Redmi 15 4G Review – It’s A Big One

Unboxing

The Redmi 15 is one of the latest budget smartphone from Xiaomi’s budget-adjacent subsidiary, and it’s important to note here that the version we have here is the 4G version, whilst the 5G version also exist with a different chipset underneath, but is otherwise sharing identical specs elsewhere. Its key features are already shown on the box, so it’s easy to tell what it comes with.

The included accessories are sufficient for getting the smartphone up to speed, including:
– USB-C charging cable
– 33W fast charging adapter (Europlug)
– SIM ejector pin
– Quick start guide & warranty card
– Safety & regulatory information
– Phone case
– Redmi 15 4G main unit

Walkaround

Compared to its direct predecessor, the Redmi 13, the new Redmi 15 comes with a reworked camera bump that puts the cameras and sensors all in a single line, while the LED flash – no longer ring-shaped – is located next to the main 50MP sensor. The second sensor is less of a camera and more of a monochrome sensor supplementing the main sensor, as its resolution support is a mere 320 x 240, which is 0.077 megapixels.

Display-wise, it’s still IPS only as commonly found on budget smartphones, though refresh rate has been improved to 144Hz, with 700 nits of brightness (850 nits peak) to boot. For basic use, it’s sufficient. Ingress protection rating has also been bumped up from IP53 to IP64, meaning it’ll withstand sprays from all angles, including rain and water splashes.

Unlike many smartphones that go to the general design direction featuring the same basic shape – as in, flat edges and round corners – the Redmi 15’s chassis adds a small bit of curvature to improve ergonomics slightly. It’s needed, since this device is quite large measuring 6.9 inches in size, and when coupled with slightly thicker bezels, it is bigger than most flagship smartphones in terms of dimensions.

Specifications

Redmi 15 4G (25062RN2DA, 8GB+256GB)

Full specifications available on product website.

Form Factor & Build	Smartphone (candybar)
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 (6nm, TSMC N6)
CPU	8-core (4P+4E) Performance: 4x Qualcomm Kryo 265 Gold (Arm Cortex-A73) @ 2.8GHz Efficiency: 4x Qualcomm Kryo 265 Silver (Arm Cortex-A53) @ 1.9GHz
GPU	Qualcomm Adreno 610
NPU	Qualcomm Hexagon 686
RAM	8GB LPDDR4X (+8GB paging/swap)
Storage	256GB UFS 2.2 microSD expansion support up to 2TB
Display	6.9″ IPS LCD 2340×1080 (19.5:9, 374 PPI) 144Hz refresh rate 288Hz touch sampling rate 700 nits typical peak brightness, 850 nits HBM brightness 85% NTSC gamut coverage TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light (Software Solution) Certified TÜV Rheinland Flicker-Free Certified TÜV Rheinland Circadian Friendly Certified
Audio	Mono speaker Dolby Atmos support No headphone jack (USB-C only)
Cameras	Rear: Dual cameras – 50MP Omnivision OV50D40 sensor (wide, 1/2.6″, f/1.8) – Auxiliary GalaxyCore GC6163B monochrome sensor (320×240 resolution, 1/13″) Front: Single cut-out camera – 8MP GalaxyCore GC08A8 sensor (wide, 1/3.5″, f/2.0)
Biometric sensors	Fingerprint scanner (side-mounted capacitive)
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 5 (dual-band) Bluetooth 5.0 IR blaster USB 2.0 Type-C *No NFC support
Cellular Networks	Dual-standby 2x Nano-SIM 2G: 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G*: B1/5/8 4G: B1/2/3/5/7/8/20/28 5G Sub6: Not supported 5G mmWave: Not supported *3G network has been phased out in Malaysia.
Operating System	Android 15 (Xiaomi HyperOS 2)
Battery	7,000mAh Li-ion silicon-carbon battery 33W USB-C wired charging
Ingress Protection	IP64
Colors	Sandy Purple Titan Gray [As tested] Midnight Black
Dimensions	169.48 x 80.45 x 8.4 mm
Weight	214g

Performance

System

While technically the Snapdragon 685 is a 2.5-year-old chipset by the time of Redmi 15’s launch (and it’s not uncommon for budget phones to get previous-gen chipsets to save costs), its innards actually date back to late 2021 as it was largely a refresh of Snapdragon 680 with improved clocks. That translates to a generally weak performance when compared to the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 with newer core architectures, which in itself has the same age as the SD685.

CPU

Evidently, the Cortex-A73 and Cortex-A53 core clusters didn’t age well into 2025, so it’s well into dead last in the Geekbench 6 benchmark when compared to models in the similar segment (plus a few on the low mid-range). Despite being technically older, vivo Y78 5G’s SD695 chipset uses more powerful Cortex-A78 and Cortex-A55 clusters – which happens to be powering the SD6G1 chipset as well – hence it outpaces the SD685 as a result.

GPU

Same story in terms of GPU performance, where the Redmi 15 severely lags behind competition in the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited benchmark. The good news, at least, is that you won’t lose performance over time, as it maintains practically perfect stability rating across 20 runs.

