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Xiaomi’s come a long way since they officially debuted here in 2014. In that decade, we’ve seen a ton of products from the company. From being an unknown brand to one that most people now instantly recognize, Xiaomi has undoubtedly proven itself. Now, it’s doing just that again, with the Xiaomi 15.
I don’t usually do mobile reviews. That’s pretty much because I don’t really care much about them. I used to, but now smartphones have reached a state where they’re all interchangeably similar to one another. They look the same, feel the same and for the flagships, perform similarly too.
It’s like comparing apples from one place to apples from another place. The taste might be a tad different, but it’s unmistakably an apple.
Does that mean the Xiaomi 15 is another apple in an endless stream of apples?
What is the Xiaomi 15?
The Xiaomi 15 is an Android smartphone.
It is a powered by the Qualcomm SM8750-AB Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, with an octa-core (2 x 4.32GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix L + 6 x 3.53GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix M). GPU duties are handled by the Adreno 830.
Its 6.36-inch CrystalRes AMOLED display has a resolution of 1200 x 2670 and is capable of displaying up to 68 billion colors. The display has a refresh rate of 120Hz, supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+. The display is protected by Xiaomi Shield Glass, with an aluminum alloy frame for the body.
The smartphone comes with a 5240mAh battery, with 90W HyperCharge and 50W wireless HyperCharge support. It has a lone USB Type-C port at the bottom of the phone.
The Xiaomi 15 also comes with a Leica Summilux optical lens rear camera.
The main camera lens has a 50MP resolution, with OIS (optical image stabilization) and a 23mm equivalent focal length. There’s also a Leica 60mm floating telephoto lens, with a 60mm equivalent focal length. Alongside the two, there’s also a Leica ultra-wide lens, with a 14mm equivalent focal length and a 115-degree field of view.
The rear camera has a digital zoom of up to 60x and features a variety of shooting modes. It is also capable of recording 8K video at 24 or 30FPS, 4K video at 24, 30 or 60FPS, 1080 video at 30 or 60PS and 720p video at 30FPS. Slow motion video can be recorded at 120, 240, 480, 960 or 1920FPS for 720p and 120, 240 and 960FPS for 1080p.
The front 32MP camera has a 21mm equivalent focal length and a 90-degress field of view. It can record 4K videos at 30 or 60FPS, 1080p videos at 30 or 60FPS and 720p videos at 30FPS. It also comes with a time-lapse selfie capability.
Our review unit came with 12GB RAM, and 512GB internal memory. There’s no external memory card support for the Xiaomi 15, so there’s no way to pile on additional storage space on top of that.
Its dimensions are 152.3 x 71.2 x 8.08 mm and the phone weighs 191 grams.
The Xiaomi 15 retails for SG$1,099 (256GB) or SG$1,199 (512GB).
The first thing that came to my mind when I held the Xiaomi 15 was that it’s top heavy. Seriously.
While the phone itself is a lightweight rectangular slab (as is the norm), the protruding lenses gives the body a very unwieldy feel as it’s much more top heavy than phones of its ilk. It does get better if you use a protective cover (Xiaomi includes one in the box) so don’t worry about the weight distribution too much. That does double if you use a heavy duty armored case.
I’m afraid the usual disappointments accompany the Xiaomi 15.
The lack of an microSD card slots hurts, especially if you’re rolling with the 256GB version of the phone. I mean, why not have expandable storage? Space runs out really fast when you’re shooting on higher resolutions. You’ll be running low on GBs before you know it if you shoot on 4K or 8K a ton!
That’s just for camera images. What if you want to download 4K movies or Netflix shows? The space just ups and vanishes right before your eyes.
The other issue I have with the phone is the lack of an audio jack. Sure, call me old fashioned. I don’t care. I love phones that have an audio jack. Why? They’re great for emergencies when your headset has no batteries! Just plug and play. You can’t beat that.
Other than those two issues, there’s really not much to complain about the phone.
