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A confident mid-ranger that nails the telephoto pitch, backs it up with a monster battery, and feels like a flagship in the hand. But these 'mid-range' prices are starting to feel...not very mid-range.
The Good
- Excellent telephoto camera
- Highly premium finish
- Mega battery life
The Not So Good
- On the expensive end of the scale for this range
Need-to-knows
- 50MP 5x periscope telephoto, co-engineered with Leica, with OIS
- 7000mAh silicon-carbon battery
- 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED, 144Hz display is beautiful
- £799 for the 17T Pro; £649 for the standard 17T
The mid-range smartphone market has never been better. It’s also, somewhat awkwardly, never been more expensive.
It’s the most competitive area of the entire phone landscape right now, packed with devices that, a few years ago, would have been billed as outright flagships. However, as the field has improved, prices have crept up. The result is a category where you can spend £600-£800 and feel either rather smug, or, if you’ve picked badly, like someone who probably should have just spent a bit more and bought an iPhone.
Enter the Xiaomi 17T Pro — the “Telephoto Master”, according to Xiaomi.
Co-engineered with Leica, equipped with a 7000mAh silicon-carbon battery, the brand new MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset and Xiaomi’s Vision Care display, it sits firmly at the upper end of that crowded mid-range pack at £799. Alongside it is the regular 17T, which carries the same telephoto-led pitch in a smaller body, with a less powerful chipset and a smaller battery, for £150 less.
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks with the 17T Pro. Here’s how the “Telephoto Master” actually stacks up.
How I reviewed the 17T Pro
I was out in Vienna to catch the Xiaomi 17T Pro launch which provided me with the perfect opportunity to put the phone through it’s paces. I carried it with me all day and used it to take photos, message people and stay in touch with the work team. It was a rapid way to make an acquaintance with a phone but I certainly got to know what I liked about it!
At a glance
| Category | Specification |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED, 144Hz, 3500 nits peak brightness |
| Chipset | MediaTek Dimensity 9500 (3nm) |
| RAM / Storage | 12GB LPDDR5X; 256GB / 512GB / 1TB UFS 4.1 |
| Main camera | 50MP, f/1.67, OIS, 1/1.31-inch Light Fusion 950 sensor |
| Telephoto | 50MP 5x periscope, f/3.0, OIS, 30cm macro |
| Ultra-wide | 12MP |
| Selfie | 32MP |
| Battery | 7000mAh silicon-carbon; 100W wired / 50W wireless / 22.5W reverse |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 7, IP68 |
| Colours | Deep Blue, Deep Violet, Black |
| Price | £799 (17T Pro) / £649 (17T) |
Specs and pricing
The headline numbers on the 17T Pro: a 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED display at 144Hz with 3500 nits peak brightness, the brand new MediaTek Dimensity 9500 (3nm), 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, UFS 4.1 storage in 256GB/512GB/1TB flavours, IP68, Wi-Fi 7 and three colours — Deep Blue, Deep Violet and Black.
The battery is the standout — a 7000mAh silicon-carbon unit with 100W wired, 50W wireless and 22.5W reverse wired charging. Xiaomi reckons it’s the largest-capacity battery in any Xiaomi Series phone internationally as of May 2026, and quotes 1.88 days of heavy use. I can confirm that, like most Android phones these days, it is a superb performer in terms of battery life. Because of course it is.
For contrast, the regular 17T drops to a 6.59-inch 120Hz display, the Dimensity 8500-Ultra (a step down rather than a side-step), a 6500mAh battery with 67W wired and no wireless charging, Wi-Fi 6E, and 200g vs the Pro’s 219g in a noticeably more compact body.
The previous generation: Xiaomi 15T Pro review
Pricing is £649 for the 17T and £799 for the 17T Pro. So, your £150 buys: the better chipset, wireless charging, 8K and 4K-120 video, the bigger battery, a bigger and faster display, Wi-Fi 7 and a third storage tier.
That, by mid-range 2026 standards, is a lot of phone for the money.
Design
In the hand, the 17T Pro feels like a flagship.
High-strength aluminium frame, micro-curved edges that ease the transition between screen and body, and a refined brushed finish around the sides. The camera module is smaller and lower-profile than the previous generation, which is welcome, given how outrageously chunky camera bumps have become. The Deep Blue and Deep Violet finishes have a properly premium metallic sheen. They really look the part.
Now, about that weight. The 17T Pro tips the scales at 219g. That isn’t outrageous on paper, but on a 6.83-inch footprint, it certainly makes itself known. It’s the kind of weight that signals “flagship” rather than “pocket monster”, but it’s worth flagging if you’ve been spoiled by lighter mid-rangers — or, indeed, the regular 17T at 200g.
See how Xiaomi’s flagship plays out: Xiaomi 17 Ultra review
If pocketability is the priority, the 17T is the answer. If you want a phone that feels like a deliberate, considered slab of premium hardware, the 17T Pro delivers.
