Incredible pictures

Review: Xiaomi 17 Ultra - Superior camera phone

Phenomenal cameras that give you every opportunity. It is the most important feature of the phone that has few real competitors in its category.

Published 2 April 2026 - 10:36

The first thing I do when I get this phone in my hand is take a quick picture. It's just of the coffee cup next to me on the desk, but even with such a general subject, I immediately notice the potential. There are no monumental differences from its predecessor, but even here I sense slightly cleaner colour 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 now launches a new phone, the main news is on the hardware side, which is very unusual today. We get a clearly different design compared to last year and on the camera side, a new camera sensor, continuous zoom, and this when most other competitors mostly reuse last year's hardware and are content with tweaking 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.

The biggest news, however, is found in the sister model, the Leica version of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which also has a physical zoom ring you can turn seamlessly, and in the 17 Pro model, which has an extra screen on the back of the phone to, for example, display app notifications. Neither of these two, however, currently appear to be released on the Swedish market.

Significantly less has happened in the software. This has for a long time emerged as Xiaomi's main weakness. Already when the company's phones first appeared in Sweden in 2018, we noticed their many system customisations and graphical effects. Since then, very little has happened. We have reacted to the fact that the system is messy and needs a review, but when Xiaomi two and a half years ago scrapped its previous interface and replaced it with the current Hyper OS, it was basically just the name that changed. The mess remained.

Sure, functions have been added since 2018, not only their own but of course also those, yes especially those, that Google includes in Android. Notably among the things Xiaomi has added is the ability to collaborate 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. Some AI tools have also been added, but really nothing that places Xiaomi ahead of competitors in any respect. Xiaomi has the same access to Gemini as other Android manufacturers and when I test Xiaomi's AI photo editing, nothing has improved since the feature was introduced over a year ago. I open a picture of a church tower and ask the app to expand the image. The result is, instead of the desired, that the church tower sits on a church, instead that the church tower sits on top of a large sand heap in a desert. Completely unusable, in other words.

Fortunately, the phone still offers benefits in other areas. The big thing is 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 with Leica suggests that they will further develop the experience as they have done with the physical zoom ring on the Leica version of the 17 Ultra.

The cameras in the Xiaomi 17 Ultra consistently deliver a very professional result, from generous zoom to excellent colour reproduction, richness of detail, technically and artistically appealing portraits with sharpness, and simply that near-system camera feeling I am after.

The entire camera app combines the possibility of manual settings with professional results even if you just want to quickly point and shoot.

Besides the camera, Xiaomi does not offer many unique features that make a real difference. The Xiaomi 17 series, like Xiaomi's recent phones, has the new offline communication feature. This means you can use the phone as something of a walkie talkie, for direct voice communication over short distances without relying on wifi or mobile coverage. But given that it only works with other Xiaomi phones with the same technology, it becomes very limited, especially since most of us usually have coverage with wifi and mobile networks.

In terms of basic functions, 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 fine detail and of course fast screen refresh. The battery capacity in 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?

Basically none. When I tested it, I asked myself why Xiaomi even allocated development resources to a technology that in this very limited way makes the phone a bit like a walkie talkie. When we tested between Xiaomi 17 and Xiaomi 17 Ultra, the connection was broken or became so poor that conversation became impossible already when the other party walked around the corner out of sight outdoors or into the next room indoors. My only thought is that Xiaomi might have a plan to expand this to satellite calls as well, and then it would have a completely different potential.

What comes with it?

In the box, you get a transparent plastic case.

Does it have reverse wireless charging?

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

An alternative

No one invests as much as Xiaomi in cameras, so it's hard to see an alternative.

Camera example

Review: Xiaomi 17 - Surprising camera phone

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