Xiaomi 17 Pro Max Review: Five Years of High-End Evolution

Just as everyone was anticipating the launch of the “Xiaomi 16” series, Lu Weibing surprised users on Weibo by announcing that the Xiaomi digital lineup had been renamed. The news instantly shot to the top of Weibo’s trending searches, drawing widespread attention.

At first glance, the new naming strategy seems to be aimed squarely at the iPhone, serving as a symbolic milestone in Xiaomi’s five-year journey toward the high-end market.

The device itself is just as eye-catching. Powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Extreme Edition, it delivers the kind of performance that defines flagship cost-effectiveness year after year.

Then there’s the all-new “Wonderful Back Screen.” Unlike traditional designs where the rear panel is merely decorative, Xiaomi has reimagined it as a functional and integrated part of the phone, bringing a fresh twist to the classic candy-bar form factor.

Unsurprisingly, these features have already made the Xiaomi 17 Pro series the center of attention. Fans and tech enthusiasts alike are eagerly awaiting its release.

Still, at the end of the day, no matter how many flashy innovations or marketing hooks are introduced, everything hinges on the product itself. If the quality falls short, hype alone won’t save it—in fact, it could backfire.

Let’s dive in and see just how powerful the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max really is, a device whose very name now stands shoulder to shoulder with the iPhone.

Design and Appearance

The design of the Xiaomi 17 Pro series marks a fresh start, breaking away from the familiar family style seen in recent generations of the digital series.

The unit we received for review came in white, featuring a minimalist aesthetic. Its back panel has a fine matte texture that feels soft and refined in the hand. The Xiaomi logo has also been reimagined—moved from a vertical position in the lower-left corner to a horizontal placement in the center, where it reflects light with a crisp, striking effect when viewed at an angle.

The camera module design is particularly noteworthy on the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. The main camera and periscope telephoto lens are seamlessly integrated with a newly designed rear display on the right side. Beneath this DECO layout sit the ultra-wide lens, infrared sensor, and dual-color flash. On the right, you’ll find the LEICA branding, along with fine-print details: VARIO—SUMMILUX 1:1.67-2.6/17-155 ASPH, denoting a varifocal SUMMILUX lens, aperture range of f/1.67–2.6, focal length coverage from 17mm to 155mm, and an aspherical design to minimize distortion.

The rear screen itself is one of the most distinguishing features of the Xiaomi 17 Pro series. Its bright display instantly sets the phone apart, making it clear you’re looking at Xiaomi’s newest flagship.

On the right side of the frame sit the power button and volume rocker. The power key is placed slightly low—around 8.5 cm from the phone’s bottom edge—which may feel different depending on your grip. The mid-frame continues Xiaomi’s four-curved wraparound design, offering smooth edges and a natural fit in the palm, balancing both comfort and security.

At the top, the design remains clean, similar to the previous generation, with no openings apart from the antennas. The infrared sensor has been relocated to the back. On the bottom, you’ll find the SIM slot, microphone, a 5Gbps USB-C port, and speaker grille.

Though only one grille is visible, the Xiaomi 17 Pro series is equipped with dual speakers. The second earpiece-style speaker is cleverly hidden under the display. This year, it’s been upgraded with a 0.7cc large rear cavity design. Paired with an expanded ring magnetic structure that increases the magnet area by 20%, it boosts loudness by more than 4dB over the previous generation—providing a fuller, more immersive audio experience whether you’re gaming or watching shows.

On the front, Xiaomi introduces a dual-size Pro strategy. The Pro Max variant boasts a large 6.9-inch display, built with Huaxing Optoelectronics’ new M10 luminous material. It’s further protected by Dragon Crystal Glass 3.0, which offers 30% better drop resistance than its predecessor.

The screen itself delivers impressive performance, with a 2608×1200 resolution, 1–120Hz LTPO adaptive refresh rate, full-scene DC dimming, brightness ranging from 1 nit to a blinding 3500 nits peak, and professional-grade color management. It covers the P3 color gamut, ensures consistency across screens, and provides automatic color calibration. Thanks to the new high-efficiency red luminous material, the display consumes less power—even lower than the iPhone at full brightness—without compromising quality.

Additionally, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max introduces an exclusive super-pixel arrangement, ensuring each pixel has independent sub-pixels, solving the PPI shrinkage issue common to traditional OLED screens.

Powering it all is the Xiaomi Surge P3 smart charging chip. Across the series, you get 100W wired fast charging, 50W wireless charging, and a 100W charging kit included right in the box.

Performance

The Xiaomi 17 series debuts with the fifth-generation Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition, manufactured using the advanced 3rd-gen 3nm N3P process. Compared with the previous 3nm process, it delivers up to 10% better power efficiency.

This chip continues the 2+6 core architecture, featuring two ultra-powerful cores and six performance cores. The super cores achieve an impressive peak frequency of 4.6 GHz. Meanwhile, GPU memory has been expanded from 12MB to 18MB—a 50% boost—helping to reduce DDR memory strain, lower latency, and cut overall power draw.

