Xiaomi 17 Pro Max review

Competition

The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max deserves to play in the big league, even if it's not Xiaomi's top-end model. But until the Ultra comes around, the Pro Max is topping Xiaomi's portfolio and faces fierce competition from Samsung, Apple, Oppo and vivo.

Let's start with the most obvious competitors, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 17 Pro Max, assuming some of you are considering making the transition from iOS to Android or vice versa.

Xiaomi's Pro Max easily stands out from the crowd with its neat second display, which is no gimmick either, and offers speedier charging, longer battery life and is arguably as good as the S25 Ultra for camera purposes. But it's not enough to overtake the iPhone 17 Pro Max in stills and video.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max • Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra • vivo X300 Pro • Oppo Find X9 Pro

The advantages become fewer when you start digging into the Chinese flagships, especially the ones released in the last couple of months. Both the Oppo Find X9 Pro and the vivo X300 Pro put up a big fight. Despite its outstanding battery life and enormous cell, the 17 Pro Max falls a tad short of the Oppo Find X9 Pro when it comes to endurance. And while both phone makers go all out in the camera department, Xiaomi pulls back with the 17 Pro Max and saves the best for its Ultra model, which might not be a winning strategy.

We are primarily talking about the zoom cameras. The vivo X300 Pro and the Oppo Find X9 Pro offer far superior telephoto cameras and maybe better ultrawide shooters, too. You can even argue that the overall camera experience on both devices seems better compared to the 17 Pro Max.

Verdict

The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is a well-rounded flagship phone without many weak points, if at all. It has the latest and greatest chipset, a high-end display, an excellent build, a huge battery, snappy charging, amazing speakers and dependable camera hardware. The secondary display is a nice touch, as it makes the Pro Max stand out, but, most importantly, it makes the selfie-taking experience with the rear cameras so much more flexible.

Despite being so well-rounded, however, it's hard to recommend the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max if you are looking for an amazing camera phone. The cameras here seem good to the average Joe, but there are objectively better alternatives with more capable hardware right now, and the telephoto camera is a miss. Sadly, the camera department is the only one that keeps the 17 Pro Max from getting an excellent score.

Pros

• Symmetrical and appealing design, great build.
• Solid LTPO OLED display, two at that.
• The secondary display is not a gimmick.
• Outstanding battery life.
• Impressively fast charging, even with a third-party PD charger.
• UWB support.
• Great-sounding loudspeakers

Cons

• China-only phone (for now).
• The camera system is uninspiring, especially the 5x telephoto.
• The phone struggles to utilize the SD 8 Elite Gen 5's full potential.