Redmi Note 15 4G Review: I tried Xiaomi's ultra-budget phone (Galaxy A17 is in trouble)
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In the ultra-budget phone space, there are a few familiar names you’ll usually run into — Samsung’s Galaxy A1x and A2x series, along with Motorola’s Moto G lineup.
Another major player is Xiaomi with its Redmi phones. Unlike Samsung and Motorola, Xiaomi doesn’t sell its phones in the US, but its models often deliver better performance and a few more adventurous features, while the other two tend to play it safer.
Today, we’re looking at the Redmi Note 15 4G, the most affordable model in Xiaomi’s new 2026 Redmi Note series. It launches at around 200 euros, with prices expected to fall closer to 150 euros in the coming months. For that money, you get a large battery, fast charging, and — unsurprisingly — a fair share of compromises.
Another major player is Xiaomi with its Redmi phones. Unlike Samsung and Motorola, Xiaomi doesn’t sell its phones in the US, but its models often deliver better performance and a few more adventurous features, while the other two tend to play it safer.
Table of Contents:
Redmi Note 15 Specs
Let's start with an overview of the Redmi Note 15 4G specs:
|
|
| Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 | Samsung Galaxy A17 5G |
| Dimensions | |
|---|---|
| 164 x 75.4 x 7.9 mm | 164.4 x 77.9 x 7.5 mm |
| Weight | |
| 184.0 g | 192.0 g |
| Size | |
|---|---|
| 6.8-inch | 6.7-inch |
| Type | |
| AMOLED, 120Hz | Super AMOLED, 90Hz |
| System chip | |
|---|---|
| Mediatek Helio G100 Ultra (6 nm) | Exynos 1330 S5E8535 (5 nm) |
| Memory | |
| 6GB/128GB (UFS 2.2) 8GB/128GB 8GB/256GB 8GB/512GB |
8GB/128GB 8GB/256GB |
| Type | |
|---|---|
| 6000 mAh | 5000 mAh |
| Charge speed | |
| Wired: 33.0W | Wired: 25.0W |
| Main camera | |
|---|---|
| 108 MP (PDAF) Aperture size: F1.7 Focal length: 24 mm Sensor size: 1/1.67" Pixel size: 0.64 μm | 50 MP (OIS, PDAF) Aperture size: F1.8 Sensor size: 1/2.76" Pixel size: 0.64 μm |
| Second camera | |
| 5 MP (Ultra-wide) Aperture size: F2.2 Sensor size: 1/5" |
|
| Third camera | |
| 2 MP (Macro) Aperture size: F2.4 |
|
| Front | |
| 20 MP | 13 MP |
See the full
Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 vs Samsung Galaxy A17 5G specs comparison
or compare them to other phones using our
Phone Comparison tool
Redmi Note 15 Design and Display
One of the prettier budget phones
Credit where it’s due — Xiaomi has done a nice job with the design of this budget phone. Yes, the back is plastic, but the slim body and gently curved sides make it look far more premium than you’d expect at this price.
It measures 75.42 x 164.03 x 7.94 mm, which makes it fairly thin, and it comes with IP64 dust and water resistance. It's also impressively light, tipping the scales at just 184 grams.
It measures 75.42 x 164.03 x 7.94 mm, which makes it fairly thin, and it comes with IP64 dust and water resistance. It's also impressively light, tipping the scales at just 184 grams.
The phone also comes with a rich unboxing experience, meaning that you get a 33W charger (with a USB-A port), a charging cable, and a SIM tool.
The 6.77-inch display feels nicely expansive, with relatively slim bezels that give it a much more modern look than Samsung’s Galaxy A models. It’s also an AMOLED panel, which is worth pointing out, especially since many Moto G phones in this price range are still stuck with LCD screens that look noticeably worse.
There is an optical fingerprint scanner embedded in the screen, right towards the bottom of the phone. It worked quite fast and reliably, so no big issues there.
Redmi Note 15 Camera
Video quality is the biggest compromise
The Redmi Note 15 4G comes with a single 108MP main camera with a 24mm lens and f/1.7 aperture. These are quite decent specs on paper, and images look quite decent. You get 12MP photos by default or you can go for the Ultra HD mode to get the full 108MP resolution, but then you’d also get bigger JPEG files of around 8MB to 10MB, compared to around 3MB in the lower resolution.
There is no ultra-wide camera on board, so some might be disappointed by that, but I personally don’t mind this too much.
Video Quality
You only have 1080p video quality, which is a bit disappointing, and the footage itself is far from the best we've seen.
Redmi Note 15 Performance & Benchmarks
Decent performance
We also need to mention how smooth this phone feels in everyday use. The Galaxy A17, which I tested side by side with it, often came across as laggy and sluggish, while the Redmi Note 15 4G felt noticeably smoother, helped by its 120Hz refresh rate versus the Galaxy’s 90Hz panel.
The MediaTek Helio G100-Ultra handles daily tasks well, and it’s backed by a sensible 6GB of RAM, which is enough for this class of device.
CPU Performance Benchmarks:
It's funny how the Redmi scores exactly the same as the Galaxy A17 in single-core CPU performance, and even slightly better in multi-core performance, despite being a notably cheaper phone.
GPU Performance
GPU performance is also practically identical on these two competing models.
Redmi Note 15 Software
The phone runs on HyperOS 2.0 software on top of Android 15, but it is soon to be upgraded to HyperOS 3.0 and Android 16.
Redmi Note 15 Battery
Xiaomi embraces larger batteries
Probably the biggest advantage of this phone is its huge 6,000 mAh battery. This is a much bigger size than on the Galaxy A series or the Moto G family, and you could easily get around two days of battery life with considerate use. Nice!
Below, you can find our in-house battery test results.
PhoneArena Battery Test Results:
Charging is officially rated at 33 watts, but using a fast USB power delivery charger, we could only hit 25 to 26 watts. And charging while using the phones resulted in even slower speeds of around 15 watts.
There is no wireless charging support on this phone, as you'd expect in this price class.
Redmi Note 15 Audio Quality and Haptics
With a single loudspeaker, audio quality is not great, meaning you get flat sound without much of a definition in the lower frequencies.
One thing that does show the budget character are the buzzy vibrations that are not as tight as on other phones.
Should you buy it?
If 5G isn't important to you — and honestly, it probably isn’t — this phone is a solid budget pick. We wouldn't advise buying it at full price, though, as price drops are likely within the next couple of months.
The main downside is video quality, but that's a common limitation in this price range. Some competitors offer an ultra-wide camera, though usually a pretty average one. This phone skips the ultra-wide entirely, which I'm actually fine with. And while it's not aimed at people chasing top-tier camera performance, the Redmi clearly outclasses Moto G models in display quality and beats the Galaxy A17 in raw performance. Samsung still has a slight edge in camera quality overall — at least in my view.
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