Xiaomi 15 Impressions: A Solid Compact Flagship Contender

Compact flagships that were once seen as underdogs are now flexing their muscles, big time. The Vivo X200 Pro Mini (first impressions) that I recently tested out was a testament to this, and now, the Xiaomi 15 is here to possibly raise the bar. Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite and sporting a massive battery, this little powerhouse promises big things. I got an opportunity to take it out for a spin, and after spending a few good hours with it, here are my first impressions of the Xiaomi 15!

Note:
I have the Xiaomi 15 China model with me, so we could only use a limited set of apps during my testing. So, to get an idea of how well the Snapdragon 8 Elite performs in benchmarks, take a look at the interlinked article.

Battery That Doesn’t Ghost You

I could only spend around a day with the Xiaomi 15. So, it wasn’t enough to put its 5,400mAh battery to the test. However, here’s what I observed.

On the day that I received it, the phone had around 81% battery. I ran benchmarks, took a few photos and videos, installed some essential apps, and watched YouTube videos for about 40 minutes or so. After all that, I was still left with 55% to make use of. It took a concerted effort to drain this thing. I was finally left with 13% by the end of a little over a day and a half.

In my experience, the Vivo X200 Pro Mini’s 5,700mAh battery will last you longer by a bit. OriginOS (since I tested the China variant) is also less power-hungry than HyperOS. The Dimensity 9400 on the Vivo X200 Pro Mini remained cooler as well. This keeps thermal throttling at bay and offers more juice (more on this in the performance section).

Still, the Xiaomi 15’s battery is simply impressive and I didn’t find myself reaching for the charger during my limited run. And when I did, the in box 90W charger had the phone juiced up from 13% in about 35 minutes.

Performance for the Ages

As I mentioned in the beginning, being an administrator-locked China variant, it kept me from unleashing the true potential of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Moreover, app restrictions kept me from sideloading apps and even play popular games like CoD Mobile and Genshin Impact.

However, using the preloaded app store, I somehow managed to run AnTuTu and it scored 2545786 points. This was slightly lower than the Realme GT 7 Pro’s Snapdragon 8 Elite as well as the Dimensity 9400 on the Vivo X200 Pro Mini.

The device would also run warmer than the Vivo X200 Pro Mini. Sometimes, in normal usage as well, the device would hit 35 degrees in an AC environment, which is unusual. Meanwhile, after an AnTuTu test, the phone peaked at around 45 degrees.

But, keeping that aside, the Xiaomi 15 was a joy to use. The phone was buttery smooth right out of the box and our unit was running on Android 15-based HyperOS 2.0.16.0.VOCCNXM. A day later, it got the 2.0.17.0.VOCCNXM 143 MB update, which wasn’t anything substantial.

Although there were all those ugly Chinese bloat that made me cringe, there’s no denying that HyperOS is quite a debonair skin. From plowing through different apps to simply browsing the UI, I didn’t even notice any jitters even.

RAM management is also solid, even on the 8GB/256GB variant that I have. Apps resumed instantly even after hours of background idling. The good thing is that you get up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage with the Xiaomi 15.

Moreover, HyperOS 2 is a compelling upgrade, and there’s more to it than meets the eye. For starters, much like the Video Wallpaper feature on Vivo’s latest Funtouch OS 15, you can now set videos as wallpapers on HyperOS. Moreover, Xiaomi’s latest OS lets you layer video backgrounds with depth effects, and it looks cool.

Additionally, Xiaomi has finally fixed its annoying volume control panel. This used to display a full page when you tapped on the three-dot menu. Now, it simply opens up this intuitive panel which will let you make further changes from there itself.

Then, there’s the Xiaomi AI assistant which won’t be coming to the rest of the world, as is always. So, we’ll talk about the new set of Xiaomi AI features, listed under the AI app boost panel in settings.

There’s this AI writing tool, dynamic wallpapers, Gallery Editor, Interpreter, speed recognition, AI Search, fraud detection, and more, there’s a lot of AI injected into the new OS. It’s a shame I couldn’t fully explore these AI features, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the global variant.

Same, Same, but Different Design

The Xiaomi 15’s Lilac Purple that I have with me is an elegant color that looks good on a svelte form. It’s slightly thinner than the Xiaomi 14 and even the Vivo X200 Pro Mini, allowing a more intimate grip. The velvety matted-out finish at the glass back and the metal frame adds to it and further elevates the in-hand feel of the phone. However, it can be as slippery as an eel on dry palms.

I almost dropped it a couple of times. Well, Xiaomi claims that the front glass is protected by Dragon Crystal Glass, which is apparently 10 times more drop-resistant than the Xiaomi 14’s Gorilla Glass Victus. So, hopefully not to worry too much about dropping it. I don’t want to find out though.

