Xiaomi 17 review
If you’re shopping for a small, flagship-grade phone by a reliable brand with parts to match, it’s not easy to find one these days. Choices are rather limited, so it’s nice that Xiaomi still has that option via its base Xiaomi 17.
Unlike other brands, where non-Ultra flagship phones tend to receive nerfed components, Xiaomi’s approach is to include everything, but in a smaller, sleeker form.
In general, compact phones already trade screen and battery size in favour of lighter builds with slimmer camera bumps. Xiaomi 17 doesn’t cheap out by including flagship components like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and UFS 4.1 storage.
Just like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Xiaomi has decided that the upgrades to this phone are enough to justify a S$150 price increase, bringing the 512GB version to S$1,249.
Let’s see if it holds up as a top choice for compact phone lovers.
An even smaller display, but still high quality
In a rare move, Xiaomi has made the screen slightly smaller to 6.3 inches. We think that’s smart, since people who buy this phone likely want a small device and are willing to sacrifice larger displays or batteries in favour of compact carry.
The 191g weight is ideal for one-handed use, and it slides perfectly into most pockets without pulling down your pants, unlike most flagship phones. It is, however, about 24g heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S26, its closest 2026 rival.
Smaller, but brighter.
Photo: HWZ
The screen itself was improved with 3,500-nit peak brightness and 2,160Hz PWM dimming. It retains the dynamic 1-120Hz refresh rate, as well as Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support. This is only the start of Xiaomi 17’s consistent approach to being smaller but not worse than others.
The sides kept their slightly curved-edge design, which provides a nice, comfortable hold in the hand.
While the Dolby Atmos-supported stereo speakers on the phone are sufficient for watching content in a pinch, we still ended up preferring a pair of true wireless earbuds for even higher sound quality (and to avoid annoying people if you’re in public).
Topping off its durability and flagship hygiene factors is the IP68 dust and water resistance rating. We expect nothing less, too.
Refined software
The phone runs on Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3, and since we’ve already covered most of the important details in our Xiaomi 17 Ultra review, we’ll briefly go over our thoughts on the software and head straight to the cameras.
