Xiaomi 17 Pro Max in for review

The iPhone 17 Pro Max had just about 1 month of being able to call itself the best Pro Max around! The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max may be a corny namestealer, but it’s about as serious on the specs front as you can get.

What immediately grabs the attention is the rear screen, so let’s talk about it. It’s absolutely top notch – a 120 Hz LTPO OLED panel with a peak brightness of 3,500 nits.

On the software side, the rear screen isn’t very useful. It technically supports third-party apps, but only Chinese ones are allowed for now. Hardly surprising, since the phone is only available in China and the global version is still a couple of months away.

What the rear screen excels at is being a viewfinder for the triple camera system. It opens up main camera selfies and ultawide selfies, something we loved on the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra back in the day.

Main-cam selfies for everyone

Like the iPhone, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max packs a flat glass front and a 6.9-inch 120Hz display. You get a bit more actual screen on the Xiaomi thanks to the lack of face-scanning hardware and a pill-shaped notch.

Xiaomi’s display is excellent, though it lacks an anti-reflective glass on top.

The software is HyperOS 3, based on Android 16. Similar to vivo, Xiaomi has gone with a new design that’s more than a little like iOS 26. You get a very colorful interface with big UI elements with transparent effects here and there.

We got our Xiaomi 17 Pro Max from a store in China. The phone comes with a simple plastic case, a USB-A to USB-C cable, and a 100W charger. There’s no word from Xiaomi on when the global debut of the 17 series will take place, but we’ll still want to test this one thoroughly while we wait!