Xiaomi 17: Release Date, Price & Specs

The Xiaomi 15 series arrived in Europe last year to rave reviews, but, as usual in the world of phones, thoughts and eyes quickly turned to what the next models will bring.

However, in a twist that none of us saw coming, Xiaomi has decided to skip the Xiaomi 16 range entirely, instead bestowing its newly announced set of smartphones with a higher Xiaomi 17 moniker.

And the company is making no secret of its attempts to go head-to-head with Apple, which recently unveiled the iPhone 17 range. Its new high-end phones are even called the Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. With a regular model rounding out the trio and the Ultra confirmed later, all the company is missing is a Xiaomi 17 Air.

Naming conventions aside, the Xiaomi flagships are typically among Tech Advisor’s favourite phones outside of Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy, and there are big shoes to fill. However, the Xiaomi 17 series has been unveiled in China, and there are some exciting upgrades.

Here’s everything we know so far about the Xiaomi 17 phones, including when they might be released in the UK and Europe.

Xiaomi 17: What’s new?

The Xiaomi 17 series represents one of the biggest generational upgrades we’ve seen on flagship phones in a long time. Here are the main upgrades you can look forward to on the Chinese models, though it’s unclear if these will all make their way to the global versions.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 launched just hours before the Xiaomi 17 series, making them the first phones to adopt Qualcomm’s new flagship chipset.

Despite the name, this is a successor to the Snapdragon 8 Elite, boasting significant improvements in performance, power efficiency and AI capabilities.

All three phones in the Xiaomi 17 range are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Alongside options for 12- or 16GB of RAM, you can expect class-leading performance.

Secondary displays (Pro models only)

Undoubtedly, the most interesting change on the Xiaomi 17 series is the new displays on the back. These only apply to Pro models, though, meaning the regular Xiaomi 17 misses out.

On the 17 Pro, it’s a 2.7-inch, 904 x 572 screen, while the 17 Pro Max bumps it up to a 2.9-inch, 596 x 976 panel. Both are AMOLED touchscreens with 120Hz refresh rates.

The most obvious use case is for selfies, but Xiaomi also says they can be used to control music, set timers, see incoming calls and notifications and more. It supports custom wallpapers, and can even be combined with a case to create a handheld console-like experience.

Big batteries

The Xiaomi 17 series phones have some of the biggest batteries on the market.

While the 17 Pro is the smallest of the trio, its 6300mAh cell is still well above average. Meanwhile, the regular 17 and 17 Pro Max boast 7000mAh and 7500mAh batteries, respectively, which are huge. The second screen on the Pro Max could counteract any battery life gains, but we’d still expect to see top-tier stamina.

Battery capacities are sometimes reduced on the global versions of Chinese phones, but let’s hope there aren’t any significant downgrades this time.

You also get 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging across the range, but again, this could be reduced by the time it arrives in Europe.

New displays

The Xiaomi 17’s display is largely unchanged compared to the 15, with a slightly smaller 6.3-inch, 120Hz AMOLED panel with FHD+ resolution.

However, there are bigger differences elsewhere in the lineup. The 17 Pro is much more compact than the 15 Pro, opting for a 6.3-inch panel rather than a 6.83-inch one and reducing the refresh rate from 144Hz to 120Hz.

Meanwhile, the 17 Pro Max jumps from 6.73 inches to 6.9 inches.

Upgraded cameras

Despite big changes elsewhere, the Xiaomi 17 series cameras represent more of an iterative update.

The regular model’s rear lenses are almost identical to its predecessor, with a very slightly smaller f/1.7 aperture on its 50Mp main camera and a narrower 102-degree field of view on the 50Mp ultrawide, but the exact same 50Mp telephoto with 2.6x optical zoom. The selfie camera gets a nice boost from 32Mp to 50Mp, though.

On the Xiaomi 17 Pro, the 50Mp main lens has a slightly smaller aperture, but it and the 50Mp 5x telephoto are almost identical to its predecessor. However, the 12Mp, 120-degree ultrawide has been replaced with a 50Mp, 102-degree one, while the selfie lens has also been upgraded from 32Mp to 50Mp.

However, the biggest upgrades are reserved for the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. While the 50Mp main and 50Mp ultrawide are largely the same (aside from a reduced 102-degree field of view on the ultrawide once again), there are significant changes to the telephoto setup.

The main lens remains at 50Mp, but gets a smaller f/2.4 aperture and boosts optical zoom from 3x to 5x. Meanwhile, it’s now supported by a brand-new 200Mp periscope telephoto and 3D Time of flight (ToF) depth sensor.

Could this allow the 17 Pro Max to replace the Xiaomi 15 Ultra as the best camera phone you can buy? Time will tell.

New software

All three of the Xiaomi 17 phones ship running the company’s HyperOS 3 software out of the box. It’s based on Android 16, but has a very different look and feel to Pixel phones, as you’ll be aware if you’ve used any Xiaomi phones recently.

As Xiaomi itself has documented, the software includes a redesigned home screen, new cinematic lock screens and an upgrade search tool.

However, the company has yet to reveal how long it will support the Xiaomi 17 series with software updates. For context, the Xiaomi 15 series offers four major OS upgrades and six years of security patches.

When will the Xiaomi 17 series be released globally?

Even though the Chinese launch of these phones has been brought forward, there’s still a decent delay at hand for international buyers looking to