Camera system
Right. Here we go. The feature most people care about when it comes to smartphones.
The 17T Pro’s camera system has been co-engineered with Leica. The main is 50MP, f/1.67, with OIS and a 1/1.31-inch Light Fusion 950 sensor — a step up in both sensor size and aperture brightness over the standard 17T.
But the real story is sat next to it. The 50MP telephoto is a 5x periscope (115mm equivalent), f/3.0, with OIS, a 30cm macro mode, and Xiaomi’s AI Ultra Zoom reaching out to 120x. Xiaomi has prioritised reach over chasing the biggest possible main sensor, which is interesting in a market still firmly stuck in the 1-inch-sensor arms race.
In practice, the 5x is, predictably, very good. Detail levels are lovely, with the kind of natural-looking results Xiaomi’s Leica partnership has been delivering for a few generations now. Once you get past 10x, you’re firmly in AI territory, and the results aren’t really worth bothering with, to be honest. But that’s the same story everywhere else.
The 12MP ultra-wide and 32MP selfie are perfectly competent without being class-leading. This is, after all, a phone built around the telephoto pitch.
Video is where the Pro pulls clearest air over the 17T: 8K at 30fps and 4K at 120fps are Pro-exclusive (the standard 17T tops out at 4K 60).
Google’s telephoto rival: Google Pixel 10 review
Two caveats. Xiaomi’s Live Cinematography feature doesn’t arrive at launch — it’s coming via OTA from May 28, 2026. And the Leica Live Moment watermarks rely on a Gallery app update. Small things, but the kind of small things people get cross about when they’ve read about a feature in the spec sheet and can’t find it on day one.
As you’d expect from Xiaomi at this point, the camera is typically superb, and the Leica tie-in is genuinely noticeable. Whether the telephoto-led pitch actually beats the Pixel 10 Pro, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and the Samsung S26 Ultra at this price point is the only question I can’t fully answer, but, on paper, the 17T Pro punches.
Positioning
The 17T Pro doesn’t want to be Xiaomi’s answer to an “Ultra” tier flagship. It wants to be the telephoto-led phone in a category where everyone else is chasing either the biggest main sensor or the longest spec sheet. It’ll land hard with anyone whose photo library is full of zoomed-in moments from concerts, sports and travel. That 10x is genuinely usable in most conditions and will be a big upgrade for most people coming to this phone.
The 17T sits below it as the lighter, cheaper, more compact alternative. It keeps the Leica triple-camera story but trades the chipset, charging speed, wireless charging, 8K video and the battery headroom for £150 less. For a lot of buyers, that trade will be worth it. We’re talking relatively fine margins on day-to-day experience between the two, even if the spec gap on paper looks meaningful.
Related: Xiaomi 15 review
Conclusion
The Xiaomi 17T Pro is a confident phone and will be a no-brainer for a lot of people.
It nails some key elements — telephoto photography, big battery, properly flagship-feeling chassis. Build, performance, camera and display all hold their own at £799. And the fact that £799 now counts as “mid-range” is genuinely the story of the smartphone market in 2026. As is the overwhelming choice buyers have.
Buy the 17T Pro if you want a flagship-feeling phone with a long-reach telephoto, the biggest battery in the category, and you’re not bothered about a 219g phone in your pocket.
The big flagship head-to-head: Samsung S26 Ultra vs iPhone 17 Pro Max
Buy the 17T if you want most of that story in a more compact body, you don’t need 8K video or wireless charging, and saving £150 matters to you.
Let me know in the comments which one you’d lean towards — and which “mid-range that’s actually a flagship” phone you’d like me to put up against the 17T Pro next.
8 Comments
You forgot to include at least one good macro picture
I really enjoyed the review! I recently switched to the Xiaomi 17T Pro, and I’m totally loving the telephoto feature for capturing those stunning sunset shots. It’s a level devil game changer!
No mention of any pro modes eg aperture or speed priorities, panorama etc.
Also, are the above available on the basic &/or pro version?
The 5x periscope telephoto co-engineered with Leica is clearly the hero feature, and in a market where most mid-range devices still treat zoom as a compromise, that’s a meaningful positioning shift rather than just a spec bump. slope
I think the pricing narrative is where things get complicated. £799 is no longer psychologically mid-range in many markets—it’s flirting with “flagship killer” territory, which carries higher expectations
Geometry Dash for long-term software support, thermal stability under sustained load, and camera consistency across all lenses, not just the telephoto.
You forgot to include at least one good macro picture. driving directions
The lower-profile camera module and 7,000mAh battery are the two details that make the 17T Pro feel less like a cosmetic mid-range refresh. The Leica telephoto focus is also useful beyond zoom: for anyone capturing objects for photo-to-3D reference, consistent detail and distortion across focal lengths matter more than a huge megapixel number. Did you notice a meaningful colour or exposure shift when moving between the main and telephoto lenses in the same scene?
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