Under the same performance levels, CPU super core power consumption is reduced by as much as 35%, while GPU power consumption drops up to 30%. Paired with LPDDR5X RAM at 9600Mbps and UFS 4.1 storage, this setup forms the most powerful performance platform Xiaomi has ever shipped.

To sustain that performance, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max uses a copper foil ring cooling pump with a heat dissipation area of 5533mm²—36.5% larger than the last generation. With this powerful cooling system and efficient hardware, I was eager to see how it performs both in benchmarks and real-world gaming.

Theoretical Benchmarks

AnTuTu V11: 3.86M points—nearly 1M higher than the previous generation, a major leap in performance.
GeekBench 6.5: 3400 single-core, over 10,000 multi-core, showing excellent CPU capabilities.

But numbers alone aren’t enough—so we turn to actual gaming to see how performance translates to energy efficiency and stability.

Gaming Tests

We tested three titles under different loads: Honor of Kings (light), Genshin Impact (medium), and Honkai Impact 3rd (heavy). Before testing, the phone was nearly fully charged, with extended memory and the back display disabled, and battery high-performance mode enabled.

Honor of Kings

Running at the highest quality and 120fps, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max achieved:

Average FPS: 120.1
Frame stability: fluctuation index 0.1, 1% low at 109fps
Power draw: 3.01W average, 25.1mW per frame—a new record in our energy efficiency tests

CPU usage remained mostly at its lowest frequencies, spiking only occasionally before dropping quickly again. Thanks to the low power use, heat was minimal: after 15 minutes, the back reached only 33.9°C.

Genshin Impact

Previously a challenge for Snapdragon chips, the new Extreme Edition handled it with ease:

Average FPS: 60
Frame stability: fluctuation index 0.2, 1% low at 50.3fps
Power draw: 3.51W average, 58.6mW per frame—on par with the last generation’s consumption in much lighter workloads

Here, the two super cores barely activated, leaving most of the load to the six performance cores for efficiency. After 15 minutes, the phone’s back measured a cool 37.8°C.

Honkai Impact 3rd: Sky Rails

This title truly stresses hardware, but performance was still excellent:

Average FPS: 59.6
Frame stability: fluctuation index 1.1, 1% low at 30.4fps (initial frame drops due to shader compilation)
Power draw: 4.37W average, 73.4mW per frame—the lowest we’ve seen in this category across all devices tested

All CPU cores ran at very low frequencies, suggesting improved IPC efficiency, while most of the load shifted to the GPU. After 15 minutes, the maximum back temperature was just 40.1°C.

Back-Screen Experience

The concept of a secondary display on the back isn’t exactly new—it dates back as early as 2017. Xiaomi itself experimented with the idea on the Mi 11 Ultra. But this time, the feature has found its way into the company’s mainstream flagship, the Xiaomi 17 Pro series—the one that sells in the largest numbers. That alone raises a question: what gives Xiaomi the confidence to bring it back now?

Officially named the “Magic Back Screen,” this 2.88-inch display doesn’t just add functionality; it redefines the family design language of the series for the next three years.

Traditionally, the camera Deco’s job was simply to shield the protruding lenses while serving as a design element. With the Magic Back Screen, Deco becomes alive—no longer a static piece of decoration but an interactive part of the phone.

Basic operations are straightforward: double-tap to wake, double-tap again to sleep (with a low-brightness display option), swipe right to launch the camera, swipe down for notifications and sticky notes, and swipe left to return to the main interface.

What You Can Do with It

1. Personalized Wallpapers
Through the MiShare back-screen settings, you can fully customize this tiny display. Alongside the preset options—cute pets, health trackers, motivational text—you can also use your own pictures or even AI-generated creations. These can be static or dynamic, giving you plenty of room to style your phone the way you want. Xiaomi also plans to expand the customization market further, unlocking even more design freedom.

2. Dynamic Notifications
The back screen integrates with Mi Super Island, displaying the most important scenarios at a glance: travel updates, food deliveries, calls, music playback, countdowns, and more. A simple tap lets you switch between multiple active scenarios, while a swipe up takes you back to the main back-screen page.

3. Sticky Notes
Beyond real-time notifications, you can pin reminders and notes directly on the back screen. With Super Xiao Ai’s AI recognition, information like restaurant addresses, weather updates, or discount codes can be clipped from images and displayed right where you need them—no more digging through screenshots.

4. Back-Screen Selfies
This feature is practically a must. By swiping right, the rear camera transforms into a powerful selfie shooter. Unlike the limited front camera, you can use the main, ultra-wide, or telephoto lenses—instantly elevating selfie quality.

On top of that, Xiaomi has introduced a playful Photo Booth mode, leveraging the screen’s ratio to produce retro four-frame photo strips with a nostalgic millennial vibe.

5. Gaming on the Back Screen
Surprisingly, the Magic Back Screen isn’t just about utility—it’s also about fun. With an optional retro handheld-style case and Bluetooth pairing, the back screen can run classic mini-games like Snake, Warplanes, Parkour, or even fan favorites like Angry Birds 2.

