Xiaomi 17 Pro Max teaser confirms a new design, and completely skips the 16 series

September 16, 2025

Xiaomi just teased its new flagship series and confirmed it’s launching the 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max later this month in China. But surprisingly, they have skipped the 16 series entirely and seems like they want to line up with Apple’s iPhone 17 naming scheme. The 17 Pro Max is the flagship among this series, but it appears that Xiaomi might also launch the 17 Ultra, but much, much later. Now, let’s jump in this, where i will cover everything about the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, including specs, rumors, and what we know about availability.

Xiaomi 17 Pro Max Overview

Display and Design

From what we’ve seen, the 17 Pro Max looks almost identical to the 17 Pro. The big talking point on both of these phones is the secondary display on the back, sitting in the camera island. The design is clean, and it keeps the triple Leica cameras upfront. The main differences from the 17 Pro could be size and maybe slightly different camera sensors, or battery sizes, but we don’t know for sure yet.

The rear screen looks big enough to run full-screen apps, similar to the Pro. Xiaomi briefly posted a photo on Weibo before taking it down and it could have been a teaser, but it could also be a slip-up. Either way, it confirms what people have been guessing about the back design.

Performance

Under the hood, it’s running the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. That’s the newest flagship from Qualcomm. Now, the 15 Pro already went all-out with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, so we already saw what that chipset was capable of, and for that reason, there would be no reason to buy this phone simply for the performance, if you already own one of those Xiaomi flagship. But what might be interesting is what the new chip can do beyond just performance like AI, camera tricks, maybe battery efficiency, or improved connectivity?

Battery

The 17 Pro Max is rumored to have a 7,500mAh battery, which is the biggest in the 17 lineup. The regular 17 sits at 7,000mAh, and the 17 Pro is likely just a little smaller than the Pro Max because it’s more compact. For reference, the 15 Ultra had a 5410 battery, so we’re seeing a decent bump here. All three phones share the usual flagship goodies: big batteries, high-refresh displays, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 but the Pro Max is about size and maybe camera power. Its predecessor, the Mi 11 Ultra, was a huge hit, and Xiaomi seems to be following the same playbook.

Interestingly, before it got the Pro Max tag, this phone was rumored to be the “Ultra,” just like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. That phone is still one of the best options in Nepal under 150,000 NPR. Looks like Xiaomi is trying the iPhone-style Pro/Pro Max naming. And whether an Ultra model will come later is still anyone’s guess. But in my opinion, it should, after all, the camera in the Pro Max doesn’t really appear to be upgraded compared to the 15 Ultra’s quad camera.