At a pre-MWC 2026 event, Xiaomi officially launched its latest generation of flagship imaging smartphones—the Xiaomi 17 series—to the global market. The global lineup included the behemoth Xiaomi 17 Ultra, emphasizing an ultimate photography experience, and the "small-screen flagship" Xiaomi 17, offering a better feel in hand. They even brought a special edition Leica Leitz Phone with a unique Coca-Cola logo. However, unsurprisingly, the Xiaomi 17 Pro, which had previously generated buzz in the Chinese market with its secondary rear screen, was absent from the global launch.
Xiaomi Mi 17 Ultra: Squeezing a 1-inch image sensor and an APO lens into a phone
As the absolute star of this global launch event, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra once again raises the bar for smartphone photography.
In terms of camera module, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra features a large 1-inch 5000-megapixel main lens (f/1.67 aperture) and is equipped with LOFIC HDR technology using the new Light Fusion 1050L sensor, which enables it to still exhibit excellent highlight suppression and shadow detail reproduction capabilities in extremely low light conditions.
Most notably, it features a 200-megapixel (1/1.4-inch) telephoto lens. This lens boasts two major technological highlights:
• Lossless continuous optical zoom:Within the commonly used portrait focal length range of 75mm to 100mm (approximately 3 to 4x optical zoom), the lens can achieve true continuous optical zoom through physical movement, avoiding the image quality loss caused by switching lenses and digital cropping in traditional mobile phones.
• APO (Apochromatic) lens design:By focusing red, green, and blue light on the same focal plane, the purple fringing (chromatic aberration) and halo phenomena commonly seen in telephoto shooting are greatly reduced, resulting in sharper and purer telephoto image quality.
Huge battery and thinner body design
Beyond its top-notch camera hardware, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is also an impeccable all-around flagship.
The Xiaomi Mi 17 Ultra features a 6.9-inch flat OLED screen with a variable refresh rate of 1-120Hz and a peak brightness of an astonishing 3500 nits. In terms of design, Xiaomi follows the current mainstream trend of flat, right-angled edges and boasts IP68 dust and water resistance. Despite packing in a massive 6000mAh silicon carbon negative electrode battery and supporting 90W wired and 50W wireless fast charging (requires a dedicated charging dock), the Mi 17 Ultra is only 8.29mm thick, making it the thinnest Ultra model in Xiaomi's history.
Xiaomi Mi 17: A performance monster for small screen lovers
For consumers who prefer to use it with one hand, the standard version of the Xiaomi 17, launched at the same time, is a very attractive "small-sized flagship".
The Xiaomi Mi 17 features a 6.3-inch OLED screen and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. Although the global version's battery capacity has been reduced from 7000mAh in the Chinese version to 6330mAh (still using silicon-carbon anode technology) due to regulations and safety requirements in overseas markets, this battery capacity is still more than enough to outperform the similarly sized iPhone 17 or Galaxy S26 in the 6.3-inch smartphone segment, providing almost a full day of powerful battery life.
In terms of camera, the Xiaomi 17 maintains a high-level configuration of four 5000-megapixel lenses (including a front-facing selfie camera).
Global listing information and pricing
According to Xiaomi's announcement at its pre-MWC 2026 event, the Xiaomi 17 series will be launched in select markets such as the UK and Europe soon (there are currently no plans to launch it in the US market).
• Xiaomi 17: Suggested retail price starts from £899 / €999 (approximately $1200).
• Xiaomi 17 Ultra: Suggested retail price starts from £1299 / €1499 (approximately $1750).
• Leica Leitz Phone Special Edition: Featuring a physical manual zoom ring, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, priced at £1699 / €1999 (approximately $2300).
Many Xiaomi ecosystem products have entered the international market.
In addition to announcing the international launch of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Xiaomi 17, and the Leica Leitz Phone Special Edition, Xiaomi also announced the launch of the Xiaomi Mi Pad 8 series, Xiaomi Electric Scooter 6 Ultra, and Xiaomi Watch 5 at its MWC 2026 pre-show event. Xiaomi also launched the Xiaomi Tag, which was previously available in the Chinese market.
