Xiaomi is back with the Xiaomi 17, its latest high-performance smartphone. It continues to do exactly what we want from the base series, packing (mostly) the wallop of its Ultra sibling into a pocketable, compact build — all for a much lower price.
The Xiaomi 15 was our favorite small phone from last year, easily ranking among the best flagships we’ve ever tested. Naturally, the bar was set incredibly high for its successor. Does it live up to the legacy? Read on for our full review of the Xiaomi 17.
@revuphilippines Unbox ✨ brilliance ✨ with the Xiaomi 17. Don’t miss preorder promos and local pricing now up on www.revu.com.ph! 🛒 #Xiaomi17 #Xiaomi17Series #XiaomiPhilippines #RevuDotComDotPH @Xiaomi Philippines @monch @Alora Uy Guerrero ♬ original sound – REVU Philippines
Refining a winning formula
Place the Xiaomi 17 next to its predecessor, and you might have to squint to tell them apart. Aside from a redesigned rear camera module, the footprint remains virtually identical. That’s fantastic news.
Being able to keep this handset roughly the same size and weight is quite an engineering miracle when you consider what’s inside. The company somehow managed to slot in a massively upgraded battery, significantly faster internals, and a beefier set of optics on both the front and back. In fact, if you check the official website, the Xiaomi 17 is a tad thinner and lighter than the previous generation, clocking in at just 8.06mm thick and 191 grams.
In the hand, it feels like a premium, dense slab of tech. The metal build and flat sides make it a joy to hold, and it retains its ruggedness with IP68 dust, splash, and water resistance, plus Xiaomi Shield Glass guarding the display.
Where this compact phone really proves its worth is in everyday use. Its smaller size makes it so much easier to whip out for a quick photo. We were supposed to take our unit to Barcelona, Spain — a trip that was unfortunately cancelled due to the conflict in the Middle East.
Instead, we ended up testing it heavily while in transit and riding in moving vehicles back home. And we found that whether you’re firing off quick shots through a car window or gaming on the go, this particular form factor is a huge relief. If you’re cool with a smaller screen, the comfort advantage of a compact phone just keeps adding up the longer you use it day in and day out.
Xiaomi really nailed the aesthetics this year with a great spread of colors. Our review unit arrived in Alpine Pink, featuring a matte, pastel-toned finish that shrugs off fingerprints and smudges. You can also pick it up in Ice Blue, Black, and Venture Green, all rocking that same premium matte texture.
We particularly love that Xiaomi opted to color-match the rear camera module to the body this time, ditching the stark black housing of the past. Not to mention, the combination of the glass camera island and the metal lens rings provides a nice contrast against the matte back panel.
On the audio front, the stereo speakers are loud, punchy, and support Dolby Audio, delivering surprisingly effective spatial sound when streaming on supported platforms like Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime Video.
Those speakers are paired with a stunning LTPO OLED display. As expected, it features an always-on function and a variable refresh rate (VRR) that intelligently scales from 1Hz all the way up to 120Hz to save battery. We paid close attention to this, and we were pleased to see Xiaomi nail the VRR implementation here.
The panel dropped to 1Hz when reading articles or browsing the native Gallery app and X. It seamlessly shifted to 30Hz or 60Hz for YouTube, hit a cinematic 24Hz for Netflix shows and movies, and hovered at 40Hz for Red Dead Redemption on Performance mode, or 30Hz on the Fidelity preset.
This is a big deal. Many manufacturers slap an LTPO panel on their spec sheet but botch the software integration, forcing you to manually engage power-saving modes just to get the screen to drop to 1Hz. Xiaomi’s proper implementation fundamentally extends the device’s stamina, which we’ll cover shortly.
And while it’s technically a simulated 12-bit panel using frame rate control technology, it can reportedly display a staggering 64 billion colors. In practice, the reproduction is so rich and accurate that when we placed it side-by-side with the 8-bit screen of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra — a flagship we’ve also used extensively — the Xiaomi 17 looked noticeably better. That’s a bitter pill for the Korean giant to swallow, considering it manufactures displays of all sizes for a living.
Leica magic in a smaller package
Xiaomi’s partnership with Leica continues to bear fruit; the Xiaomi 17’s rear camera array is phenomenal, headlined by the new 50-megapixel Light Fusion 950 image sensor. Featuring a 1/1.31-inch sensor size and a 2.4μm 4-in-1 Super Pixel format, it’s paired with a Leica Summilux optical lens, complete with an f/1.67 aperture, optical image stabilization or OIS, and a 23mm equivalent focal length.
Backing up the main shooter is a 50-megapixel “floating” telephoto, an optically stabilized Leica lens featuring an f/2.0 aperture and a 60mm equivalent focal length. You also get a 50-megapixel Leica ultra-wide with an f/2.4 aperture at a 17mm equivalent. While that ultra-wide isn’t quite as expansive as the 14mm lens found on the Xiaomi 15, it remains an incredibly effective tool for sweeping landscapes and tight group shots.
The Leica footprint goes well beyond the glass, too. You get the signature Leica Authentic and Vibrant photographic styles, alongside dedicated filters, the classic shutter sound, and the stylized watermark.
