Xiaomi 17 is a small(ish) telephone with an enormous(ish) battery

Xiaomi has simply given a worldwide launch to 2 of its newest flagship telephones, the Xiaomi 17 and 17 Ultra, together with a Leica-branded Leitzphone edition of the Ultra. There’s no signal, nevertheless, of the 17 Pro, which launched in China with a further show mounted subsequent to the rear cameras.

The 17 and 17 Ultra will apparently be out there quickly within the UK, Europe, and choose different markets. The 17 — pitched as a rival to the likes of the iPhone 17 and Samsung Galaxy S26 — will price £899 / €999 (about $1,200), whereas the bigger and extra succesful Ultra begins from £1,299 / €1,499 ($1,750). The limited-edition Leitzphone shall be considerably costlier at £1,699 / €1,999 ($2,300), although it consists of 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, together with a couple of additional equipment.

The 17 is an especially succesful small-ish flagship, with a 6.3-inch OLED show, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and huge 6,330mAh silicon-carbon battery (although sadly smaller than the 7,000mAh model launched in China). I gained’t be writing a full assessment of the 17, however did spend per week utilizing it as my major telephone, and located that the battery cruised previous the full-day mark, although wasn’t fairly sufficient for 2 full days of my typical utilization. That’s much better battery life than you’d discover in equally sized telephones from Apple, Samsung, or Google.

The cameras impress too, with 50-megapixel sensors behind every of the 4 lenses, selfie included. Pound for pound, you gained’t discover many higher digicam techniques in any telephone this measurement.

The Ultra, unsurprisingly, takes issues to a different degree. It’s a lot bigger, with a 6.9-inch show, and weighs a hefty 218g. Despite that, the 6,000mAh is definitely smaller, although I discovered it delivered fairly comparable longevity.

The monumental digicam is, as ever for Xiaomi’s Ultra telephones, the spotlight. There are 50-megapixel sensors for every of the primary, ultrawide, and selfie cameras, with a big 1-inch-type sensor behind the first lens. The periscope telephoto is much more spectacular: 200-megapixel decision, a big 1/1.4-inch sensor, and steady optical zoom from 3.2x to 4.3x, the equal of 75-100mm. Xiaomi isn’t the primary to drag off a real zoom telephone — Sony’s Xperia 1 IV obtained there first in 2022 — however the telephoto digicam right here is much extra succesful than that telephone’s, with pure bokeh and spectacular efficiency even in low gentle.

The digicam capabilities are supported by Xiaomi’s ongoing images associate Leica, but it surely’s the pair’s Leitzphone that actually emphasizes that. Slightly redesigned from the 17 Ultra Leica Edition that was launched in China final December, this consists of Leica branding throughout the {hardware} and software program, a variety of Leica filters and taking pictures kinds, and a rotatable rear digicam ring that can be utilized to manage the zoom. It’s the primary Leica Leitzphone produced by Xiaomi — after a trio of Japan-only Sharp fashions — and comes with further branded equipment, together with a case with a lens cap and a microfiber cleansing material.

Xiaomi has loads of different bulletins alongside the 17 collection telephones at MWC this yr, together with a super-slim magnetic energy financial institution, the Pad 8 and Pad 8 Pro tablets, and a sensible tag that helps each Google and Apple’s tech-tracking networks.

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge