Xiaomi 17 Pro Max smartphone review – Does the giant phone's second display help it step out of Apple's shadow?

The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is a fantastic, lightning-fast smartphone with a bright screen, fast storage, snappy internet, and every feature you could wish for.

Its massive battery results in truly excellent battery life, and currently, few Android smartphones can match it. Apple, on the other hand, almost manages to keep pace with a much smaller battery thanks to numerous software optimizations.

The bright screen also displays HDR content effectively, and the premium-feeling case is impeccably crafted.

The real highlight is the relatively large display on the back, but it raises a few questions: What will future app support look like? And could it be very fragile when dropped?

Xiaomi is also staying tight-lipped about the operating system update support and sustainability.

Furthermore, the phone is likely not to be officially released outside of Asia. While importing it through specialized retailers like TradingShenzhen is a relatively straightforward process, restrictions such as the lack of Android Auto and eSIM support remain.

Nevertheless, its dedicated camera sensor and secondary display make the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max a very compelling high-end phone.

17 Pro Max – anyone hearing that name probably immediately thinks of Apple's largest iPhone model. And it would appear Xiaomi has deliberately copied the name of one of the world's most successful smartphones.

The 17 Pro Max is currently the largest model in the 17 series, at least until December when the Xiaomi 17 Ultra launches.

Our review takes a closer look at whether the secondary rear display is genuinely useful and whether Xiaomi (and its bold choice of name) can actually compete with Apple's flagship phone.

With the Xiaomi 17 Pro having become significantly more compact, Xiaomi apparently still wanted to offer a top smartphone for its large-screen fans.

To achieve this, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max features a 6.9-inch screen and a body that is almost exactly the same size as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The front of the phone boasts a screen-to-body ratio of almost 91% with bezels that are barely visible. Xiaomi has opted to use its own proprietary Xiaomi Dragon Crystal Glass 3 for protection, and it is said to only show scratches on materials with a Mohs hardness of 7.

The phone is IP68-rated for water and dust resistance, which means it can be used not only in dirty environments but also underwater.

The aluminum frame provides the phone with good stability, meaning you can't twist it using your bare hands.

However, the rear screen poses a stability question mark, with it protruding quite far from the case and not possessing the same high-quality protective glass as the front.

The simple matte back looks elegant and is available in dark gray, white, purple, or green.

Unfortunately, no information is available either regarding the smartphone's carbon footprint or the recycling rate of the materials used. It is also unclear whether Xiaomi will provide spare parts and repair manuals.

On the positive side, the phone comes in plastic-free packaging.

Currently, WiFi 7 is the most advanced WiFi standard and is also featured on the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max; however, our Asus ROG Rapture AXE11000 reference router isn't yet designed for it. Using the WiFi 6E standard, the phone still achieved fast data speeds of up to 1,748 Mbps. This will allow you to fully take advantage of a gigabit internet connection and leave room for even faster networks.

The reception was excellent close to the router, and websites loaded very swiftly. At a distance of ten meters and through three walls, the signal strength was still half, and although you could tell that the transmission speed was a bit slower, browsing was still perfectly manageable.

When it comes to mobile connectivity, this high-end phone supports all the necessary frequencies to allow you to use LTE and 5G networks worldwide, which makes the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max ideal for travel.

During our spot check tests, the reception was consistently strong and remained sufficient even in challenging locations between tall buildings.

Xiaomi has developed its own easy-to-use phone app. The Carrier Services tab is of little use in Europe, since network providers here don't allow you to use this feature to check your balance. It also advertises phone plans (!) that are only available in China.

Features such as VoLTE and VoWiFi are supported, and you can even call other nearby Xiaomi phones via Bluetooth.

Call quality is good, with our contact person confirming that our voice sounded clear during the test call. In turn, they also sounded very clear. Calls made with the speakerphone and the hands-free microphone work flawlessly.

Videos can be recorded at a maximum resolution of 8K at 30fps, and at 4K at up to 120fps. The recording quality is excellent, autofocus is responsive and almost imperceptible, and exposure correction is also immediate.

