Hot off the heels of the announcement of Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 flagship smartphone chipset come the first devices to use it. But a quick glance at the naming scheme and you can see from where these premium Android phones draw inspiration.
Xiaomi has announced the Xiaomi 17, Xiaomi 17 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max for the Chinese market – and the devices even closely resemble Apple’s latest iPhone line up in size and weight.
Xiaomi has even admitted publicly that it skipped a 16 series phone this year so it could succeed the 15 line up with the 17 to match the current iPhone generation’s number.
To confuse matters further, these phones were launched in China just one day after the Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro were unveiled in Munich. If the 17 series comes to Europe though, it probably won’t be until next year.
One thing that makes the Xiaomi 17 Pro and Pro Max stand out from any of its rivals is the display on the back of both devices, nestled inside the equivalent camera bar part that Apple called the “plateau” in its marketing for its 17 Pro.
The screen on the Xiaomi phones acts as a camera viewfinder for selfies, controls for apps such as Spotify and to access widgets. Xiaomi even sells an official case accessory that has physical buttons and turns the phones into a Game Boy-like games console.
As well as the new Qualcomm processor, the handsets get top specs such as IP69 dust and water resistance, 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch OLED main screens and enormous batteries at 6,300mAh for the Pro and a whopping 7,500mAh in the Pro Max. They can charge at 100W wired and 50W wirelessly.
Camerawise, you get three 50MP lenses on the back, front by an f/1.67 main with f/2.4 ultrawide. Though both have 5x optical zoom lenses, the Pro Max has a slightly larger sensor, giving it the likely imaging edge. Even the selfie cameras are 50MP.
If you don’t like the idea of a second screen eating up your (admittedly large) battery, a regular Xiaomi 17 was also announced. It has a 7,000mAh battery though, which is more than the 17 Pro, so might end up being a true battery winner given it only has the one 6.3-inch OLED screen.
Its cameras are also triple 50MP lenses, but with lesser specs than the Pro models, as you might expect. Either way, you won’t be able to get hold of any of these Android devices unless you live in China.
The Xiaomi 17, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max go on sale on September 27, for ¥4,499, ¥4,999 and ¥5,999 respectively, which is about £470, £525 and £630 respectively. If the phones ever come to the UK, expect prices in GBP to be much higher than that.