Xiaomi 17T Pro Review - Flagship performance and Leica 5x telephoto under PHP 48K
The new Xiaomi 17T Series was recently launched in the Philippines and has been advertised as the new 'Telephoto Master'. Let's find out.
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro in Black |
To recap, it features a 144Hz 6.83-inch AMOLED screen, a Dimensity 9500 octa-core processor, a Mali-G1 Ultra GPU, LPDDR5X RAM, UFS 4.1 storage, and a 7,000mAh battery. It is Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protected.
In front of the Xiaomi 17T Pro is the 32MP selfie camera, while at the back are the Leica co-engineered 50MP main camera, the 12MP ultra-wide angle camera, and the 50MP 5x Telephoto camera with an LED flash.
In the Philippines, the Xiaomi 17T Pro starts at PHP 45,999 for the 12GB/256GB model.
Let's dive in.
Best value Xiaomi 17 Series variant yet?
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro box inclusions |
Inside the box are the Xiaomi 17T Pro, a 100W HyperCharge wall adapter, a USB-A to USB-C cable, documentation, a gray silicone case, and a SIM ejector tool.\
Similar build quality to the flagship Xiaomi 17
The Xiaomi 17T Pro features premium build quality and materials nearly identical to those of the Xiaomi 17. This is expected, given its price range and the price increase from the previous generation.
It is made of a metal frame sandwiched by a front glass panel and a rear frosted glass panel. On the upper left side is the curved corner camera module.
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro left and right sides |
The metal frame contains multiple antenna lines on all sides. On the left side is a smooth surface, while on the right side are the metal volume rocker and the metal power button.
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro's top and bottom sides |
On top is a smooth surface, while at the bottom are the speaker grill, USB-C port, microphone port, and SIM tray.
Measuring at 162.2 x 77.5 x 8.25mm and weighing 219 grams, the Xiaomi 17T Pro is surprisingly easy to hold, and it managed to fit a 7,000mAh battery in the thin frame.
It is IP68 dust and water-resistant. This means the phone can withstand high temperatures, high-pressure water jets, and is dust-tight.
Design-wise, the phone is clearly a refinement of the previous Xiaomi 15T Pro while incorporating the build and design of the Xiaomi 17.
Stunning display
 |
| Bright, fast, and crisp display with slim bezels |
The Xiaomi 17T Pro features a 6.83-inch Eye-care AMOLED display with a 2772 x 1280 resolution, a 3,500 nits peak brightness, a 144Hz refresh rate, and DC dimming. It supports Dolby Vision, 68 billion colors, and covers the DCI-P3 color gamut.
High-quality display that can go really bright!
It is TUV Rheinland Low Blue Light certified, Flicker Free Certified, Circadian Friendly Certified, and Intelligent Eye Care Certified.
The images produced are bright and vibrant, and never get overly saturated. Under direct sunlight, the screen remains legible. The touch screen responds quickly and accurately.
It has two speakers in total. The first is at the bottom, and the second is on the earpiece above the screen. Both can get surprisingly loud, but the quality between the two is slightly different. Both produce decent sound with some distortion. The distortion is much more noticeable on the speaker in the earpiece.
The phone has several microphones that record decent-quality audio, and they aid with voice isolation for calls.
Versatile and capable Leica co-engineered cameras
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro's rear Leica cameras |
Xiaomi and Leica have once again worked together to give the Xiaomi 17T the VARIO-SUMMILUX 1.67-3.0/ 15-115 ASPH lens.
It features a 50MP f/1.67 main camera with a Light Fusion 950 sensor and OIS, a 50MP f/3.0 5x telephoto camera with 30cm Tele-macro and OIS, and a 12MP f/2.2 120-degree ultra-wide angle camera with an LED flash.
One of the newer features is Leica Live Moment. When enabled, the phone's cameras will capture images a few seconds before the shutter is clicked.
The camera app includes modes such as Photo (Scene: Silhouette, Stage, Fireworks, Flames), Video, Pro, Portrait, Fastshot, Slow motion, Time-lapse, Dual-Video, Movie, Long exposure, Panorama, and Documents.
It features AI recommendations where it automatically detects the scene and recommends Night mode, extended depth of field, supermoon, and ultra zoom.