Color reproduction can be described as slightly oversaturated, but overall deviates only minimally from the ideal.

The box contains a charger, USB cable, SIM tool, and a transparent silicone bumper. Even in Germany, you can find some accessories online, such as smartphone cases. Our device lender, Tradingshenzhen, also includes an adapter for Western power outlets.

Xiaomi provides a 12-month warranty. However, we would suggest using an importer for this, since direct shipping to China is both risky and very expensive.

Touchscreen inputs are recognized very accurately thanks to the 300 Hz sampling rate. The 120 Hz screen also responds swiftly, and we also really like the haptic feedback you get from the vibration motor.

The rear AMOLED display is also reliable, although there isn't much you can do with it: Besides the camera viewfinder, clock, and a pedometer, it can currently only display notifications, and apps cannot be launched directly from the screen.

Xiaomi's 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor technology is hidden behind the screen on the front. It works reliably and unlocks the phone very quickly. Facial recognition can also be used via the front camera. This works quite reliably, but it is less secure and more open to manipulation.

Equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max possesses one of the fastest Android smartphone processors you can currently get your hands on. In terms of pure processing power, it is indeed very good, with only the current iPhone generation being faster.

However, in the system benchmarks, our review device occasionally faltered and fell slightly behind the Xiaomi 17 Pro. We'll see the reason for this shortly in the emissions tests.

During AI calculations, the phone performed somewhat inconsistently, but all in all, it kept up with the comparison devices.

With the Adreno 840, you also get one of the fastest graphics solutions currently available, which supports modern features such as mesh shading and ray tracing.

However, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max can't quite keep pace with other high-end smartphones in the GPU benchmarks. Despite this, the difference is unlikely to be noticeable in real-life situations, since there are very few apps or games that can push the graphics chip to its limits.

Using the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max to surf the internet is a very quick and easy experience, with even large pages loading almost instantaneously, and everything running smoothly.

UFS 4.1 storage is responsible for making storage access extremely fast and enabling a significant speed increase even when transferring numerous small files.

Under load, the phone heats up noticeably, and after a period of time, the frame of the device gets really hot. Subsequently, the phone overloaded twice in our stress test and had to cool down before the benchmark was able to continue.

The recorded case temperatures of over 50°C are quite noticeable and can be significantly higher in warmer environments.

The 3DMark stress tests also revealed significant throttling under sustained load, with the phone losing almost 40% of its performance in the Wild Life test.

This extreme throttling could explain why the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max doesn't quite manage to keep up with other phones in many scenarios.

The speaker along the bottom edge is supported by the earpiece, and together they enable stereo effects when holding the phone horizontally. Combined, they produce a convincing sound stage that can sometimes appear a bit strained when playing loud music.

Movie soundtracks are generally good and reveal some lower frequencies, but we would suggest turning the volume down a bit to keep the sound cleaner and prevent distortion.

External audio devices can be connected via USB-C or Bluetooth 6.0. Every important Bluetooth audio codec is supported, which means you can easily connect your wireless devices and listen at a good quality.

The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is quite energy-efficient, and similar to the Xiaomi 17, it consumes relatively little power, especially under load. It's in this use case, you may find the handset's performance somewhat limited.

The maximum charging capacity is 100 watts. A charger was included with our review device, and the large battery was fully charged in under an hour, or at least when the boost mode was activated.

Wireless charging is also possible, at a maximum of 50 watts. Other devices can be charged directly from the phone at 22.5 watts using a cable, or you can even charge headphones wirelessly via the handset itself.

The phone is home to a very large 7,500 mAh battery. Xiaomi uses L-shaped cells, which offer particularly high energy density thanks to having a higher silicon content.

Additional screen optimizations are designed to help the phone save even more energy. That seems to pay off with the 17 Pro Max achieving 33 hours and 46 minutes in our Wi-Fi test. That's even longer than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which also has very good staying power.

However, this also reveals that Xiaomi is unable to match the Apple phone's efficiency: Possessing a battery of under 5,000 mAh, its battery life is just 15% shorter.

Several days without a power outlet pose no problems for the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, and even under full load, you can game for over 5 hours.