- 3 months ago
Xiaomi 17 Pro Max review - Apple are you seeing this!?.mp4
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00:00So I've been testing Xiaomi's next-gen flagship phone.
00:03And you know sometimes one phone company will copy another one,
00:06but change it up a little bit.
00:07Well, I've never seen a company change less than Xiaomi has here.
00:11They've adjusted the numbering on their phones to call them the 17s.
00:14They've shifted their naming structure to Pro and Pro Max.
00:17They've announced the phones a month early in September,
00:19all while featuring a very familiar-looking camera plateau design.
00:23Now, clearly, this is a marketing trick.
00:25This is all to make absolute sure that when you think about the iPhone 17 Pros,
00:29that you also think, and maybe even come across, Xiaomi.
00:33And part of me thinks this is really not a good look,
00:35that this kind of cheapens a brand that is otherwise clearly capable
00:39of making unique tech of their own.
00:41But then part of me completely gets it.
00:43Because when you actually take the bait and you put these phones side by side,
00:46it draws attention to the really unique things that Xiaomi's doing that no one else is.
00:51Like, oh yeah, did I mention Xiaomi's camera plateau is also a full-on second display.
00:56So if you bought a 17 Pro, this is what you'd get.
00:59A super-tall box with a charger, a 100-watt charger casually in the box,
01:06the USB-C cable, and a little insert which has the case.
01:11A lightly frosted hard shell.
01:12That's a pretty high-tier package.
01:14And then this is the Pro Max, which has all the same stuff inside.
01:24So the weird thing about this phone is it looks almost intentionally like a knock-off iPhone,
01:28right?
01:28With the naming and the design, and to be fair, even the user interface.
01:31Like, the home screen's got Apple-style icons.
01:33You pull down from here, you've got Apple's control center.
01:36I'm pretty sure I've even seen some iOS 26 liquid glass inside of here.
01:39I give them a year before they tell us their CEO is now also called Tim.
01:42But the thing is, it doesn't feel like a knock-off.
01:45The display is bright and super high-end.
01:47The borders around it are every bit as thin and even as other top phones.
01:51Every time you press things and click buttons, the haptics are phenomenal.
01:55Very satisfying experience to type and navigate.
01:58Or, let's just try something for a second.
02:00This Pro over here is a pretty tiny phone, right?
02:02It's got triple cameras on the back.
02:04It's got not one, but two displays.
02:06How big of a battery do you think they've managed to fit into here?
02:086,300 milliamp hours.
02:11That's a 25% bigger battery than the iPhone 17 Pro Max and even the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
02:19And so the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, 7,500.
02:2350% bigger than those other phones.
02:25And it translates.
02:26It is giving me stupid levels of endurance.
02:29I feel like I'm a kid again.
02:30And I go into the candy store and my mom hands me $50 to spend.
02:33You could buy everything.
02:34And because it's achieved using a silicon carbon battery with the highest concentration of silicon so far,
02:39it's not made the phone any thicker or heavier.
02:42In fact, when you pick it up, the first thing you notice is that it's actually lighter than the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
02:47Okay, fine.
02:48But they have had to compromise on the performance to get to this.
02:53Psyche.
02:54These phones have 16 gigs of the fastest RAM I've ever seen on a phone.
02:58They've got the fastest storage and they're basically the first phones to have the new Snapdragon Elite Gen 5,
03:03which is the chip that will power most Android flagships next year.
03:07I tried a whole load of tests and benchmarks on it.
03:09And while I wouldn't call it a transformational leap,
03:12it is firmly ahead of this year's crop of Androids like Samsung's S25 Ultra.
03:16It can get quite hot on the sides, but not once have I noticed that actually affecting sustained performance.
03:21So, at least it is effectively getting heat away from the chip.
03:24So, it's pretty clear.
03:26The phone's fundamentals are crazy good.
03:28But that's what makes this magic back screen all the more interesting.
03:32Because clearly, Xiaomi didn't need to do this.
03:35The Xiaomi 17 Pro and Pro Max are not one-off gimmick phones.
03:39They're not part of a sub-brand.
03:40They're not niche concept devices that are only going to be released as a test.
03:43These are Xiaomi's mainline 2025-2026 flagship phones that they will most likely release in all their regions,
03:50which makes them like the one launch that they wouldn't want to be adding a potentially expensive-to-produce,
03:55potentially gimmicky toy to.
03:57And so, the fact that they've decided to go for something so unconventional makes me think one of two things.
04:03That Xiaomi are either, A, using this as a very expensive piece of marketing,
04:07something to get people talking and go viral on TikTok.
04:09Because they know that once someone considers their phone, they will become impressed by all the other things that it does.
04:16Or, B, that they are actually confident that the second screen is the future of the smartphone,
04:21and that it's going to stick around for good.
