Camera
The Redmi 15 5G has a 50MP f1.8 camera on the back, which might seem like a downgrade from the 108MP camera on the Redmi 13 5G. There’s also no macro camera this time around, although that’s probably for the best, as the quality was really not worth talking about last time. On the front, the Redmi 15 5G has an 8MP f2.0 camera, which once again might seem like a downgrade compared to the 13MP camera on the Redmi 13 5G.
The camera app on the phone is rather basic, as you’d expect in this price range. What’s important is that everything is well laid out and easy to use.
In terms of image quality, the single camera usable camera on the back acquits itself well. The colors are mostly good, and although the white balance can be a bit flaky at times, it is usually on target. The exposure is also quite good, and the dynamic range is decent, with the occasional over-exposed highlights.
Main camera
What this camera is not good at is details, as images, even at the 1x mode, are quite soft upon closer inspection, as if they have already been digitally zoomed into once. This is one area where the Redmi 13 5G performed better, and, unfortunately, things have gone backwards in this aspect.
Another thing that the Redmi 13 5G did better was zoom. While neither phone has optical zoom, the Redmi 13 5G can do 3x zoom on the 108MP sensor using a center crop, which produced very good results. In comparison, even the 2x mode on the Redmi 15 5G is soft, which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the 1x images were soft to begin with.
Main camera 2x digital zoom
Moving on to the front camera, the new 8MP unit on the Redmi 15 5G produces okay results, with good detail but lackluster colors.
Selfie camera
Finally, the phone can also record 1080p 30fps video from the rear camera. There is no optical or digital stabilization, so any movement will be completely unfiltered and produce very shaky results. We really don’t think it should be acceptable to produce camera phones with such shaky footage in this day and age, as it effectively renders the videos recorded from the phone unusable.
Conclusion
The new Redmi 15 5G is an improvement over its predecessor in a handful of important ways. The massive battery is a huge step forward and will likely provide class-leading battery life. The ability to charge other devices with it, that too at a reasonable speed, cannot be understated. The phone also has a fresh new design, with a bigger and brighter display, which should appeal to those watching content on the go.
However, the phone leaves room for improvement in other aspects. CPU performance hasn’t improved, not just over the Redmi 13 5G but also the Redmi 12 5G from two years ago, and the GPU performance improvement is still not enough to make the phone viable for gaming. The camera feels like a step back in some ways over the predecessor when it comes to stills, and the videos are still unusable due to a lack of stabilization. The headphone jack has been removed, and you’d sooner spot Bigfoot chilling in your backyard than this phone’s display hitting the claimed 144Hz.
If battery life is a priority and you must have the latest generation product, then the Redmi 15 5G makes sense. Otherwise, you might just be better off picking up the older Redmi 13 5G at a discounted price and pocketing the change.