Xiaomi 17T Pro review after 1 week in Taiwan

Xiaomi 17T Pro attracts attention with a series of valuable equipment such as 5x Leica telephoto camera, 7000mAh battery, 144Hz screen brighter than 3000 nits and smooth performance from Dimensity 9500 and Xiaomi HyperOS 3 operating system. In actual use, these are the factors that help the device stand out in the segment and create a feeling very close to a flagship device.

So the question is: with the announced price of Xiaomi 17T Pro, is what the device brings really worth it, or is this just an option worth considering when compared to Xiaomi 17 and Xiaomi 17 Ultra?

Let's talk about the Camera first

In the current price range of about 20 million VND, even lower than Xiaomi's listed price, Xiaomi 17T Pro is one of the rare new, genuine models with a 5x optical telephoto camera.

Xiaomi not only promotes the 5x telephoto camera, but also directly participates with Leica in the design and development of the camera system for the Xiaomi 17T series. The Leica brand on the device is not simply a marketing element.

I took this photo of Taipei 101 from a very far distance, standing under a train station to take the photo when it started to rain. This time also marked 2-3 days of continuous rain in Taipei. In the original photo, after taking it and reviewing it on my computer, I was extremely satisfied with the details, colors, and "technique" of the photo. Note, you can see the original photo in the link below.

You'll still get Xiaomi's two signature color styles, Leica Authentic and Leica Vibrant, along with a few more Leica color filters. When taking photos with the Xiaomi 17T Pro, I got somewhat of the same feeling as when I took photos with the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, somewhere around 8/10. Leica photo color features high contrast, deep and dark tones, creating photos rich in depth, with nostalgic and artistic emotions. Xiaomi 17T Pro meets this need well, providing an inspiring photography experience without having to look to a higher-end flagship.

Regarding the LEICA 5x telephoto camera, you will be able to capture distant subjects with better quality than digital zoom. For my taste, I prefer 3x but 5x also helps me in some cases and I'm greedy so I wish the phone had both 3x and 5x optical hehe. Please note, the image in the article has been resized to less than 1MB. If you need the original image, you can see it here.

The day I went to the zoo in Taipei, I found that the 5x telephoto camera is useful when it can "shoot" animals deep in the cage like pandas. I have never seen a panda in my life and it is still deep in the cage. At that time, I realized that the 5x telephoto camera is 3x more effective.

The image quality is good, the colors are good, the details are quite good and the focus is also good. When I took a photo of a panda, it did not stay still but moved continuously. If the camera system is not stable, the photo can easily be blurred. However, if you are not confident, the Leica Live Moment feature helps you capture more moments in just one click and easily choose the most suitable frame for you to capture the beautiful moments in your life.

One of the photography features that I really like on the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is Fast Shot, which is also available on the Xiaomi 17T Pro. You don't need to care about how many x it is, Xiaomi gives you the same focal lengths as you take on the camera: 20mm, 28mm, 35mm, 75mm, 115mm... just choose and click.

Moving on to the ultra-wide camera, I think Xiaomi needs to improve the details when shooting with this camera. Turning to video recording capabilities, I find that Xiaomi records 4K@30fps videos quite well, with less vibration and blur than the previous generation, but I feel that Xiaomi still needs to improve the stability.

Design and display: Xiaomi is doing a great job

It's been a while since I used a Xiaomi T series phone and I feel that Xiaomi is doing a great job with this phone. Metal frame, matte glass back. Now with near-high-end phones to the high-end segment, the level of perfection of the device is already at a very high threshold. In the past, we could still see imperfect points to classify products, but now that boundary has almost been erased.

Especially this year, Xiaomi has a blue color for the 17T Pro that is very beautiful, suitable for me. Xiaomi also doesn't use the thick diamond cut border around the camera edge like the Xiaomi 15T Pro anymore. I think Xiaomi made this detail more refined on the Xiaomi 17T Pro.

This phone is also IP68 water resistant, so you can safely use the phone in the rain or accidentally fall into water.

