Hello everyone. In today’s we’ll talk about the Xiaomi 17 and 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max that we just bought. Let’s see what changes this year’s series has after the name change.
The Design
First, let’s look at the Pro version. We bought the white one. The back cover is still made of fiberglass material. In hand, the actual phone feels quite exquisite. And this time, the white is a bright white overall, which matches well with the large black rear screen design on the back.
There’s a detail: the lower half of the rear camera deco actually has a microphone cutout. You need to pay attention to this when buying a case, so you don’t block it. The camera lens still has a protruding design. So, perhaps to protect the lens from being scratched, the official case has an extra raised layer. But this makes it wobble easily like a seesaw when placed on a table.
Inside this small capsule below are the ultra-wide-angle lens, infrared sensor, and ToF sensor. On the right is the flash. The ultra-wide-angle and the flash are placed in the same row. However, this also brings a problem. When holding the phone vertically to shoot, if you switch to the ultra-wide-angle, you can easily get your hand in the shot. It feels a bit like the ultra-wide-angle on the Xiaomi 10 series.
Moreover, if the phone case has a raised circle all around the deco, it will actually block the field of view of the ultra-wide-angle lens. This is why many third-party phone cases are redesigning their molds now. The official case has this part shaved down.
However, I think the design of the back of the standard version this time is a step back compared to the previous generation’s 15. It’s not about the texture or details. The in-hand feel of the 17 is actually quite good; the back cover has an AG glass design. But this kind of deco with four black lens rings has been seen too many times on mid-range and entry-level phones. If you bring in last year’s Xiaomi 15, you even get the illusion that the 15 looks more like the standard version of the 17 series.
Another detailed change is that last year’s 15 had a design I really liked, which was that the aluminum alloy middle frame extended quite far inward, with a perfect R-angle transition. This made a very noticeable improvement to the actual feel in hand.
This year, the 17 and 17 Pro basically didn’t continue this design. They don’t feel as smooth to the touch as the 15. Of course, this might also have something to do with making way for a larger battery in the structure. On the two phones I bought, the power and volume buttons on the middle frame are quite firm. And the entire button is wider, with basically no wobble. Previously, the volume buttons on the 14 and 15 were a bit loose. So this solves a long-standing issue.
That Rear Screen
If we’re talking about the biggest design highlight of the Pro series this time, it’s definitely this rear screen. Back then, the 11 Ultra essentially moved the 1.1-inch small screen from the Mi Band 5 onto it. It could basically only display the time or a logo. For selfies, you couldn’t really see the picture clearly. But the rear screen on the 17 Pro, its quality is very high, supporting 1 to 120Hz LTPO and an Always-On Display. Currently, it has three main functions: clock display, dynamic notifications, and photo/video recording. Some other functions require external accessories.
When used as a preview for rear-camera selfies, has greatly improved usability. For interaction, it’s currently set to double-tap to wake the screen, and swiping right brings up the camera. A long press switches the rear screen’s wallpaper. And the system also has a gesture shooting feature.
Compared to the 11 Ultra, the default theme effects for the rear screen this time are clearly richer and better-looking. Of course, many of the animation effects have been seen before on the external screen of the Mix Flip 2. They all animate after a double-tap, and when idle, they automatically switch to a static display similar to an always-on display. At the same time, the Theme Store has also opened a dedicated section for the back screen. It’s expected that more high-quality themes will be available later.
Additionally, Xiaomi has released a rather interesting phone case, this one. A retro handheld gaming case. After pairing with the phone, the back screen turns into a handheld gaming device. It’s driven by an app called “Entertainment Box,” which contains four classic games. I don’t know if you played them in your childhood.
The Main Display
The fronts of the two phones are almost identical. Compared to the previous generation, they are more decisive, both with large R-angles and four equally narrow bezels. The ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor has also been upgraded.
The front is a flat screen, with its size increased to 6.9 inches, covered by the new generation Dragon Crystal Glass 3.0, which increases drop resistance by 30%. The body also supports IP68 and IP69 waterproofing. So no worries about durability.
The screen material this generation has been upgraded to CSOT’s M10 . Comparing the bezels with the previous generation’s Xiaomi 15, which had the narrowest bezels, you can see with the naked eye that they have become slightly narrower. The resolution is 1.5K, but the overall clarity of this screen is actually quite good.
