The full-size cover screens on Xiaomi 17 Pro and Pro Max can do so much more than what we initially expected. Xiaomi talked about all of its possible use cases at the launch. Of course, these are the latest-gen flagship devices, so you get the fundamental upgrades, like the new chip, better cameras, bigger batteries, and so on. We cover everything down below.
Xiaomi 17 Pro Max
Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is the phone that sets the tone for this series and forever replaces the old Xiaomi 15 Pro. This is the bigger version of the two. Xiaomi gave it a 6.9” LTPO 120Hz AMOLED screen that scales the refresh rate all the way down to 1Hz as it saves energy. It’s a 12-bit panel with 3500 nits peak brightness and DC dimming support.
The cover screen is what makes the Xiaomi 17 Pro family special. The bigger sibling comes with a 2.9” display island on the back. They call it the Magic Black Screen, and it gets the same 120Hz LTPO AMOLED treatment, only with a lower 596 x 976p resolution. It can do rear camera selfies, custom wallpapers, music control, countdown timers, notifications, or retro gaming if you buy that optional handheld console case.
You get nothing but the best with Xiaomi’s flagship family. The 17 Pro Max and its sibling use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which scores 20% higher in CPU benchmarks with 35% better efficiency than its parent chip. Qualcomm amped its CPU clock speed to 4.6GHz, and that’s going to have a massive impact on the performance of these flagship newcomers.
Its RAM goes up to 16GB (LPDDR5X) and the storage to 1TB (UFS 4.1). This chip and hardware will heat up under load, which is why Xiaomi gave the Pro Max a 5,533mm² vapor chamber. This is all run by a 7500mAh Si/C battery under the phone’s hood. Its 100W charger, apparently, comes in the box, but it may be a market-specific phenomenon.
Of course, the cameras are just as exciting as ever on the Xiaomi 15 Pro’s successor. Those lenses cropped into the rear screen are 50MP periscope 5x telephoto and 50MP main shooters, all with OIS stability and PD Autofocus. That small lens under the island is your 50MP (102˚) Ultrawide shooter. Then, we have a 50MP selfie cam on the front with 4K 60FPS support. This 17 Pro Max (12/512GB) trim starts at CNY 6000, ~$840, or ~PKR 239,000.
Xiaomi 17 Pro
This is a smaller phone with a smaller rear screen. You can put this newcomer in the compact category. There is a 6.3” LTPO AMOLED on its front made with M10 luminescent material. Flip it over and you’ll see a 2.7” LTPO AMOLED display on the rear camera island. They both have the same 3500 nits brightness and 1-120Hz refresh rates.
It’s a compact phone, so the vapor cooling chamber is also smaller on the 17 Pro. Its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip throws all the heat into a 4,637mm² vapor chamber. Xiaomi didn’t discriminate and gave both phones up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage.
The Chinese brands rarely see the phone dimensions as a hurdle to the cell capacity. Even though the 17 Pro is a compact version, Xiaomi still slaps a 6300mAh battery inside it. This is a high Silicon content power pack, by the way, with 2000 cycles and 100W fast charging support. 50W wireless charging is common on both the Pro and Pro Max.
The camera setups are more or less the same on both phones. Just the telephoto shooter gets a smaller lens opening of f/3.0. Each phone has an IP68 rating, so they are completely waterproof and dust-tight. The base-level storage on the 17 Pro is only 12GB + 256GB, and the starter price is rightfully adjusted to CNY 5,000, ~$700, or ~PKR 200,000.