04:23So, which is it?
04:25Well, let's be very clear about one thing right off the bat.
04:27We have seen rear screens before.
04:29We've never seen them like this.
04:30Because this rear screen has the exact same display characteristics as the front screen.
04:34It's got the same 3000 hits of brightness, the same 1 to 120Hz refresh rate,
04:38the same touch responsiveness, the same cover glass.
04:40It doesn't feel tacked on.
04:42And the fact that Xiaomi has heroically pre-applied a screen protector to not just the front screen,
04:47but also the back screen, has meant that I have not once worried about putting it down on a surface like this.
04:53But, as beautiful as it may be, no one's catching up with the latest Mr. Who's the Boss videos
04:57on the three inches between the cameras.
04:59So, what can you do with this that you would actually want to do with this?
05:03And this bar over here can summarize how convinced or unconvinced I am by the thing as we go.
05:08So, level one, I guess, is personalization.
05:11Xiaomi were telling me that a big part of the appeal of this phone will be the ability to express yourself like never before.
05:16And I wasn't ready for how hard they went with this.
05:19So, you've got a whole load of different clock faces.
05:21And this is already pretty cool.
05:23You've got really intricate mechanical ones.
05:25You've got simple ones that you can recolor yourselves.
05:27And then even this one with a step counter built in.
05:30So, pretty similar to a smartwatch homepage.
05:32And speaking of smartwatches, this stretch face feels like it is literally taken straight from Apple's source code.
05:38You've got pets that kind of interact as you touch them.
05:41Decorate with a spunky little sheep.
05:43Pretty sure that ain't a sheep, pal.
05:45But these are also really high-res and surprisingly not that tacky.
05:49Like, one of them is this really awesome butterfly cart that can actually swim behind, in front of,
05:54and even through the current time.
05:55And then if you don't like any of those, you can build your own.
05:58You can choose whether you want a clock or just text.
06:00You can write whatever text you want and change the color, the font size, the thickness.
06:04Then, with the background, it's not just a pre-selected gallery.
06:07You can also generate with AI.
06:09And I've never seen it done like this.
06:10This lets you turn any image into a realistically animated video,
06:14custom designed for this rear screen in any one of these styles.
06:18I have fed this thing all sorts of absolutely terrible photos of things.
06:21But each time it comes back with something that is shockingly usable.
06:24From my favorite little plant that I turned into a plushie,
06:27to a selfie that turned me into an anime villain.
06:29This is such an excessively extra piece of software.
06:32But I think that's exactly what this needs,
06:34because it's such an excessively extra piece of hardware that you need to justify it.
06:37So, so far, I'm impressed.
06:39But far from convinced.
06:40Because whatever you set on this display, it's going to spend 99% of its time dim like this.
06:45And then it's only when you tap it that you wake it up.
06:47Thankfully, it does do more than this.
06:49Because then you can swipe down.
06:51And you've got a music player, which honestly I think looks stunning.
06:54And I can see the use case of it.
06:55You've got some friends over, you're playing music, you want to control it.
06:58But you don't actually want to be on your phone.
07:00You can pin things.
07:01So let's say you needed to remember to buy milk.
07:03You can pin the note for that.
07:05Or a photo of milk.
07:07That's how you roll.
07:08They have made it pretty convenient.
07:09Because you can even just circle things.
07:11And the phone will extract the text from that thing and create this permanent note.
07:15It's like the 2025 equivalent of writing something on your hand.
07:18I'm trying to think of all the things you could do with this.
07:20I guess you could pin a QR code that you want people to scan.
07:23Or if you've just started a business, using it as free advertising.
07:26It's like a tiny little billboard.
07:27It feels like every company now has added some sort of second space to their phone software.
07:32To give you small updates.
07:33Like Dynamic Island on the iPhone.
07:35Or the Now Bar on Samsung.
07:36And clearly, Xiaomi are trying to make the second screen their version of this.
07:40So they want this to work with all the meal delivery apps and the flight tracker apps.
07:44But right now, that's all quite limited because it's not launched globally yet.
07:47So the only thing I have now for app integration is if you set a timer in your clock,
07:51then the back of your phone can carry that timer on.
07:54With this liquid actually depleting along with your time.
07:57It's actually kind of stressing me out.
07:58There is also a notifications aspect too.
08:01Which I guess is a very similar concept to nothing phones.
08:03Where when you're out at dinner, you can stick your phone down so that you're present.
08:06But knowing that if someone calls you or texts you, that you can still see it.
08:10And actually, look at that.
08:13It automatically answers on speaker.
08:14But this is just not a very good way to be handling your call.
08:18Can you hear me?
08:18It's pretty clear.
08:19It's got that standard underwater vibe.
08:21Underwater vibe.
