Xiaomi has announced the Xiaomi 17 series, which is here to take on the Apple iPhone 17, at least that’s the brand and model Xiaomi says it’s targeting. While the phone isn’t being released in the U.S., and has yet to get a global release outside China, this is an interesting Android phone that should be on your radar.
To make sure you’ve got all the facts, here are five things you need to know about the Xiaomi 17 series.
What about the Xiaomi 16?
Credit: Xiaomi
Eagle-eyed phone fans will notice Xiaomi has jumped right past the Xiaomi 16, but may not know the reason why. The brand launched the Xiaomi 15 series in China at the end of 2024, then globally in early 2025, and it has only last week announced the 15T series, showing it’s still very much a current range.
Xiaomi made no secret about why it decided to ignore a 16 series and power ahead with the Xiaomi 17 series, and it’s all to do with the Apple iPhone 17. Lu Weibing, Xiaomi’s president of smartphones, said on his personal Weibo social networking page:
The success of the iPhone 17 series is evident to everyone, but we remain confident, which is why we are directly competing with the iPhone in the same generation and at the same level.
The company believes by sharing the same model number as the latest Apple iPhone, it will have a better chance of directly competing with it, presumably avoiding anyone looking at a Xiaomi 16 and iPhone 17, and subconsciously deciding that Xiaomi is behind the curve due to number alone.
How many Xiaomi 17 models are there?
There are three Xiaomi 17 series phones, the Xiaomi 17, the Xiaomi 17 Pro, and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, showing Xiaomi is directly copying Apple’s naming structure too. There’s no Xiaomi 17 Ultra yet, but the company has released an Ultra model for the past few years, so we’d expect a camera-focused 17 Ultra to arrive in the future.
All three use the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, making the Xiaomi 17 the first official smartphone with the chipset. The Xiaomi 17 has a 6.3-inch screen with a tiny 1.18mm bezel, three 50-megapixel cameras, and a massive 7,000mAh battery with a starting price of around $630.
The Xiaomi 17 Pro also has a 6.3-inch screen, while the 17 Pro Max has a 6.9-inch screen. They also share a trio of 50MP cameras, but get larger main sensors, periscope telephotos, and other small changes. The Xiaomi 17 Pro starts at around $700, and the 17 Pro Max at around $850.
The Xiaomi 17 Pro has two screens
While the names and numbers relate to the latest Apple phones, the Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max’s design is quite different, because there’s a second screen on the back of the phone. It fills in the space around the camera lenses, which is blank on the iPhone 17 Pro, and works a little like a cover screen on a compact folding phone like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7.
The 17 Pro’s second screen is 2.7-inches and the 17 Pro Max’s is 2.9-inches, and both have a peak brightness of 3,500 nits, meaning you’ll be able to see them in most conditions. Each screen will show notifications, widgets, and work as a viewfinder for taking selfies with the rear camera. This is far from the first time we’ve seen phones with screens on the back, and it’ll be interesting to see how these are received.
The battery could be the killer feature
Credit: Xiaomi
The second screen on the back of the Pro models will get most of the attention, but the batteries inside all the Xiaomi 17 series phones may return the biggest real-world benefits. The Xiaomi 17 has a massive 7,000mAh battery, while the 17 Pro gets a 6,300mAh cell, but the 17 Pro Max beats both with a 7,500mAh battery.
The batteries are the latest evolution of Xiaomi’s Surge Battery technology, which stacks cells inside rather than winding them round, and has a custom management system to control charging efficiency and extend lifespan. Each battery has a 16% silicon content, and all support 100W PPS wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
During the launch event, the Xiaomi 17’s 7,000mAh battery was shown as outlasting the iPhone 17 in a video playback test, even when Apple’s MagSafe battery pack was added to the Apple phone to extend its play time. These big batteries may turn out to be the Xiaomi 17’s killer feature.
You can get an official retro game machine case
Credit: Xiaomi
Xiaomi is known for its excellent camera-style case for its Ultra models, which adds physical controls, a battery pack, and a way to add standard filters over the lenses. For the Xiaomi 17 Pro series, it has introduced the Retro Handheld Gamer Case, which transforms the phone into a Gameboy-style handheld. The twist is, it uses the rear screen and not the front.
The case has four buttons and a D-pad, plus a battery to extend play time. It appears to connect to the phone using Bluetooth, and we’d expect games will have to be specially developed to not only use the rear screen, but also the case’s physical controls.
The Xiaomi 17 series has been announced in China, and although no global plans have been confirmed, we expect to see official dates around February 2026 for Mobile World Congress.
