Introduction and specs

For yet another year, Xiaomi is bringing the smaller vanilla Xiaomi 17 flagship alongside the Ultra model globally. The 17 Pro and the 17 Pro Max remain China-exclusive for now.

But for anyone out there looking for a compact, yet powerful smartphone, that’s good news. The Xiaomi 17, like its predecessors, sounds like a solid all-rounder and perhaps one of the best alternatives to the more popular Samsung Galaxy S26, iPhone 17 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro.

Once again, the compact Xiaomi flagship is equipped with the latest top-tier Qualcomm chipset, which in this case is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. It also employs a similarly compact 6.3-inch display, like its predecessor, with a 120Hz refresh rate and support for all the HDR standards. It’s also marketed as a tad brighter than before.

Xiaomi 17 specs at a glance:

• Body: 151.1×71.8×8.1mm, 191g; Glass front (Dragon Crystal Glass), glass back, aluminum frame; IP68 dust-tight and water-resistant (immersible up to 1.5m for 30 min).
• Display: 6.30″ LTPO AMOLED, 68B colors, 2160Hz PWM, 120Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR Vivid, HDR10+, 3500 nits (peak), 1220x2656px resolution, 19.59:9 aspect ratio, 464ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8850-AC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3 nm): Octa-core (2×4.6 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix L + 6×3.62 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix M); Adreno 840.
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM; UFS 4.1.
• OS/Software: Android 16, HyperOS 3.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.7, 23mm, 1/1.31″, 1.2µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 50 MP, f/2.0, 60mm, 1/2.76″, 0.64µm, PDAF (10cm – ∞), OIS, 2.6x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 50 MP, f/2.4, 17mm, 102˚, 1/2.76″, 0.64µm.
• Front camera: 50 MP, f/2.2, 21mm (wide), PDAF.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@30fps (HDR), 4K@30/60fps (HDR10+, 10-bit Dolby Vision HDR, 10-bit LOG), 1080p@30/60/120/240/960fps, 720p@1920fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, HDR10+, gyro-EIS.
• Battery: 6330mAh; 100W wired, PD3.0, QC3+, 100W PPS, 50W wireless, 22.5W reverse wireless, 22.5W reverse wired.
• Connectivity: 5G; Wi-Fi 7; BT 5.4, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, LHDC 5; NFC; Infrared port.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, ultrasonic); stereo speakers (with Dolby Atmos).

The camera hardware remains largely unchanged, with a triple 50MP camera setup on the back, one of which is a dedicated 2.6x telephoto snapper with close focusing distance for excellent macros. Just like the rest of the Xiaomi 17 lineup, the small 17 gets a selfie overhaul as well. The 32MP front-facing camera is finally being replaced with a better 50MP unit with autofocus.

While not much has changed over the previous generation, there’s one big upgrade that international users will appreciate, and that’s the battery. The global unit is now equipped with a massive 6330 mAh battery – it’s not as impressive as the 7,000 mAh of the Chinese model, but it’s a solid upgrade from the 5,240 mAh that last year’s Xiaomi 15 had. That’s very impressive given that the external dimensions are practically unchanged.

Another upgrade is that the wired charging has been bumped to 100W max, and the reverse wireless charging is now as high as 22.5W.

Now let’s take a closer look at what Xiaomi’s compact flagship has to offer.

Unboxing the Xiaomi 17

Since we received the European retail package, it does not come bundled with the specific 100W charger you’d need to get the max charging speed out of the phone, but Xiaomi sells it separately. The USB-C to USB-A cable is still in the box, though.

There’s also a transparent hard case as a bonus.