For retro enthusiasts, the possibilities go even further: install the RetroArch emulator and relive the golden days of FC, SFC, and GBA gaming—right on the back of your phone.

Cameras

The standout feature of the Xiaomi Mi 17 Pro Max is its exclusive 5x periscope telephoto lens. With a large 1/2-inch sensor and unique super-focusing prism technology, it captures 30% more light, delivering crisp and detailed shots even in low light. Whether day or night, the 5x telephoto lens remains highly reliable.

The main camera has also seen a complete upgrade. It now uses the 50MP Light Hunter 950L sensor with a 1/1.28-inch flagship-grade sensor size. Backed by LOFIC’s third-generation high dynamic range technology, it achieves a remarkable 16.5EV single-frame dynamic range output.

In this review, we’ll highlight the telephoto and main camera performance.

Main Camera:
The main shooter impresses with its wide dynamic range, preventing blown highlights in daylight while retaining fine details in darker areas. Colors appear natural, balanced, and true to life.

Telephoto:
The periscope telephoto lens delivers outstanding results across stills, moving subjects, and both close-up and distant shots. In fact, during testing, the editor often preferred using the telephoto lens as the primary option thanks to its sharpness and clarity.

Night Mode:
Night photography is bright and clean, with minimal noise and effective highlight control. Even the telephoto lens performs strongly in low-light conditions, avoiding the common issue of color shifts that often appear at night.

Battery Life

The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is equipped with a 7500mAh Xiaomi Jinshajiang battery, featuring a new-generation spherical silicon negative electrode material with 16% silicon content. This greatly boosts the overall battery density.

But density alone isn’t enough. To maximize efficiency, Xiaomi has designed the battery with an L-shaped structure, improving internal space utilization. The uniquely shaped extension adds 620mAh of extra capacity, while also lowering internal resistance and enhancing charging efficiency. This means even a large-capacity battery can still deliver impressive charging speeds.

As a result, the entire Xiaomi 17 Pro series comes with 100W fast charging support.

Charging Test

Starting at just 1% power, we activated rapid charging mode and performed a screen-off charging test, recording data every five minutes:

5 minutes: 18%
10 minutes: 32%
20 minutes: 59%
30 minutes: 83%
40 minutes: 100%

Thanks to the Surge P3 fast-charging chip, Xiaomi’s 100W charging performance is undeniably outstanding.

Battery Life Test

To better understand endurance, we conducted two tests—one with the rear display turned on, and one with it turned off. The results showed almost no difference, with just an 11-minute variation that falls within the margin of error.

On the best run, the phone achieved 13 hours and 32 minutes of usage time—a 17% improvement compared to the previous generation. In other words, battery life worries are a thing of the past.

Another highlight is compatibility. Thanks to the Xiaomi Surge P3 chip, the 17 Pro series supports the 100W PPS universal protocol, making it compatible with mainstream high-power fast-charging standards. Whether you’re using Xiaomi’s official adapter or a third-party PPS charger, you can still enjoy top-tier charging speeds.

Verdict

Xiaomi’s decision to adopt an iPhone-style naming system has proven to be a smart move. Not only has it generated massive discussion and visibility, but it also highlights Xiaomi’s ability to deliver a distinct product experience.

The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max brings a truly immersive large-screen experience that defines what a Xiaomi “Pro Max” should be. As one of the company’s most powerful flagships to date, it delivers a well-rounded upgrade over the Xiaomi 15 Pro.

The new M10 luminous material boosts efficiency while reducing power consumption. While the screen resolution is listed as 1.5K—a spec that might appear like a downgrade—the use of full RGB sub-pixels ensures the actual viewing experience feels anything but compromised.

Meanwhile, the MiShare back screen breathes new life into the increasingly uniform world of bar-style smartphones. This secondary display manages to be stylish, functional, and fun, all at once.

Performance is equally impressive. Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Extreme Edition, the device achieves over 3,800 points in GeekBench 6 single-core and more than 12,000 points in multi-core. In gaming, its low power draw and cool thermal output showcase outstanding energy efficiency, further enhanced by a robust cooling system that keeps heat concerns at bay.

Imaging is another standout. The upgraded periscope telephoto lens excels across different lighting conditions and shooting distances, while the main camera consistently produces excellent results. The leap in photography quality raises an interesting question: with the Pro Max performing this well, what more could the Ultra version possibly bring?

Now in its fifth year of pushing into the premium segment, Xiaomi’s “Dual Pro” strategy has found real success. The Pro Max not only lives up to expectations but also solidifies the brand’s naming convention of “Standard–Pro–Pro Max.”

This debut Pro Max model demonstrates Xiaomi’s refined industrial design and seamless hardware–software integration. For those who want a large display, cutting-edge imaging, and top-tier performance, the 17 Pro Max is a flagship worth buying.

And if you’re someone who prefers compact devices, don’t worry—our Xiaomi 17 Pro review is published alongside this one, giving you the choice that best fits your needs.