Xiaomi 15 Review: Not Ultra, still supra

Being the suffix-less bro of an Ultra or Pro can be injurious to product health. The Xiaomi 15 is proof of that rather brutal tech truth. Seen on its own, the relatively compact Xiaomi flagship has a lot going for it – proper flagship specs, Leica cameras, a very elegant design, and even a potential flagship-killer price tag. All of which would have made it a sensation in any other scenario.

Unfortunately, it got launched alongside the much more high profile and expensive Xiaomi 15 Ultra, and that meant it basically got relegated to the role of Montmorency, the dog in Jerome K Jerome’s classic Three Men in a Boat – cute, irresistible, and amazing, but on the sidelines rather than in the main act. Fortunately, it did not make Montmorency any less cute, irresistible, and amazing. And the same applies to the Xiaomi 15.

Xiaomi 15 design and appearance: Sleek, cute, compact…just like the Xiaomi 14

In appearance, the Xiaomi 15 is pretty much a clone of the Xiaomi 14, so much so that unless you REALLY concentrate, you will not be able to tell them apart. This will disappoint some who were expecting a radical new design, but speaking for ourselves, we are more than happy with the way the Xiaomi 15 looks and feels.

You get a rather compact 152.3 mm tall phone (making it smaller than the Pixel 9a, although slightly larger than the iPhone 16/16e), which is very impressively slim at 8.08 mm. At 191 grams, it is a little heavy for its size (although slightly lighter than the Xiaomi 14), but it is still light by most smartphone standards. The design remains very subtly elegant, with a glass front and flat back with a jet black square-ish camera unit with Leica branding protruding from it in what Xiaomi calls a “volcano-shaped deco” for reasons best known to itself. Right between these sheets of glass is an aluminum frame that curves slightly towards the back, making the sides look straight without being sharp.

We got the black variant, and it looked very elegant and premium and had a very good in-hand feel, not just because of its relatively compact size, but also the quality of materials used. This phone will not turn heads, and will often be mistaken for the Xiaomi 14, but anyone who looks at it is unlikely to look away without a second glance. It is the equivalent of a leather-bound classic with gold lettering and a silk bookmark thread in a library – it will not get the sort of attention that a paperback with a racy cover and over-the-top adjective-laden reviews littered on it will get, but it will get something much more important: respect.

In a world of metallic beer cans, the Xiaomi 15 is a flute wine glass.

Xiaomi 15 specs: Classic flagship spec sheet

The exterior might be compact, but the spec sheet of the Xiaomi 15 is expansive. This is pretty much a 2025 flagship phone in every sense of the world. The phone’s CrystalRes AMOLED display might seem small at 6.36 inches but has a resolution of 2670 x 1200 px (higher than the FHD+ on the Galaxy S25 and the Pixel 9) with 120 Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 3200 nits. The phone runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip seen on the likes of the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the OnePlus 13. It comes with 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512 GB of UFS 4.0 storage, which means it is designed for speedy performance.

There are three 50-megapixel cameras on its back, all made in collaboration with Leica – a Light Fusion 900 main sensor with OIS, a floating telephoto with OIS and 2.6x optical zoom, and an ultrawide. The front camera is a 32-megapixel one, with support for 4K video. The phone comes packed with Leica’s filters and shooting modes and supports 8K video. It is pretty much a camera powerhouse in its own right, although minus the bells and whistles of its Ultra bro.

All of this runs on Xiaomi’s HyperOS2 on top of Android 15, with an assurance of six years of Android OS and security updates. Rather remarkably, Xiaomi has squeezed in a relatively large 5240 mAh battery into the compact frame of the Xiaomi 15 – that is significantly more than the 4610 mAh on the Xiaomi 14, which was of almost the same size and weight. The battery comes with support for 90W wired and 50W wireless Hypercharge support, with a 90W charger in the box. Rounding off the spec muscle are stereo speakers with support for Dolby Atmos, a 4-microphone array, and NFC support.

The Xiaomi 15 is pretty much a spec monster.

Xiaomi 15 cameras: Love Leica? You will love these, then!

While most of the focus (pun intended) in the camera department has been on the accessories and superior sensors of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, which is as much a camera as a phone, the Xiaomi 15 is a pretty good camera phone in its own right. You get the option to choose between two color signatures – Leica Authentic (for those who prefer realistic colors) and Leica Vivid (which delivers slightly brighter colors) – and also have special Leica filters onboard. The Light Fusion 900 main sensor is a street photographer’s dream, delivering those typically deep contrast Leica snaps that highlight textures and are especially brilliant in light and shadow scenarios. We even got some outstanding night shots with the main sensor. The telephoto sensor might have a relatively unimpressive optical zoom of 2.6x, but it plays a key role in some stunning portrait photography.

In our opinion, the Xiaomi 15 delivers the best portrait photographs we have seen, not just in its segment, but among all phones priced below Rs 80,000. You get a choice of four focal lengths – 23 mm, a classic 35 mm, 60 mm, and 75 mm – and also switch between five photography modes: standard, swirly bokeh soft focus, wide, and bubbles.

