- RATING
The Xiaomi 17T smartphone has a style all its own that's backed with an impressive suite of features and an excellent camera system. It is a value proposition for customers looking for flagship performance at a more affordable price.
Xiaomi is making an impression on Australian smartphone customers on the strength of devices like the 17T which can hold its own among flagship devices that cost hundreds of dollars more.
Australian customers have been admiring the brand from afar for a while but now Xiaomi products are available directly and giving users another option to consider outside of Apple and Samsung.
DESIGN
The Xiaomi 17T has flat edges and rounded corners and offers solid build quality.
The device is 8.17mm thick and weighs in at 200g so it’s relatively compact while still offering a decent-sized screen.
On the back is a square camera island which doesn’t protrude too much from the rear panel.
Customers who don’t like to put a case on their device will love the Xiaomi 17T because it is finished in some bold colours – violet, blue and black – with a coating that is remarkably resistant to fingerprints.
But there is a soft silicone case included in the box for those who want added protection.
DISPLAY
The Xiaomi 17T has a 6.59-inch 120Hz variable refresh rate display with ultra-thin bezels and a resolution of 2756 x 1268.
The screen can display 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and offers up to 350 nits of peak brightness.
It also has TUV Rhineland certification. In fact it has the industry’s first quadruple TUV Rheinland Eye Care certification for low blue light, flicker-free, circadian friendly, and intelligent eye care.
PERFORMANCE
The Xiaomi 17T is powered by the Dimensity 8500 Ultra 4nm processor which has a high-performance CPU architecture and 8-core GPU.
It also has 12GB RAM and is available in 256GB and 512GB memory variants.
For our review we found the Xiaomi 17T offered a slick and smooth performance across the board whether we were multitasking, viewing content or playing games.
And if things do heat up, there is the Xiaomi 3D Ice Loop Cooling System, which can rapidly dissipate any heat from the chip.
It was easily able to handle other on-device tasks like video and photo editing.
The device is running the Hyper OS 3 operating system which provided a clean interface above Android 16.
What we liked about it, apart from its minimal look and feel, was the lack of excessive additional apps and other bloatware.
One part of the interface we enjoyed was the Xiaomi Hyper Island which was interestingly similar to Apple’s Dynamic Island on the iPhone.
The basics were pretty much the same, where you can see at a glance in the status bar live notifications, progress, interactions and media.
We also enjoyed Xiaomi HyperConnect, which allowed us to share content from the device to other Android and Apple devices.
Naturally the Xiaomi 17T has AI on board in the form of Gemini Live and Veo 3 to create videos and the good news is Gemini works across apps including the native Xiaomi apps.
CAMERA
One of the best features of the Xiaomi 17t is the Leica triple camera system which has a 23mm main camera (50MP), 115 mm periscope telephoto (50MP) and the 15mm ultra-wide camera (12MP).
And on the front is a 32MP selfie camera.
Xiaomi’s partnership with Leica is a smart one and lends itself to greater credibility among customers who take smartphone photography more seriously than regular users.
This camera system brings a lot to the table for a mid-range phone and offers users impressive flexibility to come up with some remarkable results.
Colour Accuracy is a signature Leica feature and that’s exactly what you get with the Xiaomi 17T.
But what really took our breath away was the amazing zoom capabilities.
The device offers up to 10x lossless optical grade zoom thanks to the onboard Leica periscope lens and 120x AI Ultra Zoom.
We put it to the test on a recent trip to London, where we were able to zoom in on the hands of Big Ben from the other side of the Thames.
What was remarkable was that not just the actual zoom closeness itself but also the quality we were able to achieve even at those lengths.
But naturally photos at all distances looked spectacular and even shots in low light turned out better than we expected.
Users can also access portrait styles, which offer improved focus on faces while producing a stunning bokeh effect.
And of course you can use AI to enhance and beautify images, expand images and erase unwanted objects.
On the video side the device can shoot 4K at up to 60fps.
BATTERY
Another strength of the device is its 6500mAh silicon carbon battery which provided long-lasting performance that got us through a day and a half of use with the Xiaomi 17T as our daily driver.
And when it’s time to charge, it supports 67W HyperCharge, which can get you back to 100% in less than an hour.
But one disappointment is the absence of wireless charging.
The Xiaomi 17T smartphone is available now and is priced at $799 (256GB) and $999 (512GB).
VERDICT
The Xiaomi 17T smartphone has a style all its own that’s backed with an impressive suite of features and an excellent camera system. It is a value proposition for customers looking for flagship performance at a more affordable price.
