Four months after its release in China, the Xiaomi 15 has finally hit the global market. The new vanilla flagship model once again carries the Leica logo on its camera module, putting its photography capabilities into the spotlight.
The new phone doesn’t differ much from its predecessor in terms of design, but it does offer some internal upgrades. This includes a newer processor, a bigger battery, a better telephoto lens, and an improved fingerprint sensor.
Specifications
The Xiaomi 15 gets a very familiar 6.36-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 1Hz-120Hz refresh rate, a brighter HDR peak brightness of 3,200 nits, and the same 1,000-nit global peak brightness. Running on HyperOS 2 based on Android 15, it’s equipped with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC paired with 12GB RAM and up to 512GB of storage.
On the imaging side, the phone comes with the same 50MP sensor with OIS as last year, along with the same 50MP ultra-wide lens and 32MP selfie shooter. However, the telephoto lens has been upgraded from a Samsung ISOCELL JN1 sensor to a JN5, which should be a better sensor on paper despite the reduced optical zoom from 3.2x to 2.6x.
Powering the 15 is a much larger 5,240mAh battery (unfortunately, the cell capacity of the China model got reduced from 5,400mAh for the global release), which supports 90W wired and 50W wireless charging.
For durability, the flagship comes with the brand’s in-house Shield Glass for added screen protection alongside an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. As for connectivity, it supports 5G, Wi-Fi 7, NFC, and Bluetooth 6.0. Additionally, last year’s optical under-display fingerprint scanner has been replaced with an ultrasonic sensor.
Looks & Functionality
I’ve always been a big fan of Xiaomi’s flagship design and this year’s is no different. Up front, the bezels are razor thin with a completely flat screen, just the way god intended. The polished metal sides are flat and fit nicely in the hand with its rounded edges while the back gets a matte, but still somewhat shiny, finish that deters fingerprint smudges.
The new ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is a step above its predecessor as it’s not only a lot faster but more accurate, resulting in less errors in cases where your fingers might be covered in sweat. Another thing I’d like to add is that the 15 feels dense but well-balanced, which you can’t really say about most phones these days as brands usually opt for a top-heavy design that makes you feel insecure holding a phone one-handed.
It’s a bit disappointing that its global peak brightness didn’t get a bump this year but despite the paltry figure on paper, I’ve found that in real life, it does get somewhat close to the outdoor visibility of an iPhone 16, which has a global peak brightness of 2,000 nits.
The size of the Leica-branded camera bump is huge, as per usual, but on the bright side, it’s just big enough that the phone is actually stable when it’s resting on a flat surface. That means you can use this phone on a table without all the wobbling.
Software-wise, I have a love-hate relationship with HyperOS 2. The animations and the transitions have gotten so much better, with it being incredibly smooth and intuitive. However, while the amount of bloatware is relatively minimal for a Chinese smartphone brand, the barrage of notifications for you to use its in-house apps and features irritated me to no end. The phone does allow you to manually disable most of them, but there are some that can’t be turned off and will appear from time to time.
As with every other brand out there, Xiaomi is focusing on an arsenal of AI features to entice customers, and, admittedly, some of them are pretty good. There’s the AI writing tools, which can help you generate text as well as summarise and change the tone of existing text. In the Gallery app, you get an AI eraser, an AI expand tool, and even an AI reflection remover.
Compared to some of the others I’ve tried, I’ve gotta admit that Xiaomi’s AI eraser is one of the best I’ve used. As you can below, I gave it a selfie with my hand covering most of my face and to its credit, it did remove the hand cleanly and generate a face to fill in the gaps — it looks nothing like me, but even in this extreme case, it still managed to make it look clean instead of a sloppy mess.
On the other hand, the reflection remover is no miracle worker, but it does significantly reduce glare and reflections without making it look too obvious it was edited by AI. Last but not least, the expand feature is shockingly smart, with it being capable of expanding a close-up of my cat and making it look real enough that I wouldn’t have noticed the AI-generated parts at first glance.
