Review Xiaomi 15 (India unit) Quick Review

Pros:

• Priced at 65K, available at 60K with bank discounts on both mi.com and amazon
• Premium build quality, pre-applied TPU screen protector
• Smooth performance from Snapdragon 8 Elite
• Large 5240 mAh battery for a 6.3 inch phone (Samsung S25U has 5000 mAh with 6.9 inch display)
• Super-fast 90W charging using included charger, regular 30W fast charging using PD chargers
• Sharp and bright display
• Fast ultrasonic fingerprint reader
• Superb cameras
• HyperOS can be customised in terms of look and feel using themes
  • Built-in Themes app is absolute garbage but is necessary to even set local images as wallpapers or change sounds and ringtones
  • If you want to explore themes, use third party websites like miuithemer.com where links will redirect you to nicer themes within the Themes app; searching or browsing the Themes app is useless

Cons:

• HyperOS takes a few days of use to stabilise, do not make any drastic changes to system apps and settings immediately after setup; see below points
• HyperOS has ads in multiple system apps, disabling internet access to system apps can cause instability and crashes
  • Search for "Authorisation & revocation" in the Settings app and uncheck "msa"
  • Disable notifications from unnecessary system apps but do not mess with their internet access or battery saver permissions
  • Some bloatware apps like Agoda, Facebook, Mi Store, Xiaomi Service, etc. can be easily uninstalled. Amazon and Netflix come pre-installed but you will probably use them anyway
• HyperOS cannot be customised in terms of usage (launcher, gestures are locked down; launcher has weird choices/bugs)
  • Gestures cannot be used with third party launchers like Nova or Microsoft Launcher, you are thrown back to the 3 navigation buttons which cannot be disabled or hidden
  • If you launch an app from the app drawer and perform the "Home" gesture, you are taken back to the app drawer instead of your home screen
  • Home screen pages cannot be re-ordered, so if you will have to design your home screen from the left page to the right; if you clear all icons/widgets from your leftmost/first page, it will be deleted and now your second page is your first page. You cannot have a new first page without having to start from the beginning.
• Speakers are not very loud
• Power button has very low resistance, easy to press accidentally
• Phone can get hot while charging or using certain apps like Uber (I have had the Uber issue in multiple other phones from Nothing and Samsung so maybe it is not the phone's fault)

Overall a great device for the price. Top of the line specs but the initial setup and first few days can be daunting (I have had to factory reset the phone twice over the course of a week but you shouldn't have to if you follow the instructions above). The small-ish size is also a welcome change from the massive flagships we usually get (2025 being an exception where the Samsung S25 is available with the Snapdragon 8 Elite but with a considerably worse 4000 mAh battery and an unacceptable charging speed of 25W which they dare to call "fast charging").

I will update this post if my observations change. If you guys have any questions, feel free to comment.

 

[Saaz]

How is the battery life? And your usage

 

[m1tr]

Past week was spent at home with greater than usual number of hours spent on Instagram, Reddit, and Youtube. I still got around 7-8 hours of SOT. With lighter usage, even higher is possible. Idle power draw is very low even when not on WiFi.

HyperOS has removed the SOT number from the battery page so I used AccuBattery to track my stats. One thing I have noticed is that when I am using wired Android Auto in my car, my battery actually doesn't charge but usually drops by a couple of percentage points at the end of a one hour drive. I am using an amazon basics USB cable and did not observe this behaviour in my previous phone Samsung S20FE. I will experiment with different cables and conditions (Music ON vs OFF, active turn-by-turn navigation ON vs OFF) and report back.


Quick Observations

• AI Features in the Gallery app
  • On first setup, the built-in gallery app needs to download AI editing features as plugins. Ensure you disable any DNS filtering which can prevent these options from even showing up. See more:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/HyperOS/comments/1jqgyjo/ai_eraser_and_ai_expansion_is_gone

 

[m1tr]

Quick Observations Continued

• Instagram causes a disproportionate amount of battery drain. Uninstalling it has cause battery life to improve significantly.
• Little glitches here and there
  • Found myself unable to adjust the volume of media using phone buttons, had to use controls on my earphone. Issue fixed itself after an indeterminate amount of time, no reboot was performed.
  • Battery Saver can be configured to be triggered at a set battery percentage. Once triggered you get a notification but the Quick Settings tile says "off".
  • If you hide the gesture "pill" at the bottom, you also lose the manual "rotate screen" button in landscape mode. Fullscreen videos will continue to play in vertical even if you have rotated the device. You will need to enable auto-rotate to have fullscreen video play in landscape mode.

 

[LYNK BYTE]

Wait Ads ? On this price tag too ?

 

[fakemishra]

Hardware is top class. But yeah.. software experience is sub-par. OnePlus is just so much better. But I do like the form factor and camera overall. However, portrait mode performance is inconsistent as well... So all in all: same old Xiaomi.

Ads have been addressed successfully using dns.adguard.com

 

[m1tr]

Wait Ads ? On this price tag too ?

Xiaomi's infamous 5% profit margin to blame I guess. I wanted to experience flagship hardware but I don't want to pay Samsung's ridiculous markups. Thankfully, with the DNS tweak and some initial configuration (as mentioned above) the phone has become as ad-free as any other OEM.

Hardware is top class. But yeah.. software experience is sub-par. OnePlus is just so much better. But I do like the form factor and camera overall. However, portrait mode performance is inconsistent as well... So all in all: same old Xiaomi.

Ads have been addressed successfully using dns.adguard.com

The form factor is literally the only reason I bought this. The Chinese reviews of the Oneplus 13T came out and the crappy hardware was a dealbreaker for me. Samsung S25 is hopelessly overpriced with its shitty battery life and shittier charging speed. Xiaomi 15 was the only one which ticked the VFM box for me.

 

[fakemishra]

Xiaomi's infamous 5% profit margin to blame I guess. I wanted to experience flagship hardware but I don't want to pay Samsung's ridiculous markups. Thankfully, with the DNS tweak and some initial configuration (as mentioned above) the phone has become as ad-free as any other OEM.

The form factor is literally the only reason I bought this. The Chinese reviews of the Oneplus 13T came out and the crappy hardware was a dealbreaker for me. Samsung S25 is hopelessly overpriced with its shitty battery life and shittier charging speed. Xiaomi 15 was the only one which ticked the VFM box for me.

Absolutely agree. OnePlus phones are too..vanilla. they are good but not particularly good at anything. Xiaomi 15, I think, will be great with camera and the battery life is already good. Hoping for the best

 

[altair21]

Xiaomi's infamous 5% profit margin to blame I guess. I wanted to experience flagship hardware but I don't want to pay Samsung's ridiculous markups. Thankfully, with the DNS tweak and some initial configuration (as mentioned above) the phone has become as ad-free as any other OEM.

The form factor is literally the only reason I bought this. The Chinese reviews of the Oneplus 13T came out and the crappy hardware was a dealbreaker for me. Samsung S25 is hopelessly overpriced with its shitty battery life and shittier charging speed. Xiaomi 15 was the only one which ticked the VFM box for me.

I doubt that Xiaomi's profit margin is just 5% on 15, they arent really offering anything that other OEMs dont offer, specially in sales

 

[m1tr]

I doubt that Xiaomi's profit margin is just 5% on 15, they arent really offering anything that other OEMs dont offer, specially in sales

Xiaomi has kind of become like Samsung in that they have started to make everything under the sun, even cars. Maybe that's why their phones no longer do anything special or different (camera partnerships notwithstanding). But outside of Sony Xperia and foldables, most phones have become basically the same and boring.