The hardware is more than capable enough. I put the phone through 3 different benchmarking apps (3Dmark, Geekbench and Antutu) and the Xiaomi 15 performed great in all of them. Don’t just take my word for it, here are the benchmarks themselves.
This is the summary for what I got on 3Dmark.
The phone’s much too powerful for Wild Life and Sling Shot Extreme, which was why the scores for them are listed as Maxed Out.
Here are the breakdown for the individual benches.
As evident from the benchmarks, the Xiaomi 15 is quite the phone. It performs really well, even on visually intensive games. Placing in the Top 79% might not seem like a big deal, but it’s a great indicator of how the phone can compete even with the super high end smartphones out there.
Similarly, the phone did rather well on the Antutu benchmarks as well. The hardware for the Xiaomi 15 may not be the top of the line, but the guts of the smartphone are certainly powerful enough for it to get great scores.
If you’re using the Xiaomi 15 to play games, it should give you great to stellar performance on whatever you might be placing.
So how does the phone perform for photos?
Here are some shots I took.
I took the above shots with the rear camera, using the regular shooting mode. For the close up pictures, I used the phone’s Super Macro setting to get up close.
Both sets of photos look stellar.
I’m particularly impressed with macro shots though.
The fur on my cat, the detail on my Hot Toys Hulkbuster and the various stuffed toys I have lying around are all sharp and look great. Vibrant colors, with no loss of detail. The puppet Lady Dimitrescu never looked better!
While I still prefer to use my Nikon Z9, the Xiaomi 15 does put up a good showing. The macro shots are great too, though the lack of a decent bokeh is disappointing. In that light, I still prefer my Nikon Z 105mm lens, with its superb, dreamy bokeh.
Still, considering the Nikon Z9 and the Nikon Z 105mm combined cost nearly SG$10,000 and the Xiaomi 15 is just a tad over SG$1,000, it’s a great value for those who want sharp images without breaking the bank.
I even tried the 60x zoom to see how it performs.
You’ll be able to see them in action in the following images.
This is a regular shot.
This is the 60x zoom shot, standing at the same distance.
Similarly, this is a regular shot.
This is with 60x.
Finally, an outdoor shot.
This is the 60x in action.
While the 60x zoom sounds great in theory, it’s not so great in action. In conditions where the light isn’t great (like in the first two examples), the 60x shots are blurry with noise evident in them.
The outdoor shot fares much better, but even then, there’s a significant loss of detail in them. It’s not surprising, considering that the Xiaomi 15 uses a digital zoom, along with AI to clean up and enhance the shots. Digital zooms will never beat mechanical zooms, even with AI helping them along.
While the regular zoom modes are great, the upper echelons of the Xiaomi 15’s zoom capabilities shouldn’t really be used unless you really, really, really, really need a shot of something a distance away.
The Bottom Line.
The Xiaomi 15 is a decent phone, at a decent price. It would’ve been better value if it was priced at SG$999 though. Hell, it would’ve made for great marketing for a sub-SG$1000 phone to have such great quality cameras and hardware.
In fact, it would’ve made the lack of an expansion slot for memory cards and audio jack much more bearable. Sure, in practice it’s just SG$100 difference between SG$999 and SG$1099 but the psychological factor is immense. You’d be compelled into thinking the phone is a much better deal at the lower price point.
I’m not saying the phone isn’t a decent value. The base model at SG$1,099 does pack a lot of bang for the buck but the lack of space will be a detriment sooner (rather than later) if you’re not one to constantly back up your content.
As such, it’s much more cost effective to ignore that price and only focus on the 512GB SKU at SG$1,199. Twice the space, at only SG$100 extra? That’s a much better prospect in the grand scheme of things.
TLDR:
Great phone with great camera, but lacking the space it needs to truly shine.
The Good:
- Responsive buttons.
- Great performance.
- Awesome camera.
- Premium build quality.
The Bad:
- No audio jack.
- No microSD card slot.
- Top heavy.
- 256GB and 512GB not enough space for high resolution shots and videos.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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