What if I told you that you don’t need the Ultra to get an “ultra” experience? I’ve been quietly using this Xiaomi 15 for a month, and this phone will change how you think about smaller phones, especially in the two areas that make this the better choice compared to the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
Design & Build
First, looking at the design, it seems like Xiaomi has found a unique design for its non-Ultra phones. Just like Apple and Samsung, this follows the same design language as the previous Xiaomi 13 and the Xiaomi 14, which I have to say that I have been loving since the Xiaomi 13.
It comes with a matte back and sides with a curved edge. And these slight refinements do make the Xiaomi 15 more polished and clean. Not only does it feel really nice in your hands, but this particular color doesn’t attract any fingerprints or smudges; it looks really elegant and weirdly fresh, like how it just came out from a fridge.
If you have been watching my recent videos, I have been on a small-sized phone marathon, from using the base S25 to the Google Pixel 9a, and I have been having a strong preference for smaller-sized phones. So, this Xiaomi 15 surely elevated that even further when I was using this phone daily.
Display
This 6.36-inch AMOLED LTPO 120 Hz refresh rate is Dolby Vision certified and has HDR10+. It has a typical brightness value of 1000 nits, but with a super high 3200 nits of peak brightness. Now, that is brighter than Manchester United’s future!
But seriously, it is perfect for Malaysia’s blazing sun. The colors are punchy, and the texts are also very crisp, and the bezels are all very nice and equal all around. This is also a 90% screen-to-body ratio smartphone.
And then there’s the new Xiaomi Shield Glass instead of the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. While Xiaomi Shield Glass sounds confident, that sounds like something that Tony Stark made, right? Because to be honest, we all do not know whether or not it’s better than the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. The internet also does not have much information about the durability of this particular Xiaomi Shield Glass, but so far, it has been standing up pretty well.
And then there’s also a pre-applied screen protector, and thankfully, it’s not like those cheap types of screen protectors that make the screen worse, like how when I was reviewing the POCO F7 Ultra. So yes, overall, I really love the screen on the phone, once again complimenting the smaller-size screen even better.
Software
But what I can’t say the same was on the software. Sounds like a cliffhanger, right? Okay, don’t get me wrong, because this is great. It is a lot snappier than before, but this looks outdated in certain places.
HyperOS
Even with the latest HyperOS 2, Samsung and other UIs have this blurred background while accessing the control center or the app drawers, which does look a bit more futuristic. Whereas this Xiaomi 15 has this plain or black background, depending if you’re in dark mode or even light mode, giving a very “budgety” feeling to the phone.
But credits were due because the software was very stable. There was almost no lag or jitters anywhere when I was using the phone daily.
Then the bloatware situation has slightly gotten better as well, not completely removed because there are some pre-installed apps which can be easily ignored or even used.
And by the way, I have a little different take on bloatware these days. As much as I do not like them, but apparently, based on my research, bloatware helps companies to cut down the price of the phone. So instead of making money from us, they take a certain percentage from these apps, which if you ask me, I don’t mind because this allows companies to bring down the price even with all these cool specs on the phone. But on the other hand, Samsung with the same specs cost more…
HyperAI
Like the recent Xiaomi phones, it also has HyperAI features like the basics such as the AI Writing to summarize or rewrite messages, AI Proofreading, or even the AI Layout to reorganize your notes.
And then there are also the advanced versions also available in this Xiaomi 15, like the AI Interpreter for the real-time translation, the AI Eraser to the AI Dynamic Wallpapers which generate wallpapers. So you’re looking at a way more polished UI from Xiaomi over on this Xiaomi 15 as well.
Aside from that, this offers 4 years of software updates and 6 years of security updates, while the industry standards these days are 5 years or even more, so this is a hit.
Now, I do understand that people change their phone maybe probably every two or three years, but at this price, I would still expect a phone which has a bit more headroom when it comes to the software updates if I ever wish to continue to use them longer.
Chipset & Performance
And this is because it has a very powerful chipset, which is powerful enough to last for years, which is the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, because this adds into the already buttery smooth HyperOS where app opening speed is not even a blink, very clean, smooth, and very fast.
Gaming has also been a very nice treat on this particular phone. It has a nice resting space for the finger. Although it’s a small-size phone, this 8.1mm thickness does allow your fingers to rest on the phone very nicely and is very comfortable to use when gaming for long periods.
During my continuous heavy gameplay, the heat management was bearable, and for games like Genshin Impact (highest graphics, 60fps, motion blur on).
So yes, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip does give an overall better performance compared to the POCO F7 Ultra which has the same chip, and this raw performance allows the phone to also process the photos faster.
Cameras
And that means that we’re going to be talking about photos. This has three main cameras: a 50 MP main camera, a 50 MP ultrawide, and a 50 MP telephoto for the rear, and a 32 MP front camera.
Compared to the Ultra, these specs are almost the same, but of course, you’re losing the 200 MP periscope lens. So do you really need to see that much detail in your pores or even when you take pictures of someone? That is something that I wouldn’t miss because the photos on this phone were really amazing.
No matter which lenses that you shoot with, from the ultrawide lenses to the main lenses, just like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, the image processing on this particular phone was really good.
Even at night, the Leica filters were nice.
And I just love the Telephoto lens on this, especially for the 120mm. You can zoom up to 60x, but the 30x for me produced the best results based on a thorough test.
The rear portrait mode still has a focal length between 23mm till 75mm.
Selfie photos were also excellent during the day and night and are still one of the best smartphones for taking photos this year.
Video Recording
[All sample video footage are on my YouTube video]
You can also shoot up to 8K 30fps for the rear cameras. When it comes to videos, the footage looks marvelous, and the stabilization was also great too.
Of course, the 4K video for rear lenses was excellent as well during the day and night.
The front camera can go up to 4K 60fps, and the quality during the day was awesome, so was the nighttime videos as well, it was really great to know. So yes, it is very comparable to the Xiaomi 15 Ultra without paying an ultra price.
So yeah, here’s one of the two areas that makes this a better choice compared to the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
[Check out the Vlogging test on my YouTube video]
Battery & Charging
So if the cameras were great, it is almost impossible to non-stop shoot on the phone, right? And I guess Xiaomi knew this. Considering the smaller-size phone, Xiaomi has given a massive 5240 mAh of battery, and all thanks to the new silicon carbon tech.
While this lasts more than a day in normal usage, which is about 6 to 7 hours, but in heavier usage, you’ll get about 5 hours plus. You can even charge between 0 to 80% in just 40 minutes with the 90W charging brick, which is depending on which country that you’re from. And of course, for us here in Malaysia, it is also included. So thank you, Xiaomi!
So yes, it also comes with a 50W of wireless charging and 10W of reverse wireless charging as well.
Conclusion
So with this price of RM3,299 or about USD 750 with the great things that the phone offers, this feels like robbery at Xiaomi because instead of paying RM5,000+ which is over USD 1,000 for a phone, you can finally afford that nasi lemak and a phone. It has cameras like the Ultra without paying ultra prices.
Speaking of which, if you want to learn more about the Ultra camera’s features in depth, check out that video over here.
