Xiaomi Redmi 15 5G hands-on review

Design

The Redmi 15 5G has a fully updated design that thankfully doesn't look like a recycled version of last year's model, as we have become used to seeing these days. There is an entirely new back panel with a camera assembly, which gives the 2025 model a fresh new look.

The phone comes in three colors: Sandy Purple, Frosted White, and Midnight Black. The back panel on the purple evokes the look of dunes, but if they were purple for some reason. The white that we have here has an icy pattern that gleams under the light. Meanwhile, the black just has a plain black look to it for people who don't like fun.

In the top corner is the new camera design. The entire rectangular piece surrounding the camera rings is made out of aluminum, something Xiaomi is quite proud of. It's also the only piece of metal on the exterior of this device. Within this assembly are the three rings, of which only the top one is a functional camera. The second one is a depth sensor, and the third ring is purely ornamental.

The side frame continues the color scheme of the rest of the back, which on our Frosted White model was silver. The right side has the power and volume buttons, with the former also doubling up as the fingerprint scanner. On the top is the IR blaster, on the left is the SIM tray, and on the bottom is the single loudspeaker with a microphone and a USB port.

Compared to the Redmi 13 5G, the Redmi 15 5G is considerably wider to accommodate the bigger battery. This makes the newer model much less convenient to use with a single hand, and those with smaller hands will especially struggle to reach across the screen.

The overall build quality is decent, and the new model is even IP64 compliant. However, this is still an overwhelmingly plasticky phone, as one would expect in this price range.

Display

The Redmi 15 5G has a new 6.9-inch display. It's an IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 and a peak refresh rate of 144Hz. Xiaomi claims the display is capable of 850nits of peak brightness.

The display performance is good for the price. The panel is reasonably high resolution and has good colors and contrast.

Having said that, this is still an LCD panel on an entry-level smartphone. This means the viewing angles aren't ideal, as depending on how you look at the screen, some parts may appear darker or brighter. There is backlight bleed from the top and bottom bezels and slight vignetting around the corners. And, of course, the blacks aren't true blacks.

However, none of these things are deal breakers, and the overall image quality is still quite good.

In terms of peak brightness, the display gets decently bright outdoors. It's not going to blow your mind with how bright it can get, but the screen was always legible. Considering this was a major concern with the previous generation model, we are glad to see this being addressed.

The display can reach a peak refresh rate of 144Hz. The phone also has several preset values, including 30Hz, 40Hz, 45Hz, 48Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, and finally 144Hz. This ensures that, despite the absence of variable refresh rate, the display can still adapt to the frame rate of the content on screen. This worked quite well for, say, 30fps and 60fps videos, but, for some reason, playing 25fps videos would cause the display to switch to 48Hz even though it would have made more sense to use 50Hz for proper frame pacing.

However, the biggest hoax with the display, and one we have seen previously on phones from other brands like Realme and OnePlus, is that the 144Hz number is pure marketing fluff. Like Realme, Xiaomi only allows the display to hit that number in select, inconsequential apps like Calculator and Recorder, while all other apps are limited to a maximum of 120Hz. This just exists to technically (and perhaps, legally) satisfy the 144Hz claim while not giving the user any practical benefit from having that high refresh rate value. This display, for all intents and purposes, is 120Hz.

Battery

The Redmi 15 5G has a 7000mAh SiC battery, a massive leap forward from the 5030mAh Li-Po unit on the Redmi 13 5G.

While the battery capacity has gone up considerably, the Redmi 15 5G ships with the same 33W fast charger as the Redmi 13 5G. As a result, the charge times are now slower, with the newer device taking about 15 minutes longer to reach 50% charge.

Despite that, the Redmi 15 5G does okay here compared to its predecessor, and when you factor in the extra usage you will get out of the bigger battery, then it's well worth the extra time spent charging it.

The Redmi 15 5G is also capable of charging other devices at up to 18W. This can, effectively, turn the phone into a makeshift power bank, as it has enough power reserve to charge a few accessories or even another phone to a decent charge state while still retaining enough power for itself to power through a day. For those looking for a primary or even a backup phone, knowing they will be spending long hours away from the socket, this can come in quite handy.

Speaker

The Redmi 15 5G has a single bottom-firing loudspeaker. It's not a very good speaker; it's tinny and one-note and gets quite shrill at higher volumes.

Unfortunately, Xiaomi has also decided to remove the humble headphone jack from the Redmi 15 5G, so now your only hope of getting decent audio out of this phone is to use wireless headphones.