Xiaomi has revealed the Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered Xiaomi 15 Pro in China – but how does it compare to the flagship Xiaomi 14 Pro?
While the two may look fairly similar at a glance, there are key upgrades on offer from this year’s flagship Android smartphone that make it all the more tempting, including not only Snapdragon 8 Elite power but massive improvements to battery life and more.
While we await the wider release of the Xiaomi 15 Pro, here’s how it compares to the previous-gen Xiaomi 14 Pro.
Pricing & availability
The Xiaomi 15 Pro has been announced and is readily available to buy – but only in China for now. Xiaomi’s latest flagship will likely get a larger release, as with previous Xiaomi flagships, though we’ll likely be waiting a while for it to materialise.
The Xiaomi 14 and 14 Ultra made their international debut at MWC 2024 in late February, suggesting that we could see the Xiaomi 15 range at MWC 2025 in early March. It’s worth noting that the Xiaomi 14 Pro didn’t get a wider release; instead, it was replaced by the 14 Ultra.
Xiaomi never provided a solid reason behind the change to its line-up, but speculation that the Xiaomi 14 and 14 Pro were too similar for an international audience could have something to do with it. There’s certainly a bigger jump between the Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Ultra.
It could very well be the same story with the Xiaomi 15 Pro and the yet-to-be-announced 15 Ultra, but we’ll have to wait and see for now.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro has Snapdragon 8 Elite power
One of the big headline features of the Xiaomi 15 Pro is the inclusion of Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.
While we’ve not had the chance to benchmark the Xiaomi 15 Pro specifically, we have benchmarked a Snapdragon 8 Elite-equipped reference device and the results were impressive, with CPU and GPU scores not only greater than MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 but Apple’s A18 Pro too.
More specifically, there’s a 40% boost to CPU and GPU speeds alongside a 45% increase in the NPU department compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 found in the Xiaomi 14 Pro, all while being 44% more efficient overall.
That should translate to a marked increase in performance from this year’s Xiaomi flagship, making it better suited for high-end mobile gaming, creative work and practically anything else you could throw at it – though the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the Xiaomi 14 Pro isn’t exactly a slouch, having been used in some of the best Android phones in 2024.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro has a larger battery – but slower charging
Despite the fact that Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon 8 Elite is up to 44% more efficient than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 found in the Xiaomi 14 Pro, Xiaomi still felt the need to increase battery capacity this year – and not by a small margin either.
While the Xiaomi 14 Pro sports a fairly standard 4880mAh cell for its size, the Xiaomi 15 Pro has a much larger 6100mAh battery. While we’re yet to test the capabilities of Xiaomi’s latest flagship, that should increase usage by quite a bit – especially when combined with the power-sipping Snapdragon 8 Elite.
However, possibly due to the change in battery tech from lithium-ion to silicon-carbon that allows for a larger capacity battery without massively ballooning the phone’s size or weight, the Xiaomi 15 Pro has slower charging capabilities. It’s still pretty rapid at 90W wired, but it’s not the 120W on offer from the Xiaomi 14 Pro that Xiaomi claims could offer a full charge in just 18 minutes.
Elsewhere, both smartphones offer 50W wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging, so it’s only wired charging speeds that differ.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro’s screen has slimmer bezels
The vast majority of display specs are identical no matter whether you opt for the Xiaomi 14 Pro or Xiaomi 15 Pro – both AMOLED panels measure in at 6.7 inches, offer 120Hz LTPO tech, support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+ – but there are more subtle differences between the two.
Firstly, the Xiaomi 14 Pro has a curved display, while the Xiaomi 15 Pro has a flat panel. While curved screens look a little more premium, the industry at large has shifted away from curved panels in the past few years, back to flatter panels that offer a nicer experience overall, so it’s not surprising to see the change on Xiaomi’s latest flagship.
The bigger difference comes in the bezel department. The Xiaomi 14 Pro has pretty slim bezels, measuring in at 1.61mm atop the screen and 1.71mm at the bottom, aided further by its curved screens – but the Xiaomi 15 Pro takes things to the next level with 1.38mm bezels on all sizes of its screen.
That’s not only slimmer than the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 1.41mm bezels, but it’s the thinnest in the industry at the time of writing.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro has an upgraded zoom lens
Both the Xiaomi 14 Pro and Xiaomi 15 Pro have the same main and ultrawide cameras – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The main 50MP sensor, in particular, is noteworthy, not only because of its fairly large 1/1.31-inch sensor but because of its variable aperture, ranging from f/1.4 to f/4.0, that should give it the edge both in low-light and portrait photography.
The high-res 50MP 115-degree ultrawide also looks pretty solid for the money, complete with autofocus for improved macro photography capabilities.
However, it’s in the zoom department that the two smartphones differ; while both are 50MP, the Xiaomi 14 Pro caps out at 3x while the Xiaomi 15 Pro offers an increased 5x.
That should allow you to get closer to the action without relying on digital zoom and the decrease in quality that comes with it, and it also brings it in line with the 5x capabilities of flagships like the iPhone 16 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, though on the flip side, it can only focus on subjects at least 30cm away, compared to the 10cm of the previous 3x sensor.
Early thoughts
The Xiaomi 15 Pro seems to be a strong upgrade over last year’s Xiaomi 14 Pro, with upgrades not only in terms of performance but also battery life, camera prowess and screen tech with some of the slimmest bezels around.
The bigger question is whether it’ll get a wider launch alongside the Xiaomi 15 in the coming months, as the Xiaomi 14 Pro was replaced by the Xiaomi 14 Ultra in most international markets. Only time will tell for now.
