Xiaomi 15 Pro Experience Review: A Pinnacle Work, Powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus and Pangu OS 2

Xiaomi 15 Pro Experience Review: A Pinnacle Work, Powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus and Pangu OS 2On the evening of October 29th, Xiaomi officially unveiled the highly anticipated Xiaomi 15 series smartphones at its "New Starting Point" product launch event. Although Lei Jun had repeatedly "warmed up" the price increase for the Xiaomi 15 series before the launch, the price increase seemed "reasonable" when the product was officially announced, especially compared to the price increases of similar products from competing brands

Xiaomi 15 Pro Experience Review: A Pinnacle Work, Powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus and Pangu OS 2

On the evening of October 29th, Xiaomi officially unveiled the highly anticipated Xiaomi 15 series smartphones at its "New Starting Point" product launch event. Although Lei Jun had repeatedly "warmed up" the price increase for the Xiaomi 15 series before the launch, the price increase seemed "reasonable" when the product was officially announced, especially compared to the price increases of similar products from competing brands. After all, Xiaomi secured the first launch of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus, which had pushed the envelope, along with Pangu OS 2, a completely redesigned system, a 2K display, ultrasonic fingerprint, and other fully loaded peripheral configurations. It's hard for consumers to say no to such a product. In this article, we will delve into the Xiaomi 15 Pro and take you on a journey to experience the charm of this flagship phone.

I. Design: Simple Yet Not Simple, Exquisite Texture at a Glance

In terms of the Xiaomi 15 series' design, Xiaomi didn't make drastic changes but continued the design language inherited from the 14 series. This seemingly ordinary and simple design, in the context of the second half of this year, where competing brands are adopting a unified design of large circular lens rings, makes the Xiaomi 15 series stand out as exceptionally fresh and refined. It's almost not ordinary, at least in terms of its unique recognizability.

Despite the minor changes in ID design, the Xiaomi 15 series exhibits a more refined level of detail and significantly enhanced texture. This refinement is evident in every design detail, particularly in the lens module treatment. The Xiaomi 15 Pro's lens module is crafted from a unified ceramic material, creating a smooth, oily, and warm touch. The lens module also features a four-curved design, making it appear very full. The transition between the body and the module incorporates a "volcano crater"-like extension, with natural and fluid curve transitions. The lens module is extremely full, resulting in a strong sense of unity. It's hard to describe this texture with words alone. The pictures alone can't capture the feel either. But once you hold it in your hand, you will be able to feel the difference from the Xiaomi 14 series. It's hard to say that the Xiaomi 15 Pro is the best-looking digital series in Xiaomi's history, but it is definitely the one with the most texture and product temperament.

The Xiaomi 15 Pro is 8.35mm thick and weighs 213g. It uses an aerospace-grade aluminum frame with a slim straight-edge design. The back panel is also completely flat, but the edges of the frame seamlessly transition to the back panel and screen. The design is incredibly smooth and flowing, offering a simple visual appeal while avoiding any sharp edges or corners. Let's delve into some details: the top frame of the Xiaomi 15 Pro doesn't have any openings and only has two plastic antenna strips. The top speaker is hidden on the front of the device (between the screen and the frame, where the earpiece is located), and the infrared sensors are concealed inside the camera module. The entire frame appears clean and neat.

In terms of color, the Xiaomi 15 Pro offers three basic color options: Rock Gray, White, and Spruce Green. The version we photographed is the white version, which is a snow-white color. The back cover adopts a frosted process, scattering direct light and preventing fingerprints. The black ceramic lens paired with a pure white body creates a black and white contrast, further enhancing its recognizability.

Moving to the front, the Xiaomi 15 Pro features a full-depth micro-curved screen and a four-curved wraparound frame. Huaxing Optoelectronics' 6.73-inch 32001440 OLED full-depth four-curved screen, based on M9 luminescent material (double-layer micro-cavity luminescent structure), reduces power consumption by 24% compared to the Xiaomi 14 Pro's 2K screen, achieving power consumption comparable to that of competing brands' 1.5K screens. The official statement indicates that the power consumption of this 2K screen is nearly identical to that of the Xiaomi 14 screen, which adopts C8 luminescent material and a 1.5K resolution.

