Xiaomi’s Extremely line of telephones has at all times been about one factor: Peak digital camera efficiency. The brand new Xiaomi 17 Extremely, launched forward of MWC 2026 in Barcelona, pushes the boundaries as soon as extra, although it suffers from comparable setbacks as its predecessors.
Observe that there was no Xiaomi 16 Extremely; the corporate determined to skip that quantity and go straight from the Xiaomi 15 and 15 Extremely to Xiaomi 17 and 17 Extremely, prone to “catch up” with Apple, whose newest fashions additionally bear the quantity seventeen. Regardless of the change, the brand new Xiaomi telephones are very a lot an evolution of final yr’s flagship fashions.
On the telephone aspect of issues, the Xiaomi 17 Extremely is a particularly succesful Android smartphone, with a 6.9-inch, 120Hz OLED show, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, 16GB of RAM, 512/1024GB of storage, and a 6,000mAh battery with 90W quick charging and 50W wi-fi charging. It is available in three colours: Black, White, and the sparkly Starlit Inexperienced (Xiaomi despatched me a black unit, however the Starlit Inexperienced seems to be method cooler).
The 6.9-inch OLED show is great.
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The place the Xiaomi 17 Extremely differs from the common Xiaomi 17, which additionally debuted right here in Barcelona, is especially in display measurement (6.9 vs. 6.3 inches), and the digital camera. The Extremely’s received an enormous, Leica-branded digital camera array on the again, with a 50-megapixel foremost digital camera, a 200-megapixel telephoto digital camera, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide digital camera, coupled with a 50-megapixel selfie digital camera on the entrance.
At 8.29mm thickness and 218 grams of weight, it is the thinnest and lightest Xiaomi Extremely telephone ever.
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The 200-megapixel, 75-100mm telephoto digital camera offers this telephone otherworldly zoom capabilities, with as much as 17.2x of “optical-level zoom.” I’ve tried it out, and was capable of take usable images at 100x zoom or extra, far past within the distance than what my bare I may see.
Mashable Mild Velocity
Left:
That is what the XIaomi 17 Extremely’s telephoto digital camera can do.
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Proper:
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Enterprise that far out, and AI takes the reins fairly heavy handedly, which you will see in the best way the system recreates the letters of an indication you took within the distance. Nonetheless, when you like the thought of getting a digital camera that may take sharp images of a flower that is 100 yards away, that is the telephone to do it with.
Left:
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Proper:
The zoom on this telephone is so good, it is price offering one other instance. It is like having a set of binoculars.
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So as to add an exclamation level to the telephone’s digital camera capabilities, Xiaomi additionally sells two non-obligatory images kits which consists of two completely different instances that flip the telephone into one thing that actually seems to be like a compact digital camera, and add a number of buttons, visible particulars, and battery life to the combination. The smaller Xiaomi 17 Extremely Pictures Equipment makes extra sense to me because the telephone nonetheless retains considerably regular dimensions; the two-part Xiaomi 17 Extremely Pictures Equipment Professional makes it a bit too massive for my style.
The images kits look cool, however they make the telephone lots bulkier.
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The kits, as cool as they could be, illustrate the obvious disadvantage of this telephone: it is an excessive amount of of a digital camera. It is prime heavy, has a smaller battery than the common Xiaomi 17, and – because of its large digital camera bump on the again – does not help Xiaomi’s wi-fi, magnetic battery. Do not get me mistaken, that is one highly effective telephone, but it surely’s primarily geared toward images lovers. Kudos to Xiaomi for making the Extremely lighter than ever, although at 218 grams it is nonetheless not precisely light-weight.
If you’d like your Xiaomi 17 Extremely to be just a little extra…Leica, there is a particular model only for you, proven as a shock announcement throughout Xiaomi’s massive unveiling in Barcelona. Known as the Leica Leitzphone, it shares many of the specs with the Xiaomi 17 Extremely, however has a considerably retro design which calls to thoughts basic Leica cameras, and a few Leica-specific images modes.
This one is for the Leica followers.
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It additionally has one additional characteristic: The ring surrounding its digital camera bump may be rotated to extend or lower zoom. I’ve tried it out, and it seems to be fairly exact, although you do must watch out to not place your fingers in entrance of the lens whereas taking pictures.
The Xiaomi 17 Extremely begins at 1,499 euros in Europe; there is no information on U.S. availability but. The Leica Leitzphone is beginning at a hefty value of 1,999 euros, and will probably be out there in choose markets and areas.
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