Xiaomi 15: First Snapdragon 8 Elite compact flagship arrives to challenge Apple iPhone 16 Pro and Vivo X200 Pro mini
Xiaomi has presented plenty of devices today, one of which is the Xiaomi 15. At first glance, the new smartphone resembles its predecessor, the Xiaomi 14. However, the Xiaomi 15 boasts notable changes both internally and externally.
For instance, Xiaomi has replaced last year's glossy frame with a matte one that also has flat edges. Moreover, the Xiaomi 15 has 1.38 mm wide bezels, which surround the same 6.36-inch and 120 Hz AMOLED display as its predecessor. With that being said, this year's model should reach 3,200 nits across 25% of its display, which is up from 3,000 nits on the Xiaomi 14 (curr. $769.50 on Amazon).
On top of that, the Xiaomi 15 is narrower and thinner than the Xiaomi 14, although its minimum weight has grown by 1 g to 189 g. Expectedly, Xiaomi has installed a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset too, which it complements with up to 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1 TB of UFS 4.0 flash storage. Furthermore, the Xiaomi 15 utilises a 5,400 mAh battery for a 17% capacity upgrade over the Xiaomi 14. Conversely, support for 90 W wired, 50 W wireless and 10 W reverse wireless charging remains.
Likewise, it seems that Xiaomi has only upgraded the telephoto camera between generations. For reference, the Xiaomi 15 features the following camera hardware with support for 8K/30 FPS videos:
- Primary: 50 MP, 1/1.31-inch, f/1.6, 1.2 µm, 23 mm equivalent focal length, OIS
- Ultra-wide: 50 MP, 1/2.76-inch, f/2.2, 14 mm equivalent focal length, 115˚ FoV
- Telephoto: 50 MP, 1/2.76-inch, f/2.0, 0.7 µm, 60 mm equivalent focal length, OIS
- Front-facing: 32 MP, f/2.0, 0.7 µm, 22 mm equivalent focal length
The Xiaomi 15 starts at CNY 4,449 (~$630) in China with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. By contrast, the device's most expensive SKU retails for 5,499 (~$770), although this adds 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage. Alternatively, the Xiaomi 15 can be ordered in multiple limited edition colour options for CNY 4,999 (~$700) with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage or a 'Diamond Limited Edition' variant for CNY 5,999 (~$840). While there is no word yet on international availability, the Xiaomi 15 should receive a global release at some stage.
