October is almost over and so far, we’ve had two flagship chips launched as well as a few flagship smartphones. The interesting part is that there are still some flagships left in the tank for the remaining days of the month, and the Xiaomi 15 series leads that charge now that it is official.

The Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Pro are the first smartphones to come with the brand-new Snapdragon 8 Elite, so needless to say, there’s a lot of excitement around them. Let’s dive straight into the specs.

The Xiaomi 15 And Xiaomi 15 Pro Bring Insane Levels Of Power And Substantial Upgrades

At first glance, they might not look too different, and on the exterior, that might mostly be true. However, the Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Pro are both toting a lot of major changes on the inside, and I like what I see.

The Design

Aesthetically, the Xiaomi 15 series is not incredibly different from the Xiaomi 14 series. They retain the same design, generally speaking. Sure, there are thinner bezels, but besides that, the design is pretty much the same as last year. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. They still look good.

The Xiaomi 15 Pro comes in grey, white, green, and a pretty cool Rock Silver colorway. However, the Xiaomi 15’s color options are a lot more complicated. There are the standard lilac, green, black, white, and Rock Silver options—that’s easy to follow. However, there’s the Custom Edition Xiaomi 15 that lets you choose 20 customized colors—some of which are very saturated.

There’s also a Xiaomi 15 Diamond Edition, which comes in glacier white, elephant gray, and orange, and uses a leather back panel with a crocodile skin texture. There’s an actual diamond laid into the frame, besides the words “Limited Edition”, and the camera module has a sparkly thing going on for it. It’s certainly very different.

The Screens

The smaller device has a flat 6.36-inch LTPO OLED screen, making it one of the smaller Android flagships. You get a 120Hz refresh rate, 3,200-nit peak brightness, Dolby Vision certification, and 1200p resolution. That’s a solid display.

The Xiaomi 15 Pro pushes the screen size up to 6.73 inches. It is a “micro-curved” screen, which means the glass curves slightly on all four edges, but looking at it, the actual “touchable” part of the screen is flat. It is also an LTPO OLED display with the same refresh rate and peak brightness, but it ups the resolution to 1440p to make up for more area.

The Hardware

The star of the show with the Xiaomi 15 lineup is the Snapdragon 8 Elite. These are the very first smartphones in the world to come with this chip, so that’s a major win for the Chinese company. Both devices start at 12/256GB configurations and max out at 16GB/1TB. Of course, the storage is UFS 4.0 at the level of intended performance.

Both devices now come with an ultrasonic fingerprint reader instead of an optical one. You get Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 7, NFC, and an IR blaster.

The Batteries And Charging

There’s been a very noticeable trend going on with batteries in smartphones out of China this year. As they move to silicon-based batteries, densities increase and so do capacities.

That’s why, despite no change in size, the Xiaomi 15 comes with a 5,400mAh battery—well over 4,610mAh from last year. The Pro model pushes past the threshold with a 6,100mAh battery, which is over 1,000 points higher than the 4,880mAh in the similarly sized Xiaomi 14 Pro. That’s incredible.

Charging sticks at 90W wired and 50W wireless for both devices. That means the wired charging steps down slightly, but I’d hardly consider that to be a loss.

The Cameras

If you plan to upgrade from last year’s phones because of the cameras, you might want to hold off on that. Things don’t change too substantially. Both devices stick with a triple 50MP setup, with an OmniVision Light Fusion 900 primary sensor, the same as last year.

The 3x telephoto in the Xiaomi 15 switches up its focal length but still doubles well for macro shots. The Xiaomi 15 Pro takes the zoom game a lot more seriously, with a periscope telephoto lens capable of 5x optical zoom. It also doubles as a macro lens.

Finally, both have an identical 50MP ultrawide and a 32MP selfie shooter on the front. You’ll be able to record at up to 4K/60 on any of the cameras, though the rare setup gives you the option of 8K at 30fps.

The Pricing And Availability

At the moment, both of these devices are solely available in China, but an international launch is only a matter of time, I reckon. The Xiaomi 15 starts at CNY4,500(~$630) while the Xiaomi 15 Pro starts at CNY5,299(~$742).

If you want the Custom Edition Xiaomi 15, you can only get it in a 16/512GB configuration, which is identical to the regular model at that capacity. That’ll set you back CNY5,000(~$700). Meanwhile, the fancy Diamond Edition model costs CNY6,000(~$840).