Forget the iPhone 17, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max has an extra screen and a huge battery
Xiaomi's newest flagship makes the iPhone 17 look like yesterday's news.
No, not the Xiaomi 15T Pro that just came out, though that one seems good, too. I'm talking about the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, the latest and greatest from the Chinese tech firm. This new ultra-powerful flagship has a cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset and a massive 7,500mAh battery, but the real selling point is that there's a second display on the camera plateau itself on the phone's backside. A visual effects artist recently showed us how cool an iPhone with a rear display could look, but Xiaomi went ahead and made it a reality.
On top of that, Xiaomi is clearly taking a direct shot at Apple by skipping from the Xiaomi 15 to 17 and calling it the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. In fact, the new Xiaomi flagship even looks like something Apple could (or perhaps should) have designed.
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In a press release announcing the flagship, Xiaomi wrote:
Xiaomi 17 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max introduce a revolutionary dual-screen design that blends sophisticated aesthetics with intuitive, intelligent functionality. The Dynamic Back Display enhances lifestyle and efficiency under various scenarios: customizable watch faces, AI wallpapers, virtual pets, dynamic information notifications, sticky notes, and so much more.
Of course, there's just one problem: The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is likely not coming to the United States anytime soon. Xiaomi typically prioritizes the Chinese market for these sorts of things. Still, it's cool to look at and yearn after.
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That little 2.9-inch display has a 120Hz refresh rate and can be used to calibrate selfies taken from the rear camera, interact with apps, or even to play mobile games. That huge battery is probably necessary, considering the phone has a pair of 120Hz displays, if you also include the 6.9-inch front panel. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is also the most powerful Android chipset in the world right now. In fact, there isn't a single commercially available smartphone in the U.S. that uses it yet. The upcoming OnePlus 15 will be the first to reach North America, most likely in November.
As for the rest of the specs, the new Xiaomi flagship has three 50MP cameras on the back and a 50MP lens on the front, for good measure. It also contains up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of internal storage.
Not everyone likes the camera plateau on the new iPhones, but if they had screens on them, maybe that would change.
Alex Perry is a tech reporter at Mashable who primarily covers video games and consumer tech. Alex has spent most of the last decade reviewing games, smartphones, headphones, and laptops, and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. He is also a Pisces, a cat lover, and a Kansas City sports fan. Alex can be found on Bluesky at yelix.bsky.social.
