GSMArena Team, 28 May 2026

Xiaomi 17T review

6. Final words, our verdict, pros and cons

The competition

The Xiaomi 17T is not exactly a cheap phone. It starts at €750 for the base 12GB/256GB version, and you can get an upgrade to 512GB storage from there. Storage is non-expandable, so keep that in mind.

There are plenty of viable alternatives to consider on the current market. If you don't particularly care about the telephoto camera on the 17T, then you can actually save a lot of money by going for the Poco X8 Pro instead. It delivers much of the rest of the experience, like an excellent 6.59-inch display, great build quality with an IP68/IP69K ingress protection rating, a large 6,500 mAh battery and even better 100W charging than the 17T. All of this for a starting price of under €300.

Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro • Xiaomi Poco F8 Pro • vivo V70 • Oppo Reno15 Pro • Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

You could also pay a bit more than the Poco X8 Pro and go for the Poco F8 Pro. And when we say only a bit, we mean it, since it starts at around €450. Unlike the 17T, this one uses a Qualcomm chip - the older but still great Snapdragon 8 Elite, to be exact, and you do still get a dedicated telephoto camera. It is nowhere near as good as the 5x unit on the 17T, but it is still pretty nice. 100W charging is present on the F8 Pro as well. Honestly, we can't think of a good reason why Xiaomi omitted it from the 17T.

For around the same price as the Poco F8 Pro, you could also get yourself a vivo V70. It also offers excellent build quality with an IP68/IP69 ingress protection rating and a versatile triple rear camera setup, with a dedicated 3x telephoto. You will, however, have to live with a less-powerful Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset.

Oppo's closest alternative in the space appears to be the Reno15 Pro. Honestly, not unlike the Xiaomi 17T, it seems to be a bit steep price-wise compared to the rest of the lot, without really offering much better specs. And even though it has an MSRP of around €650, which is a good €100 less than what the 17T is asking. It is a notably more compact phone, with a slightly less powerful chipset. But other than that, it is very similarly equipped to the Xiaomi 17T.

Last but not least, Samsung has a good alternative in this price range - the Galaxy S25 FE. It has a pretty similar overall hardware setup, though with a smaller battery and a less potent camera setup. Samsung's promise of seven major OS updates is still quite enticing, and many buyers tend to gravitate towards the One UI software experience.

Our verdict

The Xiaomi 17T is a very easy phone to like. It gets a lot of the fundamentals right and then throws in a few genuinely standout features on top. The display is excellent, battery life is superb, and the camera setup is arguably among the best in this particular class, especially when it comes to zoom photography. The upgraded 5x telephoto camera alone gives the 17T a noticeable edge over many similarly-priced rivals and even makes it feel surprisingly close to its Pro sibling in actual day-to-day camera use.

Performance is solid, too. The Dimensity 8500 Ultra might not be a true flagship-tier chipset, but it is more than powerful enough for everyday use and gaming alike. HyperOS 3 also feels mature and polished overall, even if Xiaomi's refresh rate implementation still isn't quite perfect.

The issue is that the Xiaomi 17T exists in an incredibly competitive market segment, with Xiaomi's other phones partially responsible for that. The phone simply feels a bit too expensive for what it offers. At around €750, buyers are fully justified in expecting fewer compromises. The plastic frame and USB 2.0 port are easier to overlook, but the relatively slow 67W charging is a much harder pill to swallow when Xiaomi has cheaper devices with notably faster charging solutions already on the market.

None of this makes the Xiaomi 17T a bad phone. Quite the opposite, actually. It is a very competent and well-rounded upper-midranger with an unusually capable camera setup and excellent battery endurance. We just think Xiaomi could have positioned it a little more aggressively price-wise. As it stands, the 17T is easy to recommend if camera quality, particularly telephoto performance, is high on your priority list. Otherwise, there are simply too many compelling alternatives around it that offer better value.