The latest Xiaomi 17 series smartphones have two generations of iPhone’s aesthetic covered, giving you the sleek Apple kind of design with the goodness of Android OS. Where the new Xiaomi 17 looks like the iPhone 16 Pro series, the Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max look like the latest iPhone 17 Pro series, and then some.
But make no mistake. The large camera bump on the new Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max is not a blatant design rip-off of Apple’s. It is a nod to the Xiaomi 11 Ultra, with a twist. It is also a functional display that reminds me of the Mix Flip 2. It definitely achieves the “looks like Apple’s but ain’t the same as Apple’s.”
The second display—which is protected by Dragon Crystal Glass like the front—can serve as a selfie screen, display adorable stickers, change themes to adapt to your OOTD, display notifications, show current navigation status, flight information, and more. You can also copy information you need to have at a glance from the main display and have it displayed on this tiny screen. Oh, you can also play games on it. Xiaomi even launched a controller case to turn the back into a classic handheld console. Nice.
Both the Pro [CH] and Pro Max [CH] feature a triple 50 MP Leica camera setup. Both devices boast a 23 mm equivalent focal length 50 MP high-dynamic-range main snapper, and a 50 MP 102° ultra wide-angle with 5 cm macro, but the Pro Max gets a brand-new 50 MP floating periscope camera with a large 1/2” sensor, supporting 5x optical zoom, 30 cm macro, and OIS. Meanwhile, the Pro sticks to the last-gen 50 MP floating periscope telephoto camera with 20 cm macro. There is also an infrared/ToF sensor on the back in both instances.
The key differences between the Pro and Pro Max are the screen size and type, the battery capacity, and, of course, the physical dimensions and weight. Where the Pro rocks a 6.3” 1.5K “Lower Power Sunlight Display” AMOLED panel with 2,656 x 1,220 pixels, the Pro Max has a larger 6.9” version with 2,608 x 1,200 pixels. The Pro Max not only differs in size and resolution, but the panel itself features a new RGB arrangement, resulting in a Superpixel display. Both have an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120 Hz and a touch sampling rate of up to 300 Hz. Peak brightness (3,500 nits) and color gamut (P3) are identical, as well as the lowest brightness (1 nit). Both displays have DC dimming and the new Xiaomi Dragon Crystal Glass 3.0.
Meanwhile, at the rear, the Pro has a 2.7” 904 x 572 pixels display while the Pro Max has a 2.9” 976 x 596 resolution display. Both secondary displays are AMOLED, support up to 120 Hz refresh rate and up to 120 Hz touch sampling rate, P3 color gamut, 1 nit brightness, 3,500 nits peak brightness, and DC dimming.
In the battery department, the smaller Pro gets a 6,300 mAh battery, and the bigger sibling packs a power bank-sized 7,500 mAh battery. Both support 100 W Xiaomi Hyper wired fast charging as well as 50 W Xiaomi Hyper wireless fast charging—in addition to supporting a range of fast charging standards, and 22.5 W wired/wireless reverse charging.
Size-wise, the smaller Pro is 151.1 mm long, 71.8 mm wide, 8.0 mm thin, and weighs 192 g. The Pro Max, on the other hand, measures 162.9 mm long, 77.6 mm wide, 8.0 mm thin, and tips the scales at 219 g.
The new Pro and Pro Max are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and feature UWB, stereo dual speakers, a high-dynamic 4-mic setup, LPDDR5X memory, UFS 4.1 storage, a 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, USB 3.2 Gen1, Wi-Fi 7, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.4, Dual-Bluetooth, and more.
The Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max have been launched in China, with the former starting at 4,999 yuan [CH] (~701 USD) and the latter starting at 5,999 yuan [CH] (~841 USD). The Pro is offered in 12+256, 12+512, 16+512, and 16+1 TB. The Pro Max has three configurations: 12+512, 16+512, and 16+1 TB..
Images: Xiaomi [CH].
