Redmi Note 15 Pro+ 5G Review: This Xiaomi phone’s highlig…

A dream for outdoor fans. | The new Android phone from Xiaomi presents itself as an affordable premium mid-range smartphone with an extra-large silicon-carbon battery, super-bright OLED screen, and a titanium structure. However, our review of the Redmi Note 1…

The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ is not a classic smartphone for the construction site or for outdoor fans, but it does have the features of a rugged phone, such as water and dust resistance, drop resistance, and high temperature resistance. Thanks to the slim design, however, these virtues are not visible at first glance. In theory, the large OLED screen is very suitable for outdoor use due to its high peak brightness.

But in everyday use, the strong dimming of the brightness can become a problem for outdoor readability after a short time. Xiaomi has not done itself any favors with the choice of processor. The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ is not a performance high-flyer in the target price range and its sister model, the Poco F7, is clearly the better choice in this aspect. The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ is offered in the base version with an RRP of just under €500 in Brown, Blue or Black color options.

The mid-range smartphone is available directly from the manufacturer or from Amazon.de. In the US, the 12 GB + 512 GB variant of the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ can be had from Amazon US for $510, but the smartphone is listed as being compatible only with T-Mobile networks. The new Redmi Note 15 Pro+ belongs to Xiaomi's premium mid-range lineup. The European version is not only at a disadvantage compared to its Chinese counterpart but is also distributed globally with slight changes.

The battery in our test sample shrinks from 7,000 mAh to 6,500 mAh, but it can be charged faster than the version for the Chinese market with a maximum of 100 W speeds.  Xiaomi has also given the main camera a megapixel upgrade for Europe — instead of a 50 MP sensor, a 200 MP sensor from Samsung is used. However, this is somewhat less suitable for low-light scenes than the Light Fusion 800 in the Chinese model or the Poco M8 Pro.

The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ 5G impresses with its robust design despite its rather thin and light casing. The mid-range phone offers IP68 dust and water resistance as well as a "titanium structure", which guarantees certified drop resistance from a height of up to 2.5 meters.  Resistant Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 is used for the display protection, while the back is made of glass fiber or vegan leather (both plastic materials).

In the drop test we carried out on wooden flooring from a height of around 1.5 meters, the Xiaomi smartphone showed impressive workmanship with no signs of visible damage. The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ offers good features but is limited in terms of USB speed. The interface only supports the USB 2.0 standard, and the data transfer rate was severely limited in our test. We only achieved a slow 30 MB/s with a Samsung Portable SSD T7.

External hard disks can be formatted with FAT32 (up to 2 TB) and exFAT (up to 128 GB). The NTFS format is also supported. In addition, the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ comes with NFC for contactless payments and an infrared transmitter. The mid-range phone also features USB On-The-Go (OTG), which allows external USB devices, such as memory sticks, to be connected quickly. The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ is somewhat disappointing when it comes to software updates, as Xiaomi still ships its mid-range phone with HyperOS 2 and Android 15.

At least, the manufacturer promises an upgrade to Android 19 and security updates until 2032. The latter are to be rolled out once a quarter. Striking are the frequent advertisements, which can only be deactivated to a limited extent. Xiaomi does not provide information about the ecological footprint or possible environmental efforts for the Redmi Note 15 Pro+. The mid-range smartphone is listed in the EPREL database with repairability class C.

The packaging is made of cardboard. The Xiaomi phone reveals light and shadow in our Wi-Fi measurement. Although the 6 GHz channel is used for transmission with our reference router Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 thanks to Wi-Fi 6E, the less than 1,000 Mbps transfer rates are surprisingly slow. However, this should hardly be relevant in everyday use. When on the move, the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ supports access to the mobile 5G network at best but also has a ready selection of LTE bands.

The phone's positioning is determined via global satellite networks in single band. We check the positioning quality with a Garmin Venu 2. Minor inaccuracies can be seen on the route, and the mid-range phone likes to cut corners. Nevertheless, the route guidance provided is very accurate. The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ enables the use of up to two nano SIM cards including dual SIM 5G + 5G functionality as well as the integration of an eSIM.

Also on board are VoLTE and calls via the home Wi-Fi. Xiaomi's offline communication of the 15T series based on a Bluetooth protocol is also offered. The rear camera setup has not changed much compared to the predecessor. The 1/1.4-inch 200 MP sensor delivers an appealing sharpness and natural color reproduction in good lighting conditions, although the white balance is sometimes not right.  In low-light scenarios, however, the Samsung HP3 is only partially convincing, despite its large aperture of f/1.7.

Zooming on the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ is exclusively digital. Thanks to the high number of pixels, the 2x magnification is lossless and is impressive in bright light. Beyond the 4x zoom, however, there is hardly any detail left. The ultrawide angle lens has a low resolution of just 8 MP, and the results are not really usable without OIS and fixed focus. Similar to the competition in this price segment, this lens is more for the spec sheet than any practical use.

Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device. Xiaomi provides its mid-range phone with a USB Type-C cable, a SIM eject tool, and a protective cover. A matching power adapter is not included in the scope of delivery in German-speaking countries.

Xiaomi only offers a warranty of 12 months for the smartphone, which does not affect the retailer's own warranty. The Xiaomi Care insurance package can be taken out as an option starting from €39. The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ uses an optical sensor to recognize fingerprints. This works very well in everyday use. If you want to use your face for unlocking, you have to resort to a much less reliable 2D face recognition.

