As October draws to a close, the mobile phone market once again enters the season of annual flagship new product launches. Amid this wave of excitement, the Xiaomi 15 series has undoubtedly become the focus of widespread attention from consumers and the media.

Recently, although Xiaomi has not yet made any official announcements, the topic of "Xiaomi 15" has frequently climbed the Weibo trending list and has become a regular on this week's trending topics.

First, as the launch event approaches, more and more information about the Xiaomi 15 is becoming clear. The Xiaomi 15 series has undergone a significant upgrade in its imaging system, equipped with a brand-new compact Leica optical system, providing users with an even more outstanding photography experience.

Specifically, in terms of imaging technology, the Xiaomi 15 series integrates the advanced AISP 2.0 large-model computational photography platform, which increases the computational speed of the AI large-model algorithm by 82%. This means that whether in daily shooting or complex scenarios, the Xiaomi 15 series can quickly capture and present stunning image effects. Officially, this technology ensures that complex scenes can be instantly conveyed, allowing users to capture the best moments at the instant they press the shutter button.

In addition, the flagship mobile phone market has once again seen fierce competition in screen bezel design this year, with the latest Xiaomi 15 series even surpassing the iPhone 16 Pro in this regard.

It is reported that the Xiaomi 15 series has made significant breakthroughs in bezel design. Last year, the Xiaomi 14 already achieved a narrow bezel design of 1.61mm on three sides and 1.71mm on the chin. This year, the Xiaomi 15 goes further, narrowing all four sides (top, bottom, left, and right) to 1.38mm, a figure that even surpasses the bezel width of the iPhone 16 Pro.

Specifically, the bezel measurements for the iPhone 16 series are as follows: The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus have 2.275mm bezels on both the top/bottom and left/right sides; the iPhone 16 Pro has 1.44mm bezels on the top/bottom and 1.41mm on the left/right, which are not physically equal on all four sides, with the top/bottom bezels being 0.03mm narrower than the left/right bezels; and the iPhone 16 Pro Max has 1.36mm bezels on both the top/bottom and left/right sides, which is close to that of the Xiaomi 15 but with the added difficulty of controlling bezels on a larger screen size.

Furthermore, the core configuration of the Xiaomi 15 series is undoubtedly its biggest highlight, equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Edition processor based on TSMC's 3nm process, featuring two super cores and six large cores.

According to tests, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Edition's Geekbench 6 multi-core score can exceed 10,000, with a single-core score of around 3,200, demonstrating robust performance.

Moreover, this processor matches the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro Max in single-core performance but significantly leads in multi-core performance, making it highly anticipated.

Speaking of this year's Snapdragon flagship chips, they can be described as a complete overhaul from the inside out.

The external novelty lies in the naming, which will no longer follow the iterative naming convention of "Snapdragon 8 Gen 4" and is expected to be renamed "Snapdragon 8 Elite," with the Chinese name being "Snapdragon 8 Ultimate Edition ."

If the new chip is indeed named "Elite," it will mark Qualcomm's third adjustment to its naming specifications, and I'm sure everyone remembers the previous two iterations quite vividly: Snapdragon 888, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and so on.

The internal novelty lies in the architecture, as Qualcomm has reintroduced self-developed cores to the CPU portion of its Snapdragon chips after several years.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite is built on TSMC's 3nm process and adopts a "2+6" design, consisting of two 4.32GHz Phoenix L cores and six 3.53GHz Phoenix M cores.

Among them, the two super cores each have 192KB of L1 cache and share 12MB of large L2 cache, while the six large cores have 128KB of L1 cache each and share 12MB of L2 cache.

Simultaneously, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Edition will support LPDDR5X memory with a speed of up to 10.7Gbps.

Compared to the previous-generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, based on GeekBench test results, the CPU single-core performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Edition has improved by 45%, and the multi-core performance has also increased by 45%.