One piece of advice for you is that when using the Xiaomi 17T Pro, you should use a case if you don't want to get scratched or dented because the device is very slippery, especially if you have dry hands. I slipped and dropped the device at a height not too high, only about 30cm onto the tile floor, but the device is no longer as beautiful as it was at first. Regarding the screen, I like the Xiaomi 17T Pro's screen when watching Netflix, and when going outside in the sun, it looks very good. The screen size of Xiaomi 17T Pro is 6.83-inch, 144Hz refresh rate and maximum brightness of 3500 nits are more than enough for usage needs. A small tip if you want to take advantage of the 144Hz screen, you should activate it manually in the settings, and set applications to always operate at the highest refresh rate for the smoothest experience. The screen border of the Xiaomi 17T Pro is thin and even so it looks very nice. The only thing I don't really like about the screen is the fingerprint sensor placed at a low angle. Sometimes I get confused because I'm used to using the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. Moreover, it is still an optical fingerprint sensor, when the hand is wet it will be more difficult to recognize. As for unlocking speed, it's still fast.

Performance & overall experience with Xiaomi HyperOS 3

In this segment, the Dimensity 9500 can be considered the champion in the genuine segment, because this SoC is MediaTek's current flagship. Comes with 12GB of RAM and many storage options. I don't play games on Xiaomi 17T Pro, you can see the content about games and heat dissipation, I will ask Lam Huy to test it for me, I believe Xiaomi 17T Pro will play well. Xiaomi is also generous in equipping the Xiaomi 3D IceLoop System cooling system. Regarding Xiaomi HyperOS 3, we also have AI features to serve the needs of productivity and full content creation, from deleting objects in photos, Gemini Live, Circle to Search, converting voice to text... During use, I did not encounter any serious errors, but my feeling is that I still prefer previous MIUI versions, compared to customization capabilities, the current Xiaomi HyperOS does not have deep customization features in the system like MIUI anymore.

7000mAh battery: extremely strong

With a capacity of 7000mAh and Silicon-carbon technology, the battery life of Xiaomi 17T Pro is the point that makes me most satisfied. I use mainly 5G devices in Taiwan. I rarely use Wi-Fi because I have to move a lot, look at maps, locate, navigate, not to mention record videos and take photos. With this capacity, I feel secure to use the device for a day comfortably, I almost don't have to worry about charging the device in the middle of the day, something I can't do if I use other phones with 5000mAh batteries or not silicon-carbon batteries. Xiaomi often reduces the battery capacity of the domestic version compared to the international version, but in Xiaomi 17T Pro, we still have a large battery capacity and very long usage time. I still remember, I sat on a flight from Saigon to Taipei for more than 3 hours, watching Netflix but the battery only dropped about 15%.

There are some points you need to pay attention to

The first thing is the speaker, I don't know if my version is new or not, but the volume is completely skewed towards the bottom speaker, without balance and stereo effect like other phones I use. I have never encountered this situation before with high-end to near-high-end phones, except for the iPhone Air because it has mono speakers. Up to now, my overall experience with the Xiaomi 17T Pro in daily tasks such as surfing the web, texting, watching videos, watching movies, using AI, surfing social networks is completely smooth with Xiaomi HyperOS 3, the only thing I experience is stuttering and jerking when I use the camera. The frequency of this happening will mainly be when I zoom in and zoom out between camera clusters, there will be a slight pause, I also think this is just a software issue. Most phones when newly released need 1-2 updates to fix these problems, hopefully future versions will be more stable.

Conclusion

After 1 week with the Xiaomi 17T Pro in Taipei, I saw what this phone brought me. Considering the price under 20 million, this phone is extremely worth considering, if you don't like the small screen size of the Xiaomi 17 and at the same time have no need for the Xiaomi 17 Ultra series. When Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is not sold in Vietnam, a phone like Xiaomi 17T Pro will be a product inserted between a flagship device Xiaomi 17 and the super high-end line Xiaomi 17 Ultra. From design, battery, screen and especially camera, Xiaomi 17T Pro still has the look of a flagship line, but if Xiaomi even considers this a high-end device, it is not too much. Thank you Xiaomi for accompanying me on this article.