Xiaomi 17 Ultra hands-on: The cameraphone with a monstrous zoom

Xiaomi’s Ultra series of phones has always been about one thing: top-notch camera performance. The new Xiaomi 17 Ultra, launched ahead of MWC 2026 in Barcelona, ​​once again pushes the boundaries, although it suffers from the same setbacks as its predecessors.

Note that there was no Xiaomi 16 Ultra; The company decided to skip that number and go straight from the Xiaomi 15 and 15 Ultra to the Xiaomi 17 and 17 Ultra, giving the possibility of “catching up” to Apple, whose latest models are also at number seventeen. Despite the changes, the new Xiaomi phones are largely an evolution of last year’s flagship models.

On the phone front, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is a highly capable Android smartphone, with a 6.9-inch, 120Hz OLED display, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, 16GB of RAM, 512/1024GB of storage, and a 6,000mAh battery with support for 90W fast charging and 50W wireless charging. It comes in three colors: black, white, and bright starlit green (Xiaomi sent me a black unit, but the starlit green looks great).

Where the Xiaomi 17 Ultra differs from the regular Xiaomi 17, which also debuted here in Barcelona, ​​is mainly in the screen size (6.9 vs. 6.3 inches) and the camera. The Ultra has a massive, Leica-branded camera array on the back, consisting of a 50-megapixel main camera, a 200-megapixel telephoto camera, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera, along with a 50-megapixel selfie camera on the front.

The 200-megapixel, 75-100mm telephoto camera gives this phone superhuman zoom capabilities with up to 17.2x “optical-level zoom”. I’ve tried it, and was able to take usable photos at 100x zoom or more, at distances far beyond what I could see naked.

mashable light speed

Venture that far, and the AI ​​takes the reins quite tightly, which you’ll notice as the system recreates the letters of the sign you picked up in the distance. Still, if you like the idea of ​​having a camera that can take sharp photos of a flower a hundred yards away, this is the phone to do so.

To add an exclamation point to the phone’s camera capabilities, Xiaomi also sells two optional photography kits that consist of two different cases that turn the phone into something that actually looks like a compact camera, and add a few buttons, visual details, and battery life to the mix. The smaller Xiaomi 17 Ultra photography kit makes more sense to me because the phone still retains somewhat normal dimensions; The two-part Xiaomi 17 Ultra Photography Kit Pro makes it a little large for my liking.

These kits, as nice as they are, highlight this phone’s most glaring flaw: it has too many cameras. It’s significantly heavier, has a smaller battery than the regular Xiaomi 17, and – because of its larger camera bump on the back – it doesn’t support Xiaomi’s wireless, magnetic battery. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a powerful phone, but it’s primarily aimed at photography enthusiasts. Kudos to Xiaomi for making the Ultra lighter than ever, although at 218 grams it’s still not exactly light.

If you want your Xiaomi 17 Ultra to be a little more…Leica, there’s a special edition for you, shown off as a surprise announcement during Xiaomi’s big unveiling in Barcelona. Called the Leica Leitzphone, it has most of the same features as the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, but has a somewhat retro design that calls to mind classic Coca-Cola cameras and some Leica-specific photography modes.

It also has an additional feature: the ring around its camera bump can be rotated to increase or decrease the zoom. I’ve tried it, and it seems to be quite accurate, although you have to be careful not to put your fingers in front of the lens while shooting.

Xiaomi 17 Ultra price in Europe starts at 1,499 euros; No information yet on availability in the US. The Leica Leitzphone is starting at a whopping price of 1,999 euros, and will be available in select markets and locations.

Subject
Mobile World Congress Xiaomi