The Pro Max’s screen is different from the standard and Pro versions; it exclusively features Super Pixel technology, known in the industry as Real RGB, which has much less pixel loss than typical diamond-like arrangements. This screen has seen an epic improvement in its other parameters. The most obvious is the color temperature; it finally doesn’t have a reddish tint.
The peak brightness of this screen over a 25% area has been increased to 3500 nits. Its performance in HDR video scenarios is also excellent. It doesn’t just blindly brighten the entire screen but uses reasonable control. The dimming is still global DC-like dimming, but after enabling Adaptive Refresh Rate Pro in the screen settings, it will switch to 2160Hz high-frequency PWM dimming. If you don’t select it, it uses DC dimming.
Cameras
In terms of the camera, the main difference between the 17 standard version and the Pro version is still in the specs of the main camera. One has the Light Hunter 950L, and the other has the Light Hunter 950. The former’s sensor supports LOFIC technology, which provides better single-frame dynamic range. We also took some simple shots with the camera.
In typical urban night scenes or backlit daytime scenes that use multi-frame synthesis, there’s not much difference at the moment. The more direct difference is in the dynamic range of the video. When shooting a night-time light box, the Pro can restore highlight details better. But the downside is that this advantage currently seems to be effective only in 30fps videos. If you switch to 4K 60fps, it’s basically the same as the standard version.
As for the telephoto, I don’t think you can say one is stronger than the other between this generation’s Pro and standard versions. It’s more about the difference in the default focal length selection. Although the 17 Pro has a periscope lens, the sensor is still the JN5. It’s just that the default focal length is longer, at 120mm. This means that from 5x to 10x, the 17 Pro is clearer, but between 2.6x and 5x, the standard version is clearer. In addition, the standard version’s 10cm minimum focusing distance is more convenient for shooting some macro images.
Compared to the previous generation, the ultra-wide-angle, besides having a smaller field of view, and perhaps due to the smaller sensor size, has slightly regressed in terms of noise and detail at night compared to the 15.
Performance
So, what’s the performance level of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which Xiaomi is debuting?
This generation’s CPU architecture still uses a design of 6 large cores plus 2 super-large cores. The large core frequency has increased from 3.53 GHz to 3.63 GHz, and the super-large core main frequency has increased from 4.32 GHz to 4.61 GHz. The AnTuTu score is 3.7 million. The score increase looks significant, but in reality, under the latest version of AnTuTu, older models have also seen varying score increases.
In Geekbench 6, the CPU single-core score is 3278, and the multi-core is 1038. Compared to the 8 Elite, the single-core performance has improved by about 16.4%, and multi-core by about 17.4%.
The GPU is the Adreno 840, with a large 18MB cache, running the mobile version of 3DMark. After 14 runs, the score improved by about 20%.Looking at it this way, the improvement of the 8 Gen 5 is not as significant as that of the 8 Elite, making it a standard iteration.
In Genshin Impact, with graphics maxed out, running for 30 minutes, the average frame rate with performance dog mode is 60.1 FPS, 1% low is 55.2 FPS. Power consumption is controlled at 3.6W, and the body temperature is 38.5 degrees. Running Honkai: Star Rail for 30 minutes, the average frame rate can still reach 58.7 FPS, and the body temperature is 40.9 degrees.
Battery & Software
As for Xiaomi HyperOS 3, if I say its overall stability and smoothness are better than HyperOS, I guess no one will object now. Moreover, I’m using the Xiaomi 15S Pro. On the 15S Pro, the overall performance has already seen a significant improvement.
And on the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, besides the well-known bold font in the status bar, larger rounded corners for drop-down menu icons, all-new system-level animations, Xiaomi Super Island, one-stop personalized editing, one-step access and circle-to-search for Xiao Ai, and how calling Super Xiao Ai in corresponding scenarios will provide possible operational suggestions for that scenario, etc. You’ve all seen these. Default ad placements and these things have long been gone on Xiaomi flagships, so you don’t need to worry about that.
The battery capacity has increased from the previous generation’s 6100mAh to 7500mAh, an increase of 23%. It can easily last a full day even with heavy outdoor use. Wired charging has been increased from 90W to 100W, while wireless charging remains at 50W. Using the original 100W charger, we measured it took 43 minutes to charge from 1% to full.
The Final Verdict
I think Xiaomi’s use of the “Pro Max” name has made ample preparations to face the iPhone head-on. From the ingenious design of the back screen to the breakthroughs in performance and camera, and the long-lasting battery life, it all proves that Chinese flagships are fully qualified to compete with the iPhone.
