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🙌 We’ve gone hands-on with the new Xiaomi 17 Ultra at MWC 2026
📷 The new flagship from Xiaomi has one of the most advanced camera systems in any 2026 phone, including an optical telephoto zoom
🔋 It’s also got a hefty 6000mAh battery, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Elite processor and a huge 6.9-inch 120Hz OLED screen
😮 Xiaomi also showed off a special edition Leica Leitzphone edition with its own special OS skin, a rotating camera ring and special branding
Xiaomi has already been wowing the crowds at MWC 2026 in Barcelona with an extravagant stand that’s been showing off everything from AI smart homes to two of the coolest vehicles you’ll find at the show, including the Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo.
For me, though, the star of the show from a Xiaomi perspective is a product that’s already out and in the wild: the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, or the brand’s latest flagship that looks to be one of the best camera phones for 2026. Oh, and did I mention the Leica special edition Leitzphone?
I had the chance to go hands-on at the Xiaomi booth at MWC 2026 to touch and feel Xiaomi’s latest flagship to see what it’s all about. On paper, it could well be a class leader in cameras, plus you get a huge 6.9-inch 120Hz OLED screen, a hefty silicon carbon battery and more.
📸 Shine a little Leica on me now: What makes the Xiaomi 17 Ultra so ‘Ultra’ is the presence of a Leica-branded camera array that pushes it above the standard model. We’ve got a 50MP Type 1 (or 1-inch) main sensor, a 200MP telephoto (with a special optical zoom that I’ll come to in a moment) and a 50MP f/2.2 ultrawide, plus a 50MP selfie snapper on the front. This, on paper at least, makes it one of the strongest phones from a camera perspective you’re likely to find all year.
🔭 We’ve got proper telephoto zoom: The 17 Ultra’s 200MP telephoto sensor has a proper optical zoom, albeit a small 75-100mm zoom range in full frame terms. Nonetheless, the reach of the lens and the power of the sensor’s crop work out to an effective ‘optical’ zoom range of 17.2x – one of the longest of its kind.
🤝 Add a grip, or even more: In an attempt to market this phone to serious photography enthusiasts, Xiaomi is also offering two photography kits with the 17 Ultra. The ‘Pro’ marked one of these includes a USB-C battery bank/shooting grip that attaches to the charge port, adding an extra 2000mAh to the battery, plus provides a zoom rocker, soft-touch shutter button, a command dial and a couple of customizable buttons. The ergonomics here turn it more into a camera than a phone, blurring the lines somewhat between the two form factors.
📱 A big screen for seein’ stuff: The 17 Ultra bumps up the screen size to a hefty 6.9 inches for this LTPO AMOLED panel, making it one of the larger screens on a flagship, plus it can get up to a heady 3500 nits of peak brightness – easily visible under the lights in the Xiaomi booth – and a 120Hz refresh rate keeps things nice and slick.
🔋 Power for days: The 6000mAh battery the 17 Ultra comes with in its ‘global’ configuration is smaller than the Chinese market version, although it’s still a big battery that’s markedly larger than options from Samsung and Google. You also get 90W wired fast charging and 50W wireless for when you need to get juice back into the phone.
💪 Flagship oomph: Being a 2026 phone, we’ve got the beefiest Qualcomm processor you’ll find in a handset, the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. This should make it one of the fastest flagships you’re likely to find, making it as happy for gaming as it is for more basic loads.
👀 A limited-edition Leica special: If the standard Xiaomi 17 Ultra isn’t enough, then you do have the option of the Leica Leitzphone, the first to be developed by Xiaomi. Sharp used to develop these Leica-centric phones, and Xiaomi has gone all-in on it. The phone has a sleek black and silver metal finish, complete with Leica co-branding almost everywhere, which gives it the precise, clean, and heritage-infused look that has come to characterize the German camera brand, and it feels brilliant in hand.
😵💫 The rotating camera ring won me over: Unique to the Leitzphone is the grooved ring around the camera bump that’s by default used as a telephoto zoom rocker of sorts, although you can remap it with the settings in the camera app. It provides a proper tactile feel for a stepped zoom that changes the handling of the camera aspect of the 17 Ultra, making it feel more real against a pinch-and-zoom technique.
👍 A special OS overlay: The Leica Leitzphone variant of the 17 Ultra had a special, themed version of Xiaomi’s HyperOS Android skin. It’s predominantly black and red, to match the phone, I suppose, and provides more of a clean look to my eyes than the usual Xiaomi UI.
🖼️ Leica filters and profiles: On either handset, you get typical Leica picture profiles and filters that can add some joie de vivre to your photos, ranging from a more natural finish to the German brand’s clean monochrome. I only had the chance to flick through these, but they look like they could add a little something to any snaps you take.
💰 Pricing and availability: Xiaomi has shared that the standard 17 Ultra is going to run you £1,299/€1,499, although it’s unsure if this ‘global’ edition will make it to the ‘States just yet. Expect more as we have it.
Up next: Nothing Phone 4a colors: blue and pink colors revealed at MWC 2026
Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.