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro rear camera daylight 1x |
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro rear camera daylight 2x |
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro rear camera daylight 5x |
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro rear camera daylight 10x |
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro rear camera daylight ultra-wide |
In daylight, the rear cameras of the Xiaomi 17T Pro produced images with vibrant colors and deep contrast. Where they differ is in resolution. The 50MP 1x and 5x are sharp, detailed, and crisp, while the 12MP ultra-wide is somewhat softer. Otherwise, the daylight images are good.
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro close-up 5x tele-macro |
One of the most underrated cameras that Xiaomi introduced several years ago was the Tele-macro. This allows for super close shots that capture the detail of the subject without being distorted when shooting close-up with a wide-angle camera.
The detail, colors, and contrast on the tele-macro are stunning. The bokeh fall-off is beautiful, too.
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro's rear camera Portrait mode 1x, 2x, and 5x |
The Portrait mode allows users to control the aperture of the faux bokeh and to control the shape of the bokeh balls. (Standard, Swirly Bokeh, Soft focus, Wide, Bubbles).
The edge detection is inconsistent. Sometimes it nails it, and sometimes it struggles. When it hits, it does spectacularly.
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro's rear camera lowlight 1x |
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro's rear camera lowlight 2x |
 | |
|
 | |
|
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro's rear camera lowlight ultra-wide |
In low light, the 1x and 2x performed well.
The image is clean with vibrant color, decent sharpness, and plenty of detail. The 5x and 10x are sometimes inconsistent because the phone automatically runs night mode shots when it detects low-light scenes. There were times when the image was sharp without shake, but sometimes it had some camera shake.
The ultra-wide is noticeably softer and has more noise in the shadow areas. This has caused some inaccurate colors, too.
These concerns with low-light images can be addressed with firmware.
 | |
|
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Selfie Portrait |
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Selfie lowlight |
In selfies, the images are sharp enough with decently accurate skin tones and deep contrast. It struggled in the portrait mode to get the lip color accurately.
For video, the rear camera can capture up to 8K at 30fps and up to 4K at 120fps slow motion, but with a noticeable crop factor. It has a 'Shoot Steady' mode that improves stabilization by combining the OIS and EIS, but with a crop. Other video focus modes include Dual-Video,
The front-facing camera can capture up to 4K at 30fps.
Footage from the rear cameras (1x, 2x, 5x, 10x, and ultra-wide) is noticeably sharper and more detailed than the selfie cameras. Footage from both front and rear has vibrant color and decent contrast. The selfie camera's footage is noticeably noisier and shakier, too.
Legitimate flagship performance made affordable
For day-to-day use and tasks, the Xiaomi 17T Pro breezes through them like butter. Navigating through the UI, opening and switching between apps, and background play are nothing for the phone.
Inside the Xiaomi 17T Pro are the 3nm MediaTek Dimensity 9500 octa-core processor, Mali G1-Ultra GPU, NPU 990, 12GB LPDDR5X 9600Mbps RAM, and 256GB/512GB UFS 4.1 storage.
Yes, this phone is as fast as the PHP 70K OPPO Find X9.
The phone is cooled with the Xiaomi 3D IceLoop system. It is a 3D cooling system that is advertised to rapidly dissipate heat alongside the 6W/mK high thermal conductivity gel that supposedly cools the phone efficiently, which yields sustained performance.
Xiaomi 17T Pro benchmark scores
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro AnTuTu and GeekBench results |
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro 3DMark and CPDT Results |
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro GeekBench AI and AI Benchmark |
- AnTuTu - 3,630,916
- GeekBench - 3,077 single-core score, 9,608 multi-core score
- 3DMark Wild Life Extreme - 6,364 overall score, 38.11 average FPS
- CPDT - 951.95 MB/s sequential Read speed, 625.96 MB/s sequential write speed
- GeekBench AI - 1,031 single-precision score, 1,352 half-precision score, 1,566 quantized score
- AI Benchmark - 18,640 'Die Hard' result
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro Genshin Impact Graphic settings |
Gaming on the Xiaomi 17T is a treat. Genshin Impact has the graphics setting set to 'High' by default.
 |
| Xiaomi HyperOS GameTurbo |
The phone features the "GameTurbo" that will pop out when you swipe right from the left side of the screen when the phone detects a game being opened. It features memory optimization, storage clean-up, performance monitoring, voice changer, timers, video recording, and screenshots.
Amazing performance for the price!
As previously mentioned, it features the Xiaomi 3D IceLoop 3D cooling system and the 6W/mK high thermal conductivity gel, which helps with sustained performance of the game. We were playing Genshin Impact for extended periods, and the phone never got uncomfortably hot. It only warmed up.