Competing brands seem to be hesitant about adopting 2K screens. While the market saw an abundance of 2K screen products in previous years, 2K screens have become quite rare in flagship models released in 2024. We hope that the inclusion of a 2K screen in the Xiaomi 15 Pro will encourage the entire mobile industry to prioritize 2K screens. Additionally, the Xiaomi 15 Pro pioneers full-screen AOD display, maintaining a 1Hz refresh rate and low-brightness constant-on display in a locked screen state, allowing you to always view messages and notifications even when the screen is locked.

In terms of parameters, the screen supports a 1-120Hz LTPO adaptive refresh rate, a manual peak brightness of 800nit, a global peak brightness of 1000nit, a local peak brightness of 3200nit (25% window, no content format restrictions), a 300Hz touch sampling rate, and a 2560Hz instantaneous touch sampling rate. Furthermore, the screen cover of the Xiaomi 15 Pro has been upgraded to Xiaomi Dragon Crystal Glass 2.0, with a 25%-30% improvement in drop resistance compared to Dragon Crystal 1.0.

II. Performance: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus First Launch, "Pushing the Envelope"

The biggest highlight of the Xiaomi 15 Pro's performance is the first-launch Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus flagship chip. In Qualcomm's own words, this Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus is "Pushing the Envelope." As the name suggests, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus not only adopts a new naming convention but also boasts a new self-developed CPU architecture. Its CPU single-core performance has increased by 40%, multi-core performance by 42%, GPU peak performance by 44%, and energy efficiency by 25%.

You rarely see such significant advancements in the evolution of Snapdragon flagship SoC over the past decade. It's not an exaggeration to say that in the past, a 10% increase in performance for Snapdragon flagship chips was considered "luxurious." This time, the CPU and GPU have seen performance improvements of over 40%! Even leaving Xiaomi aside, any flagship phone equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus this year is worth considering, especially for those still using older flagships powered by the Snapdragon 888.

Getting back to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus, it employs Qualcomm's newly developed Oryon architecture CPU. Qualcomm had already adopted this architecture in its PC-platform Snapdragon XElite/XPlus, but this is the first time it's been implemented on a mobile platform chip. The core architecture of the Oryon CPU in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus is essentially a full-large-core architecture, encompassing two Phoenix L ultra-large cores with peak frequencies of 4.32GHz and six Phoenix M large cores with peak frequencies of 3.53GHz. The two ultra-large cores have a 192KB L1 cache each, sharing a large 12MB L2 cache. The six large cores have a 128KB L1 cache each, sharing a 12MB L2 cache. Additionally, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus supports LPDDR5X memory with speeds reaching 10.7Gbps.

Compared to the previous generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, based on GeekBench tests, the CPU single-core performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus has increased by 45%, and its multi-core performance has also increased by 45%. In terms of GPU, the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Plus platform is equipped with the latest Adreno 830 GPU. Compared to the previous generation, this GPU delivers a 40% improvement in performance while reducing power consumption by 40%. Additionally, in gaming scenarios that place a heavy emphasis on ray tracing performance, the Adreno 830 GPU boasts a 35% performance boost.

Now, let's move on to the actual test data:

a. GeekBench 6 Benchmark Test

In the GeekBench 6 benchmark test, the Xiaomi 15 Pro achieved a score of 3025 for single-core and 9369 for multi-core. After multiple rounds of testing, its single-core and multi-core scores consistently remained above 3000 and 9000, respectively. Compared to other devices, the Xiaomi 15 Pro's current scores are already extremely high. For reference, IT Home's real-world tests of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, showed a single-core score of 1717 and a multi-core score of 6616. Roughly estimated, the Xiaomi 15 Pro's single-core performance is approximately