Meet the Xiaomi 17 Ultra: The Affordable Flagship Phone Outshining the Best iPhone and Featuring a Camera Perk Even Samsung Lacks!

BEHOLD, a new rival to your posh iPhone 17 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: the Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

The Chinese tech giant’s new mobile comes fitted with an absolute beast of a snapper, co-engineered with German camera titan Leica.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has finally been revealed The gadget has a pin-sharp and expansive 6.9-inch displayCredit: Sean Keach

If you haven’t heard of Xiaomi, you may be missing out. Though they’re not quite a household name in the UK, Xiaomi is a smash-hit abroad, and is the third-biggest phone giant behind and .

And the gadget-maker just opened its last month.

Now the company has unveiled a powerful high-end new mobile called the Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

The headline feature is the mammoth camera module on the back. It’s by far the most noticeable part of the mobile.

There’s a main 50-megapixel Leica camera, as well as a 50-megapixel ultra-wide Leica shooter with a 115-degree field of view.

But probably most interesting is the 200-megapixel 75-100mm telephoto zoom camera, which features a giant one-inch sensor.

On top of that, it includes proper mechanical zoom, which you’d normally only find on full-size cameras (i.e. not ones stuffed into smartphones, even from Apple and Samsung).

Xiaomi reckons this camera set-up delivers impressive portrait , brilliant nighttime shooting (due to the larger sensor taking in more light), and overall greater clarity in your snaps.

You can record 8k footage at 30 frames per second, or 4K Dolby Vision at up to 120 frames per second.

And there’s a 50-megapixel selfie camera on the front, for good measure.

A gigantic camera module takes up a large chunk of the phone’s rearCredit: Sean Keach

Of course, there’s plenty more to this phone than just the camera.

The gadget sports a sizeable 6.9-inch HyperRGB .

That’s the same size as its main and Samsung rivals.

And OLED is great because rather than requiring an LED backlight, the pixels illuminate themselves. That also means they can be turned off individually, allowing true black to be displayed – a boost for contrast, colour range, and battery life.

It has a 2608 x 1200 pixel resolution, and is protected by Xiaomi Shield Glass 3.0.

It also sports a 1-120Hz LTPO refresh rate, which is how many times the screen can update the image that you’re seeing every second.

Supporting a 120Hz refresh rate is good for high frame-rate content, , and for smoother animations.

And the panel serves up 3,500 nits of peak brightness, so it’s more than fine for outdoor use.

The phone runs on Xiaomi’s HyperOS, which is based on Google’s Android systemCredit: Sean Keach

As well as that, it supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, which are both video formats you’ll often see online, delivering brighter whites and darker blacks.

Powering all of this is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip.

And you get 16GB of RAM as standard, as well as 512GB of storage (which can be upgraded to 1TB).

There’s a 6,000mAh battery inside that should comfortably get you through a full day without charging.

There are three cameras in the module, including a 200MP telephoto shooter with mechanical optical zoomCredit: Sean Keach

And you can fast-charge using the 90W HyperCharge system, or 50W wireless charge too.

As well as that, the phone sports a fingerprint sensor that uses ultrasonic to live under the screen – rather than taking up space as a button.

And it’s IP68 dust and water resistant to boot.

If you’re interested in the colours, it comes in three paintjobs: Black, White, and Starlit Green.

The phone has a USB-C port for chargingCredit: Sean Keach

But the real question is: how much does it cost?

Well you’ll pay £1,299 for the base version, which has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

Or you can upgrade to the 1TB storage option for £1,499 instead.

For comparison, an starts at £1,199, although the 512GB storage version is £1,399 (and has 12GB of RAM).

And the 1TB version would cost £1,599, which is pricier than Xiaomi’s equivalent.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra starts at £1,299 with 512GB of storageCredit: Sean Keach

Meanwhile, the is currently on offer for £1,279 with 512GB of storage, although that’s part of a temporary deal, as the 256GB version also normally costs £1,279.

And the 1TB option (with 16GB of RAM) is far more expensive at £1,529.

You can upgrade the phone to have 1TB of storage for an extra £200Credit: Sean Keach