Connectivity features are robust with 5G, 4G VoLTE, WiFi 7, and Bluetooth 6.0. It also supports multiple audio codes, including FLAC.
We experienced consistent and reliable connections with its NFC and GPS. It can carry up to two nano SIM cards, and it supports eSIM. This should make it easier to switch between carriers by either removing the SIM tray, scanning an eSIM QR, or purchasing online.
Excellent battery life
 |
| Xiaomi 17T Pro YouTube Loop test and Battery usage |
As a daily driver, the Xiaomi 17T Pro has an impressive battery life because of its 7,000mAh battery.
In our usual 4K YouTube video loop test with 60 percent brightness and 60 percent volume, the Xiaomi 17T Pro's battery played continuously for 16 hours and 14 minutes. The Phone was warm, but it powered through.
When using the phone daily, we were getting two days of use, with both days having a screen time of just over 5 hours. We even use the phone as our hotspot for 4 to 5 hours straight.
With the 100W HyperCharge wall adapter, it takes 40 to 50 minutes to fully charge the massive battery from 0 to 100 percent. When using a 50W wireless charger, it takes around 2 and a half hours to fully charge the device. The phone gets warm, too.
HyperOS 3.0 introduced the new Liquid Glass UI with bolder and rounder icons with richer colors and gradients, the new Xiaomi Hyper Island, and the new HyperMind AI features.
Xiaomi claims up to 30 percent better performance with over 100 redesigned animations and improved memory and battery performance.
In our experience, the visuals do look and feel faster, but it still feels and work like previous generations. If you liked HyperOS before, you will like this more, but if you never liked HyperOS before, this will not change your mind.
Google Gemini AI assistant is pre-installed and is ready to use. It features Quick Share and Link to Windows out of the box.
Pros - Flagship design and materials, Flagship performance, long battery life, Leica quality 1x and 5x camera performance, Stunning display
Cons - Low-light ultra-wide could be improved, sub-par stereo speakers, noticeable price jump from the previous generation
Xiaomi 17T Pro Specs
Display: 6.83-inch Gorilla Glass 7i protected AMOLED screen w/ 144Hz refresh rate, 3500Hz touch sampling rate, 3840Hz PWM dimming, HDR10+, 1.5K 2772 x 1280 resolution at 447 ppiCPU: 3.73GHz 3nm MediaTek Dimensity 9500 octa-core processorGPU: Mali-G1 Ultra GPURAM: 12GB LPDDR5XROM: 256GB/512GB UFS 4.1Back Camera: 50MP f/1.7 Light Fusion 950 w/ OIS + 12MP f/2.2 15mm ultra-wide-angle + 50MP f/3.0 5x telephoto camera + LED flashSelfie Camera: 32MP f/2.2Battery: 7,000mAh w/ 100W HyperCharge + 50W wirelessOS: Android 16 w/ HyperOS 3.0Connectivity: WiFi 7, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, GPS (L1 + L5), dual SIMSensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magneticOthers: In-Display fingerprint sensor, face unlock, IP68 dust and water resistance, stereo speakers, Hi-Res Audio, Dolby Atmos, 3D IceLoop cooling system, USB-C, Colors: Deep Blue, Deep Violet, BlackDimensions: 162.2 x 77.5 x 8.25 mmWeight: 219 g Price: PHP 45,999 (256GB), PHP 47,999 (512GB)
Verdict
The Xiaomi 17T Pro drastically improved its battery and camera performance while offering a truly versatile 5x Telephoto with macro capabilities.
It is made with premium metal and glass materials in an 8.25mm thin body with a massive 7,000mAh battery that lasts long and charges in under an hour.
The MediaTek Dimensity 9500 octa-core processor with the Xiaomi 3D IceLoop System breezes through tasks and gaming while maintaining decent temperatures after an extended play session.
The rear cameras take truly Leica-like images in nearly all situations. Only the ultra-wide struggled in low light.
Our biggest concerns are the asymmetrical and nearly passable audio quality from the stereo speakers and the huge price leap from the predecessor.
It is a major upgrade from the Xiaomi 14T and is a decent upgrade from the previous Xiaomi 15T.
This might be the powerhouse smartphone for heavy users, gamers, and photography enthusiasts without breaching the PHP 50K mark.
Build/Design - 4.0
Multimedia Experience - 4.0
Cameras - 4.25
Performance - 4.5
Average - 4.188/5
Post a Comment