Xiaomi 17 Ultra review: Peak performance, sharp shooter

Let’s start with a question. If you need a flagship, a no-holds-barred phone, and are willing to spend north of Rs 1 lakh on it, which one will you buy? For a lot of people, the obvious answer would be the top iPhone Pro. And for good reasons. But at the same time, a lot of people might wonder: is that it? Is the iPhone Pro the best they can get? And if you are one of these people, let me introduce you to the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. A flagship phone with capital F, the 17 Ultra has been made by Xiaomi to be the top dog in the world of smartphones. It is supposed to tower over others, and in many ways it does. In my opinion it still doesn’t dethrone the mighty iPhone Pro. But the reasons for that are more to do with the desires of the users, and the value that Apple offers. And not with the capabilities of the phones.

Because in terms of capabilities, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra hits all the right notes. In fact, in some ways — for example, photography performance — it surpasses other phones available in India. This is a loaded phone, with top hardware and all the features you can think of in a phone.

Only the best hardware

Flagship phones nowadays, particularly for China-based companies, are also a way to flex. Consequently they tend to come with the best hardware one can find in phones. This is true for the Xiaomi 17 Ultra as well, which is arguably the most-loaded phone you can buy in India at the moment. It is priced at Rs 1,39,900 but it is packed to gills.

It is also built fantastically well. The phone is available in two colours — black and white. You can see the white one here in this review, although the colour is slightly warm and creamy. The frame is made of aluminium and the phone with its rounded edges has a shape very similar to the iPhone Max. The build quality of the phone is top class. The frame, with its brushed finish, feels great in hands while the back glass has a soft velvety finish, which has become the go-to option for most of the high-end devices. The round nub-like volume buttons are classy, and the power button is firm, indicating top craftsmanship.

The round camera module is oversized, necessary because of the powerful camera hardware inside it. The module gives the phone a bit chunkier look, but also a bit of personality. There are three cameras inside, and one faux lens pattern to give it symmetry. Without a case, the phone looks top heavy. But once you put it in a case, which most people will eventually do, the camera module gives the Xiaomi 17 Ultra a distinct look.

In terms of its design, the 17 Ultra has all the right things going for it. The phone has a design that offers IP68-level protection against dust and water. On the front, the bezels are extremely thin and the punch-hole for the selfie camera is barely there.

In hand the phone feels premium and expensive. Although, also fairly large. This is a phone at the same level as the iPhone Max in terms of size and weight. Its 6.9-inch screen is LARGE. And its weight of around 218 grams can be felt when you carry it. This is definitely a two-hand phone, like other large phones in the market. This wouldn’t be a bother for most consumers, but do keep it in mind if you have smaller hands.

Using the Xiaomi 17 Ultra

Given the powerful core hardware, and quality components, the experience of using the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is near flawlessly. Near but not entirely.

Xiaomi sells one variant of the 17 Ultra — it has 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. Both are quite generous and sufficient. Of course, the RAM type is LPDDR5X and the storage supports UFS 4.1. In other words, speed all around. At the centre of the hardware sits the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which is the absolute best you can get in Android phones at the moment. The powerful hardware shows the power it packs in benchmarks. For example, here are the scores from GeekBench 6, Antutu and PCMark for Android. These are excellent scores.

Of course, it is not just about the benchmarks. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra performs extremely well when you are using it, and given the kind of hardware it has, one should not expect anything less. It is a fast phone, easily handling everything and the kitchen sink that one can throw at it. Whether gaming, or just plain scrolling through multiple apps, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra works without any hiccups.

One part that concerned me somewhat as I used it was its internal temperature. Powerful phones tend to run hot. That is given due to their top-end chipsets that sip more battery juice, and their brighter screens. All of that means more heat. While the 17 Ultra has an elaborate cooling mechanism, it still, in my opinion, ran slightly hotter than what I would be comfortable with when playing games. Though, when I say my comfort level, my baseline is the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which runs surprisingly cool considering its hardware. The 17 Ultra, I would say, runs as hot as the iPhone 16 Pro Max. In other words, slightly on the hotter side, particularly in the beginning of Delhi summer that can be brutal on gadgets and electronics.

Yet overall, the 17 Ultra is a phone that is a delight to use because of its speed. This speed is visible in everything, including in its network performance as well as its ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. The display too is speedy with its refresh rate of 120Hz. The phone supports variable refresh rate, with display capable of going down to 1Hz. This helps in preserving battery life. The quality of its 6.9-inch screen is also right up there among the best. The AMOLED panel is punchy and extremely sharp with its 1200P resolution. Wet touch is supported on the screen and colours support DCI-P3 standards, which means subtly more vibrant images. The brightness is also top class. I used the device for nearly two weeks and never, even under the direct Delhi sun, I found the brightness lacking in any way.

Two more aspects of the performance — battery and speakers — also offer the experience that befits a Rs 1.3 lakh phone. The speakers are extremely loud and meaty. Whether you are using them for voice calls, or to watch the latest trailers, they put in fine performance.

