Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 15 series has now been officially unveiled, but, overall, it’s not as appealing as previous examples. It’s not just 5G that the Note 15 Pro’s lacking.
The days of me accepting phones without 5G are over. Especially when I’m bombarded with ads and expected to pay almost twice the price of better-equipped options. All I can say is: stay away from the Redmi Note 15 Pro.
Redmi Note 15 series: entry-level to mid-range phones
Xiaomi does offer models with 5G chips, such as the Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G and Note 15 Pro+ 5G. If in doubt, I’d pay extra for the better chipsets. But, generally speaking, the prices in this series are no longer as attractive as they used to be.
Here are the key specifications of the five Redmi Note 15 phones at a glance:
Only 4G, ads and Android 15: what bothers me about the Redmi Note 15 Pro
The Helio G200 Ultra chip’s the main reason I’m avoiding the Redmi Note 15. It’s not particularly powerful, but at least it ensures the phone runs smoothly. My main problem is that it only supports 4G data connections. And I’m not buying another device that doesn’t support 5G for the next few years.
The problem with the Redmi Note 15 Pro is its chipset.
It’s also disappointing that the chipset only supports Wi-Fi 5. I wouldn’t replace devices with this Wi-Fi standard, but I also wouldn’t buy any new ones. The chipset’s drawbacks are particularly noticeable when compared to other phones.
For example, the slightly cheaper Nothing Phone (3a) and significantly cheaper [CMF Phone 2 Pro](/page/cmf-phone-2-pro-im-test-jetzt-mit-nfc-und-drei-kameras-37711"CMF Phone 2 Pro test: now with NFC and three cameras") both offer 5G, Wi-Fi 6E and better performance. Specifically, their chipsets offer double and triple the graphics processing power respectively.
We run various benchmarks on phones – namely 3DMark, Geekbench and Antutu. The results achieved by the device we’re testing correspond to 100 per cent. This is then compared with the results of other devices. Then, average values are generated from the various benchmarks for CPU and iGPU performance. The results are weighted equally.
Xiaomi adds Android on the Redmi Note 15 Pro with its own HyperOS user interface, including various proprietary apps. When you open system apps such as Mi Browser, Clean or Security, you’re bombarded with third-party ads. So far, this only happens on first launch, but it bothers me more with system apps than with free games.
The ads that appear when you first open system apps disappear by themselves after a few seconds, but it’s still annoying.
Xiaomi’s decision to ship the Redmi Note 15 Pro and other phones in the series with Android 15 also falls into the «Could be better» category. The final version of Android 16’s been available for six months. While an update to Android 16 is planned, Xiaomi’s track record of only providing three major Android updates for the Redmi Note series so far isn’t exactly appealing – even if security updates are available for longer.
Many pre-installed third-party apps are common to Xiaomi and other manufacturers.
The Redmi Note 15 Pro’s display, camera and battery are fine
The Redmi Note 15 Pro features a 6.77-inch AMOLED display with impressive, vibrant colour reproduction, a high resolution of 2392 × 1080 pixels – approximately 388 ppi – and a 120 Hz refresh rate. Even in budget phones, manufacturers are now only installing high-quality displays.
The display’s easy to see, even in sunlight.
Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protects the display from damage. While it’s not the manufacturer’s latest protective glass, it’s still very robust. The entire phone’s IP65 dustproof and protected against water jets. So, it can withstand more than just splashes, but it can’t be sumberged.
Like its 5G siblings, the Redmi Note 15 Pro only has two back cameras. The main camera boasts a really high resolution of 200 megapixels, but the ultra-wide-angle camera only has eight megapixels – and there’s no telephoto lens. The front-facing camera takes 32-megapixel selfies.
Two cameras, a flash and a decorative detail.
The main camera scales down its images to 12 megapixels for improved image quality. This is sufficient for detailed shots with natural colour reproduction and it’s perfectly adequate for viewing on a phone, but there’s noticeable blurring when viewing the images at their original size on a computer monitor.
The colour reproduction’s good, and the level of detail’s enough for playback on a phone.
The eight-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera’s nominally not far off the twelve megapixels, but it delivers noticeably inferior image quality, even on a phone. You can immediately see the blurriness caused by pixelation.
The ultra-wide-angle camera lacks detail accuracy.
The main camera for comparison.
Night mode’s worth using in low light. Using the main camera, it mainly eliminates overexposure in the immediate vicinity of light sources. This also applies to the ultra-wide-angle camera, providing greater detail.
I also use night mode for selfies. They’re good during the day, but you need night mode in low light.
Selfies look even worse in the dark without night mode.
The Redmi Note 15 Pro’s battery boasts 6,500 mAh. While its 45-watt charging speed isn’t lightning-fast, it’s definitely adequate. Using the PCMark Work 3.0 battery test with half display brightness, I recorded a runtime of 15 hours and 36 minutes. This sounds impressive at first, but it’s nothing special in comparison: the more expensive Xiaomi 15T Pro, for example, with its smaller 1,000 mAh battery and slightly larger display, achieves 16 hours and 23 minutes under the same conditions.
In a nutshell
Not enough value for money
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro does many things right to be a very usable phone. The display’s good, the main camera takes good pictures and the battery life’s decent.
However, the 4G chipset’s now a must for me. And then there’s the fact that Xiaomi no longer offers the best value for money and bombards me with ads. The aforementioned [Nothing Phone (3a)](/page/nothing-phone-3a-im-test-eine-telekamera-fuer-das-mittelklasse-smartphone-36992 and the [CMF Phone 2 Pro](/page/cmf-phone-2-pro-im-test-jetzt-mit-nfc-und-drei-kameras-37711 offer better features – including 5G, more processing power and even a telephoto camera – for significantly less money.
Even the more expensive Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G and Pro+ 5G, don’t fare well in comparison.
As a primary school pupil, I used to sit in a friend's living room with many of my classmates to play the Super NES. Now I get my hands on the latest technology and test it for you. In recent years at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, now at Digitec and Galaxus.
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