Xiaomi announced its new phones in March 2025 globally, with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra getting most of the attention thanks to its enhanced photography offering. Launched alongside was the Xiaomi 15, on review here, which is a more compact flagship offering that replaces the Xiaomi 14 from 2024.
The launch follows a run of consistently good devices from Xiaomi: while launched in China first, these handsets offer good performance and specifications. But where Xiaomi was once known for its affordable prices, those have crept up to rival the likes of Samsung, while its more affordable Poco and Redmi brands offer better value for money.
So is the Xiaomi 15 a truly viable alternative, or should you just stick to Samsung’s established offering instead?
How much does the Xiaomi 15 cost?
The Xiaomi 15 costs £899 for the 256GB version, stepping up to £999 for the 512GB version. In Europe that comes in at €999.90 for the 256GB model and €1099.90 for the 512GB model. You won’t find it in the USA.
That puts it on a par with phones like the Google Pixel 9 Pro, which might be considered the obvious rival, or the Galaxy S25 Plus, which has a larger display.
What’s new in the Xiaomi 15?
(Image credit: Future / Chris Hall)
The Xiaomi 15 sits in the shadow of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, offering a slightly smaller footprint thanks to a smaller display. Compared to its larger sibling it has a different camera arrangement, crucially missing out on the large main sensor and the 200-megapixel telephoto camera.
But the Xiaomi 15 updates the Xiaomi 14 to new Snapdragon 8 Elite hardware, so it’s more powerful. The Xiaomi 15 is slightly smaller than the Xiaomi 14, but only by fractions of millimetres, while it’s a little heavier, too.
The display remains the same size generation to generation, but now has slightly higher peak brightness and touch sampling rate. The camera arrangement is the same, but the telephoto is slightly different, shifting from a 75mm to a 60mm zoom.
The battery has increased in size fairly considerably, adding around 600mAh, while the phone launches on Hyper OS2 with Hyper AI features.
Xiaomi 15 review: Design & Display
- 6.36-inch OLED display
- 2670 x 1200 resolution, 460ppi pixel density
- 3200 nits maximum brightness
- 1-120Hz refresh rate (variable)
- 152.3 x 71.2 x 8.08mm / 191g
- Black, White, Green, Liquid Silver finishes
- IP68 rating
(Image credit: Future / Chris Hall)
At first glance, you might struggle to see how the Xiaomi 15 and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra are related. While the Ultra’s design focuses on the huge camera array on the rear of the phone, the Xiaomi 15’s design is rather more subtle. The camera sits over to the left in a square, raised lump, while the overall design is fairly compact.
The camera unit is still pretty big considering the phone’s size, but that’s no different the Xiaomi 14. Like its predecessor, the camera unit looks like it has four lenses, but there are only three optical lenses on the rear of the phone, with the fourth being a laser focusing sensor.
Xiaomi was perhaps a step ahead of some rivals when it comes to design, with the 2024 model offering flattened sides for the design, a little like the iPhone 15. The Xiaomi 15 continues this design, with a matte finish to those flattened frame edges.
The finishing is nice, with subtle curves to the frame, so it’s not ‘sharp’ like some models, but in many ways, the design of this phone is unremarkable. That might explain while Xiaomi offers a Liquid Silver model, with a fancy finish that will definitely turn heads and raise questions.
(Image credit: Future / Chris Hall)
There’s an IP68 rating to keep things protected from dust and water, as you’d expect on a phone at this price. The front and rear of the phone are both glass, while the frame is aluminium.
Sitting up front is a 6.36-inch display. It’s an AMOLED panel and the highlight is the 3200-nits peak brightness – meaning that it’s not only got the brightness to punch through reflections, but that the highlights in your HDR (high dynamic range) photos will really pop.
It’s a nicely vibrant display, with plenty of options to change the colouration to your preference. I stuck to the default ‘Original colour Pro’, but you can have more or less saturation if you choose, and some will find that ‘Vivid’ gives it a bit more of a lift. Xiaomi plays it a little safe with brightness and I’m forever tweaking it upwards to get a little more pop to content on the screen.
The Xiaomi 15 is towards the smaller end of the size range for flagship devices, so if you’re after a phone that’s small but powerful, then the Xiaomi 15 will take you there. The best compact phones certainly have their place in the world, with some users much preferring them.
Xiaomi 15 review: performance
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, 12GB RAM
- Xiaomi HyperOS 2 software
- 5240mAh battery capacity
- 90W HyperCharge
- 50W wireless
(Image credit: Future / Chris Hall)
Packed with the 2025 flagship hardware of choice, it’s no surprise that the Xiaomi 15 is a hot performer. Now, if you’ve been following the story of Snapdragon 8 Elite phones, you might know that some of them get a little warm. That’s something I’ve found with the Xiaomi 15, that during a long gaming session, it will get a little toasty towards the top of the phone.
That hasn’t, however, led to any problems when gaming, where I’ve found the performance to be generally very good during long sessions of Call of Duty Mobile. This is backed by speakers that have plenty of volume, with a Dolby Atmos option that just makes everything sound better, so keep that toggled on.
