Xiaomi 15 Launches As 2025 Flagship, Claims It Can Beat iPhone 16 Pro!

Xiaomi has officially launched its next-gen flagship offering in the smartphone segment. The Xiaomi 15 series is out as the world's first smartphone to feature Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, thereby heralding an era of 3nm chips in the universe of Android.

The Xiaomi 15 series positions itself as a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone 16 series. Not only does the Xiaomi 15 series impress with its on-paper specs, but it also outperforms the iPhone 16 Pro models in several synthetic benchmark tests.

Claimed to be the hottest flagship in the town right now, the Xiaomi 15 is also the first compact device to integrate Goodix Technology’s ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which Xiaomi claims to be compatible with wet fingers. Big relief! 

Here’s a closer look at everything you need to know about the Xiaomi 15.

How Xiaomi 15 stacks up against iPhone 16 Pro

The Xiaomi 15 is powered by the new 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC and is coupled with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM as well as 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage. The graphics department is handled by the Adreno 830 GPU, enabling smooth performance across demanding games. Theoretically, it should be able to handle AAA games with ease.

According to Xiaomi, the 15 series provides three times the performance of traditional VC thanks to its advanced cooling system, which includes a wing-shaped cold pump, vapour-liquid separation design and a one-way circulation structure. The phone comes pre-loaded with Xiaomi’s latest Android 15-based HyperOS 2 interface, bringing a lot of generative AI features like AI Writing, AI Voice Recognition, AI Subtitles and AI Painting.

At the launch event, Xiaomi claimed the Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered Xiaomi 15 surpasses the A18 Pro-powered iPhone 16 Pro Max in raw performance. The Xiaomi 15 maintains a stable frame rate in video games and prevents overheating better than the iPhone. Check the below picture for better reference.

With a 45 per cent boost in single-core and multi-core performance over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the 8 Elite processor paired with Xiaomi’s HyperCore microarchitecture scheduler enhances user experience and speeds up app launches by 45.7 per cent.

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Thinner bezels than the iPhone 16 Pro

Xiaomi emphasised that the 15 has thinner and more symmetrical bezels than the iPhone 16 Pro. While the iPhone 16 Pro has 1.44mm bezels, the Xiaomi 15's bezels measure just 1.38mm. The Xiaomi 15 is 8.08mm thin and weighs only 181 grams.

The Xiaomi 15 features a 6.36-inch M9 AMOLED display with a 1.5K resolution, a peak HDR brightness of 3,200 nits, HDR10+ support and Dolby Vision. The LTPO panel allows a variable refresh rate between 1Hz to 120Hz. Xiaomi is opting for Longjing Glass as the protective layer. It also includes an in-display ultrasonic fingerprint scanner that is claimed to work with wet fingers. 

What else does the Xiaomi 15 pack?

The Xiaomi 15 packs a triple-rear camera setup consisting of a 50MP Light Hunter 900 main sensor, a 50MP 115-degree FOV Ultra-Wide sensor and a 50MP 5x telephoto lens. All these lenses get Leica's specially designed filters to make the most out of the hardware. The main camera can shoot up to 8K resolution videos at 30 FPS, which is a drastic improvement over the previous 8K at 24 FPS combo.

For the front camera, the device packs a 32MP OmniVision OV32B40 sensor. 

As for the power source, the Xiaomi 15 packs a 5,400mAh battery with support for 90W wired and 50W wireless charging. 

Among the multitude of connectivity options, the Xiaomi 15 supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 standards.

Xiaomi 15 price in China

The Xiaomi 15 is currently available in China in the following storage configurations at these prices.

The base variant in 12GB+256GB configuration costs CNY 4699 (approximately INR 55,344). Then there's the variant in 12GB+512GB configuration CNY 4999 (approximately INR 58,878). The 16GB+512GB variant costs CNY 5199 (approximately INR 61,233) whereas the top-of-the-line variant in the 16GB+1TB configuration costs CNY 5699 (approximately INR 67,122)

The phone will go on sale on October 31st via Xiaomi’s online store in China.

Will the Xiaomi 15 launch in India?

The Xiaomi 14 series was launched on March 7, 2024 in India: almost five months after its release in China. Hence, going by Xiaomi's annual and rather predictable timeline, we speculate that the Xiaomi 15 series may arrive in India by the first quarter of 2025. 

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