Xiaomi 17 Review — Insane Battery, Excellent Price

Unboxing

The Xiaomi 17, in which we got the Global version and not the one that’s available originally in China, comes with a USB-A to USB-C cable, a clear protective case, a SIM ejector pin, some documentations, and the phone itself. Unfortunately, there is no charger included in the box but from my understanding, some regions do get a charger so it depends on which market you’re in. The unit we got is the Venture Green colorway, but you do have Black, Ice Blue, and Alpine Pink as options as well.

Walkaround

The design is straightforward, a clean body with aluminum rails and a modest camera bump housing three lenses. It’s IP68-rated for dust and water resistance, with Xiaomi’s custom Shield Glass on the front. Buttons feel tactile, and the stereo speakers are decent for casual listening, though not bass-heavy but that’s to be expected from most smartphone speakers.

The Xiaomi 17 is a compact flagship, so it’s on the smaller side of flagships but it still packs quite a punch thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. One might argue that it looks too much like an iPhone but this isn’t the first time for them and Xiaomi isn’t even the worst offender, especially when you take recent smartphone launches into account.

Specifications

Body	Dimensions: 151.1 x 71.8 x 8.1 mm (5.95 x 2.83 x 0.32 in) Weight: 191 g (6.74 oz) Build: Glass front (Dragon Crystal Glass), aluminum frame, glass back SIM: Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM / Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM + eSIM + eSIM (max 2 active) IP Rating: IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min)
Display	Type: LTPO AMOLED, 68B colors, 2160Hz PWM, 120Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR Vivid, HDR10+, 3500 nits peak Size: 6.3 inches (~91.1% screen-to-body ratio) Resolution: 1220 x 2656 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~460 ppi density) Protection: Xiaomi Shield Glass (Global), Dragon Crystal Glass (China), Mohs level 6
Platform	OS: Android 16, HyperOS 3 Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3 nm) CPU: Octa-core (2×4.6 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix L + 6×3.62 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix M) GPU: Adreno 840
Memory	Card slot: No Internal: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM (UFS 4.1)
Main Camera	Triple: 50 MP, f/1.7, 23mm (wide), dual pixel PDAF, OIS 50 MP, f/2.0, 60mm (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 2.6x optical zoom 50 MP, f/2.4, 17mm, 102˚ (ultrawide) Features: Leica lens, Laser AF, color spectrum sensor, Dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR, panorama Video: 8K@30fps HDR, 4K@30/60fps HDR10+ Dolby Vision, 1080p@30/60/120/240/960fps, 720p@1920fps, gyro-EIS
Selfie Camera	Single: 50 MP, f/2.2, 21mm (wide), PDAF Video: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, HDR10+, gyro-EIS
Sound	Speakers: Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos 3.5mm jack: No Audio: 24-bit/192kHz Hi-Res & Hi-Res wireless, Snapdragon Sound
Comms	WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct Bluetooth: 5.4, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, LHDC 5 Positioning: GPS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS, NavIC, GLONASS NFC: Yes Infrared: Yes USB: USB Type-C 3.2, DisplayPort, OTG
Features	Sensors: Ultrasonic under-display fingerprint, accelerometer, proximity, gyro, compass, barometer
Battery	Type: Si/C Li-Ion 6330 mAh (Global) / 7000 mAh (China) Charging: 100W wired PD3.0/QC3+/PPS, 50W wireless, 22.5W reverse wireless/wired
Colors	Black, Venture Green, Alpine Pink, Ice Blue
Price	RM3,399 (256GB) / RM3,799 (512GB)

Performance

Powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with 12GB RAM, the Xiaomi 17 is expected to be a pretty solid performer. In Antutu v11, it’s interesting that its score aligns more with last gen’s Snapdragon 8 Elite devices. When you look at the breakdown of each section, its CPU is the weakest point. At first, I thought it was just a case of it running conservatively for better energy efficiency but after holding the phone after, it does get pretty hot, which suggests that thermal throttling is an issue for it.

Moving on to Geekbench 6, results seem to show a similar pattern as before with the exception of the single core performance being on par with other Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 devices. The Xiaomi 17 does get rather warm by the end of the test but it’s not as hot as the previous test.

On 3DMark, the Xiaomi 17 generally performs better than the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which runs a specially binned version of the same chip. It’s not the strongest performer as the realme GT 8 Pro comfortably holds the crown but since the performance is more on par with last generation’s chip, thermal throttling is certainly a major issue.