The Xiaomi 15 is not the lightest compact phone out there though, weighing roughly 191 grams. But, since it’s slightly lighter than its older sibling, and offers better weight distribution, one-hand usage is very comfortable. I also noticed how the Xiaomi 15 gets rid of the extra meat around the camera module, which is neater. The flash is outside now as well, and I prefer this more.

As for the buttons, the volume rockers and power button is packed on the right, and feel very premium to the touch. There’s enough tactility as well, and they’re just the right amount of clicky. There’s also this shimmery border around the buttons, making them glaze from certain angles and that’s pretty to look at.

At the front, there’s a 6.36-inch 1.5K LTPO 120Hz OLED display with a resolution of 2670x 1200 pixels, surrounded by sleek and uniform 1.38 mm bezels. The display is very bright as well, and the LuxMeter at the office gave us a peak reading of around 2,700 nits. So, both indoors and outdoors, I didn’t have to bring my face closer to the screen to view details.

However, I did notice that the default Original Color PRO Color scheme was kind of dull and lacked the punch that my eyes were used to. Shifting to the Vivid mode did it for me. In addition, the AI Image Engine also brings features like Super Resolution, AI HDR Enhancement, and MEMC that can make videos further crisper, and they work as intended without going overboard on anything, which I liked.

I watched a bit of Modern Family and some of those black-rich 4K HDR videos on YouTube, and the experience was very immersive. The panel being backed by Dolby Vision and DCI-P3 color gamut coverage helps.

However, the speakers really surprised me, as I didn’t expect this kind of loudness and clarity from them. The dual stereo speakers are well-balanced, with the receiver doubling down as the second one. While the bottom-firing speaker is louder by a bit, it doesn’t ruin the experience at all.

Also, at one point, my hands got as sweaty as a sauna attendant and the display still registered every touch nicely. That’s when I figured that it features Wet Hand Touch tech as well. There’s also a 3D Ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor like we see on ultra-premium phones like the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Vivo X Fold 3 Pro (first impressions), and it’s blazing fast. A wonderful experience, overall.

Cameras That Are Okay, but Not Great

If you’re already on the Xiaomi 14 and are thinking about getting the Xiaomi 15 for better cameras, don’t. There’s barely any difference, thanks to a 50MP primary sensor with OIS paired up with a 50MP 60mm Leica Floating Telephoto sensor. The Xiaomi 14 actually had a 75mm telephoto, which was better. As for the ultra-wide, the Xiaomi 15 sports a 50MP sensor, which is not any different either.

As for the shots themselves, you can go from 0.6x to 5x, and I didn’t have many complaints about daytime shots. The primary sensor certainly takes the best photos, whether you’re capturing using the Lecia Authentic or Leica Vibrant modes. There’s some saturation in the colors, but it’s more natural as compared to the ultra-wide and telephoto shots. The dynamic range is also slightly better.

Both the ultra-wide and telephoto capture slightly lifeless shots, and it’s more prevalent in human subjects. As a result, even though the portrait mode’s edge detection and depth mapping are amazing, it’s not enough to make the shots look appetizing. Details are quite good though, and I didn’t notice any major loss upon zooming in.

As a result, there’s also some evident color disparity between the sensors. However, I will say that the image processing is very fast and you won’t miss a moment.

Night shots aren’t bad either, and that color disparity is not as evident. Details are good enough with little noise, and light sources don’t blow out into the surroundings either.

Selfies are quite good, and I like that there’s no oversharpening of any sort here. So, you see mostly natural details on the hair and skin texture. There’s some inconsistency as sometimes, selfies can turn out to be more saturated. However, nothing too bad.

Moreover, since there’s OIS (obviously), videos are very stable and you can capture up to 8K 30FPS videos. The front sensor can do up to 4K 60FPS, and those shots are very stable as well. However, overall, the cameras are about as exciting as watching paint dry, and there’s nothing new here.

A Surprisingly Capable Compact Phone

While the Xiaomi 14 was a good phone, it wasn’t an inspiring offering and not something I’d consider buying over other compact phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 or even the Galaxy S23. However, the Xiaomi 15 has me severely bewildered, especially given the CNY 4,499, roughly $625 price tag.

If you ask me, the Vivo X200 Pro Mini is still the king of compact phones, for now. But, it’s mostly the camera performance that’s holding the Xiaomi 15 back, and I wouldn’t mind it being my next phone at all. A couple of optimizations here and some fixes there should have it vying for the crown. Samsung, you better bring your A-game with the Galaxy S25, because the Xiaomi 15 has just made it a tough act to follow.