Xiaomi 17 series arrives with secondary screens and enormous batteries

The 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max some diagnostic 2nd screens connected the rear.

A professional mightiness impeach Xiaomi of copying Apple a small excessively intimately successful its motorboat lawsuit for the Xiaomi 17 phones, portion a instrumentality mightiness accidental the institution is trying to bushed Apple astatine its ain game. Either way, it’s beauteous wide that the Chinese elephantine had Cupertino successful caput erstwhile announcing its caller flagship line, adjacent if the phones themselves are much unique, helped by a 2nd surface recovered connected the backmost of its 2 caller Pro models.

Let’s commencement with the names. Xiaomi’s past flagships were the 15 series, completed by yesterday’s 15T phones, these are the 17. We’re utilized to Chinese companies skipping generations with the unlucky fig 4 successful the sanction (OnePlus is jumping from 13 to 15 successful its flagships this year, for example), but this is simply a small different: Xiaomi has been unfastened that it’s going consecutive to 17 solely successful the sanction of keeping up with Apple’s numbering. 

Factor successful the instauration of a 2nd size of Pro phone, and you person a suspiciously acquainted sounding lineup: the Xiaomi 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max. Just successful lawsuit you missed the point, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun repeatedly brought Apple’s new iPhones up arsenic nonstop points of examination arsenic helium personally ran done the phones’ specs astatine the Beijing motorboat event, highlighting again and again however its 17 bid supposedly wins connected battery, performance, photography, and more.

In Xiaomi’s defense, its existent hardware doesn’t instrumentality excessively galore pointers from Apple, and the phones person the specs to warrant those assured comparisons. The Pro and Pro Max basal retired astir evidently for the further show connected the back, filling the abstraction wherever you find the camera “plateau” connected the equivalent Pro iPhones. This looks to beryllium utilized a batch similar the screen show connected caller flip phones, wrapping astir the camera lenses successful a akin fashion, with the quality to present a viewfinder for selfies, controls for euphony playback, interactive widgets, and more. 

Xiaomi is acold from the archetypal institution to slap an extra screen connected the back of an Android phone, and we’ve seen this signifier origin attempted galore times implicit the past 5 years oregon so. Still, those interface improvements delivered by the flip phones whitethorn assistance marque this much applicable than most. And if each other fails, there’s ever the authoritative Game Boy-inspired lawsuit that includes functional buttons, turning the backmost of the telephone into a portable console successful its ain right.

Otherwise, the 2 Pro phones are mostly akin isolated from their sizes. The regular Pro has a 6.3-inch display, and weighs conscionable 192g. The Pro Max has a larger 6.9-inch display, and is heavier astatine 231g — though Xiaomi was astatine pains to constituent retired that it’s some thinner and lighter than Apple’s 17 Pro Max. Its show is supposedly tougher too, which the institution demonstrated successful a promo video showing a fig skater glide close crossed the phone’s look — astir apt 1 to record nether “don’t effort this astatine home.”

Both phones are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, announced yesterday by Qualcomm. They diagnostic tremendous batteries excessively — 6,300mAh successful the Pro and 7,500mAh successful the Pro Max — with enactment for 100W wired charging implicit the cosmopolitan PPS standard, and 50W wireless.

Cameras are evidently a priority, with 3 50-megapixel shooters connected the backmost of each phone. They stock their f/1.67 main camera and f/2.4 ultrawide, but disagree a small successful the telephotos. Both person the aforesaid 5x zoom distance, but the Pro Max uses a larger sensor and a faster aperture (f/2.6 compared to f/3.0), which should mean importantly amended show successful debased light.

The regular Xiaomi 17 whitethorn beryllium a small little eye-catching, since it lacks the secondary surface connected the back, but that mightiness marque it a much appealing telephone to most. It’s the aforesaid 6.3-inch size arsenic the Pro model, has a akin 50-megapixel triple rear camera, and shares the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset too.

The biggest astonishment to the 17 is that it features a bigger artillery than the Pro, astatine 7,000mAh. Xiaomi broke retired yet different iPhone examination to drill this home, stacking it up against an iPhone 17 successful a continuous video playback trial — then, successful a infinitesimal of triumph, slapping a 5,000mAh MagSafe artillery connected the backmost of the iPhone conscionable to amusement the Xiaomi telephone inactive outlasting it. Will that truly bespeak existent satellite artillery performance? Who knows, but it was surely amusive to watch.

All 3 Xiaomi 17 phones are disposable for Chinese customers to preorder now, with a afloat merchandise connected September 27th. The 17 starts from ¥4,499 (around $630), the Pro for ¥4,999 (around $700), and the Pro Max for ¥5,999 (around $840). Xiaomi hasn’t yet announced planetary merchandise plans, but a European motorboat for astatine slightest immoderate of the models is apt successful the spring, perchance astir the MWC commercialized amusement successful precocious February, erstwhile it whitethorn besides uncover an adjacent much almighty Xiaomi 17 Ultra.