Xiaomi Redmi 15.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Last week, Xiaomi Redmi 15 series budget phone hit stores in India.
The new Android phone comes with a big upgrade not just in terms of exterior looks, but also with internal specifications such as massive battery capacity, new processor, enhanced camera and more. Do all the hardware improvements translate to a good user experience? Let's check it out.
Design, build quality and display
The first thing you notice about the Redmi 15 is the massive 6.9-inch display. A decade ago, Xiaomi launched the 6.4-inch Mi Max with a 4850mAh battery. I had nicknamed it the Wun Wun (fictional giant man tribe, which appear in Game of Thrones TV series) of smartphones, as it was way bigger than its counterparts, which used to come with an average display size of 5.3 inches.
Now, the average screen size is around 6.5 inches. Here, the Redmi 15 is just shy of 7.0 inches, a mini tablet size. And yet the device is easy to use.
Xiaomi Redmi 15.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Thanks to improvements in display panel and battery technology, the bezels are slimmer and the device holds a massive 7,000mAh cell capacity, compared to 5,160mAh we see in the 6.88-inch Redmi 14C 5G. These improvements have enabled the company to make the phone compact enough to fit into the pocket of jeans. Of course, some people, including me, have to use both their puny hands to operate it.
The phone is well built to sustain accidental falls and resist scratches. The display is safeguarded by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and the device comes with an IP64 water-and dust-resistant rating, for protection against water splashes.
Xiaomi Redmi 15.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Our review unit is frosted white. It is one of the prettiest-looking phones in the budget segment. It has that premium marble stone-like smooth texture with matte finish. It not only offers a nice grip for the fingers to hold on to the massive phone, but also resists getting stained from sweaty fingerprint smudges.
The company also offers the Redmi 15 in midnight black and sandy purple colours. They, too, are visually appealing variants.
Xiaomi Redmi 15.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
As noted above, it sports a 6.9-inch full HD+ full HD+ (2340 x 1080p) LCD screen with 144Hz adaptive refresh rate, and supports 700nits peak brightness.
Redmi 15's display is tailor-made for multimedia consumption for hours on a stretch. It comes with Blue light control features to ensure there is less strain on the eyes.
Xiaomi Redmi 15.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It also features a hybrid dual-SIM tray (nano SIM-1 + nano SIM-2 or microSD card), an infrared sensor, a Type-C USB port, loud loudspeaker tuned with a Dolby audio system, Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ac (dual-band: 2.4GHz + 5GHz) and Bluetooth 5.1.
The device comes with a really good side-mounted fingerprint sensor. It senses the finger impressions pretty fast and unlocks the lockscreen in no time.
Performance
Inside, the Xiaomi phone is powered by a 6nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 octa-core processor with 900MHz Adreno 619 GPU. Though, it is a year-old chipset, a reliable one this. It can clock a peak CPU speed of 2.3GHz, which is sufficient enough to run most of the popular battle royale genre gaming titles.
The device runs Android 15-based HyperOS and comes with 6GB / 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 128GB / 256GB UFS 2.2 storage (expandable up to 1TB).
Xiaomi Redmi 15.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
The user interface is familiar and easy to navigate through the settings even for a first-time Xiaomi phone buyer.
Besides the beautiful display, the most notable aspect of the Redmi 15 is the battery life.
As noted earlier, it features a giant 7000mAh battery. Under normal usage, it can easily last two full days. Even if you use only the cellular network to stream multimedia content, the device will be able to deliver a whole day. With the Redmi 15, the owner will never face battery anxiety, as it will easily run throughout the day.
Even with a two to three per cent battery level, the device can easily support more than an hour of audio phone call time.
The device supports 33W fast charging. In 30 minutes, the charging reaches a little over 35 per cent, and to reach 100 per cent, it takes around one and a half hours.
It also supports 18W reverse wired charging.
Xiaomi Redmi 15.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Photography
Redmi 15 houses a dual-camera module -- a main 50MP (f/1.75) camera with secondary sensors with LED flash.
Xiaomi Redmi 15's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It takes pretty good photos in natural sunlight. It manages to capture minute details of the subject and also makes them look brighter than what they appear to the eye. This is not a complaint; it definitely makes the subject very pretty and worthy to be shared on social media platforms.
Xiaomi Redmi 15's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Even in low-light conditions, the images appear sharp.
Xiaomi Redmi 15's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
At close-up macro range, the device's camera captures the subject with all the details accurately.
Xiaomi Redmi 15's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It also supports portrait mode. It manages to get the sharp focus on the subject and artfully blurs the background to get that perfect bokeh effect.
Xiaomi Redmi 15's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
At night, the pictures are decent, but tend to appear a little grainy in certain conditions.
Xiaomi Redmi 15's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Having said that, the photo quality is quite decent for a phone priced under Rs 20,000.
Xiaomi Redmi 15's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
The device can record full HD (1080p) videos. The quality is pretty decent.
Xiaomi Redmi 15's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
On the front, it features an 8MP (f/2.0) front camera for selfies and video calling with an f/2.0 aperture.
Xiaomi Redmi 15's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It takes nice selfies in natural light conditions. Also, it offers a lot of tools to make the face photogenic in terms of skin tone. It also has filters to adjust nose size, eye shape and more.
Xiaomi Redmi 15's camera sample.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
Final thoughts
With a big, beautiful display, a reliable Qualcomm chipset and a massive battery, Redmi 15 is a perfect option for people who spend more time consuming multimedia content and playing games.
Even the camera is good enough to get nice pictures in most of the light conditions.
Redmi 15.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
It comes in three variants-- 6GB RAM + 128GB storage, 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 256GB storage-- for Rs 14,999, Rs 15,999 and Rs 16,999, respectively
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