[Review] "Is This Really a 'Phone Camera'?... Testing 17x Zoom on the Xiaomi 17 Ultra"

A Chinese Smartphone Priced at Nearly 2 Million Won?
Camera Performance Could Be the Reason to Buy

Xiaomi, which holds the third-largest market share in the global smartphone sector after Samsung and Apple, has little presence in South Korea. According to the market research firm Counterpoint Research, Samsung and Apple together account for 99% of the domestic smartphone market, while the combined share of Xiaomi and other smartphone models is less than 1%. On March 11, when Samsung Electronics officially launched its Galaxy S26 series, Xiaomi ambitiously released its own flagship, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. However, it is still rare to find anyone using it in Korea. I tested the Xiaomi 17 Ultra to see if its collaboration with the German luxury camera brand Leica could be a compelling reason for purchase.

On the afternoon of the 14th, at a park in Seoul, I opened the Xiaomi 17 Ultra's camera app and zoomed in to photograph a distant sign. Even when zoomed in 3x, 5x, 14x, and up to 17x, there was no noticeable loss in image quality. In fact, the letters on the sign and the green hues of the surrounding plants appeared vivid and clear. Its performance did not feel like that of an ordinary phone camera.

The Xiaomi 17 series is the successor to the flagship model that drew attention at the Korea-China summit in January this year. Jointly developed with Leica in Germany, it touts the ability to deliver professional-grade camera technology as its main strength.

Since the 13 series, Xiaomi has incorporated the Leica camera system. The goal is to integrate Leica’s optical expertise into smartphones to provide users with an enhanced photography experience. Xiaomi’s focus on camera performance is part of its premium brand strategy. While Xiaomi has long been associated with the image of being “cost-effective,” the Xiaomi 17 Ultra’s consumer price is not low: the 16GB+512GB model is 1,899,000 won and the 16GB+1TB model is 1,999,000 won.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra feels more like a lightweight camera than a smartphone. The round camera island, which covers half of the back, houses three cameras: a Leica telephoto camera capable of 17.2x zoom, a standard Leica camera for clear night shots, and an ultra-wide camera with 5cm macro photography capabilities. Despite its extensive camera features, the weight is manageable. At 8.29mm thick and weighing 219g, it is the thinnest and lightest in the Xiaomi Ultra series.

The camera system centers on a 1-inch LOFIC (a camera technology that excels at capturing both bright and dark scenes simultaneously) main sensor, combined with a Leica 200MP telephoto camera and a mechanical optical zoom structure. Its design minimizes ghosting and chromatic aberration, enabling clear detail in night and high-contrast photography, while dynamic range and HDR capabilities allow for stable shooting even against backlight.

The front-facing camera features a 50MP sensor, which captures natural skin tones and depth in selfies. It also offers an automatic makeup effect, which can brighten the face in low-light environments and automatically retouch skin texture and contours. Leica’s signature filters accentuate color contrast while keeping saturation from becoming excessive.

Video recording is also professional-grade. The device supports up to 4K 120FPS Dolby Vision video, enabling vivid brightness and color reproduction in videos. The display renders both high-quality photos and videos clearly, thanks to the Xiaomi Hyper OLED display with peak brightness of 3,500 nits.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite 5th-generation mobile platform. Typically, frequent photo and video shooting quickly depletes battery life, but the Xiaomi 17 Ultra features a large 6,000mAh battery, allowing for all-day use. It also supports 90W wired and 50W wireless charging, so battery life was never a concern.

However, despite its high performance, ongoing concerns about personal data leaks remain a challenge for Xiaomi smartphones. There have been cases such as authentication process flaws in the integrated control app "Mi Connect" and security vulnerabilities found in the wireless earbuds "Redmi Buds." Compatibility was also a point of disappointment. Xiaomi uses its Android-based HyperOS firmware. While the user interface is a hybrid of Android and Apple’s iOS, making it easy to operate even for first-time users, connecting devices for real-time file transfers via iPhone, Bluetooth, or Quick Share proved difficult.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.