo Yoga Solar PC is another concept device shown off at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2025. It has solar panels on the pack which Lenovo says can give the user extra battery life.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
The Lenovo Yoga Solar PC is the company’s other concept device named after its line of Yoga laptops.
The product has solar panels on the back. These are able to absorb light.
While the PC still works with a traditional charger, the idea is that the solar power can give the user an extra bit of battery when the device is running low and there may not be access to a charging point.
Lenovo said that the solar panels can absorb even ambient light in a person’s surroundings to give a user an extra hour of laptop use at the end of an eight-hour work day.
The Xiaomi SU7 Ultra on display at the Xiaomi store in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, Feb 27, 2025. Xiaomi’s first luxury model, the SU7 Ultra, will be officially launched on the evening of February 27.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
BARCELONA — Xiaomi plans to begin selling its electric vehicles outside of China “within the next few years,” company President William Lu said on Sunday.
Lu made the announcement at Xiaomi’s product launch at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. While there were no concrete timelines, his comments underscore the Chinese technology giant’s ambitions in the global EV market to take on players like Tesla.
“I cannot share too many details but I am so excited to tell our global users that Xiaomi will be releasing EVs for the sale in global markets within the next few years,” Lu said.
This week, Xiaomi launched its first premium EV in China called the SU7 Ultra, which starts at 529,000 Chinese yuan ($72,627). Lu said the car racked up 15,000 orders in 24 hours and will be on display at the company’s booth at MWC.
It’s only Xiaomi’s second electric car after its announcing its foray into the EV segment in 2021. The company’s first vehicle, called the SU7, was launched last year in March. The company, which is best-known as a smartphone player, only sells its EVs in China but it is the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor.
Xiaomi’s EV boom, along with a recovery in smartphone sales, has helped the company’s stock, which is listed in Hong Kong, surge almost 300% over the last 12 months.
The Beijing-headquartered company is looking to ride that wave with a new high-end phone called the Xiaomi 15 Ultra launched on Sunday, which it hopes will challenge Samsung on a global stage.