In summary
- Xiaomi 17 Ultra tipped for a December debut
- Global launch could follow by end of January
- This would pitch it directly against the Galaxy S26 Ultra
The hotly anticipated Xiaomi 17 Ultra premium smartphone could arrive earlier than usual.
Regular tipster Digital Chat Station reckons that the Xiaomi 17 Ultra will be revealed in December. Given that the Xiaomi 15 Ultra only showed up in February of this year, we’d call that downright early.
We’d normally expect a fair amount of lag between this initial Chinese launch and the global rollout, but it’s interesting to recall that the Xiaomi 15 Ultra arrived on these shores mere days after its home debut.
It’s possible we could be seeing the Xiaomi 17 Ultra in January, then, which would set up an almighty head-to-head with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra .
Chris Martin / Foundry
Impressive camera specs
One thing’s for sure: the Xiaomi is going to come with a top spec, with a particular focus on camera tech. After all, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra arguably the best camera phones on the market when it landed, especially for photography enthusiasts.
Sure enough, we’ve heard rumours that the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is going to be a bit of a beast, with a huge main sensor packing enhanced in-sensor zoom support.
We’re also expecting the Xiaomi 17 Ultra to feature a 200Mp periscope camera with multi-focal-length lossless zoom and telephoto macro support. All will boost their dynamic range performance, too.
Throw in the expected boost from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, and we could have a new camera king on our hands come December/January.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra
Author: Jon Mundy, Contributor, Tech Advisor
Jon is a freelance journalist who got his start covering mobile games at the dawn of the App Store. He has since covered everything from smart home tech and laptops to food and culture, but always seems to return to his fascination with smartphones.
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