Xiaomi 15T Review: In the Running for 2025’s Best Value-for-Money Phone
Xiaomi’s fresh line of T Series phones has officially reached the Malaysian market – much to my delight, as I personally loved the 14T Pro, which I had the chance to take a good look at last year. The T Series serves as an affordable gateway to Xiaomi’s flagships, and one of its biggest appeals is the Leica co-engineered cameras that come with it.
You’ll find Leica cameras even on the base 15T, which we had the chance to review. And while your attention might unsurprisingly be drawn to the Pro model, the 15T more than holds its weight in value – all at an enticing RM1,899 starting price point that could tick your boxes.
Pros
Refined Premium Design
Xiaomi has made noticeable refinements that make the 15T far more pleasing to the eye than its predecessor. This isn’t to say that the 14T was ugly, but it did give off mid-range vibes all over.
With the 15T, however, Xiaomi has widened the curvature on the corners, making them less edgy and giving the phone a more uniform look. Even the camera bump is rounded out this time, with some uplift on the housing. An understated detail is the chamfer on the camera module, which, to me, achieves the premium aesthetic Xiaomi was gunning for.
The 15T is taller, wider, and slimmer this time, measuring 163.2mm in height, 78mm in width, and 7.5mm in thickness. It’s not heavy by any means, but its broader dimensions do take up plenty of real estate in the hand, making it less than ideal for one-handed use. If that’s something you prioritise, then the Xiaomi 15 might be the better choice.
While I do adore our metallic Gray variant of the 15T, I personally think the Rose Gold is the cream of the crop after seeing it in person on launch day. Aside from those two, there’s also a Black option for something more conventional.
Snappy Performance with Wider Display
The Xiaomi 15T arrives with the Dimensity 8400-Ultra SoC under the hood. This MediaTek chipset straddles the line between upper mid-range and entry-level flagship, fitting the 15T’s “affordable flagship” profile nicely.
As far as day-to-day usage is concerned, I did not encounter any hindrances or bugs during the month or so I used the phone. If all you’re using it for is running basic apps such as social media, map navigation, and web browsing, this is a very safe bet.
If numbers give you assurance, the 15T scored quite well in Geekbench 6 benchmarking. A 1605 single-core score unsurprisingly outperforms its predecessor by 10–15%. There is a difference here, but admittedly not by much. The multi-core score of 6409 shows a more substantial improvement over the 4385 of the 14T, indicating greater multitasking and multi-threaded gaming performance. As a whole, though, the 15T’s benchmark results are comparable even to the 2023 Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 flagship chip, which is commendable.
As mentioned earlier, this year’s T-series iteration is wider. This means the display is larger too, featuring a 6.83″ AMOLED panel (vs. 6.67″) offering 1.5K resolution (2772×1280) and a 120Hz refresh rate. A peak brightness of 3,200 nits makes it viewable for most parts of a cloudless day, and the Gorilla Glass 7i protection is sufficient considering the price.
I know I said earlier that its dimensions make it less ideal for one-handed use, but the wider screen does make content viewing and gaming much more enjoyable.
Leica Cameras Are a Flex
As with the 14T series, Xiaomi is putting plenty of spotlight on the 15T series’ cameras—and frankly, I would too if I were in their position. The Xiaomi–Leica partnership is thriving, and yes, you do get the Leica benefits even on the base 15T.
It shoots with a Leica 50MP main camera with a 23mm equivalent focal length, this time using the Light Fusion 800 sensor. Xiaomi has kept the Leica 50MP telephoto with a slightly wider 46mm focal length (vs. 50mm on the 14T) and retains the 12MP 15mm ultra-wide lens.
It looks great on paper, but even better when you take it out for a photo walk. All three lenses produce sharp and crisp photos, retaining an impressive amount of detail. Colour reproduction is excellent too, though I will say that the 46mm telephoto occasionally overexposes and dulls the colours slightly. In that case, just adjust the brightness slider to achieve a more natural look.
You do have the option to use 5x (92mm) and 10x (230mm) in-sensor digital zoom. Both still produce decent photos, but quality takes a drastic hit beyond the 10x mark. If you foresee yourself building a 5x portfolio, I’d turn your gaze to the 15T Pro instead, as it has a dedicated 5x telephoto lens—essentially the poster feature of the series.
Back to the 15T, even low-light photography proved to be an easy challenge, as long as you stick to the standard ultra-wide, main, and 2x telephoto array.
Impressive Battery Endurance
Despite its slimmer profile, Xiaomi manages to offer a larger 5,500mAh battery pack—a substantial increase from 5,000mAh—though charging remains at 67W via USB-C. We can thank our lucky stars that the Xiaomi 15T units sold in Malaysia come with the charging brick right out of the box—a privilege our European neighbours don’t get.
In short, battery life on the 15T is a major plus point. Depending on how you manage your screen time, this can easily be a two-day phone. A continuous YouTube run at full brightness got me nearly 8 hours of screen time before hitting 20%, which is a very comfortable leeway before battery anxiety sets in.
Some would perhaps see the 67W charging speed as a limitation—but considering the 5,500mAh battery pack, it’s more than sufficient. You’ll be able to reach 100% within roughly an hour if you plug in at around 10%.
Xiaomi 15T Pro: Should you buy?
Right off the bat, I’ll say this is one of the better, maybe even the best, phones in the under RM2,000 segment. It’s definitely one of the better-looking, accessible mid-rangers that actually nails the premium aesthetic. But perhaps more importantly, the phone is a snappy all-rounder with impressive battery endurance that I feel will appeal to the masses.
Xiaomi has picked up where it left off with the cameras, delivering excellent results with the benefit of Leica’s imaging systems and filters that will no doubt put a gleeful smile on photography enthusiasts.
Put all this in an RM1,899 price point? That’s a steal I’d happily recommend to anyone.
PriceShop Rating
Best Giler!
✅ Refined design that actually looks premium
✅ Snappy performance and a wider display
✅ Excellent main and telephoto lenses; Ultra-wide is decent too
✅ Impressive battery endurance with at least 7 hours screen-on time
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