Xiaomi 15 review

Design, build quality, handling

The Xiaomi 15 has a pretty "classic-looking" design without any real standout features. An argument can be made about the relatively large square and black camera island providing some recognizability, but other than that, it's your regular "slab" phone.

This year, the middle frame has been rounded towards the glass instead of the other way around. This creates a more comfortable in-hand feel. The Xiaomi 15 offers a very confident and pleasant grip with its relatively compact size. No excessive thumb stretching is required here.

The phone looks even more inconspicuous and even a bit "mundane" from the front with an almost all-display design, thin bezels and practically no visible other hardware. Both the earpiece and the front-facing sensors are hidden away. The selfie camera cutout is fairly small as well, which is nice.

The Xiaomi 15 can be had in black, white, green and silver. Lilac seems to be staying in China for now along with a rather strikingly-looking red variant.

The back glass surface is matte and slightly textured to the touch. It doesn't easily gather fingerprints or grease, which is nice to see. Most of the color options are very subdued and would fit perfectly in any environment, even a boardroom.

There is nothing standout about the button and control layout on the Xiaomi 15 either. You get a volume rocker and power button on the right-hand side. Both are well-positioned height-wise and nice and "clicky".

Xiaomi 15

Nothing is on the frame's opposite side except for some antenna lines. The top side is empty as well. The bottom side is a lot busier with the Type-C port in the middle, the SIM tray and the bottom-firing speaker.

As mentioned, there are no visible controls on the front of the phone. The light and proximity sensors are hidden underneath the display.

The Xiaomi 15 uses an in-display fingerprint reader. It is an ultrasonic rather than the usual optical one, which is theoretically "fancier". In practice, we found it to be both speedy and accurate. No complaints there.

The Xiaomi 15 is a premium phone both in terms of specs and build. It feels solid with practically no flex or hollowness. The middle frame is made from aluminum alloy (6M42). There is something Xiaomi calls Xiaomi Shield Glass on the front. Apparently, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra gets an updated "2.0" version of the protective material this year, while the vanilla Xiaomi 15 is stuck with a last-gen version for better or worse. The back is made of some kind of glass fiber for enhanced resilience.

The phone has excellent IP68 ingress protection, which allows it to survive for up to 30 minutes in up to 1.5 meters of fresh water.