Xiaomi 17 Ultra – Convincing camera phone

The first thing I do when I get this phone in my hand is take a quick picture. It will only be on the coffee cup that is next to me on the desk, but even with such a general motif, I immediately notice the potential. There are no monumental differences compared to the predecessor, but even here I sense slightly cleaner color reproduction and the characteristic, natural depth that cameras with a one-inch sensor provide. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has a new one-inch sensor, improved from the previous model.

When Xiaomi, like now, launches a new phone, the main news is on the hardware side, which is very unusual these days. We get a clearly different design compared to last year, and on the camera side we also get a new camera sensor, a continuous zoom and that when most other competitors mostly reuse last year’s hardware and are content to screw up the software.

In the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and the rest of the series, we also have the latest updates we can expect regarding performance. Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon, the fastest system chip available.

However, we find the very biggest news in the sister model, the Leica version of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which also has a physical zoom ring that you can turn infinitely, and in the 17 Pro model, which has an extra screen on the back of the phone to, for example, show app notifications. Neither of these two, however, currently looks set to be released on the Swedish market.

Considerably less has happened in the software. For a long time this has sailed up as Xiaomi’s main weakness. Already when the company’s phones first appeared in Sweden in 2018, we noticed their many adaptations of the system and graphic effects. Since then very little has happened. We’ve been reacting that the system is messy and needs an overhaul, but when Xiaomi scrapped its then interface two and a half years ago and replaced it with the current Hyper OS, it was pretty much just the name that changed. The mess was still there.

Of course, there have been added functions since 2018, not only our own, but of course also those, yes especially those, that Google includes in Android. Tangible among the things Xiaomi has added is the ability to cooperate between devices so that I can bring up the phone’s screen on a computer and tablet and work and keep track even if the phone is charging in the next room. The addition also has some AI tools, but nothing that really puts Xiaomi ahead of the competition in any respect. Xiaomi has the same access to Gemini as other Android manufacturers, and when I test Xiaomi’s AI image editing, nothing has improved since the feature was introduced over a year ago. I open an image of a church tower and ask the app to expand the image. The result is, instead of the desired, that the church steeple sits on a church, instead that the church steeple sits on top of a large sand pile in a desert. So completely useless.

Fortunately, the phone still offers benefits on other levels. The big thing then are the cameras and the more I use the phones to take pictures and film, the more convinced I become and find it hard to see any real limitations. At the same time, Xiaomi’s work together with Leica points to the fact that they will still develop the experience further, as they did with the physical zoom ring on the Leica version of the 17 Ultra.

The cameras in the Xiaomi 17 Ultra consistently give a very professional result, from generous zoom to excellent color reproduction, richness of detail, technically and artistically pleasing portraits with sharpness and simply that close to system camera feeling I want.

The entire camera app combines in a good way the possibility of manual settings with professional results, even if you quickly just want to aim and press.

Beyond just the camera, Xiaomi doesn’t offer many unique features that make a real difference. The Xiaomi 17 series, just like recent phones from Xiaomi, has the new feature for offline communication. This means that you can use the phone as something of a walkie talkie, i.e. for direct speech communication over short distances without being dependent on Wi-Fi or mobile coverage. But given that it only works with other Xiaomi phones with the same technology in it, it becomes very limited, especially as most of us have Wi-Fi and mobile network coverage most of the time.

In terms of basic features, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra has a large and bright screen, marginally larger even than last year’s model. But above all, it is brighter and you get a nice richness of detail and of course fast screen update. The battery capacity of the phone is 6800 mAh and it has provided acceptable battery life during the test period but not much more than that.

Questions and answers

What benefit do I get from that offline communication?

Like none. As I tested, I wondered why Xiaomi even put development resources into a technology that, in this very limited way, turns the phone into a bit of a walkie talkie. When we tested between Xiaomi 17 and Xiaomi 17 Ultra, the connection was broken or became so bad that conversation becomes impossible already when the other party walks around the corner out of sight outdoors or into the next room indoors. My only thought is that Xiaomi may have a plan to expand this to satellite calls as well and then it will have a completely different potential.

What comes with it?

In the box you get a transparent plastic shell.

Does it have reverse wireless charging?

Yes, so you can charge another mobile phone or, for example, a pair of headphones.

An alternative

No one invests as much as Xiaomi in the cameras, so it’s hard to see any alternative.

Camera example