08:22So even maybe while my phone's propped up there.
08:24Hello.
08:25Yeah, in terms of clarity, I can hear you.
08:27Okay.
08:27But it's still just a slightly worse way of answering the call on the front of your phone.
08:32Because there's no mic at the back here.
08:34So this part of the phone's functionality, I'm not really sold on.
08:38Especially considering that Xiaomi actually has their own version of Dynamic Island for secondary things like this.
08:44But the camera experience, which does also involve this rear screen, is oh my god.
08:50Okay, so the cameras on this phone.
08:51I wouldn't call them a breakthrough in themselves.
08:53But they're really good.
08:55The photos it takes are actually pretty much always as detailed as the iPhone 17 Pro Max is.
08:59If not, sometimes more.
09:00With also incredible dynamic range.
09:02Though it does do something very strange with my skin tone.
09:05That even if I disable every beauty setting, I cannot get rid of.
09:08But my suspicion is that's because this model currently being China only means that they've tuned it to Chinese preferences.
09:14The ultra wide camera is this tiny little reject at the bottom.
09:17And it's kind of like you'd expect.
09:19Not particularly good in low light.
09:21But it keeps up during the day.
09:22And the zoom is really powerful.
09:24A little heavy handed on the AI image enhancement when you zoom in a lot.
09:27But nonetheless, it's hard to argue the results aren't impressive.
09:30Here's the thing though.
09:31When you've got a set of cameras that are already really good compared to other 2025 phones as rear cameras.
09:37Then that is going to completely obliterate other phones when you compare it to their front cameras.
09:42I mean, look how three-dimensional and depthy the Xiaomi shot looks here compared to the iPhone's brand new revised front camera.
09:49And the way that the second screen is implemented here is awesome.
09:52Because if I'm using the camera on my front screen and I want to turn it around, all I have to do is to turn it around and swipe.
09:58And then when the camera is active on this rear screen, the front screen switches to now needing a swipe.
10:02Which straight away almost completely eliminates the accidental presses problem.
10:06But the other thing that's really impressive about this is when you're using this back screen, you basically retain complete camera functionality.
10:14So I can take normal photos, which look crazy good.
10:17I can go to all my different zoom magnifications.
10:19So 2x, I can go to 5x for if you want to capture an absolutely harrowing amount of detail in your face.
10:26I'm actually so sorry for showing this to you.
10:27You can use the ultra wide camera, which is actually a tiny bit wider than the widest setting on the new iPhone's front camera.
10:33Plus also you've got portrait mode.
10:34You can take video and you can take that video in any quality.
10:38So I've been shooting selfie video in 8K resolution.
10:42And yeah, it does look a little over sharpened, but there is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that this is the highest quality selfie video I have ever taken.
10:51And it's all finished off with this photo collage mode, which is so thoughtfully designed.
10:56You take a few photos back to back and it puts them together into a Polaroid.
10:59Very much like a photo booth that then lets you hit one button over here to actually print.
11:04I'm just so taken aback by the amount of effort that's gone into custom graphics and animations for this one tiny feature on this one tiny second screen.
11:12Now, this isn't flawless.
11:13I wouldn't say that this is a completely intuitive gesture that you're going to want to do 15 times a day.
11:18And if you think about it, modern day flip phones can do the same thing with their rear cameras on the front, but straight away the moment you take them out your pocket.
11:25But then none of them have cameras this good.
11:27I will say the camera experience here is such a big perk that it straight away on its own takes me to quite close to the fence.
11:34And then, the strangest cherry on top ever, you can even game on this second screen.
11:41Xiaomi have actually gone as far as to create a completely bespoke case that is a working controller for the phone that is wirelessly powered by the phone to be able to game on this sub three inch display.
11:53So the case clips onto the back of here and you hold this power button, it turns on and the back screen recognizes it immediately.
11:59And then it's got this entirely bespoke gaming interface.
12:04Why does it look so good?
12:05So let's just load up Angry Birds.
12:07And even the controls feel really good for buttons that have like a two millimeter travel distance.
12:11They've even built bespoke tutorials designed around the buttons Xiaomi's using here.
12:16It's such a strange little gaming experience.
12:19It's this tiny little screen, but the game looks and runs fantastic.
12:22I'm so in awe while also knowing that I will never ever actually play like this.
12:27So on balance, I'm nearly convinced by this back screen, but not quite.
12:33I think the camera stuff is majorly useful.
12:35I think the music control and the sheer level of personalization is so cool.
12:38But most of the rest of the stuff does feel like filler.
12:40And this gaming case is like the definition of let's do something crazy because it will make for great headlines and YouTube shorts.
12:47But this whole thing has successfully drawn my attention to the phone.
12:51And now my attention is on the phone.
12:54I like what I see.
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