In the U.S., discussions about top camera phones largely center around iPhones, the Samsung Galaxy series, and, lately, the Google Pixel. In contrast, people in Asia and parts of Europe get a wider range of choice with companies like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo upping their camera game.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which recently had its global launch, is one of those devices, with a big camera bump that houses a versatile set of sensors, and a partnership with the storied German camera maker Leica to supply software-level changes and sensibilities to how scenes are shot.

The camera has tons of options to choose from, ranging from different focal lengths on the hardware side to various filters and settings to change how the final image looks.

Image Credits: Ivan MehtaImage Credits:Ivan Mehta

Xiaomi has also released external add-ons that snap on like a cover to the camera, as well as a USB-based accessory that provides hardware buttons to shoot video or photos. While these add-ons don’t particularly add a lot of features, it makes one-hand operation of the camera easier.

Besides the camera, Xiaomi has packed its phone with top components to compete with the best phones of the year. I will talk about the camera in detail, but let me get the rest of the hardware description out of the way.

Hardware

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra uses Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processors, which will be the choice of flagships this year. On the front, there is a 6.9-inch AMOLED screen with 1200 x 2608 pixels resolution and 120Hz refresh rate.

The screen is quite bright at a peak brightness of 3,500 nits. This is handy in operating the phone in bright conditions and also makes for a good video-watching experience.

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The 6,000 mAh battery is possibly one of the best outcomes of the Silicon/Carbon-Ion tech Xiaomi is using. Given the sheer size of the battery, it can last you a couple of days of light to medium usage, and also has good standby time. While the battery is big, the phone is still lighter than the iPhone Pro Max, so that is also a win for the company’s engineering team.

The phone supports 90W of wired charging, and you can use the charger Xiaomi supplies with the phone or any PD (Power Delivery) 3.0 or PPS (Programmable Power Supply)-based charger. It also supports 50W with Xiaomi’s own charger.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has 16GB of RAM and two memory options of 512GB and 1TB.

Camera

Xiaomi is using a 1-inch type 50-magapixel sensor with an f/1.67 aperture for the main camera, aiming to gather more light. The camera takes sharp and vivid photos without losing the white balance. The sensor is good at catching details in different lighting conditions. Just like the iPhone Pro Max, with the main camera, you can switch to 23mm, 28mm, and 35mm equivalent framing.

The phone has a rather unique 200-megapixel telephoto lens. Instead of offering staggered optical zoom options like 2x and 4x, it has continuous optical zoom from 3.2x to 4.3x. On the face of it, this doesn’t seem like a lot, but when taking photos of pets or framing certain objects within the frame, it is very handy. One limitation is that on the camera UI, you can easily jump to 75mm, 85mm, 90mm, and 100mm focal lengths, but you need to press down the zoom control and move around the dialer if you need to get to other focal lengths between 75mm and 100mm.

Image Credits:Ivan Mehta

Image Credits:

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has some impressive add-ons that make snapping photos really fun