Performance & Battery
The Xiaomi 15 is fitted with the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, so you already know that the performance is gonna be great. Coupled with the improved animations, the phone handles the UI as smooth as butter, with no lag to speak of in any area. Given that it’s succeeding a phone that also had a flagship chipset though, you obviously won’t notice any real-life improvement for everyday use.
But what about on-paper performance though? Well, on Geekbench, it sees an improvement of over 30% across the board, from the GPU to the single-core and multi-core CPU benchmarks. The Xiaomi 15 also has a new cooling system, which seems to work pretty well given that after going through a stress test, it achieved massively higher numbers on 3DMark compared to the Xiaomi 14.
On the battery life, the bigger capacity definitely results in more screen time. I was consistently able to finish the day with around 40-50% left on moderate usage. It’s nearly a two-day phone, but it would die around the evening on the second day. During our YouTube streaming endurance test, with the brightness and volume set to around 25%, it managed to last nearly five hours more than its predecessor at 23 and a half hours.
Camera
I’m a fan of Xiaomi’s strategy with its camera, where it didn’t change the things that worked and it just added improvements on top of it. The main shooter is the same as last year’s so you still get that sharp resolution with creamy bokeh in the background.
Just like before, it comes with two Leica presets, namely Authentic and Vibrant. I tend to stick to the Authentic mode cause it does look more natural but Vibrant mode does have its strengths in indoor lighting and just generally in situations where it looks a bit dull and you want to inject a little bit of saturation. In poor lighting, some photos turned out with a subtle vignetting, which I didn’t mind cause it added a certain style that grew on me.
The significant upgrade in the setup of the Xiaomi 15 is in the telephoto lens. It does get a lower optical zoom, so not much has changed for landscape photography, but macro shots are now sharper than ever with a faster autofocus. In the gallery below, I’m gonna include a close-up of my face (apologies in advance for my revolting pimple) to show you the astonishing amount of detail you can capture with this smartphone camera.
Camera Samples
Competition
iQOO 13
The iQOO 13 has the same pricing as the Xiaomi 15, although its 512GB model comes with more RAM. It’s a larger alternative with a 6.82-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate and a higher global peak brightness of 1,800 nits. Similarly, it runs on a Snapdragon 8 Elite, but with a much larger 6,150mAh battery with 120W charging, although it lacks wireless charging.
On the optics side, it gets a 50MP main camera with OIS, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and a 50MP telephoto lens with OIS and 2x optical zoom. The downside of this phone is that it does not support e-sim, but it does get an improved IP69 rating and an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.
realme GT 7 Pro
The realme GT 7 Pro only comes in a single 12GB+512GB configuration costing RM3,699. It features a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and an impressive global peak brightness of 2,000 nits. Another Snapdragon 8 Elite contender, it’s powered by a humongous 6,500mAh battery that supports 120W charging.
It gets a 50MP primary sensor with OIS, an 8MP ultra-wide lens, and a 50MP telephoto lens with OIS and 3x optical zoom. Just like the iQOO, it offers an IP69 rating and an ultrasonic scanner.
vivo X200
The vivo X200 is also limited to a 512GB offer, but it costs RM100 less than Xiaomi’s at RM3,599 with 16GB of RAM. Equipped with a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a global peak brightness of 1,600 nits, it only has an optical under-display fingerprint scanner.
Underneath the chassis lies a flagship chip from another brand, the MediaTek Dimensity 9400, paired with a 5,800mAh cell with 90W charging. Imagine-wise, it gets a Zeiss-branded setup with a 50MP camera with OIS, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and a 50MP periscope lens with OIS and 3x optical zoom.
Conclusion
The Xiaomi 15 is undoubtedly one of the best flagship phones I’ve used all year (not counting the Pros and the Ultras) and with its competitors raising their prices, this is tied for the cheapest vanilla flagship of 2025.
I love the simplicity of the flat design, the battery life is excellent, and, best of all, the camera makes it so easy for any amateur to take good photos. There’s also the added value of the smooth UI and the surprisingly useful and effective AI photo editing tools. As of now, this is my pick for best-value flagship of the year, which is a first for Xiaomi.
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