Xiaomi 17T with 5x periscope zoom and 17T Pro with 7,000 mAh battery unveiled
Xiaomi’s T series follows the example of its flagship series and skips the number 16. The two new models unveiled today – the Xiaomi 17T and 17T Pro – offer the expected improvements over last year’s 15T and 15T Pro models, but some of them are better than expected.
Xiaomi 17T
The Xiaomi 17T now features a 50MP periscope telephoto lens with 5x zoom (115mm focal length). This is a significant improvement over the 50MP module with 2x zoom (46mm focal length) of its predecessor. The new camera not only enables 10x optical zoom (using in-sensor zoom) but also telephoto macro shots from as close as 30cm. It is complemented by a 12MP ultrawide lens (120°, 15mm focal length) and a 32MP selfie camera (90°, 21mm focal length).
The base model 17T is slightly smaller with a 6.59-inch display. It’s a 120Hz OLED display with a 1268p+ resolution. For comparison, the older 15T and the new 17T Pro had 6.83-inch displays. The new display achieves a peak brightness of 3,500 nits, controlled via 3,840Hz PWM and DC dimming. As usual, the T-series offers high-quality 12-bit displays (68 billion colors).
The new T-Phone isn’t quite as thin as its predecessor (8.2 mm compared to 7.5 mm), but there’s a good reason for that: it boasts a 6,500 mAh battery, offering 1,000 mAh more capacity than the 15T (an 18% increase). It supports 67W HyperCharge and 50W USB Power Saving Power (wired only). Thanks to 22.5W reverse charging, the large battery can also be shared.
The Xiaomi 17T is powered by the Dimensity 8500 chipset with eight Cortex-A725 cores and a Mali-G720 MC8 GPU. The 4nm chip is equipped with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM (9,600 Mbit/s) and either 256GB or 512GB of UFS 4.1 storage. Optimal cooling is ensured by the Xiaomi 3D IceLoop system with its highly efficient vapor chamber.
According to Xiaomi, the Dimensity 8500 chipset offers 25% higher peak GPU performance compared to its predecessor, the Dimensity 8400 in the Xiaomi 15T, which also powers the Poco X8 Pro.
Xiaomi 17T Pro
The Xiaomi 17T Pro retains the larger 6.83-inch display size – it’s also a 12-bit OLED panel with a 1280p+ resolution and a peak brightness of 3,500 nits. It offers two improvements over the 17T panel: First, it operates at 144 Hz (up from 120 Hz). Second, the brightness can be reduced to 1 nit in Ultra Dim mode. Both displays are protected by Gorilla Glass 7i.
The Xiaomi 17T Pro features a 6.83-inch display and a 7,000 mAh battery with 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
The Pro model is slightly thicker at 8.3 mm than its predecessor (8.0 mm) and also 9 g heavier. The reason is obvious: Xiaomi uses a silicon-to-carbon (Si/C) battery with 16% silicon and a capacity of 7,000 mAh. That’s 27% more (1,500 mAh) than the battery in the 15T Pro. It supports 100W HyperCharge, 100W USB Power Point Charging (PPS), and 50W wireless charging.
While the 17T and 17T Pro share the same telephoto, ultrawide, and selfie cameras, the Pro’s main camera has a larger sensor – the 1/1.31″ OmniVision Light Fusion 950 (a newer version of the 15T Pro sensor) has 1.2 µm pixels compared to the 1.0 µm pixels of the 1/1.55″ Light Fusion 800 in the standard 17T model.
Both cameras offer a 50 MP resolution and are equipped with Leica Summilux lenses (1G + 6P) with optical image stabilization. Xiaomi has introduced a new 4K 60fps mode with HDR10+ and Log options. Additionally, there are several new modes: Stage Mode (for photos and videos), Leica Live Moment, and Leica Live Portrait.
The Xiaomi 17T Pro is powered by the Dimensity 9500 – a 3nm chip that offers significantly higher performance than last year’s 15T Pro. Xiaomi promises a 32% increase in single-core CPU performance and a 33% faster GPU. It also features 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM (9,600 Mbps) and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage. And let’s not forget the 3D IceLoop cooling system. Incidentally, there was no 16GB variant of the 15T Pro either. So this isn’t a RAM shortage, but simply a product segmentation strategy by Xiaomi – after all, the 17T Pro isn’t intended to compete with either the 17 Max or the 17 Ultra.
There are a few other specifications and differences worth mentioning. Both smartphones feature stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos, as well as Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification (no 3.5 mm headphone jack). They are dual-SIM devices, and in some regions, eSIM is also available as an option. Both support Xiaomi offline communication.
The Pro model supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 with dual-band Bluetooth. The standard 17T model features Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6.0, but without dual-band Bluetooth. Both models are equipped with NFC.
The 17T model is available in black, deep blue and deep purple, while its sister model Pro is offered in black, blue, purple and opal white.
Prices
The Xiaomi 17T is available from €750 for the base model with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, while the Xiaomi 17T Pro starts at €900 for the same configuration. For comparison, the 15T and 15T Pro launched at €650 and €800 respectively, representing a price increase of €100. To offset this, Xiaomi is offering a three-month trial of Google AI Pro (including 5 TB of cloud storage), three months of YouTube Premium (including YouTube Music), and a four-month trial of Spotify Premium.
Incidentally, the company is also launching the Xiaomi Watch S5 46mm, the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro, the Xiaomi Buds 6 and the Xiaomi Sound Play Bluetooth speaker today.
