A lot of people on the low-end budget side of things have been upgrading or looking to upgrade to a 5G device. We have a few offerings under Rs 15,000, with the Redmi 15C 5G being the latest of them.
The device starts at Rs 12,499 for the 4GB RAM base model, but you should go for at least the 6GB RAM model, the one I tried, which is priced at Rs 13,999, while there's also the 8GB variant at Rs 15,499.
The Redmi 15C has a large 6.9-inch HD+ (1600x720) LCD IPS display with up to 120Hz refresh rates. You can watch YouTube videos at the highest 1440p quality, and it looks decent in terms of colours and sharpness. The display is fairly bright for outdoor usage under sunlight, too.
It's an IP64 dust- and water-resistant device with a plastic body, so some splashes of water and dust shouldn't really be a major problem here for you to worry about. Having rounded corners, a slightly curved back and a weight of 211 grams for its display and battery size, the phone isn't too heavy, though it is heavier on the top half than the bottom.
The bezels around the display are not too thick or symmetrical, with the chin bezel standing out.
Running on Android 15-based HyperOS 2 with the November security patch, the phone is equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 chipset (up to 2.4GHz octa-core processor and Mali G57 MC2 GPU), along with 6GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 2.2 internal storage that's expandable up to 1TB using a microSD card.
I saw around 102GB of available storage out of the box. The phone can handle messaging, calling, high-resolution YouTube videos, as well as scrolling in social media apps, fine.
Once things have been set up, the phone is responsive and doesn't really struggle with any of those tasks on a day-to-day basis. Oh, and there's a 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom so you can use your old earphones or plug the phone into a car's audio system over AUX without any dongles required.
There are quite a few third-party apps pre-installed on the phone, though you can uninstall most of them. There's also the Indus Appstore that cannot be uninstalled without going through the ADB route, which isn't suggested for most users.
For basic games, the phone is okay, but don't expect to get the best graphics performance you've ever seen, considering the price tag.
5G network reception on the device is importantly good, with the option to fall back on the second SIM card for data when making calls using the other SIM card.
Both SIM card slots support VoNR. I found 5G to be usable outdoors with a WiFi hotspot in use for data connectivity. I didn't see any major heating issues during my usage. WiFi performance is also decent. Call quality on the phone is really good, with a clear voice on both sides on most occasions.
The back features a dual camera system: a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera and an auxiliary camera. The main camera is okay for daylight shots and for scanning documents, but don't expect too many subject details and contrast here. The front-facing 8MP (f/2.0) camera is decent enough for some selfies in daylight and for video calls outdoors and indoors.
The 6,000mAh battery lasted a day after almost every full charge, with no weird battery drains seen.
You get a 33-watt charger in the box that can charge the device from 1 per cent to full in around 80–90 minutes. The fingerprint scanner on the power/lock key on the right side is reliable and quick for using it every single time conveniently.
All in all, the Redmi 15C comes across as something worth considering as a 5G device that isn't short on battery life or display size and does most of your daily tasks without major glitches.
