Colorful feature on the Xiaomi phone: Why an LED ring makes this phone special

At first glance, the Xiaomi Redmi 17 5G is an unremarkable budget phone: The fairly inexpensive handset (less than US$ 250, for example at amazon.com) comes in a matte black plastic casing, offers modest performance and has a low-resolution screen. The camera system is also anything but spectacular.

Redmi phone not so boring after all

But a closer look reveals that there are also more striking blue and orange color options, that the phone packs a huge battery and that it offers security updates for a very long time, especially for such an inexpensive handset.

Special LED feature on the back

And there is one more special feature: A ring-shaped LED light on the back lights up when there are notifications. It can glow white, red or green. You can choose which color is used for what. It also indicates the charging status, for example, when the phone is plugged in.

This feature has become rare on smartphones, and it is also quite practical: If you do not want to keep checking your phone, for example during a meeting, you can place it face down on the table and still know when there is something new.

Useful feature on the Xiaomi phone

The different colors also let you tell whether you have a missed call or a new message in a messaging app. And if you do not want the notification LED to flash all the time, you can turn it off or have it respond only to certain apps.

Overall, it is a genuinely useful feature that Xiaomi has taken a step further with the different colors. While a full secondary display on the back, such as the one on the Xiaomi 17 Pro, is often unnecessary, the subtle LED makes good sense in our view.

You can find out more about the Xiaomi Redmi 17 5G in our in-depth review.