Xiaomi 17 Ultra: Real Users Split on HyperOS vs Hardware Wins

When Samsung 25W: Fast charging. When Chinese OEM 90W: meh charging speed. Make it make sense please

Retail is 1500€ basically same as S26 Ultra but probably is better apart software support (5 major, 6 years of patch against full 7 years of Samsung) but hardware is miles better even if hyperOS isn't as good looking as older MIUI 10/11 but should be decent in flagship phone

Seems like it could be a bit of a downgrade camera wise? At 100mm and at 70/75mm it has a worse aperture than the 15 Ultra. Even the main camera has a slightly slower lens. Seems like a big gamble that Xiaomi did with this continuous zoom solution.

While we don't have much info in the west yet, the chinese community is less than thrilled calling the 17 ultra a downgrade. Main complaints being downgraded macro capabilities and apparently a notable downgrade in the display itself. Another complaint from the enthusiasts seems to be the main sensor particularly in low light — something with highlights being a dumpsterfire.

The fake sensor on the right side really irks me. It's such an annoying by-product of this circular island design trend.

Launch deals are better than the Samsung IMO. £100 off, £200 enhanced trade in (I just traded in a broken iPhone 12 for £222) and a free tablet that I'll get at least £150 for on ebay. After everything I'll have paid £900 with a charger and pro photography kit

Pros: very bright OLED panel, strong camera quality, high performance, good stereo sound, high-quality appearance. Cons: lower display resolution than predecessor, color reproduction of the cameras not optimal, high waste heat & SoC throttling, charging times could be faster.

Brutal. I wish the software improved.

Price is just uncompetitive, it's too bad :(

The video seems disappointing on this phone, after seeing the low score and various issues dxomark pointed out in their test + now gsmarena confirms it has poor stabilization.

Got the Xiaomi 17 Base version CN Rom last month. Coming from pixel 8. It works fine and quite snappy, no slowdowns detected. Battery life (7000mah) - 1 charge last from 1.5 to 2 days as a casual user. Charging speed - fast charging speed up to 100W, charges from 20 to 100% in 40 to 50 mins. Camera takes good point and shoot pictures.

For the price, yikes. It seems like xiaomi and leica didn't focus on video taking at all.

Personally I don't think the bloatware is an issue. It has its own app store like all Chinese phones and some Xiaomi apps, which is along the same lines as Samsung phones having Samsung apps. Reddit just seems to hate on HyperOS and Xiaomi. A lot of people retain opinions from older versions.

I've been having issues on HyperOS with certain apps 'losing compatibility' and causing issues, which is a shame because I otherwise love the phone lineup. Notifications from WhatsApp are broken for me, with messages coming through intermittently, and calls never coming through as notifications. Spotify also has an issue where the volume mutes about 70% of the time after skipping a song. Lastly, Firefox is unable to keep pages in memory for more than a second or two, forcing page refresh.

Life long Samsung fan boy here, S4 up to the S25 Ultra. For the last year or more I've used only Chinese import phones like Vivo and Oppo. If you really want a battery and camera upgrade then go Chinese. Blows anything else out of the water and it's worth dealing with the quirks. Battery life, charging and the camera are the three reasons to switch in my opinion, but a bit more setup and tweaking involved to get it more to what you're familiar with.

It's weird because whilst I got most of these issues with my X15U, I have had a very smooth and problem free experience with the 17U so far! Battery life has impressed me more than anything.

I got an s24 ultra 2 years ago and liked the phone but thought the cameras were garbage. I'm a pretty good photographer who takes lots of kit on holidays. Then the 14 ultra was released in the UK and I bought it and thought wow for the cameras. It blows Samsung out of the water. I now have a 17 ultra and love it. Admittedly there are some annoyances but less than before. I buy a phone predominantly for the cameras and could not care less about AI etc.

I connected my Bluetooth headphones but they didn't function and audio was coming out of the phone. No problem, how do you manually change the audio output quickly? The volume slider when pressed brings up different options but no quick change. No gestures with third party launchers is crazy and is my main gripe for sure.

The cameras were the main attraction. I got the camera kit pro as well and it's very fun to use. I was hoping for better battery life but it's still good. Screen, speakers, processor are all top end.

I returned a new S26 Ultra this week and purchased the 17 Ultra. Trading in my trusty S24 Ultra to reduce the cost. Hardware and battery are better. The OS is not as slick as One UI 8.5, but the camera system has already meant my GRIII is in question. I purchased the camera case and this has been excellent. The two stage shutter is hugely helpful. In terms of images - I have my shadows back! And the colour science is night and day different from the Samsung.

