“If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”
To a certain extent, this idiom is true. Why change things if it works right? For example, look at Porsche with the 911. In the tech world, you see this with Apple’s iPhone lineup.
Even Samsung is doing something similar with their Galaxy S series smartphone. There are barely any exterior changes on the Galaxy S25 Series coming from the S24 and even the S23 series before.
It seems more manufacturers are doing the same today, and that brings us to our review unit – the Xiaomi 15. At first glance, it looks like nothing changed from the Xiaomi 14 introduced last year. Instead, the changes are found under the hood – a new chipset, larger battery, and a new OS.
With that in mind, I’m curious whether it’s worth it to upgrade to the Xiaomi 15, especially if you’re using a flagship device from 2024.
Design and Construction
As mentioned earlier, the Xiaomi 15 looks nearly identical to its predecessor – the Xiaomi 14. That’s not to say that’s a bad thing though. Personally, I like the simple design of the Xiaomi 14, and I’m glad the brand didn’t really change much with the new model.
The cameras are still located at the upper left corner of the back panel inside a square blacked-out camera island. Of course, you’ll also find the Leica logo here since the cameras are tuned by the Red Dot brand.
While there are four circles, don’t be fooled. The Xiaomi 15 still comes with a triple rear camera system. Instead, the LED flash has been relocated outside of the camera island. It’s now a small slit, which is the only visual design change from its predecessor. The rest of the back panel remains unchanged with the Xiaomi logo at the bottom left portion.
As for the rest of the phone, it still feels very familiar. There’s still the glass back panel paired with an aluminum frame, giving the phone a premium feel. The dimensions are nearly identical too (152.3 x 71.2 x 8.1mm). I like how the phone has a good weight (189 grams), which doesn’t make it feel flimsy.
The volume rocker and the power button are still located on the right side. At the bottom, you’ll find a loudspeaker, the USB-C port, and the dual-sim card slot. Like before, the left and top sides of the phone remain clean.
I’m sure some of you reading this review will have your own opinion about the lack of design changes on the Xiaomi 15. However, we do like the phone’s current design language; it’s something that is uniquely Xiaomi.
Display and Multimedia
Moving on to the display of the Xiaomi 15, it seems to be a carryover from the previous model as well. The screen still measures the same 6.36 inches, and you do get very thin borders all around.
It still uses an LTPO OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and 3200 nits of peak brightness. There’s also HDR10+ support along with Dolby Vision, giving users a better viewing experience when binge watching movies or series on this phone.
From our eyes, the colors still look amazing; this is an LTPO OLED panel after all. When watching movies or even anime, the colors are quite vivid, and the blacks can be very deep. This gives you an immersive feeling when binge watching shows.
You also have great viewing angles, making it great for watching with groups. However, the screen isn’t the biggest, which might make it hard for some to see, if you’re in a big group. If you’re used to phones with bigger screens, you might need some adjusting though.
To go with the nice display, the Xiaomi 15 also comes with dual stereo speakers and support for Dolby Atmos. Unfortunately, the speakers are just decent at best. They’re loud and have great clarity, but the sound stage isn’t that great. The moment you move away from the phone, the sound quality changes and that’s even with Dolby Atmos turned on.
Still, it’s more than adequate if you’re just watching movies while lying down on the sofa.
Cameras
Moving on to the cameras, there are no changes here either. You get three 50MP cameras which are tuned by Leica – A 50MP main shooter with a large 1/1.31″ Light Fusion 900 image sensor, a 50MP telephoto that according to Xiaomi uses a new 28nm sensor and a 50MP ultrawide with f/2.2 aperture.
What is new is the software that processes the camera. According to the brand, the Xiaomi AISP 2.0 platform was upgraded to make the cameras more capable of shooting in various environments.
In terms of real-world use though, there doesn’t seem to be that big of a difference. The images captured by the Xiaomi 15 are sharp and have nice clarity out of the box. Even in low light, there’s barely any grain or drop in quality.
The same can be said for using the ultrawide or even using zoom; the images all appear sharp. Just note that if you zoom beyond 6x, there is a noticeable drop in quality but that’s to be expected.
What’s great is that you can also tune the Leica image processing to your liking, giving you nice and moody images with more contrast. There are two modes to choose from – Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant. On top of that, you can also opt to turn on the AI camera function and HDR to adjust the processing of the photo.
Check out the images we captured below to see how capable the Xiaomi 15 camera is.
But it’s not just the photos that are great out of the box. The Xiaomi 15 also records videos amazingly at up to 8K@30FPS. However, I preferred to use the Master Cinema mode, which limits videos to only 4K @ 30fps, max.
The colors just look a lot better, similar to the Leica settings we used in taking photos. We didn’t even need to turn on Steadyshot since there appears to be stabilization at work. When using Steadyshot, the video quality also drops to 1080P@30FPS only, which is a bummer. But honestly, you don’t need to use it at all if you have somewhat steady hands.
Check out the sample videos below and see for yourself.
OS, Apps, and UI
Like most flagship smartphones launched this 2025, the Xiaomi 15 also runs on Android 15 but is skinned with HyperOS 2.0.7. If you have ever used Xiaomi devices before, you’ll feel right at home. Of course, the MiRemote is also very useful and comes with this phone too.
