xAI Launches Grok Imagine Video 1.5, Claims #1 on Image-to-Video Arena Leaderboard With Native Audio at $4.20/min

xAI launched Grok Imagine Video 1.5 on June 17, claiming the #1 spot on the Image-to-Video Arena leaderboard with a +52 Elo jump over its predecessor. The model generates 720p video in ~25 seconds with native synchronized audio—sound effects, ambience, and lip-synced dialogue all produced in a single pass rather than as a separate post-processing layer. At $4.20 per minute, xAI positions it as dramatically cheaper than Sora 2 Pro ($30/min) and Veo 3.1 ($12/min), while claiming wins over both in blind user evaluation.