Xiaomi 17 Ultra is the one phone to look forward to in 2026 if you want to up your photography game. Most phones on the market are half computer and half camera. The Ultra dials the latter aspect up to eleven. The device is in for review and what you have here are our first impressions.
There are two ways to approach this phone. First, as a straightforward smartphone with top-of-the-line specifications. Second, with the Photography Kit Pro attached. That’s the approach we are taking.
Ergonomics is one of the biggest elements in smartphone design and marketing. Many manufacturers have tried to change the experience by adding buttons to control things like exposure while still maintaining a thin profile.
Turning the phone into a camera
We are using the phone with the grip Xiaomi has provided. It is compact enough that you begin to approach the device as if it were a camera rather than a phone. The Xiaomi grip is particularly interesting because it contains its own battery, allowing power to be exchanged between the phone and the grip. It charges through a USB-C port at the bottom of the device, though the port can only be used for charging and not for downloading photos.
There is a customisable control dial on one side of the grip for adjustments such as exposure compensation. There is also a well-designed shutter mechanism with a soft release. Another customisable button can be used to start video recording — though it can be assigned to other functions. A rocker switch is also present for zoom control.
Let’s look at the phone itself. The focus is so heavily on photography that you have to hold the phone horizontally to read the ‘Xiaomi’ and ‘Leica’ branding properly.
The camera system is the focus of the smartphone. There are three snappers: main, ultra-wide and telephoto. The main camera uses a large one-inch 50MP sensor with an f/1.67 aperture. The ultra-wide camera is not an afterthought either — it is a 14mm equivalent lens with a 50MP sensor at f/2.2.
Then there is the zoom camera, which uses a 200MP sensor and, more importantly, offers a true variable focal length zoom. It smoothly transitions from a 75mm equivalent to 100mm equivalent, with apertures ranging from f/2.39 to f/2.96. All of this makes shooting particularly enjoyable.
If you are a point-and-shoot photographer, the experience is reassuring. Autofocus is reliable, the large sensor captures plenty of detail and it produces a pleasingly shallow depth of field. There are also thoughtful touches. The ultra-wide lens is genuinely wide at 14mm equivalent, and the variable zoom is smooth. Because the zoom camera uses a 200MP sensor, you can zoom in significantly before any cropping takes place.
The Leica partnership also appears deeper than what we have seen with other brands. You can switch between Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic colour profiles. When you want more control, there is more Leica-centric modes. The image processing pipeline aims to deliver a camera-like character — it is not about filters; much of the work happens during image capture itself. The result is photos that feel more layered and less artificially processed.
More? Wait for our full review. The rest of the phone carries the expected flagship specifications — Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage, so performance should be top-notch. There is also a large 6.9-inch flat 120Hz display that reaches up to 3,500 nits of brightness, along with a 6,000mAh battery supporting 90W HyperCharge.
It is a phone that could — to a certain extent — be used for professional work, such as special shoots for magazines. More importantly, it produces images that feel less like typical smartphone photography, avoiding the heavily over-processed look common to many phones.