If you’re reading this, you’re one of two people: a current Xiaomi 14 owner thinking about upgrading to this newest model or someone who has heard “good things” about Xiaomi’s flagship ecosystem, especially the Leica tuned camera.
As a user of both models let me give you some perspective.
I remember seeing a contact post on the elusive Interwebs (it is elusive because the news feed just keeps updating whenever you load up your social apps) that we should normalize smaller phones. And after one year of using the Xiaomi 14, and now after several weeks with the Xiaomi 15, the immediate follow up to Xiaomi’s “greatest hits” of flagship phones, I truly concur. I am of the belief that the palm of my hand is roughly average size for a Filipino and the Xiaomi 15 is exactly the same size as its previous model. I’ve said this before but I need to reiterate it again: we absolutely have to normalize small screens for flagship phones. Everyone wants “bigger,” but it’s not necessarily “better.”
The Xiaomi 15 stands as this year’s smallest flagship phone at only 6.36” but it has packed huge improvements from the previous model that makes this 2025 series a more enthralling buy. For one, thye battery life has been bumped up to 5240 mAh still using Xiaomi Surge technology for efficient, safe, but fast charging. The screen itself is brighter, up to 3200 nits display. Of course, this phone wouldn’t be considered a flagship if it didn’t have the latest processor and in this case, packed inside this little thing is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite capable of running basically everything your Android phone has to offer, from Wuthering Waves to ZZZ.
A better Master Lens System
Looking at the camera, we’re also seeing some improvement with the phone’s default optical zoom. The main 50MP camera is a beauty to use. Xiaomi’s signature “floating telephoto” is also hard at work at 60mm but the quality of the camera has been bumped up to 50MP, compared to last year’s model that could only do 32MP. The short of it is that this Master Lens system is a good improvement in zoom quality with an upgraded telephoto lens, something that I wished the previous model addressed – and I guess I was not alone here as Xiaomi did act on feedback from its stakeholders.
The Master Lens system is the true hero here, and Xiaomi has made improvements to Portrait mode by streamlining the user experience. Once you open Portrait Mode, you can now easily access the different focal lengths of 23mm, 35mm, 60mm, and 75mm without having to press any additional menu buttons. The previous model had a “soft focus” 90mm that was to be honest a little niche, so this has been removed.
So here’s a really fun factoid. When brands upgrade their phones, they usually do so with a completely new form factor for the camera system so as not to repeat accessories. The Xiaomi 15 looks exactly like the Xiaomi 14 in every aspect – even the Master Lens system looks exactly alike. This means that you can interchange phone cases – first party and third party cases with only one caveat: the location of the flash module is different where the 14’s flash was located within the camera housing, the 15 is located outside the square Leica module so having an old case would block the flash.
Finally, useful and unobtrusive AI
Built into the Xiaomi 15 is Xiaomi HyperAI, its own suite of AI systems that seems to be a combination of its own home-grown AI systems and Google Gemini. Two functions that I use the most are AI Answers and the Recorder that generates subtitles automatically with near 100% accuracy. AI Answers is a Google Gemini-esque tool that integrates into Xiaomi Global Search, allowing me to ask questions and “talk” to the AI. It’s essentially Google Gemini that is well-integrated into Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2.0 UI. The Recorder function is a real boon for work. It functions as a real-time transcription tool for voice recording. All you need to do is choose a desired language for more accurate transcriptions. For instance, choosing English as the default language will have inaccuracies with Taglish words. But choosing Filipino as the base language gives close to 100% accuracy in the transcriber.
Verdict
In the Philippines, the Xiaomi 15 is considered the highest-end flagship of Xiaomi as the Ultra version is not officially being sold here. Nonetheless, we are presented with a decently-priced device at P49,999 for its highest-end model at 12GB+512GB storage and P45,999 for the 256GB model. I urge you to get the 512GB model. As a user of both devices, I can say that the Xiaomi 15 improved on two things that I had minor issues with by upping its battery life by almost 1,000mAh and providing a better telephoto experience to the Master Lens system.
