In October last year, we got the Xiaomi 14 series in China, the first set of phones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Today, we got the Xiaomi 15 series in China, the first set of phones powered by the all-new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. The new devices have some small upgrades in the design, but the main upgrade is in the specifications.
XIAOMI 15
Starting with the vanilla model, the display size has not changed from the last generation, meaning it is still a compact-sized flagship phone. The phone is as light as 189g (for the limited edition), and the thickness is as low as 8.08mm. For comparison, the Xiaomi 14 was 8.2/8.3mm thick. There is a flat metal frame that nicely curves on the sides, making the phone comfortable to hold in the hand.
While the Xiaomi 14 had the Gorilla Glass Victus protection, the Xiaomi 15 uses the company’s Dragon Crystal glass. Xiaomi says the strength has increased by up to 10 times versus the Gorilla Glass Victus on the Xiaomi 14.
The bezels on the front are 1.38mm on all four sides, compared to the 1.61mm bezels on the Xiaomi 14. For the first time, Xiaomi has used an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint scanner on its flagship phone, and the company claims up to a 25% faster unlocking speed than the optical scanner on the Xiaomi 14.
For better thermals, the phone has an improved cooling system with a 6.8% larger heat dissipation area than the one inside Xiaomi 14.
Xiaomi 15 is IP68-rated and has a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port on the bottom. There are stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support.
One of the biggest upgrades this year is the battery size. While the Xiaomi 14 had a 4,610mAh battery, the Xiaomi 15 uses a large 5,400mAh battery. Xiaomi used a high-energy density battery in this phone hence, the thickness has not increased versus last year’s model. There is 90W wired charging and 50W wireless charging support.
Under the hood, the Xiaomi 15 has the all-new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, built on the TSMC’s 3nm process. Compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the CPU performance has improved by up to 45% and the GPU performance by up to 44%. The AI performance has improved by over 100%. Even with all these upgrades, the power consumption is lower than Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The new chip is over 45% more power efficient.
The Xiaomi 15 comes with 12GB RAM in the base model, versus 8GB in last year’s Xiaomi 14.
Speaking of the display, Xiaomi 15 has a 6.36-inch 1.5K 8T LTPO OLED display with a 3200 nits peak brightness, up to 10% lower power consumption, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+. The Xiaomi 14 had a same-sized display, but the newer model gets a brighter display, and the panel uses the new “M9” material.
Coming to the cameras, the Xiaomi 15 has a triple camera setup on the rear. The primary camera is the same as the last year’s model. It has a 1/1.31″ 50MP Light Fusion 900 sensor with OIS and a large f/1.62 lens. There is the same ultrawide camera with a 1/2.76″ 50MP Samsung JN1 sensor and an f/2.2 lens. The third camera is a floating telephoto camera with a 1/2.76″ 50MP Samsung JN5 sensor, f/2.0 lens, OIS, and up to 5x lossless zoom. The only change in the camera hardware is in the telephoto lens this year, which has a Samsung JN5 sensor versus the Samsung JN1 on the Xiaomi 14.
For better image processing, there is Xiaomi AISP 2.0, and the phone also has LEICA-specific camera features.
Finally, the Xiaomi 15 runs on HyperOS 2 out of the box.
The regular version comes in Purple, Green, Black, White, and Silver.
Here is the pricing –
- 12GB + 256GB – ¥4499 (~$630)
- 12GB + 256GB (Silver) – ¥4699 (~$660)
- 12GB + 512GB – ¥4799 (~$670)
- 12GB + 512GB (Silver) – ¥4999 (~$700)
- 16GB + 512GB – ¥4999 (~$700)
- 16GB + 512GB (Silver) – ¥5199 (~$730)
- 16GB + 1TB – ¥5499 (~$770)
- 16GB + 1TB (Silver) – ¥5699 (~$800)
There is a special “Diamond” Limited Edition of the Xiaomi 15 that comes in three colors – Gray, White, and Orange. It is priced at ¥5999 (~$840) and comes with “6” lab-grown diamonds.
XIAOMI 15 PRO
Let’s talk about the “Pro” now. The Xiaomi 15 Pro has almost the same design as the vanilla model, except that it is larger in size and has one change in the camera module. The Pro model gets a square-shaped lens, or in other words, a periscope telephoto camera. For better protection, the phone uses the second generation Dragon crystal glass with almost 25% improved drop protection than the Xiaomi 14 Pro’s first generation Dragon Crystal glass. And well, that’s pretty much all that’s different than the Xiaomi 15 in looks.
The phone is almost 10g lighter than the predecessor, and the thickness is as low as 8.35mm.
Under the hood, the phone has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, but thanks to a bigger size, the phone gets a massive 6,100mAh battery, the largest ever on a Xiaomi flagship. There is 90W wired charging and 50W wireless charging support.
The display is a 6.73-inch Quad-HD+ 8T LTPO OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate, 3200 nits peak brightness, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+ support. The phone has an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner.
Speaking of cameras, the Xiaomi 15 Pro has a triple camera setup on the rear. The primary camera has the same 1/1.31″ 50MP Light Fusion 900 sensor as the vanilla model but with a larger f/1.44 aperture lens. The ultrawide camera is the same, but there is a third periscope telephoto camera with a 5x optical zoom, OIS, and an f/2.5 aperture. For comparison, the Xiaomi 14 Pro had a normal telephoto camera with a 3.2x optical zoom.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro comes in four colors – Gray, White, Green, and Silver. Here is the pricing for China –
- 12GB + 256GB – ¥5299 (~$740)
- 12GB + 256GB (Silver) – ¥5499 (~$770)
- 16GB + 512GB – ¥5799 (~$810)
- 16GB + 512GB (Silver) – ¥5999 (~$840)
- 16GB + 1TB – ¥6499 (~$910)
- 16GB + 1TB – ¥6699 (Silver) (~$940)