Xiaomi has been rather busy with its flagship smartphone lineup lately. While the brand’s Malaysian arm is preparing for the local launch of the Xiaomi 17T series, Xiaomi just expanded its main 17 lineup in China with the introduction of the new 17 Max.
Despite the naming, the 17 Max does not outright replace the Xiaomi 17 Ultra at the top of the lineup. You can make the argument that the new device is more of a sidegrade than anything. While the Ultra remains heavily focused on photography, the Max instead shifts its attention towards battery life with its substantially larger 8,000mAh cell. Unfortunately, the new variant also doesn’t come with the secondary rear display found on the Xiaomi 17 Pro.
Preamble aside, the Xiaomi 17 Max features a large 6.9-inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 2,608 x 1,200, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 3,500 nits. According to a machine translator, the phone also uses an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner and Xiaomi’s very own Dragon Crystal Glass 3.0 to protect the display. Meanwhile, the body measures 162.9mm in length and 77.6mm in width and has IP68 and IP69 ingress protection.
Like many flagship smartphones released recently, the Xiaomi 17 Max runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. The brand pairs this chipset with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.1 storage. In terms of OS, as per usual from a Xiaomi device, it runs on HyperOS 3.
Keeping the lights on is the aforementioned 8,000mAh battery, which supports 100W wired, 50W wireless charging and 22.5W reverse wireless charging. According to Xiaomi, the 17 Max’s battery should last over two days of normal use. Not only that, but the brand claims that the cell can retain up to 80% of its charge even after 1,600 charging cycles, which GSMArena says is equivalent to four years of use.
Moving on to the cameras, the Xiaomi 17 Max features a Leica-tuned triple rear camera setup. Headlining the system is a 200MP main shooter utilising Samsung’s HP9 sensor, complete with support for up to 13.5EV dynamic range, an ƒ/1.65 aperture, and OIS. The company pairs this with a 50MP 3x telephoto camera that also supports macro photography, alongside a 50MP ultrawide sensor. On the front, the phone houses a 32MP selfie camera within a punch-hole cutout.
The Xiaomi 17 Max is available in three different colours: white, black, and blue. In China, the phone comes in 12GB + 256GB, 16GB + 256GB, 12GB + 512GB, and 16GB + 512GB. They are priced at CNY4,799 (~RM2,797), CNY5,099 (~RM2,972), CNY5,399 (~RM3,147), and CNY5,799 (~RM3,380), respectively.
Unfortunately, the smartphone has yet to appear in SIRIM’s database, so there is still no indication of whether or when it will arrive in Malaysia. That said, it is worth remembering that these specs are based on the China launch, and details may change when the device makes its way to international markets.
(Source: Xiaomi China, via GSMArena)
