Hands-on with the Xiaomi 17 Ultra: three upgrades I love and two things I wish it had

While Xiaomi has a habit of staggering major phone launches between its native China and the rest of the world, the Xiaomi 17 series has taken a particularly long time to make it across international waters.

Thankfully, that wait is over with the company’s February 28 Barcelona launch event playing host to an abundance of new Xiaomi tech; including tablets, scooters, power banks, AirTag competitors, smartwatches, and of course, phones.

Sadly, the Xiaomi 17 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, with their ‘Dynamic Back Displays’ aren’t releasing internationally (Xiaomi has a habit of keeping the Pro models as China-only). But we still get a lineup of top-notch new flagships to enjoy: the compact 6.3-inch Xiaomi 17 and the brand’s latest camera king: the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which also arrives in a premium form internationally, dubbed the Leica Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi (known as the Xiaomi 17 Ultra Leica Edition in China).

Xiaomi was kind enough to grant me access to the international version of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra ahead of its February event. And considering the Xiaomi 15 Ultra has been my favorite camera phone of the last 12 months, I was excited to find out how the company has improved upon the recipe, one year later.

Xiaomi 17 Ultra specs and price

New variable telephoto camera

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Naturally, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is all about that camera. Xiaomi has a long-standing partnership with famed camera brand Leica, and I’d say it’s put such a collaboration to use more effectively than any other phone maker, historically.

The Ultra’s new lead camera benefits from Xiaomi’s latest and greatest 1-inch Light Fusion 1050L sensor, which features new LOFIC (Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor) HDR tech, helping at-capacity pixels from blowing out the bright parts of a scene, even in dark or high contrast scenarios. This also means a wider 16.5EV stops of dynamic range (the base Xiaomi 17 – without LOFIC – has only a 13.5EV range).

That’s paired with ‘Leica UltraPure optical design,’ which just refers to the seven-element hybrid lens, consisting of one glass element and various optical coatings, to reduce glare, distortion and improve clarity.

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As impressive as that all sounds, however, it was the telephoto camera that I was most curious to test out. When you look at the back of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, compared to its predecessor, the most obvious difference is the loss of the secondary 3x telephoto sensor.

This year, Xiaomi has instead opted for a more complex and technically impressive system, with the Ultra’s sole telephoto camera able to mechanically shift between an equivalent 75mm and 100mm focal length, without relying on sensor cropping; not to mention it boasts a maximum optical zoom range of 17.2x (equivalent to 400mm).

While I’ve used phones with mechanical zoom before – namely Sony’s Xperia 1 IV – it’s the pairing of the huge new 1/1.4-inch 200MP HPE sensor, the first example of an APO Leica lens on a smartphone, and that Xiaomi/Leica image processing that I fell in love with on last year’s 15 Ultra, that gives the 17 Ultra such a huge advantage.

Admittedly, the move between 75mm and 100mm doesn’t feel huge, but it has allowed Xiaomi to slim down this generation of Ultra, without compromising on the camera experience.

Thinnest Ultra ever

One of the big talking points with this year’s Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, is that it’s the thinnest in the series yet, but that’s also true with the new Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

Clocking in at 8.29mm, the 17 Ultra is between 11% and 13% thinner – depending on which Xiaomi 15 Ultra colorway you’re comparing against (it’s also lighter). While smartphone cameras are already massively more convenient and pocketable than conventional mirrorless cameras, even subtle savings on thickness like this go a long way, especially in the case of Xiaomi’s Ultras, which have some of the most prominent camera bumps around.

The big contradiction here is that the 17 Ultra also has significantly better thermal performance than its predecessor. A thinner body, inherently means a smaller thermal envelope, but the 17 Ultra’s Dual-Channel IceLoop cooling system is actually twice as effective as the 15 Ultra’s.

In practice, this means cooler charging, better sustained performance, longer gaming sessions, and more.

Bigger, brighter display

While some might be turned off by the generational drop in resolution, in side-by-side comparisons, the jump from 522 ppi down to 416 ppi isn’t as noticeable as you might think. In exchange, Xiaomi has graced the 17 Ultra with the series biggest and brightest panel yet.

A 6.9-inch 1200 x 2608 LTPO 120Hz AMOLED, with a peak output of 3,500 nits (up from 3,200 nits on the 15 Ultra). And that isn’t a single point peak figure either, but a 25% APL (Average Picture Level) quoted figure. This translates to a beautifully immersive viewing experience, helped by the display’s razor-thin bezels (achieved through the same LIPO manufacturing process used by the iPhone).

Xiaomi’s custom M10 display material – which I first encountered on the respectable Poco F8 Pro – also renders it more efficient, while the brand’s ‘HyperRGB’ pixel layout means you get similar sharpness to a conventional PenTile pixel layout.

Early thoughts

Although the Xiaomi 17 Ultra isn’t an earth-shattering reimagining of the previous few generations in the line, it didn’t need to be. There’s clear evidence of innovation, from that variable telephoto sensor, to the thermal advancements, the slimmed-down design, bigger battery, more immersive display, the list goes on.

While companies like Honor, Oppo, Vivo, Apple, Samsung and Google are all known for producing some of the best camera phones, their generational improvements are typically more predictable than what Xiaomi and Leica have created with the 17 Ultra. And that’s all before you look at its wider feature set.

Do I wish the tactile focus ring control from the Leitzphone version had been made standard across the whole line? Of course. Rather than splintering the Photography Kit into two tiers, should they have just added a shutter button to the phone itself? I would have loved that. But as it is, there’s clearly depth to the Xiaomi 17 Ultra experience yet to be unearthed. Check back for the full review soon.

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