Inputs via the touchscreen are processed quickly with a sampling rate of up to 480 Hz, which can go up to 2,560 Hz in games. However, the mid-range smartphone repeatedly shows stutters and sometimes also significant drops in performance.  This tends to happen especially when many processes are running in the background or the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ is brought out of standby after a long time. Xiaomi has installed a good X-axis linear vibration motor for the mid-range, even if it is not at the top level in terms of haptic feedback.

The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ comes with a large 6.83-inch AMOLED screen. The panel sports a 120 Hz refresh rate and has a high pixel density of 447 ppi. We can confirm the advertised peak brightness of 3,200 nits based on our measurements (HDR: 2,965 cd/m², APL18: 3,146 cd/m²), although the peak luminance drops below 990 cd/m² after a short time. In everyday use, the maximum brightness is also reduced with manual brightness control (578 cd/m², 779 cd/m² sun mode).

The high PWM frequency of 3,840 Hz of the mid-range phone may cause eye burns or headaches for sensitive people, but the probability is rather low thanks to the combination of DC dimming and the high-frequency PWM dimming. The frequency of 120 Hz is very low, so the flickering may cause eyestrain and headaches after extended use. In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display.

If PWM was detected, an average of 8016 (minimum: 5 – maximum: 343500) Hz was measured. Measurement series with fixed zoom level and different brightness settings (The amplitude curve at minimum brightness looks flat, but this is due to the scaling. The info box shows the enlarged version of the amplitude at minimum brightness) Our analysis with the photo spectrometer and the software from Calman results in low average Delta-E deviations in the P3 color space for the Redmi Note 15 Pro+.

Xiaomi installs a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 in the Redmi Note 15 Pro+, which performs slightly better in benchmarks than the Qualcomm SoC in the predecessor. However, the manufacturer has not made a big leap with it.  Considering the stutters in everyday use, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 of the Poco F7 would have been a better choice. The graphics unit is an Adreno 810 which reaches its limits due to the rather high 1,280p resolution of the Redmi smartphone.

Especially in the demanding high-tier tests of the GFXBench, the competition sometimes performs significantly better.  The surface temperatures are low. The 3DMark stress tests also do not reveal any significant fluctuations in frame rates under computationally intensive loads. The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ comes with stereo speakers with a slight hint of bass. While the highs drop off, the mids show an increasing progression in the pink noise.

(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (94.5 dB)Bass 100 – 315 Hz(-) | nearly no bass – on average 15.7% lower than median(+) | bass is linear (3.6% delta to prev. frequency)Mids 400 – 2000 Hz(±) | higher mids – on average 7.6% higher than median(+) | mids are linear (5.1% delta to prev. frequency)Highs 2 – 16 kHz(±) | higher highs – on average 8.9% higher than median(+) | highs are linear (5.3% delta to prev.

frequency)Overall 100 – 16.000 Hz(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (18.7% difference to median)Compared to same class» 21% of all tested devices in this class were better, 9% similar, 69% worse» The best had a delta of 11%, average was 35%, worst was 134%Compared to all devices tested» 42% of all tested devices were better, 8% similar, 50% worse» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 24%, worst was 134% (+) | speakers can play relatively loud (90.6 dB)Bass 100 – 315 Hz(-) | nearly no bass – on average 25.6% lower than median(±) | linearity of bass is average (7.7% delta to prev.

frequency)Mids 400 – 2000 Hz(±) | reduced mids – on average 5% lower than median(+) | mids are linear (4.5% delta to prev. frequency)Highs 2 – 16 kHz(+) | balanced highs – only 3.1% away from median(+) | highs are linear (4.4% delta to prev. frequency)Overall 100 – 16.000 Hz(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (16.6% difference to median)Compared to same class» 8% of all tested devices in this class were better, 5% similar, 87% worse» The best had a delta of 11%, average was 35%, worst was 134%Compared to all devices tested» 28% of all tested devices were better, 6% similar, 66% worse» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 24%, worst was 134% The battery grows in comparison to its predecessor to 6,500 mAh, and can now be charged with up to 100 W speeds.

This means that the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ is fully charged ideally in around 45 minutes.  Wireless charging is not supported, but the battery can be used as a power bank with up to 22.5 W power delivery. The battery life of the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ is very good in our practical WLAN test at 150 cd/m². Its sister model is somewhat more enduring, however. The Redmi Note 15 Pro+ combines durability with an appealing look and handy weight.

The selection of devices to be reviewed is made by our editorial team. The test sample was given to the author by the manufacturer free of charge for the purposes of review. There was no third-party influence on this review, nor did the manufacturer receive a copy of this review before publication. There was no obligation to publish this review. As an independent media company, Notebookcheck is not subjected to the authority of manufacturers, retailers or publishers.

Every year, Notebookcheck independently reviews hundreds of laptops and smartphones using standardized procedures to ensure that all results are comparable. We have continuously developed our test methods for around 20 years and set industry standards in the process. In our test labs, high-quality measuring equipment is utilized by experienced technicians and editors. These tests involve a multi-stage validation process.

Our complex rating system is based on hundreds of well-founded measurements and benchmarks, which maintains objectivity. Further information on our test methods can be found here.

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