Xiaomi 17 Ultra: Photo tour across China

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra is one of the most technically advanced smartphones of 2026 and clearly prioritizes the camera. At its heart is a large Leica camera system featuring a 1-inch main sensor and a variable telephoto lens. The main camera uses a 50-MP Light Fusion 1050L sensor with an exceptionally large sensor area, optical image stabilization, and a fast f/1.67 aperture. This is designed to enable the smartphone to deliver significantly better results than typical smartphone cameras, especially when shooting at night and in high dynamic range scenarios. Xiaomi is once again partnering with Leica to offer various Leica color profiles and professional photography features.

The telephoto camera is particularly exceptional. Xiaomi has equipped it with a 200-megapixel sensor featuring a mechanical optical zoom with a focal length ranging from 75 to 100 millimeters. Instead of digital steps, the lens physically moves, similar to a traditional camera. This is intended to ensure that image quality remains significantly higher than with conventional periscope cameras, even when zooming. The system is complemented by a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and a 50-megapixel front camera with autofocus. The device supports video recording up to 8K, and Dolby Vision and professional log recording are also available.

Aside from the camera, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra features a 6.9-inch LTPO OLED display with a brightness of up to 3,500 cd/m² and an adaptive refresh rate ranging from 1 to 120 Hz. Under the hood, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 works alongside 16 GB of RAM and up to 1 TB of storage. It also features a 6,000 mAh battery, 90-watt fast charging, 50-watt wireless charging, IP68 certification, and modern standards such as Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0.

As with the 15 Ultra, Xiaomi has opted for a large 1-inch sensor, which promises exceptionally high light sensitivity. However, the sensor is no longer made by Sony, but by OmniVision.

The results are impressive, and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra delivers great photos. We usually adjusted the exposure value (EV) down by -0.3 EV, and occasionally by -0.6 EV, especially at night. Otherwise, photos tend to be overexposed, particularly in low-light conditions.

By the way, the Xiaomi smartphone can also take photos at 28mm and 35mm by cropping the main sensor; this works fine in daylight, but in the dark, you’ll notice that the colors at 35mm differ from the other two settings.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra's zoom sensor not only offers 200 MP, but is also relatively large, though significantly smaller than the main sensor. It features a continuous focal length range between 75 and 100 mm. That’s not a huge range, but since the module already takes up so much space (we reported), we see this as a nice bonus that gives us a bit more flexibility.

The zoom also delivers good results, despite the partly overcast weather—there are worse main sensors in other smartphones. The sensor crop, which offers nearly lossless magnification up to 200 mm, also enables good shots, as the 17 Ultra has already demonstrated in comparison with the Vivo X300 Pro.

The 200-MP mode can produce very sharp photos with a lot of detail, but this requires a little patience and a steady hand.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra's ultra-wide-angle camera is the weakest among the good sensors. It also has a 50-megapixel resolution, but the sensor is very small. This is particularly noticeable in challenging lighting conditions, where bright areas risk being blown out and darker areas risk being overexposed. In low-light situations, detail is noticeably lost and colors appear somewhat washed out.