Redmi Note 15 Pro 4G Review: This is the strangest phone I've tested this year
Xiaomi has a new budget contender aiming to take on popular rivals like the Galaxy A56 and Motorola Edge series.
This is the Redmi Note 15 Pro 4G, which drops 5G connectivity in exchange for a larger battery, a faster chip, and a few other unique advantages.
With a price of around 350 euros for the 256GB model, it sits in the same range as the Galaxy A36 and Motorola Edge 60. But is it really the better phone of the three?
This is the Redmi Note 15 Pro 4G, which drops 5G connectivity in exchange for a larger battery, a faster chip, and a few other unique advantages.
Table of Contents:
Redmi Note 15 Pro Specs
Let's begin by looking at the Redmi Note 15 Pro specs:
|
|
| Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro | Samsung Galaxy A36 5G |
| Dimensions | |
|---|---|
| 163.2 x 76.3 x 8 mm | 162.9 x 78.2 x 7.4 mm (~8.7 mm with camera bump) |
| Weight | |
| 195.0 g | 195.0 g |
| Size | |
|---|---|
| 6.8-inch | 6.7-inch |
| Type | |
| AMOLED, 120Hz | Super AMOLED, 120Hz |
| System chip | |
|---|---|
| MediaTek Helio G200 Ultra (6 nm) | Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 (4 nm) |
| Memory | |
| 8GB/256GB (UFS 2.2) 12GB/256GB 12GB/512GB |
6GB (LPDDR4)/128GB (UFS 2.2) 8GB/128GB 8GB/256GB 12GB/256GB |
| Type | |
|---|---|
| 6500 mAh | 5000 mAh |
| Charge speed | |
| Wired: 45.0W | Wired: 45.0W |
| Main camera | |
|---|---|
| 200 MP (OIS, PDAF) Aperture size: F1.7 Focal length: 23 mm Sensor size: 1/1.4" Pixel size: 0.56 μm |
50 MP (OIS, PDAF) Aperture size: F1.8 Sensor size: 1/1.96" |
| Second camera | |
| 8 MP (Ultra-wide) Aperture size: F2.2 Focal Length: 15 mm Sensor size: 1/4" Pixel size: 1.12 μm | 8 MP (Ultra-wide) Aperture size: F2.2 Sensor size: 1/4" Pixel size: 1.12 μm |
| Third camera | |
| 5 MP (Macro) Aperture size: F2.4 |
|
| Front | |
| 32 MP | 12 MP |
See the full
Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy A36 5G specs comparison
or compare them to other phones using our
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Redmi Note 15 Pro Design and Display
Your typical modern flat-side design
First off, the Note 15 Pro 4G features flat sides, a shift from the curved design seen on the non-Pro Redmis. The screen is mostly flat as well, with just a subtle taper along the edges. The back is still plastic, but the phone looks solid and feels well-built.
It also includes an infrared blaster, which lets you control a TV or AC — a feature that’s missing on most other phones and a nice bonus.
The Note 15 Pro 4G measures 163.2 × 76.3 × 8 mm, not the thinnest, but not bulky either. You also get IP65-rated dust and water resistance, slightly below the IP68 found on pricier devices. At 195 grams, it’s reasonably light for a large-screen phone.
The Note 15 Pro 4G measures 163.2 × 76.3 × 8 mm, not the thinnest, but not bulky either. You also get IP65-rated dust and water resistance, slightly below the IP68 found on pricier devices. At 195 grams, it’s reasonably light for a large-screen phone.
It's nice to see Xiaomi including a 45W charger in the box (with a USB-A port), as most brands these days skip on that. You will also find a charging cable, SIM tool and a user manual in the box.
Speaking of the display, the Note 15 Pro 4G features a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen. It’s not just large and smooth with a 120Hz refresh rate — it’s also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for improved scratch and drop resistance. The slim bezels around the screen give it a clean, modern appearance.
The screen gets very bright in our in-house lab measurements, hitting over 3,000 nits of brightness (better than some flagships). However, the minimum brightness of around 2 nits could be better. A lower value here means the screen is easier on your eyes at night.
You have an optical fingerprint scanner embedded in the display, it’s located way at the bottom of the phone. In my experience, it was fast and reliable, so no big issues with it.
