Xiaomi 15 Pro review - One of the most efficient flagship smartphones thanks to a special display

In this modern era of the smartphone, efficiency is becoming increasingly important and in the future, this may well become a deciding factor in order to use resources optimally. In this context, efficiency means that a cell phone performs its tasks reliably without consuming unnecessary energy.

Xiaomi has also identified this as a sales strategy for its 15 Pro. In addition to its high-performance and very efficient 3nm chipset from Qualcomm, the Chinese manufacturer's latest flagship uses a particularly energy-saving, yet extremely bright OLED panel. We cannot clarify in detail to what extent the new display of the Xiaomi 15 Pro played a role in our consumption measurement, but the high-end phone is certainly very efficient as an overall package. Competitors, such as the Nubia Z70 Ultra, sometimes consume more than twice as much energy.

The Xiaomi flagship additionally performs better than the competition, such as the Oppo Find X8 Pro, when it comes to cooling and consistency. Although the Snapdragon 8 Elite is throttled moderately, the 15 Pro is far from having its performance halved, as is the case with the OnePlus 13.

We see some room for improvement concerning its installed cameras. Photos taken on the Xiaomi phone are by no means bad, but the 15 Pro can't quite come close to the level of a Vivo X200 Pro. Chinese manufacturers, like Xiaomi, also need to improve on their transparency. Anyone considering importing the 15 Pro should also take into account the restrictions of the Chinese software (limited languages, no Android Auto, etc.).

In addition to the Xiaomi 15 that we have already tested, the technology giant from the Far East has unveiled its latest flagship phone, the Xiaomi 15 Pro. The high-end smartphone has some similarities to its more compact sister model—for example, its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite and selection of Leica cameras—but according to Xiaomi, it also boasts a special LTPO AMOLED display. With the same brightness, it should consume significantly less energy compared to the displays of most competitors. Moreover, it features a large 6,100 mAh battery with a silicon-carbon-based anode.

Like the Xiaomi 14 series, the Xiaomi 15 series will most likely not be available to purchase in the United States. You can still import the phone from certain retailers, however.

Color selection of the Xiaomi 15 Pro (image source: Xiaomi China) 

The Xiaomi 15 Pro is available in four colorways, including two more classic variants (white, gray) and two more unusual versions (silver, green). Each color has a matte finish that only shows fingerprint marks slightly. The case is certified according to the IP68 standard, which means that the design is dustproof and waterproof and will not be damaged even if you take the phone out during a rain shower. In addition, the back camera module comes with a ceramic lens, which, according to the manufacturer, is highly wear-resistant.

The 15 Pro's packaging appears to be free of plastic, but the device itself is wrapped in foil. The rest of the packaging is made of cardboard.

Xiaomi hasn't provided any precise information on the materials used and their recycling rate for its 15 series, but the manufacturer does state that it is increasing the use of recycled materials, including aluminum, gold and copper, for all smartphones. Its use of bio-based high-polymer materials in smartphones and accessories as well as recycled plastic from discarded fishing nets is also intended to minimize its ecological footprint. Detailed information will probably only be provided in the sustainability report for the global models.

Within your home network, the Xiaomi 15 Pro uses the modern WiFi 7 standard including MU-MIMO support, but according to the datasheet, it only uses the 2.4 and 5 GHz range to establish a connection. In our test, however, the 6 GHz band was also recognized and we measured great transfer rates of almost over 1,500 MBit/s when receiving in combination with the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000. However, its sending rates weren't the best and suffered quite a few fluctuations.

Unfortunately, we can't fully make use of WiFi 7 during our measurements, even when using the 6 GHz band. The reason for this is that suitable routers (especially with a 10 GBit LAN port) are still hard to find.

For accessing the web on the go, the flagship cell phone can use the 5G network at best and supports a wide range of frequencies—the same applies to the LTE standard. Even bands 20 and 28 are already on board the Chinese version. According to Xiaomi, the integrated modem uses artificial intelligence to always select the best possible antennas depending on how the smartphone is held. However, we don't see it as a true "world phone", as the manufacturer calls it, with its 22 supported LTE bands.

In controlled lighting conditions, we analyzed the main camera's color reproduction in comparison to the actual reference colors. The 50 MP lens revealed some brightening and oversaturation when depicting the ColorChecker Passport, especially in the green and blue tones, and the Xiaomi 15 Pro did have some outliers in color fidelity (>10).

As is typical for OLEDs, the phone uses PWM modulation to control the brightness of its screen, which shows itself as a flickering screen. We couldn't confirm the high frequency (1,920 Hz) stated in its datasheet—our display measurement resulted in around 407 Hz. However, the visually perceptible fluctuations in brightness should be easy on the eyes, even for sensitive users, as the amplitude curve was very even during our measurements using an oscilloscope, and the modulation depth was extremely flat at just 7 percent.

If you want the best chipset currently available in a smartphone, then the Xiaomi 15 Pro is for you. With its Oryon performance cores and peak clock rate of 4.32 GHz, the Snapdragon 8 Elite offers plenty of power, relegating even an Apple A18 Pro to the back of the pack during the Geekbench multi-core test. But even the Dimensity 9400 inside the X200 Pro was clearly beaten during the single-core test, which illustrates its high performance. However, AI benchmarks are not the Qualcomm SoC's strong point.

An integrated Adreno 830 is responsible for graphics calculations inside the phone, and it didn't have to fear anyone during the benchmarks. It clearly outperformed an Immortalis G925 during the demanding tier tests, and you can even expect almost 50 frames per second with a high 4K resolution. However, the OnePlus 13 managed to get even more frames per second out of the Snapdragon 8 Elite during GFXBench.

The Xiaomi phone performs well in terms of browser speed and its benchmark results were very good. Websites are opened quickly during everyday use and can be scrolled through smoothly.

When it comes to storage speed, the phone's UFS 4.0 storage delivers outstanding performance. Its AndroBench values were particularly good when writing and reading small data blocks.

The Xiaomi 15 Pro leads the SoC's waste heat out of its case evenly. While we measured over 46 °C in the camera area, we noted below 40 °C in the lower case area on the back. Of greater interest, however, is its performance under load.

The 3DMark Wild Life stress tests fortunately only led to a moderate throttling of around 16 to 25 percent for the Xiaomi flagship. This means that the 15 Pro performs significantly better than its smaller sister model and also better than a OnePlus 13 or Oppo Find X8 Pro. However, a reduction in the Snapdragon SoC's system performance due to the heat build-up inside cannot be ruled out, for example when running demanding games and during longer gaming sessions.

The Xiaomi 15 Pro by no means sets new standards when it comes to audio quality, but its stereo speakers still boast a pleasant sound and light bass. However, its rippling mids and highs are not optimal.

If you want to play music externally, you can use the wired USB-C port, or alternatively Bluetooth 5.4. The latter uses a comparatively large number of codecs and Auracast.