Xiaomi 15 review
Display
The Xiaomi 15 has a fairly compact, by today's standards, 6.36-inch display. It is an OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit colors and Dolby Vision support. Quite premium stuff specs-wise.
In terms of brightness, Xiaomi says the panel can reach a peak of 3,200 nits. We did our standardized testing and managed to get 549 nits by maxing out the slider. We achieved the max auto brightness figure 1,517 nits. That's more than plenty to be perfectly comfortable outdoors, even in sunlight. Additionally, the Xiaomi 15 automatically supports DC dimming at every brightness level.
Max display brightness test
White test pattern, 75% fill (nits)
- Manual mode
- Auto mode
Pixel 9 Pro XL
iPhone 16
Xiaomi 15 Ultra
vivo X200
Honor Magic7 Pro
Xiaomi 15
Motorola Edge 50 Ultra
The Xiaomi 15 has an LTPO OLED panel, which means a more granular refresh rate and better power efficiency in certain tasks. For instance, the software dials down to 10Hz when you are not interacting with the display. It does so very quickly and ramps up to 120Hz when you touch it.
The modes available are Default (read Auto), 60Hz and 120Hz. However, while the 60Hz mode keeps the screen's refresh rate static at 60Hz, the 120Hz mode acts exactly like the Default mode.
In any case, we recommend using the Default mode as the software is pretty smart at detecting the content on the screen. It seems to favor 120Hz in all apps we tried, except YouTube, for example, where it will choose the appropriate refresh rate depending on the type of video. It can do 24Hz, 30Hz and 60Hz to match 24fps, 30fps and 60fps videos, respectively.
High refresh rate gaming works pretty well on the Xiaomi 15, with almost every supported title we tried managing to break through the 60Hz barrier.
Battery life
The global version of the Xiaomi 15, which we have for review, is equipped with a 5,240 mAh battery pack, as opposed to the 5,400 mAh that the Chinese version advertises. The difference is relatively small and might come down to "advertised" vs. "rated" capacity, but we can't say for sure. Maybe Xiaomi really swapped the battery pack on the international model for a marginally smaller one.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite has already proven to be a pretty efficient chip and it does not disappoint in the Xiaomi 15. It scores excellent results all around in our standardized battery tests with a great total Active Use Score of 16:28 hours.
Our new Active Use Score is an estimate of how long the battery will last if you use the device with a mix of all four test activities. You can adjust the calculation based on your usage pattern using the sliders below. You can read about our current battery life testing procedure here. For a comprehensive list of all tested devices so far, head this way.
Charging speed
Xiaomi 15 advertises a charging rate of up to 90W via Xiaomi's proprietary HyperCharge technology which is based around USB-PD and PPS. The phone also supports third-party USB-PD chargers, but not at the same rated charging power.
We did our standardized charging test, and the Xiaomi 15 definitely managed to show a strong overall performance. Especially considering its relatively large 5,240 mAh battery.
The Xiaomi 14 still charges faster, but that can be attributed to the fact that it also supports the same 90W charging but has a smaller 4,610 mAh battery. The charging rate is still quicker than the one on the Xiaomi 14T.
Charging speed
- in 15 min
- in 30 min
- Time to full charge (from 0%)
Xiaomi 14T Pro
Realme GT 7 Pro
Huawei Pura 70 Ultra
Honor Magic7 Pro
Poco X7 Pro
Xiaomi 15
Motorola Edge 50
Speakers - loudness and quality
The Xiaomi 15 packs a hybrid stereo speakers setup - one bottom-facing speaker and one that doubles as an earpiece. The typical issue with this solution is that the main speaker located at the bottom is always considerably louder. However, this isn't the case here. Both speakers are quite loud and almost perfectly balanced.
We feel that the setup hasn't changed noticeably since the Xiaomi 14, which isn't a complaint. On the contrary, the Xiaomi 15 managed a "Very Good" loudness rating, which is pretty much in line with its predecessor. It is about as loud as the iPhone 16 while also louder than the Samsung Galaxy S25.
As for tuning, the Xiaomi 15 isn't big on bass, at least not as big as the iPhone 16. However, it delivers very crisp mids and vocals and has little distortion in highs, even at max volume.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Connectivity
The Xiaomi 15 is a dual-SIM SA/NSA, Sub-6 5G device with simultaneous 5G connectivity on both of its nano-SIM slots. It has eSIM support as well.
For location, the phone supports GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS (G1), BDS (B1I+B1c+B2a), GALILEO (E1+E5a) and QZSS (L1+L5).
Local connectivity is handled by tri-band Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 with LE, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive and LHDC 5 support. There is NFC on board and even an IR blaster. No FM radio or 3.5mm audio jack, though.
The Type-C port on the Xiaomi 15 is backed up by a speedy USB 3.2 Gen 2 data connection, which tops out at 10 Gbps. Furthermore, the phone also offers wired Display Port (DP) video output and has Host/OTG support.
You get a hefty set of sensors with the Xiaomi 15. These include an STMicro LSM6DVS accelerometer and gyroscope combo, an AKM AK0991X magnetometer and magnetometer combo, a Xiaomi TCS3720ALSPRX ambient light sensor, a Xiaomi-branded hardware proximity sensor and a Goertek SPL07 barometer.
Reader comments
- Aierlan
- 5 hours ago
- Eaj
Yeah. 5x can be seen as a disadvantage or advantage. From 2x-4.9x the Xiaomi 15 is far superior but from 5x upwards the Xiaomi 15 pro is far superior. It depends on what level of zoom you use more. If using for portraits, standard photos of people ...
- Anonymous
- 12 hours ago
- ps8
Is this this finnaly quit gate keeping the bypass charging?
- Nick
- 12 hours ago
- M@p
Wtf! Why the speaker recoding sample is still bricked as always! Keep sleeping... Nah, come on! Wake up and fix it!