There’s 12GB RAM – another area where this phone steps down slightly from the 16GB found on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra – but you boost this by up to 12GB virtual RAM if you want, although I found the phone perfectly smooth with the default 6GB extension.
There’s the 5240mAh battery, which is of note and I’ve found to be a very good performer. In many cases, I got to the end of the day with plenty of charge left, so I didn’t bother to charge overnight. It’s then a bit of a surprise when battery saver clicks in at 20%.
But with the 90W HyperCharge, it’s really fast to get juice back into the Xiaomi 15. Battery life isn’t a concern with this phone, as 15 minutes on a high-power charger will typically put about 40% back into the battery.
(Image credit: Future / Chris Hall)
But perhaps the biggest performance element of the Xiaomi 15 is the HyperOS 2 interface that it runs. First of all, Xiaomi will offer 6 years of security updates (which isn’t bad(, but only 4 years of Android OS updates (which is behind the curve now). Your Google Pixel, Samsung or Honor devices will offer 7 years instead.
HyperOS is an evolution of MIUI. The second-generation here presents a usable Android skin that tweaks the stock look and feel that you’d find on a Pixel phone. There are some elements of customisation that I like – such as the ability to choose how much background blur you have when you open the apps tray – but in many cases, there are just a lot of options.
The other thing there’s a lot of is bloatware. Xiaomi still fills its phones with a lot of additional apps, whether you want them or not. Some can be uninstalled – like WPS Office or Booking.com – but some of those Xiaomi apps you’ll have to keep, even if they are duplicates of default Android equivalents.
I think it’s worth removing everything you can, even if you want it, and then reinstalling it from Google’s Play Store. I only mention this because some of these apps come from Xiaomi’s own App Mall – and that will try to push updates. I’d much rather everything was coming from Google instead.
Thankfully, unlike lower-tier Poco phones, there’s a lot less advertising around Xiaomi’s apps, so things are smoother. I also enjoy the fact that Xiaomi isn’t pushing AI functions to excess. These are in the device, but like Samsung phones, you’ll only really find them if you use Xiaomi’s apps.
Xiaomi 15 review: Camera
- Leica tri camera system:
- Main (23mm): 50-megapixel, 2.4µm sensor (Light Fusion 900), f/1.62 aperture, optical stabilisation (OIS)
- Tele (60mm): 50MP, f/2.0, OIS
- Wide (14mm): 50MP, f/2.2
- Front camera (21mm): 32MP, f/2.0
(Image credit: Future / Chris Hall)
The Xiaomi 15 is very much a competent all-rounder when it comes to the camera. That sets it apart from the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, which offers stellar camera performance. Just as the Samsung Galaxy S25 camera only offers a slice of what you get from the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the same applies here.
Generally, I’ve found the Xiaomi 15 to offer a great main camera experience. It will saturate images a little more than I’d like, so they look good, but they can also look a little artificial or forced at times. Note too that f/1.62 aperture, because you’ll find that the depth of field is shallow, so if you get too close to the subject, you’ll find that not much of it is in focus.
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There can also be a fairly significant colour inconsistency between the main camera and the telephoto camera, as it shifts from f/1.62 to f/2.0. That basically sets the scene for zoom photos that are a bit washed out.
The telephoto zoom on this camera moves from the 75mm (3x) on the Xiaomi 14 to 60mm (2.6x) on the Xiaomi 15 – and it’s great to have this sort of optical zoom on a compact phone like this. The performance can’t compete with the Pixel 9 Pro, however, because images lack colour and sharpness.
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It offers up to 60x digital zoom, but it’s really slow to get to 60x and the results aren’t worth it. There’s an AI enhancer that can swing in at 20x zoom to help clean things up, but you’ll find that real detail is processed away, so you end up with a photo that’s not quite what you actually snapped.
Then you have a full range of Leica filters that Xiaomi offers, basically the product of the branding partnership on the rear of the camera. You can apply these filters at the time of shooting or after in the Gallery app. The advantage of applying them after the fact is you’re not stuck with it if you don’t want it, which is what happens if you use it at the time of shooting.
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Xiaomi 15 review: Verdict
(Image credit: Future / Chris Hall)
The Xiaomi 15 is a phone for those looking for something a little smaller, yet with plenty of flagship power.
The day-to-day experience of using this phone – once you’ve removed the bloatware and tweaked things to your liking – is nice and smooth, with the standout feature being the battery life.
As such, it’s a potential alternative to a phone like the Samsung Galaxy S25, but the software experience isn’t as refined and it’s a little on expensive side considering that.
Also consider
The Samsung Galaxy S25 is a viable alternative to the Xiaomi 15. Xiaomi has the edge on battery life and charging, but Samsung user interface leads to a smoother experience, while also offering longer software support.
The Pixel 9 Pro is also a natural rival. Sitting in a similar-sized frame and also sporting a compelling camera experience, the Pixel offers cleaner Android software, but again lacks Xiaomi’s long battery life and rapid charging. The Pixel 9 Pro isn’t quite as powerful, however.
