On December 25, 2025, Xiaomi 17 Ultra launched with overwhelming upgrades in camera, display, performance, and its overall specs sheet looks really promising on the face of a growing partnership with Leica.
This year, Xiaomi has skipped the Xiaomi 16 Ultra IP and transitioned to the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. The company chief, Lei Jun, said that the name Skip aims to match and compete against Apple’s iPhone 17 series.
The phone comes with an 8.29mm thin body, which is more than 1mm thinner than the previous generation, making it the thinnest Ultra model released to date. The body has a signature metal frame combined with separate circular volume buttons and high-gloss edges.
It comes in four colors – white, black, cool purple, and starry green. The starry green version is quite attractive due to its special panel design. The design is protected with IP68, IP66 dust and water resistance, and IP69 high temperature and high-pressure water spray resistance.
Xiaomi 17 Ultra is launched with a 6.9-inch 2D full-flat screen and a round bezel design. It brings 2608 x 1200 pixel resolution, 420PPI, and 3500 nits peak brightness. Users will experience smooth visuals witha 1-120Hz LTPO adaptive refresh rate and 2160Hz high-frequency PWM dimming.
The company president, Lu Weibing, said that the goal of Xiaomi 17 Ultra is to create a flagship camera smartphone with everyday stress-free use. The round camera deco is once again highlighted in the Ultra model, and this time it has a movable ring system that can control the focal length.
The main camera encompasses a 1-inch Light Hunter 1050L sensor co-developed with Leica. Xiaomi claims it is the strongest main camera any phone could feature in 2026. The main camera combines with LOFIC ultra-dimensional light-sensing tech, with a dynamic range of nearly 110dB, capturing highlights and shadow details in the scene.
The camera supports 4K dynamic photo capture with three live camera modes and outputs 4k ultra-high-definition dynamic photos with fast shutter speed. Xiaomi 17 Ultra uses a 1G+6P aspherical high-resolution lens group and Leica UltraPure optical system. It reduces the stray light reflection to as low as 0.1%, eliminating glare and ghosting.
The second highlight is the 200MP Leica continuously zoom lens, equipped with a 1/1.4-inch Periscope lens. With this launch, Xiaomi 17 Ultra has become the industry’s first to receive Leica APO apochromatic certification.
The zoom module includes a 3G+5P dual floating lens group design and supports 75-100mm continuous optical zoom, including four focal lengths: 75mm, 85mm, 90mm, and 100mm. The module has no digital cropping throughput, providing a full-resolution zoom quality.
The camera system consists of a 50MP ultra-wide-angle lens, supporting 5 cm super macro, and a 115-degree ultra-wide field of view.
Xiaomi has employed the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset with a fast app task execution via LPDDR5X memory and UFS 4.1 flash storage. This smartphone brings a high-performance antenna array and five signal enhancement chips, supporting 51 4G+5G frequency bands and UWB ultra-wideband support for NFC car keys.
To sustain cooling, Xiaomi 17 Ultra comes with a dual-path self-driven ring cold pump and a new heat dissipation system for the camera. The micro-capability structure uses directional liquid reflux, and its equivalent thermal conductivity is improved by 50% compared to the previous generation.
This Ultra device packs a 6800mAh battery, the largest ever in a Xiaomi Ultra series, with an energy density of 882Wh/L. It supports 90W wired fast charging, 50W wireless and 22.5W wired, and 20W wireless reverse charging.
Xiaomi 17 Ultra will take cross-platform connection to the next level. It will allow users to mirror Xiaomi phones’ screen to iPhones, and the same for the other way around with new improvements made to the HyperOS operating system.
Xiaomi 17 Ultra comes in three variants with the following prices:
- 12GB+512GB – 6999 yuan (995 USD)
- 16GB+512GB – 7499 yuan (1066 USD)
- 16GB+1TB – 8499 yuan (1,209 USD)
The Xiaomi 17 Ultra will be on sale in China on December 27.
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