I really like HyperOS from Xiaomi. I am using 15/17U just for a month, but I can already say it's WAAAAAY smoother. Looks-wise I think it's great too. The only real issue was notifications but mostly fixed after I played with settings.

I currently have a xiaomi 15 ultra and have been using it since launch. I have not seen any bloatware when I first got it, and after disabling the ads I'm not even seeing any ads on the phone. I think the 'bloatware' is only for the budget line phones, which can pass as it's cheap.

I also upgraded from S24 ultra to xiaomi 17 ultra. Best choice I've done.

Great phone but Hyper OS is my least fav part of it.

I really like it, the hardware seems quite a bit better than Samsung in all the ways I care about. The software...is definitely less polished though. I use a launcher, but I lost circle-to-search because Xiaomi doesn't support it in non-stock launchers. Also using Xiaomi in the US limits you to T-Mobile. I jumped through a lot of hoops to try to make Verizon work, but I wasn't able to fully get it done.

My ultra's battery is absolutely a beast. I go home at night with 40% battery left usually (my s22 ultra would barely survive or sometimes would be completely drained). I also do not have the notification/bluetooth problems. The only thing lacking is that on the software side Samsung is better (but only slightly). But the lockscreens look pretty cool on hyperOS and the hardware is way better.

Xiaomi made me appreciate my 'boring' Galaxy. I won't cheat anymore.

100w charging is an insane game changer dunno how I'll ever go back.

The phone is really good. I am very happy coming to it after Samsung S22. Thank you Samsung for pushing me towards buying premium from Xiaomi and I don't regret it one bit.

I recently swapped my S25 Ultra for the 17 Ultra. It wasn't love at first sight. It took me a bit to actually get used to HyperOS, and I had to spend some time debloating everything just to get the battery life where I wanted it. I still have those moments where I miss OneUI, but overall, I've settled in just fine. If you put the OS aside, the Xiaomi wins in pretty much every category. The cameras and speakers are just on another level, the screen is beautiful.

I switched from an iPhone 16 pro and think it's worth it minus the insane lack of notifications. How in the hell did they build an OS that literally makes half of them not work?

I switched from a Samsung S21 Ultra to a Leica Leitzphone edition of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. I've only had it for a few days, but so far, I'd say: Yes, it's worth it, if photography is your priority. The rest of the hardware besides the cameras is good, too. I don't care about the UI. They're both fine.

I was worried about getting hyper OS because everyone always says how shit it is, but I really like it because it is really smooth, has loads of cool little features and is super customisable.

2 of my friends just bought 17 ultras after viewing my shared Leitzphone photos on group WhatsApp. A couple more have asked me about it. They are using 17 Pro Max or 24/25 ultras.

I came from an S23 base 256GB and I was very happy with it. I only got the 17 Ultra as it really peaked my interest with the Leica collaboration. I miss the compact size of the S23 as I could use that phone one handed. I have to rest this 17 Ultra on my pinky.

I spent the last few years on Samsung (Note 20 Ultra), S22 Ultra, and S23 Ultra. Got bored of the same design and not improvement on hardware. Made the leap to the Xiaomi 14 Pro two years ago, finally the 15 Ultra. I love HyperOS and the cameras are very very good. Love the zoom, quality, shutter speed, etc. The main two complaints were battery life and thermals when it's over 90+ outside or using the camera a lot.

As a Xiaomi 13 ultra, 14 ultra and now 15 ultra owner, I can guarantee you that you won't be disappointed with Xiaomi Ultra flagships in terms of photography. The Ultra 15 is already a step up from the 14 ultra with much better, more natural portrait photos. I get tons and tons of compliments from people around me just about photo quality.

The only thing I miss is the OneUI other than that I really like my 17u.

Xiaomi 17 ultra does not have PAL mode for video which means, for UK and EU mains lights and bulbs, it flickers and pulsates. How is that acceptable? Go to any UK lighting in night and take a video, you see the lights pulsate which no other mainstream phone does because they have pal mode. That is a massive flaw.

Here is 2-day comments after being a long time Samsung Galaxy Ultra user. Dialer APP doesn't use the integrated contacts pictures. T9 Keyboard doesn't let you search accented characters. While connected to my car, whenever Whatsapp chimes, phone connection drops. These are things I noticed as bad after switching.

I didn't like it. I keep going back to the OnePlus 15 as my daily driver.

Got the base one. I love the night photography but not so much for the daylight. I'm having second thoughts about this phone, I feel like I can get a better phone with the price. Other than that, I think it's a good phone overall. Though I am curious about its battery capacity after 2 years at least.