Thankfully, there isn’t a lot of bloatware apart from Xiaomi apps and a few others that you will probably use anyway – Facebook, Tiktok, Spotify, Linkedin, and Amazon. The OS itself is smooth, and everything you need is neatly sorted in the settings. Some apps even have animations when you close them like the settings and gallery apps.
Of course, you also get a bunch of AI features available like AI Eraser in the Gallery, AI Summary under notes, and Circle to Search to name a few. But what I really liked is that you can add the AI Subtitles features as part of the swipe-down menu, making it easier to toggle on and off. However, you do need a Xiaomi account to use these AI features.
Overall, the OS is easy to use, and the new AI features will definitely be helpful even if you won’t be using them daily.
Performance and Benchmarks
While there aren’t really a lot of changes to the Xiaomi 15 visually, the most significant improvement is found in the chipset. It now uses the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset used by the latest flagship smartphones. For reference, our unit comes with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage.
With that, we weren’t any more surprised at just how capable it is whether it comes to everyday use or gaming. Even with multiple applications running in the background, the phone won’t lag or stutter. You can quickly switch through apps, making it great for multitasking if you need to get work done.
When it comes to games, the Xiaomi 15 can handle almost anything we throw at it. Genshin Impact was not a problem even with the graphic settings set to the highest. No lags or framerate drops even if you’re battling multiple enemies and using several skills at once. Together with the nice screen, it definitely made gaming on this phone a great experience.
However, I did notice that the phone heats up rather quickly when playing games. When playing Genshin, the Xiaomi 15 started to become warm after just 15 minutes of playtime. It got a bit warmer after that, but the important thing is that it did not affect the gameplay at all. Even when it was hotter, the games I was playing maintained FPS.
Of course, we also ran our usual benchmarks, which you can check out below.
Antutu V10 – 2241598
Antutu Storage – 163768
Geekbench 6
CPU Single – 2908
CPU Multi – 8941
GPU OpenCL – 17351
GPU Vulkan – 23891
PCMark Work 3.0 Performance – 17804
Battery and Connectivity
In addition to the new chipset, another major upgrade to the Xiaomi 15 is the battery. It’s a lot bigger than before featuring a new 5,400mAh Li-Polymer battery pack. Even before we ran our benchmarks, we could already tell that the battery lasted a lot longer than before.
After an entire day of use, the phone still had more than enough to last another 5 to 6 hours. For reference, we used it to take sample photos and videos, play games, and even binge-watch videos during our break. Still, it took a long time before the battery started to drain.
Running PC Mark’s Work 3.0 Battery Test, we were able to record 21 hours and 55 minutes of battery life, which is an amazing feat. For reference, the test was done in airplane mode, 50% brightness, and zero volume.
So if you’re someone who tends to forget to charge his phone at night, you really won’t have to worry with the Xiaomi 15. And if you do need to charge, the Xiaomi 15 comes with 90W Hypercharge and 50W wireless charging.
As for connectivity, you have the full suite at your disposal – dual 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, GPS, and infrared sensor.
Conclusion
Overall, the Xiaomi 15 is a very impressive phone, building on the success of its predecessor. There may not be a lot of changes, but the improvements do help a lot.
I especially like the new bigger battery, which now makes it capable of lasting over a day without recharging. The new chipset helps with performance, whether for productivity or for playing games. While not everyone will use the AI features, it’s a nice thing to have as well.
However, if you’re already using a flagship phone from 2024 or a Xiaomi 14, I don’t see the point in upgrading to the Xiaomi 15 just yet. A bigger battery and a newer chipset don’t justify upgrading.
Instead, maybe you can wait a year or two for the Xiaomi 16 or even a new model down the line. But if you’re using a phone that’s a bit dated or you’re coming from a mid-range model, then upgrading to the Xiaomi 15 is definitely a good choice.
But what do you think of the Xiaomi 15? Would you cop it? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
What we liked:
* Long battery life
* Amazing Cameras
* Great performance
What we didn’t like:
* Phone heats up while gaming
* Speakers could be better
Xiaomi 15 specs:
6.36-inch 1.5K LTPO OLED display
2670 x 1200 pixels, 1-120Hz adaptive refresh, 460 ppi
3200-nit (HDR) peak brightness
Xiaomi Dragon Crystal Glass
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
3nm, 8-cores, up to 4.32GHz
12GB, 16GB LPDDR5x RAM
256GB, 512GB, 1TB UFS 4.0 storage
Triple rear cameras (co-engineered with LEICA):
– 50MP f/1.62 (23mm) main, Light Fusion 900, OIS
– 50MP f/2.0 (60mm) telephoto, OIS
– 50MP f/2.2 (14mm) ultrawide, 115° FoV
32MP f/2.0 selfie shooter
Dual nano-SIM
5G, 4G LTE
Wi-Fi 7
Bluetooth 5.4
GPS, Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS, QZSS
USB Type-C (USB 3.2 Gen1)
NFC
Under-display fingerprint sensor (ultrasonic)
IP68 dust and water resistance
Dual stereo speakers, Dolby Vision, IR blaster
Xiaomi HyperOS 2 (Android 15)
5,240mAh Li-Po battery, 90W charging (wired), 50W wireless, 10W reverse wireless charging
