Xiaomi's 15-series phones are officially here, with the Xiaomi 15 Pro and vanilla Xiaomi 15 being the first phones in the new range to be revealed. The hotly-anticipated, top-tier Xiaomi 15 Ultra is the phone that'll contain the company's bleeding-edge hardware, but that model is likely still a couple of months away.
Read more:
• Xiaomi 15 Ultra: fresh renders show 'challenging' camera layout
• Xiaomi 15 Ultra might pack a 200MP periscope telephoto camera
Xiaomi 15 Pro
The 15 Pro gets a triple camera setup developed in conjunction with Leica, consisting of:
- 50MP (primary, wide angle) 23mm-equivalent, f/1.44, OIS, 2.4μm quad-pixel
- 50MP (periscope telephoto), 120mm-equivalent, f/2.5
- 50MP (ultra-wide), 14mm equivalent, f/2.2, 5cm macro mode
The primary, wide-angle camera is based around Sony's 50MP Lytia LYT-900 sensor - a large, 1-inch-type stacked CMOS chip, which when paired with the 7-element, f/1.44 Leica lens should provide impressive image quality.
The periscope telephoto module enables 5.2x optical zoom, relative to the 23mm wide-angle module. It features OIS and is capable of a 30cm minimum focus distance. The 50MP ultrawide camera captures a 115-degree field of view with autofocus and a 5cm macro ability.
The 32MP front-facing selfie camera is Dolby Vision certified and capable of 4K 60p video recording. The rear-facing camera can shoot at a maximum 8K 30p resolution, and it'll record Full HD slow motion video at up to 960fps. Other features include a cinematic mode, Dolby Vision support, and a street photography mode, along with portrait, panorama, time-lapse, and night modes.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro is also the first phone to pack Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, powered by a 6,100mAh battery capable of 90W wired and 50W wireless charging. Xiaomi also states that the battery's cobalt lithium and silicon-carbon nanotube chemistry should maintain 80% of its original capacity after 1,600 charge cycles.
Xiaomi 15 Pro features a 6.73-inch, 3200x1440 curved OLED display. Peak brightness is a retina-searing 3,200 nits with a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and the screen is protected by Xiaomi’s Dragon Crystal Glass 2.0. The phone is also IP68 rated against water and dust penetration.
The Xiaomi 15 Pro comes in 12/256GB, 16/512GB and 16GB/1TB RAM/storage variants, priced at 5,299RMB, 5,799RMB and 6,499RMB, respectively. That converts to USD $744, $814 and $913. Official global pricing and availability outside China has yet to be confirmed.
Xiaomi 15
The Xiaomi 15 (non Pro) also gets a Leica-branded triple camera array, again with all three modules being 50MP resolution. The main, wide-angle module uses a slightly smaller sensor than that in the 15 Pro though, at 1/1.31", and its aperture is a marginally-narrower f/1.62. Focal length remains the same at 23mm, and the wide-angle module benefits from OIS and dual-pixel AF.
The Xiaomi 15 also includes a telephoto module, but it doesn't use a periscope lens, so its focal length is reduced to 60mm-equivalent, resulting in 2.6x optical zoom. One advantage with the more modest focal range is that the lens aperture is a relatively large f/2, compared to the narrower f/2.5 of the periscope telephoto camera in the Xiaomi 15 Pro. The 50MP, 14mm, f/2.2 ultrawide camera with its 115-degree field of view appears to be directly taken from the 15 Pro.
The Xiaomi 15 is a physically smaller phone than the 15 Pro. Its screen measures 6.36 inches and has resolution of 2670 x 1200. Like the 15 Pro, the Xiaomi 15's display gets 1-120Hz adaptive refresh, a 3,200-nit peak brightness, and Xiaomi’s Dragon Crystal Glass impact and scratch protection.
As with the Xiaomi 15 Pro, the Xiaomi 15 runs the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, though being a smaller phone, battery capacity is restricted to 5,400mAh. It still supports 90W wired, 50W wireless and 30W magnetic wireless charging.
Xiaomi 15 will be available in three RAM/storage capacity options, starting at 4,499RMB for the entry-level 12/258GB model and topping out at 5,499RMB for the 16GB/1TB version. As with the 15 Pro, we await details of when(if) the Xiaomi 15 will get a global release.
