Xiaomi 15 unveiled with Snapdragon 8 Elite, massive 5,400mAh battery

Today is the day for Xiaomi to unveil its new flagships – and to our surprise, it unveiled three new models. It turned out that the third module is just a special edition of the small Xiaomi 15, which brings no less than 20 color options to choose from. The regular 15 is available in a good number of colors too, but that’s not what you’re interested in, is it?

You probably want to hear about how the Xiaomi 15 is equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite and it is. The chipset is paired with 12GB or 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of fast UFS 4.0 storage. Unlike its predecessor, there is no configuration with just 8GB of RAM.

Xiaomi managed to fit a massive 5,400mAh battery with the Silicon-Carbon tech that has been gaining popularity recently. For reference, the Xiaomi 14 had a 4,610mAh battery.

Does this mean that the Xiaomi 15 is bigger? No, it’s fractions of a millimeter smaller, actually. It measures 152.3 x 71.2 x 8.08mm (this is for the model with a glass back), compared to 152.8 x 71.5 x 8.2mm for the previous model. It's a few grams heavier at 191g (vs. 188g), but you’re not likely to notice.

The display remains at 6.36”. It’s not tiny, but the 15 is smaller than most Androids. This is a flat OLED panel with 1,200 x 2,670px resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The peak brightness has been boosted a bit to 3,200 nits (up from 3,000 nits) with DC dimming to dial it down. And we know that some of you have been waiting for this one – the new model uses an ultrasonic fingerprint reader.

The display is protected by Xiaomi Dragon Crystal glass for the first time, which is 10x tougher than the Gorilla Glass Victus used by the Xiaomi 14 (says Xiaomi’s internal lab). The phone’s frame is made out of high-strength aluminum alloy that has 33% higher bending resistance. Naturally, the phone is rated IP68 for dust and water resistance.

The camera system has a few changes, but few actual upgrades. It is a triple 50MP setup once again. The main camera uses the Light Fusion 900 sensor from OmniVision (sometimes mistranslated as Light Hunter), a 1/1.31” sensor with 1.2µm pixels. The 23mm lens has a bright f/1.62 aperture and OIS. Xiaomi promises that 5x lossless zoom (120mm) is possible with this camera.

The telephoto lens now has a 60mm focal length (down from 75mm) but keeps its ability to take macro shots at just 10cm (4in). The ultra wide camera has a 115° (14mm) f/2.2 lens. There is one upgrade – the Xiaomi 15 can now record 8K video at 30fps, not just 24fps. Still, you may find more use in the 4K 30/60fps mode. All the cameras are capable of capturing Dolby Vision HDR footage.

Connectivity is the same as before – a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) port that also supports 90W fast charging. There is 50W fast wireless charging too. With the Xiaomi G1 battery management chip, the battery is rated to keep at least 80% of its capacity after 1,600 cycles. On the wireless side of things, there’s 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 and NFC. There’s no headphone jack, but there are stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos and both Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certifications.

The phone is running HyperOS 2.0 out of the box, more on that in a separate article.

The Xiaomi 15 is available for pre-order in China now through the company’s online store, proper sales start on October 31. The base 12/256GB model costs CNY 4,500 (which converts to $630/€585/₹53,000). There are a few more versions going all the way up to 16GB/1TB, check the table below.

Wait, Diamond Edition? And that’s not even the special edition we mentioned in the beginning. The vanilla Xiaomi 15 has a glass back and comes in Lilac, Green, Black and White versions. There’s also the Silver Edition.

The Diamond Edition switches over to crocodile-grain leather for the back and has an actual 57 facet diamond embedded on the side. The camera island is also given a sparkly texture. This edition is available in Elephant Gray, Orange and Glacier White. This is a limited edition, so it won’t be around forever and we don’t know whether it will be available outside of China.

This brings us to the Xiaomi 15 Custom Edition. The back panel offers an impressive palette of 20 colors to choose from. They are paired with two paint jobs for the aluminum frame (high gloss PVD). The Custom Edition is available only in a 16/512GB configuration.