Battery

Battery is one part where the Redmi 15 has a better showing. Its 7,000mAh battery managed log 1,004 minutes of effective runtime – that’s 16 hours 44 minutes – which edges out some of the more recent models as well. Generally speaking, it’s also one of the longest running smartphones you can get, though charging will take some time given that it only supports up to 33 watts of fast charging.

User Experience

Software

The Redmi 15 4G runs on Xiaomi HyperOS 2 based on Android 15, and the setup process does prompt you to insert SIM cards, where most other OOBEs makes no mentions of this process. You’re also given a quick overview of the settings to opt out of, and from that point on it’s the basic customization process for your home screen (with the extra bit of automatic wallpapers prompt).

There is one major distinction between Redmi 15’s HyperOS 2 and Xiaomi 15T Pro’s HyperOS 2 implementation: the Redmi, presumably for performance reasons, has opted for the legacy two-half notification and control panel layout. In comparison, the Xiaomi follows the contemporary two-page, iPhone-style layout, with background blurring effects. It seemed like a slightly odd decision to split the UI into two versions, which you can’t switch between if you prefer one over another either.

As mentioned in the Xiaomi 15T Pro’s review, bonus points for category filters in the app drawer, while some points are to be docked for the second Wallpaper Carousel prompt past the OOBE process, along with some bloatware found among the pre-installed apps. Another aspect where Xiaomi/Redmi took inspirations from is the swipe down on home screen which brings up a search bar among other things – but at least you can disable this entirely to only activate the notification panel without reaching your fingers all the way up to the top of the screen.

Camera

It’s no surprise that the Redmi 15 4G’s camera layout is carried from the Xiaomi equivalents, although given that there’s no Leica co-branding, you lose all the special UI elements and instead get a fairly rudimentary UI with a limited number of readily-accessible functions. Also, the limited hardware meant you also do not get an ultrawide lens nor a telephoto lens, so your usable zoom range is quite limited.

The Redmi 15 4G effectively has one lens doing all the work, and that is the 50MP sensor, coupled with a monochrome sensor and not much else. In daylight conditions, the qualify is best described as passable, although its contrast handling isn’t particularly good in some of the shots above. Punching in for the 2x zoom also introduces some noise, and as far as we can tell, it lacks any form of stabilization, so that will affect the resulting quality as well.

Night scenes is where the camera struggle a lot, Night Mode or otherwise. In the first lion head image, notice the details below the building are blurry, as a result of miniscule instability that human hands naturally produce (and the camera having no EIS/OIS to compensate). Scenes like this often forces the smartphone to use Night Mode, which doesn’t help as long exposure times require the smartphone to be steady – so the result becomes a bit noisy overall, too. It’s also fairly poor at HDR handling, as seen with the ground-level TERRACE sign that dims everywhere else in the image.

Above are some of the additional photo samples we’ve taken using this smartphone, for reference.

Gaming

We’ve established that the Snapdragon 685’s performance is serviceable at best in the benchmarks beforehand, so it’s no surprise that when the phone is running Call of Duty Mobile, graphics has to be turned down to the minimum in resource-heavy game modes like Battle Royale to get passable performance (stuttering can still happen, though). In standard multiplayer, you can get away with Medium with smooth framerates, though we can’t tell the exact numbers due to the lack of monitoring tools with Xiaomi’s Game Turbo software.

The Good

Usually among budget phones the primary selling point is the battery life – most people purchasing this segment of smartphones look for maximum utility, so a good battery life is a big part of that. The Redmi 15 4G excels in that department, offering full-day battery life and even capable of lasting two days if you’re using it conservatively. Its 7000mAh capacity is also coupled with 18W reverse fast charging support, so if something needs a quick top-up, this phone can do that.

Another key upgrade that wasn’t much highlighted is the IP64 ingress protection rating. While on paper IP64 don’t sound like much, the previous generation Redmi 13 was rated for IP53, the latter number ‘3’ is the water protection rating that, in this case, only protects liquids from specific angles. Getting up to ‘4’ means it’s fully protected from splashes from all angles, which is important in rainy conditions. The newly upgraded 144Hz display, while still IPS-based for what we presume as cost-saving measure, means you get more responsiveness in the UI and games as well.

The Bad

Of course, there are some shortcomings in regards to Redmi 15 4G. The Snapdragon 685 chipset is, for the most part, based on a 2021 design that has not aged well into 2025, so performance comes at a significant deficit. The cameras also doesn’t deal with low-light scenes particularly well, especially given the lack of stabilization support to at least compensate using Night Mode. Also, we may take stereo speakers for granted, but unfortunately this smartphone isn’t one of them. It runs on mono audio, so earpiece speakers are solely responsible for calls only, not media playback.

Verdict

At RM599 MSRP, the Redmi 15 4G isn’t the best option when you put it next to the 5G model, which has the same hardware inside bar the more powerful Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset (and of course, 5G support). As with budget segment smartphones, keep your expectations reasonable, but if all you need is solid battery life and everything else just need to be serviceable, then perhaps this can be a choice – although the 5G version at a small premium is perhaps the better option, still.

Special thanks to Xiaomi Malaysia for providing the Redmi 15 4G smartphone for this review.