Of course, we can’t just hypothesize about its thermals as we need to be 100% certain. The graphs above proves that thermal throttling is a major issue as it throttles practically half the time with a stability rating of 56.3%. You can see how much the performance starts to go down after the first full run of the test, and while it did try to recover for a bit in the middle, it couldn’t go any higher from that point onwards.

Just to get a clearer idea of its 3D capabilities, we did run GPUScore Sacred Path on it, and we can see that it’s only marginally better than a Snapdragon 8 Elite device at best. We do expect that it can still run games pretty well, but be mindful that it will run pretty hot.

Lastly on PCMark’s Work 3.0, it’s rather interesting since it actually performed worse than the POCO F8 Pro. Sure, the score isn’t bad enough that it would make using it as a daily driver a pain…ful experience but it’s an interesting thing to observe.

Given the thermal issues we’ve faced thus far, I expected the Xiaomi 17 to have bad battery life but I was very wrong. In PCMark’s endurance test, it lasted a whopping 18 hours and 7 minutes (1,087 minutes). That’s insanely long and it doesn’t even have the biggest battery capacity around either as it packs a sizable 6,330mAh Silicon Carbon battery. True enough, real world use reflects that for me as I can easily go two full days without a charge unless I’m doing some heavy shooting.

Camera

Leica’s influence is evident. The 50MP main sensor produces sharp, vibrant shots with Leica Vivid or more neutral Leica Authentic modes. Portraits are natural, and low-light performance is solid. The telephoto lens is bright but limited to 2.6x optical zoom, which feels a bit restrictive compared to competitors offering 3 to 5x optical zoom but pictures still come out pretty good up to 10x zoom. Beyond that, it will be heavily dependent on lighting to get a decent shot.

It’s worth noting that despite support for 8K and LOG capture, bitrate options remain limited and the interface isn’t as polished as the iPhone. It may not be ideal for professional creators but if you need something as a backup camera in case your main camera runs out of battery / storage, it’s still a viable option. If there was ever a thing I would want Xiaomi to do for their cameras next, is to make transitioning from one camera to the other more seamless because at the moment, it can be rather jarring.

The Good

Excellent OLED Display

The 6.3-inch LTPO AMOLED panel is one of the brightest and most color-accurate displays in its class. With Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and a peak brightness of 3,500 nits, it remains perfectly visible outdoors and delivers stunning visuals for streaming and gaming. The adaptive refresh rate (1–120Hz) ensures smooth scrolling and efficient battery use.

Excellent Price

If you’re a fan of Xiaomi devices, this shouldn’t be a surprise as they’ve always had an emphasis on strong value for money spent. The Xiaomi 17 is no exception as it’s priced at RM3,399 for the 256GB variant and RM3,799 for the 512GB variant. Sure, I’ve had some complaints about it but the fact is that you get a proper flagship-caliber smartphone for a little above RM3K when most flagships devices would be sitting around the RM4K mark at least.

The Bad

Proprietary Charging Accessories

Although charging speeds are impressive, they require Xiaomi’s HyperCharge adapters and wireless pads. Without them, users are limited to standard USB PD or Qi speeds, reducing the practical benefit of the advertised fast charging. Some regions do get the device bundled together with a charger inside the box, but if you’re aiming for versatility without sacrificing speeds, you will need to bring Xiaomi’s own chargers instead of those multi-port GaN chargers. Credit where credit is due, 100W wired and 50W wireless are insanely fast speeds.

Plain Design

Unlike the Xiaomi 17 Pro or Ultra, the standard model lacks standout design features such as a rear display or bold camera layout. While build quality is excellent, the design feels safe and less distinctive compared to rivals. Some may feel that the design is still attractive, which is fine as taste is subjective but its siblings are certainly more eye-catching.

Verdict

The Xiaomi 17 is a ruthlessly competent flagship with a very attractive pricetag. It excels in display quality and battery endurance while offering reliable camera output. However, its design is plain, the ultrawide camera could be better, and its true potential is being held back by thermal issues. Aside from battery life, it doesn’t exactly excel greatly in one specific area, but it does almost everything well. It’s ideal for those looking for compact flagships with excellent value and have grown weary of competing brands launching new devices with incremental upgrades.

At the end of our Xiaomi 17 review, I award this flagship smartphone with our Silver Pokdeward.

Big thanks to Xiaomi Malaysia for sending us this smartphone for the purpose of this review.