Xiaomi 17 Ultra - More Camera than Phone!

Quick Overview

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra Leica Edition delivers an incredibly fun and highly customizable smartphone photography experience, primarily due to its physical, rotating camera ring that controls zoom and exposure, coupled with powerful hardware like a 1-inch main sensor and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, although the physical ring's accidental triggering is a minor drawback.

Key Points: The Xiaomi 17 Ultra Leica Edition features a unique physical, rotating metal ring around the camera module that serves as a shortcut for launching the camera and controlling zoom (75mm to 100mm equivalent) and exposure value (EV) in video mode. The camera system boasts a massive 1-inch, 50MP main sensor (f/1.67), a 50MP ultrawide lens (f/2.2, 14mm equivalent), and a 50MP periscope telephoto lens with 3.2x to 4.3x optical zoom (75mm to 100mm equivalent). The phone runs on Xiaomi HyperOS (based on Android 16) and is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage, providing flagship performance. The Leica partnership is deeply integrated, offering custom profiles like 'Leica Vibrant' and 'Leica Authentic' (M9 Profile), which provide distinct color profiles that are built into the image processing pipeline, not just filters. In video mode, the camera ring adjusts exposure value by default, offering physical control over settings usually reserved for manual adjustments, which the reviewer found very engaging. The device includes a 5,580mAh silicon-carbon battery supporting 90W wired and 50W wireless charging. A minor flaw noted is the potential for accidentally brushing the camera ring, which can trigger camera settings or launch the app unintentionally, although this can be configured in settings.

Context: The video is a review of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra Leica Edition smartphone, focusing heavily on its distinctive camera hardware and software features, particularly the physical ring surrounding the large camera array. The presenter compares the experience to using a dedicated camera, highlighting the deep integration of Leica's imaging expertise into the phone's software processing and hardware controls, contrasting this with standard smartphone camera implementations.