Meanwhile, the imaging performance consistently delivers top-tier results. It’s incredibly fun and dynamic to shoot with, giving you an excellent hardware baseline and plenty of creative control. Crucially, Xiaomi’s color tuning is pretty consistent across the board, though the ultra-wide does drift slightly from the primary and telephoto sensors.
Sample shots
For video, the Xiaomi 17 is a powerhouse, capturing sharp 8K footage at 30 frames per second and Dolby Vision 4K at 60 FPS. Enthusiasts will appreciate the LOG mode (4K at 60 FPS), though oddly enough, the brand includes just one preloaded LUT to preview your footage. Hopefully, a future software update will expand this barebones selection.
Mobile photographers will also be thrilled to see the dedicated Pro mode now supports Ultra RAW (URAW) files — a feature previously reserved for the Ultra lineup. URAW captures and merges up to eight RAW photos, drastically reducing noise and improving low-light performance while preserving a high dynamic range. You can output these as JPGs for quick viewing, but we prefer outputting them as DNG files to push the edits in Adobe Lightroom.
Finally, selfie lovers get a nice bump, with the front-facing camera jumping from 32 megapixels on the last generation to a crisp 50-megapixel sensor capable of recording 4K 60 FPS and Dolby Vision 1080p 60 FPS.
Cool under pressure
Calling this device fast feels like an understatement. Powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, our review unit came paired with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of fast UFS 4.1 storage. While a 12GB/256GB configuration exists, we highly recommend springing for the 512GB model.
Since there’s no expandable storage, you’ll want the extra headroom to future-proof your purchase. Modern mobile AAA titles are gargantuan; Genshin Impact and Where Winds Meet will chew up 30GB each, while the latest build of Wuthering Waves demands an eye-watering 55GB.
Navigating the Android 16-based HyperOS 3.0 interface is flawlessly smooth, with zero delays. But frankly, you can get smooth scrolling on most midrange models. The real test is gaming, and the Xiaomi 17 pulls absolutely no punches. It runs every AAA mobile title at the highest graphical settings and frame rates without stutters.
But does it turn into a molten brick during extended sessions? Surprisingly, no. Ours handled grueling PC emulation tests — running titles like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag — without getting too hot to comfortably hold, all without attaching an external fan. As long as the processor draws under 10 watts, you can play for extended periods without baking your hands.
This exceptional thermal management was validated by our synthetic benchmarks. In various 3DMark stress tests, the smartphone never dipped below 70% stability. If you test handsets as often as we do, you know that kind of sustained performance is exceedingly rare for top-shelf hardware.
Of course, all that power means nothing if the device dies by noon. We put the massive 6,330mAh battery backup through the wringer, and the results speak for themselves:
- YouTube: Drained just 3% after one hour of streaming 1080p at 30 FPS (Wi-Fi, 50% brightness).
- Netflix: Drained 3% after one hour streaming The Dinosaurs documentary.
- Gaming (Red Dead Redemption Netflix Edition): Drained 10% after one hour on the Fidelity preset.
- Gaming (GRID Legends): Drained 18% after one hour on the Graphics preset.
Those numbers are mirrored in our synthetic testing. In the grueling PCMark battery-rundown test, the Xiaomi 17 lasted 23 hours and 41 minutes — an impressive feat considering the sheer horsepower inside. In real-world terms, this translates to a phone that easily survives a full day of heavy abuse, with enough juice left over to get you through your morning commute the next day.
When you do need to plug in, the speeds are blistering. Using a 100-watt power brick, we went from 0% to 72% in just 33 minutes, hitting 90% in 51 minutes. However, there is a catch: This model doesn’t ship with a charger in the box. You’ll have to buy a 100-watt brick and a high-speed cable separately. Oh, and once you have them, you’ll need to dive into the Settings app, disable “Smart Charging,” and enable maximum charging speeds to actually see those numbers.
Final thoughts
The Xiaomi 17 isn’t just a great device; it is our new favorite compact phone of the year, full stop. If you can live with the smaller screen, this model makes zero compromises. By bringing together top-notch performance, excellent thermal management, a class-leading display, and a Leica camera system that genuinely rivals the heavyweights, Xiaomi has crafted one of the finest premium smartphones available today.
In the Philippines, the Xiaomi 17 is priced at ₱53,999 (around $902) for the 256GB storage model and ₱55,999 ($936) for the 512GB configuration. If you’re looking for uncompromising performance without the daily hand gymnastics of a supersized flagship, your search ends here.
Xiaomi 17 specs
- 6.3-inch CrystalRes OLED display, 2656 x 1220 resolution, 1-120Hz LTPO refresh rate
- 3nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset
- Adreno 840 GPU
- 12GB LPDDR5X RAM
- 256GB/512GB UFS 4.1 storage
- Triple rear cameras: 50-megapixel Leica main, 50-megapixel Leica floating telephoto, 50-megapixel Leica ultra-wide
- 50-megapixel front camera
- Xiaomi HyperOS 3
- 6,330mAh battery with 100-watt wired and 50-watt wireless charging
- IP68 rating
- Color options: Black, Venture Green, Alpine Pink, Ice Blue
Learn About This Author