In terms of GPU, the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Edition platform is equipped with the latest Adreno 830 GPU, which offers a 40% performance improvement over its predecessor while also reducing power consumption by 40%. Moreover, in terms of ray tracing performance, which is crucial in gaming scenarios, the Adreno 830 GPU also achieves a 35% performance boost.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that the Xiaomi 15 series will be the first to adopt ultrasonic fingerprint recognition modules from domestic manufacturer Goodix. Compared to optical fingerprint recognition, ultrasonic fingerprint recognition offers higher recognition rates and a better user experience, especially in wet conditions where it can still function normally. This recognition technology does not require lighting up the fingerprint through the screen, making the unlocking process more convenient.

Lastly, it is rumored that the price of the Xiaomi 15 may increase accordingly. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun stated that component costs have risen significantly this year, and there has also been significant investment in research and development. As a result, the Xiaomi 15 indeed needs a price increase. Xiaomi President Lu Weibing also noted that the new flagship processor brings higher performance and costs, while the rising memory prices are also a contributing factor to the price increase.

Although Lu Weibing did not specify the price of the new device, he mentioned a comparison with competitor Vivo's X200, which is equipped with the new Dimensity 9400 chip and has seen a price increase of "over 300 yuan." This suggests that the Xiaomi 15 series may increase in price by 300 yuan, bringing its starting price to 4,299 yuan. Media estimates suggest that the starting price of the Xiaomi 15 may exceed 4,000 yuan.

With the rise in chip prices, the price of the Xiaomi 15 may increase by around 200 yuan. During the launch event for the Xiaomi 14 series, Lei Jun stated that the Xiaomi 14 series would be Xiaomi's last digital flagship phone priced at 3,999 yuan, and that future Xiaomi phones would be better and would no longer be priced at 3,999 yuan.

It is noteworthy that the overall price trend for Android flagship phones has risen this year, with models such as the previously released vivo X200 series already seeing price increases. It is expected that subsequent new models will follow this trend.

According to insiders from upstream supply chains, there are differences in supply chain strategies among various brand manufacturers, especially in terms of processors. Currently, processors can only be manufactured by TSMC, while other components have alternatives or multiple suppliers, leading to corresponding price increases for end products.

By the way, in addition to its configuration, another noteworthy aspect of the Xiaomi 15 series is that it will be the first to ship with the Pengpai OS 2.0. According to Lu Weibing, Xiaomi Group Partner, President, and President of the Mobile Phone Division, he personally supervised the development of Xiaomi Pengpai OS 2.0, leading the team to achieve three key technological innovations: HyperCore, HyperConnect, and HyperAI, which bring a refreshed experience in basic usability, cross-device intelligence, and AI, respectively. Is Xiaomi's biggest "competitor" – its operating system – finally ready for a facelift? Regardless of whether one is a Xiaomi fan or not, everyone is likely eagerly anticipating the actual user experience of the Xiaomi 15 series after its release.

No matter how many competitors there are or what tricks they pull, they cannot steal the spotlight from Xiaomi's launch event. This is not only because Xiaomi always generates its own buzz but also because this launch event is particularly significant. At the event, Xiaomi will not only unveil the new Xiaomi 15 series and Xiaomi Pengpai OS 2.0 but also introduce a host of new products, including the mass-produced Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, Xiaomi Pad 7 series, Xiaomi Watch S4, and Xiaomi Band 9 Pro, making it difficult for the event to go unnoticed.

Alright, let's briefly summarize. This generation of Snapdragon 8 Elite Edition flagship processors boasts significant performance improvements and substantial power consumption optimizations, truly squeezing every last drop of performance out of the chip! It's definitely worth the wait.

So, the Xiaomi 15 series, which will be the first to ship with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Edition, is even more anticipated. However, it's essential to emphasize that the upgrades to the Xiaomi 15 series go far beyond just performance. Here, Mingmei Wuxian teases a little mystery: in terms of imaging and design (especially product quality), the Xiaomi 15 series also has considerable surprises in store. Stay tuned!

If you have anything else to say about the latest Xiaomi 15 exposure, feel free to leave a comment in the comment section and join Mingmei Wuxian in the discussion!