The phone has a 6000mAh battery. This is on the lower side, considering what some other phones are packing nowadays. But I believe even though this is a large phone, internally a lot of space is taken by its exhaustive camera hardware, leaving less room for the battery. Irrespective the 6000mAh in the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is good enough for a day and then some more. The phone supports 90W fast charging, and the charger is bundled. This is not a two-day phone, so you will have to charge it at least once a day. Or, twice every three days. But, for a flagship phone, this is an extremely good battery life. To put a number to the battery performance of the phone, I ran the PC Mark battery test on it. Here is the score:

Like other Xiaomi phones, the 17 Ultra too uses HyperOS 3. This is software based on Android 16, but has parts of it completely modified. For example, the user interface has been modified to resemble iOS. The top drawer menu is hardly distinguishable from iOS while the icons are flat-out copies. This is not a bad thing as far as user experience is concerned, although as a reviewer I do feel that companies should be pushing boundaries instead of copying each other.

As far as the actual user experience is concerned, the HyperOS 3 works as a mix of Android and iOS. Rather it has the best of both, except a handful of things — such as seamless software updates or core Apple ecosystem features that only iOS can offer. Irrespective, I feel that users will find the HyperOS 3 in the Xiaomi 17 Ultra more than good enough for their needs. It is also well polished, and is peppered with a number of AI features that are part of what Xiaomi calls HyperAI. Depending on your needs, your mileage will vary for these AI features. Some features you will find useful, some you won’t.

The Leica cameras do wonders

Finally, the part that makes or breaks the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. Of late, I have come across a meme on social media about the A-10 Warthog, a fighter plane that Americans use. The meme is that while other fighter jets have guns built for their use, the A-10 Warthog is a gun that has a jet built around it. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra is, in the similar manner, a camera that can also function as a smartphone. At least, that is the impression you get when you look at its camera hardware.

The 17 Ultra uses hardware developed in partnership with legendary camera maker Leica. And it proudly flaunts the association with a Leica sticker pasted engraved on the left of the camera module. As for the actual hardware, here is what the phone has:

— A 50MP main camera powered by a 1-inch sensor. The big deal here, literally, is the 1-inch sensor.

— A 200MP telephoto camera with variable zoom lens. In fact, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is the first phone to use variable zoom through one lens. Its zoom range is 75-100mm through the optical zoom, and 8X if you count the optical-quality zoom.

— A 50MP ultra-wide camera with class-leading effective focal length of 14mm.

— And a 50MP front camera.

— Support for up to 8K video recording at 30FPS. High speed video recording in up to 120FPS is supported in 4K resolution, whereas for slow-mo you can record footage in up to 1920 frames at a resolution of 1080P.

By default the camera system clicks images that use pixel binding to achieve better dynamic range and detail. Hence 12MP photos. Although you can force it to use full resolution, including 200 megapixels, if you desire so. Personally, I feel the default is better unless you have some very specific needs that demand more details at the cost of everything else.

The camera app, meanwhile, too has gotten the Leica treatment. It has a number of unique features, including Leica colour science as well as Pro mode, which can be particularly handy when you are trying to click photos with better fidelity in challenging light.

Using the Xiaomi 17 Ultra to shoot images is a joy. Irrespective of the lighting conditions, the phone is brilliant at clicking photos. It shoots images that have a tremendous amount of details and colours that are extremely vibrant but never look gaudy. The different camera modes, including Portrait, are done extremely well. Similarly, various modes — including AI ones like Supermoon (see image samples) — have been implemented very well.

The front camera too is excellent, and the video recording from both the front and rear cameras is top grade. On video I would still give a bit of an edge to the likes of the iPhone Pro, but for the images the Xiaomi 17 Ultra reigns supreme. To see what I mean, check out the image samples below.

Xiaomi 17 Ultra 18 image samples

Xiaomi pitches the 17 Ultra as a device that can truly replace your camera, at least for day-to-day shooting and for street shooting. To bolster its pitch, the company sells a photography kit with the phone. This costs extra — Rs 19,999 — but in return you get a battery grip that also adds external camera buttons to the phone. Depending on whether you intend to replace a camera with the Xiaomi 17 Ultra or not, you will find value — or not — in it.

Personally, I do some photography from time to time. But most of this photography is wildlife photography with a fairly large and heavy setup of Nikon Z8 and 180-600mm lens. For someone like me, who would not mind carrying an additional smaller camera for wide shots, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra could be the perfect companion to my photography excursions. It is that good.

Should you buy the Xiaomi 17 Ultra?

I believe the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is a marquee device. That is because almost all Android phones north of Rs 1 lakh are marquee phones due to the challenge from the iPhone Pro. On the whole, the iPhones at this price range are just too good in terms of what they offer to consumers. They are generalist phones, doing everything in a way that makes most sense for most consumers.

Having said that, it is important to acknowledge that there is a world beyond iPhones. And in this world, at least for now and in India, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is the best phone to buy. It offers a remarkably polished user experience. And, along with the Pixel 10 Pro, it comes with arguably the best set of cameras you can currently get in the world of Android. But unlike the Pixel 10 Pro, it also offers superlative hardware.

Overall, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is the flagship Android phone to buy in India. It offers everything you may want in a phone, and it does so at a price that is fairly aggressive and reasonable compared to a few other flagship Android phones out there.

– Ends