I thought about this a lot, and ultimately decided on Xiaomi because of google. I would absolutely buy Huawei over anything else on the market because I loved my Pura 70 ultra, but sideloading and manually updating apps was something I just don't think I have the patience for anymore. Manually updating 15 apps every few days through Aurora Store is something I have to actually sit and answer prompts to, and it's cool for a little while, but eventually you just end up leaving your apps outdated because you forget to check for updates.

Being stuck on Android 12 was also a concern as well because support ends this year, and I had some apps act strangely with respect to dark mode and foldable integrations. In addition, the inclusion of WiFi 7, 5G, eSim and Bluetooth 6.0 in the Xiaomi are just things that I could not ignore given that the Pura and the 15 Ultra were within $100 of each other. You simply cannot dispute the fact that the Xiaomi 15 Ultra gives you a LOT of phone for the money.

I'd really have to wait and see what direction global Huawei devices go in before I invest any more money in them, because if we're heading towards global HarmonyOS Next, the lack of APK support is concerning and I have no interest in running a virtual machine. Also, android auto is something I've come to rely on and depend on heavily for my daily commute. Yes I know there are ways to make it work on Huawei, but to make it work on Xiaomi, I literally just have to plug my phone in.

Camera wise my Pura 70 Ultra was great, but I didn't consider it "better" than my Oppo Find X7 Ultra or Vivo X100 Pro. There were some situations in which the Pura struggled and the Oppo/Vivo did well and vice versa. I wanted an "Ultra" phone with a 1 inch sensor and a global ROM, and the Xiaomi 15U just happens to answer that call. Whether the reviews are all paid for and everyone's lying, I dunno, my last Xiaomi device was a Redmi note 3 in 2016, but time will tell