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.