Redmi Note 15 Pro Camera
We're puzzled by the lack of 4K video
The Redmi Note 15 Pro 4G comes with two cameras on its back: a 200MP main camera with a 23mm lens and f/1.7 aperture, and an 8MP ultra-wide camera with a 15mm lens and f/2.2 aperture.
With a super small sensor, the ultra-wide camera here is an afterthought and at just 8 megapixels, detail is lacking and images often turn out noisy.
The main camera is clearly the one you'll use most often. By default, it shoots 12MP photos, but you can switch to Ultra HD mode to capture the full 200MP resolution. Just keep in mind that this produces much larger files — nearly 20MB each, compared to about 3MB in the standard mode.
Video Quality
The biggest camera compromise of cheaper phones like this one has got to be video recording.
The Note 15 Pro 4G cannot record 4K video, which is definitely very strange for a phone of this class. 1080p video lacks the detail of 4K, so if you care about video, other phones do much better in this regard.
Redmi Note 15 Pro Performance & Benchmarks
No flagship
The phone comes with a Mediatek Helio G200 Ultra chip and a solid 8GB of RAM. In daily life that feels quite zippy, and the phone definitely feels a beat faster than the Galaxy A series rivals. It’s still no flagship grade performance, though.
CPU Performance Benchmarks:
Compared to one of its rivals (admittedly, a bit more expensive), the Galaxy A36, the Redmi does not quite pack as much CPU power.
GPU Performance
Graphics performance is stable, but the score is quite low, so if you want a phone that can reach higher, it makes sense to consider last year's Galaxy A36, which performs better.
I was, however, a bit disappointed that Xiaomi uses the slow UFS 2.2 type of storage on this phone, so you could see your images take an extra beat to load or apps loading just a bit slower than expected.
Well, at least you get 256GB of that storage. The phone also supports microSD cards, which is nice.
Redmi Note 15 Pro Software
It runs HyperOS 2.0 on top of Android 15, and Xiaomi has already confirmed an upgrade to HyperOS 3.0 with Android 16.
Xiaomi promises four years of major OS updates, which is not quite as long as Samsung's six year promise, but still quite decent for a budget phone.
Redmi Note 15 Pro Battery
Champ
While it sacrifices some video features, the big advantage of this Redmi over rivals is its massive battery. The Note 15 Pro 4G comes with a big, 6,500 mAh battery, much larger than the 5,000 mAh battery on Samsung phones, for example. You can easily get two days of use on a single charge, very nice.
PhoneArena Battery Test Results:
And while we saw the Galaxy A36 dominate the performance benchmarks, here, it's a totally different story. The Redmi destroys the Galaxy in battery life, delivering excellent scores in all three of our in-house tests. It shines particularly in our YouTube video streaming test with a score of nearly 14 hours, compared to just 8 hours on the A36.
Charging is officially rated at 45 watts, which is again quite fast. However, while using a third-party USB-C power delivery adapter, I only got 25 watt speeds, so you might need a special Xiaomi charger to get the full speed.
There is no wireless charging on board, but that’s expected at the price.
Redmi Note 15 Pro Audio Quality and Haptics
The speaker quality on this phone is decent, but nothing exceptional.
One big upgrade of this phone over cheaper Redmis, though, is the better vibration motor, which produces nice and tight haptics while you type or just for notifications and daily use. That's a very welcome improvement.
Should you buy it?
So is the Redmi Note 15 Pro 4G worth it?
I personally don’t care about the lack of 5G connectivity, but I am disappointed by the lack of 4K video and the slower UFS 2.2 type storage. The lack of performance power compared to rivals is also a bit of a letdown. However, if you value the excellent battery life, the bright screen, the fast charging and the smooth overall daily use, this phone might actually fit you better than main rival Galaxy A36.
I personally don’t care about the lack of 5G connectivity, but I am disappointed by the lack of 4K video and the slower UFS 2.2 type storage. The lack of performance power compared to rivals is also a bit of a letdown. However, if you value the excellent battery life, the bright screen, the fast charging and the smooth overall daily use, this phone might actually fit you better than main rival Galaxy A36.
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