The camera is at its best at 35 mm, with beautifully outlined subjects and bokeh that is artistic without seeming artificial. At 75 mm, however, edge detection gets a little lost. Our favorite combination was shooting in Leica’s black and white filters (there are four) at 35 mm, which yielded some of the best portrait photographs we have seen from a phone. Just like its predecessor, the Xiaomi 15 also comes with photo frames with special Leica watermarks that give images a very distinct appeal.

There are plenty of shooting modes, filters, and editing options, with a number of AI tweaks thrown in as well, giving you the option of tweaking your images endlessly. From removing objects to expanding the image size to changing the sky in the background, there’s a lot you can do with images shot on the Xiaomi 15, although we preferred our original shots. Video quality is very good from the main sensor too, with support for 8K video, and again, there are editing options aplenty. The phone heats up a little while shooting video, but again, it never reaches alarming levels.

The ultrawide and selfie cameras on the Xiaomi 15 are frankly not in the class of the main and telephoto. Both are reasonably competent and deliver results that are acceptable, but fall short of their counterparts in terms of detail and colour handling. We would also have liked a bit more in the telephoto department – you get 2.6x optical zoom and lossless zoom up to 5x. Digital zoom extends all the way to 60x, but is frankly of limited use beyond 10x-12x – the phone lacks the kind of zoom magic that the Vivo X200 series and the OnePlus 13 have.

In our opinion, the Xiaomi 15 is a terrific phone for those who love street and portrait photography, and are fans of Leica’s deep colors and contrasts in those modes.

Xiaomi 15 performance: A throw-anything-at-it kind of device

Its combination of powerful processor, speedy RAM, and storage makes the Xiaomi 15 one of those devices that can handle pretty much whatever you throw at them. The 6.36-inch display is great for viewing content and is easy to view even in bright daylight, and the speakers are excellent. The phone not only glides through routine tasks like Web browsing, social media scrolling, messaging, and mail but also can handle high-end gaming easily.

We got very good Call of Duty and Genshin Impact sessions on the device, and although the phone did get a little warm from time to time, it never reached alarming levels. Gaming enthusiasts might prefer a slightly larger display (especially for titles like Genshin Impact, which are spread across wide, gorgeous locales) and slightly louder speakers, but in terms of sheer processing power, the Xiaomi 15 is more than adequately equipped for high-end gaming.

Xiaomi has also added a number of AI tools to HyperOS2, labeling them HyperAI. So you get features like Circle to Search, AI Writer, AI Interpreter, AI speech recognition, and a host of other tools, all of which work very smoothly (the 12 GB RAM helps). HyperOS2 works very well on the Xiaomi 15, and is largely clutter-free, although the presence of GetApps and GameCentre might irritate some. The relatively compact form factor means that the phone can be used one-handed on some occasions, and call quality is excellent. All in all, you get a smooth, stutter-free experience.

Xiaomi 15 battery and charging: A bigger battery that charges rapidly

If the Xiaomi 14 had a weak point, it was its battery life. The 4610 mAh battery struggled to get through a day of heavy use. The Xiaomi 15 has no such issues. The large 5240 mAh battery will easily sail through a day of hefty photography and gaming. Use it carefully, and you can get through a day and a half of usage. The 90W charger gets it fully charged in 45-50 minutes, but half an hour of charging gets you comfortably more than 75 percent, which should suffice to get through a day for most users. The 50W wireless charging feature is handy, but you need a supported charger to get that speed, although you will get a decent charging experience even from a regulation 15W wireless charger.

Xiaomi 15 pricing: Pretty much a flagship killer punch

The Xiaomi 15 is available in a single 12 GB/ 512 GB RAM and storage variant at Rs 64,999 ($999 in the US). This is Rs 5,000 lower than the price of the Xiaomi 14, which was launched at Rs 69,999 last year, and this price reduction is a commendable feat, given how prices have generally been going north.

At that price, the Xiaomi 15 literally stands alone as the most compact and yet powerful flagship in the market, easily outspeccing the likes of the Galaxy S25 and the Pixel 9. In fact, we would say that with its battery life no longer a stumbling block (which it was in the Xiaomi 14), the Xiaomi 15 can easily take on the similarly priced OnePlus 13. In terms of specs and performance, the Xiaomi 15 is in the flagship-killing zone at its price!

Xiaomi 15 Review Verdict: A contender for the best value for money flagship!

It might have been totally overshadowed by the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, and the little attention it did get mostly revolved around its Leica cameras and compact design, but the fact is that the Xiaomi 15 still stands out as a terrific value-for-money flagship. At its price, it is one of the sleekest phones around and comes with very good cameras and hardware that is capable of handling everything you throw at it, and now has very good battery life too. It is pretty much a no-brainer if you want a compact flagship under Rs 75,000/$1000.

In fact, you can remove the “compact” from the previous sentence, and it would still largely make sense.

It ain’t an Ultra, but the Xiaomi 15 is pretty much supra in its own right.

Buy Xiaomi 15 (India)
Buy Xiaomi 15 (USA)

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