I can’t wait to try the Xiaomi 17 Pro’s clever rear screen – even if there’s a big catch
Second screen finally justifies having a huge camera bump
Not content with launching the new 15T and 15T Pro smartphones in Europe this week, Xiaomi has just unveiled a pair of dual screen-toting flagships on home soil. The Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max both turn their rear camera islands into tiny secondary displays, and will be among the first with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 silicon.
Revealed for China, with a global launch likely not planned for at least a few months, the Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max have all the fun and flexibility of a flip phone’s cover display – only without the ability to fold in half. As well as acting as a camera viewfinder, the full width screens will be able to show incoming calls and notifications, display countdown timers, and control music playback.
The smaller Xiaomi 17 Pro finds room for a 2.7in panel, while the 17 Pro Max grows its second screen to 2.9in. Both use high refresh rate OLED screens with epic levels of claimed brightness. It’s a similar story around the front: the 6.3in Xiaomi 17 Pro and 6.9in Xiaomi 17 Pro should each deliver a retina-searing 3500 nits, along with 1-120Hz LTPO adaptive refresh rates and vibrant OLED colours.
Both phones get Qualcomm’s recently-revealed Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 flagship chipsets, along with either 12 or 16GB of RAM and as much as 1TB of on-board storage. The smaller phone finds room inside for a generous 6300mAh battery that can refuel at 100W over USB-C or 50W wirelessly; the 17 Pro Max goes even bigger, with a colossal 7500mAh cell. It’s highly unlikely the global variants will have anything close to this when they eventually arrive, which is a major blow for Western phone fans wanting epic endurance.
Leica has once again lent a hand on the photography front, with Summilux lenses and Leica photography styles available through the camera app. Both phones have a 50MP lead snapper with f/1.7 aperture, phase-detect autofocus and optical image stabilisation, and a 50MP ultrawide good for a 102-degree field of view (which in actuality isn’t all that wide). The smaller Xiaomi 17 Pro then adds a 50MP periscope telephoto with 5x optical zoom and f/3.0 aperture; the 17 Pro Max goes one better with a physically larger sensor and wider f/2.6 aperture. Each also gets a 50MP selfie camera with autofocus.
Styling-wise the two new phones look an awful lot like the Apple 17 Pro Max – just with a screen instead of a plan camera bump at the back. Even the name is identical now. They’re both IP68-rated, and have Xiaomi’s own Dragon Crystal Glass protecting the displays.
Unlike the 15T Pro, which is more a mid-ranger than top-tier competitor, the 17 Pro and Pro Max are Xiaomi’s new true flagship efforts. That means they’ll command a much higher price: on Xiaomi’s China website the smaller phone starts at CNY 5000 (roughly $700) while the larger one will set you back at least CNY 6000 (around $800). Those prices are sure to leap once the pair make it to international markets.
When that’ll be is still a mystery, though. Xiaomi usually waits until February or March to bring its next-gen flagships outside of China, but that feels an awfully long way away right now.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor 
