Barely a week after Apple unveiled its iPhone 17 Pro, the folks at Xiaomi has started teasing its new Xiaomi 17 flagship smartphone series. Not only it has skipped a number from Xiaomi 15, the new Xiaomi 17 Pro Max flagship also gets a new “plateau”-ish camera bump that functions as a secondary display.
For now, the Chinese smartphone maker has confirmed three models – the Xiaomi 17, Xiaomi 17 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. These smartphones are said to be the world’s first to run on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
The Xiaomi 17 devices are expected to launch later this month in mainland China.
According to Xiaomi’s President Lu Weibing, the Xiaomi 17 marks a new milestone in Xiaomi’s 5-year premium strategy and it marks a major shift with generational upgrade across the lineup.
The base Xiaomi 17 is described as the most powerful “standard” flagship ever with comprehensive upgrade without any price increase. Meanwhile, the Xiaomi 17 Pro is positioned as the most sophisticated compact imaging flagship, while the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is set to be the most powerful flagship in the industry.
Xiaomi acknowledged that they have set the iPhone as their main benchmark for its premium mobile strategy. While the iPhone 17 would definitely be successful, Xiaomi says they remain confident to compete directly with Cupertino on the same generation and segment.
Based on the leaked image that was posted on Xiaomi’s official Weibo page for a short while, the new purported Xiaomi 17 Pro Max would feature a triple-camera setup. The main design highlight is the raised “bump” which houses a fairly large Flip phone-like “edge to edge” display, while the two main cameras (presumably main and telephoto) protrudes out with raised rings.
The third camera is flush with the body along with the LED flash and LEICA branding.
It is worth highlighting that this isn’t the first time Xiaomi has fitted a screen to the back of its flagship phone. On the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, they fitted a 1.1″ AMOLED always-on display (from Mi Band 5) next to the camera which can be used to frame your shot for selfies or to display notification.
The Mi 11 Ultra was officially sold in Malaysia for RM4,299 with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage.
So far there are no details if the Xiaomi 17 will be coming to Malaysia this year.
For global markets, Xiaomi is launching its new Xiaomi 15T and Xiaomi 15T Pro on 24th September 2025 in Munich, Germany.
