KAMPALA — Xiaomi has launched its Redmi Note 17 series. The four phones are led by the company’s first Pro Max model, whose 10,000mAh battery Xiaomi says is the largest it has ever put in a smartphone.
The Chinese manufacturer announced the series in Beijing. The line-up is the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max 5G, Redmi Note 17 Pro 5G, Redmi Note 17 5G and Redmi Note 17. Prices start at USD 499, USD 399, USD 299 and USD 249 respectively.
Xiaomi said the Redmi Note series had now passed 500 million shipments worldwide.
The company is selling the new phones on durability and battery life, under the slogan “Built for Years”. It says the whole series will get up to six years of security updates, and some models will get up to six years of battery health. Xiaomi also says the Pro Max 5G will keep a “like-new” software experience for six years.
Xiaomi says the Pro Max 5G and Pro 5G are the first phones to earn a TÜV SÜD 5-star “Titan Quality” certification. The company says it developed the standard together with the German testing and certification firm. The certification covers drop resistance, water resistance and battery performance. The two lower-priced models have TÜV SÜD’s 5-star battery performance certification.
The Pro Max 5G uses a silicon-carbon battery with 16 per cent silicon content. In some markets it will ship with a 9,210mAh battery instead. It supports 100W wired charging and 27W reverse charging. Xiaomi claims the phone can last up to three days on one charge and get a full day’s use from 20 minutes of charging.
The Pro 5G has an 8,340mAh battery with 67W charging. The Redmi Note 17 5G and Redmi Note 17 both have 7,700mAh batteries with 45W charging.
Xiaomi says the batteries keep at least 80 per cent of their original capacity after 1,600 charge cycles. The company says that equals about six years of typical use.
Both Pro models are rated IP66, IP68, IP69 and IP69K for dust and water resistance. Xiaomi says they passed a test of 72 hours under two metres of water. Both also add an Underwater Mode for the first time. The company says SGS certified the Pro models for drops of up to three metres onto granite. Their displays are covered with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The two standard models are rated IP65.
The Pro models have 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED displays with peak brightness of up to 3,500 nits. The Redmi Note 17 5G and Redmi Note 17 have larger 6.99-inch Full HD+ AMOLED screens rated at 1,800 nits peak.
The Pro Max 5G runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 chip and has up to 512GB of storage. The Pro 5G uses the Snapdragon 6s Gen 4, the Redmi Note 17 5G the Snapdragon 4 Gen 4, and the Redmi Note 17 the Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 2. All four run Xiaomi HyperOS 3.
Every model has a 50-megapixel main camera. The Pro models add optical image stabilisation and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide lens. The Pro Max 5G also has a 32-megapixel front camera and records 4K video at 30 frames per second.
Google Gemini and Circle to Search come on all four phones. The Pro Max 5G also gets Xiaomi’s own HyperAI tools, which include AI writing and interpretation features.
The Pro Max 5G comes in an exclusive Cloud Blush finish. Its photochromic back panel changes from white to pink-orange under ultraviolet light. The Pro Max is also sold in green, purple and black. The Pro 5G comes in Sky Blue, Satin Orange, purple and black.
In eligible markets, buyers will get free trials: six months of Google One with 200GB of storage, two months of YouTube Premium and three months of Spotify Premium. Xiaomi said which offers are available varies by market.
About The Author
