Xiaomi Redmi 17 Review: specs and features, camera quality test, gaming benchmark, user opinions and photos

Xiaomi Redmi 17 - A Surprising Candidate for Failure

The Chinese company Xiaomi rarely makes mistakes when it comes to the focus of its products and their pricing policy. The company has proven this time and again with numerous bestsellers, and virtually every phone from the developer has been commercially successful. Failures, if any, have been rare. Unfortunately, the hero of today's review has every chance of joining the list of mediocre devices.

The appearance of the new device is controversial. The back panel is a success, as it features a modern, updated camera module, several truly beautiful color options, and a very pleasant matte texture. The side bezel now includes a fingerprint scanner. While this inexpensive phablet is made primarily of polycarbonate, its quality is impeccable. However, water resistance is practically nonexistent, while many competitors offer it. The front panel is met with large screen bezels (especially the bottom one) and an 8-megapixel selfie camera that's five years out of date. The 6.9-inch IPS panel itself feels downright cheap. The HD+ resolution isn't up to the size; pixels are visible to the naked eye. The peak brightness of 550-600 nits is low, and direct sunlight significantly reduces content visibility. The only notable advantages are the smooth 120Hz refresh rate and decent color reproduction.

The technical specifications aren't particularly impressive. The archaic MediaTek Helio G81 processor, 4GB/6GB/8GB RAM, and Mali G52MC2 GPU score less than 300,000 points in AnTuTu, and performance is poor. The HyperOS (Android 16) interface is riddled with minor lags and freezes. Resource-intensive games are clearly not designed for this device; Genshin Impact, even with the lowest graphics settings, doesn't offer a stable frame rate. At least battery life is excellent, thanks to a massive 7500 mAh battery. 12-15 hours of screen time will become a routine. The manufacturer hasn't forgotten about 45W fast charging. The 128/256GB of internal storage is expandable via MicroSD cards, with a dedicated slot available.

Photography capabilities are fairly basic; you shouldn't expect much from the main 50-megapixel camera without optical image stabilization. It's suitable for video calls and document capture, but even daytime photography suffers from a loss of detail, some noise, and blur. There's no need to even mention the useless 0.8-megapixel auxiliary sensors. There's no stereo sound, but there is a rare headphone jack these days. NFC won't be available on all versions of the device; you should check before purchasing. However, an IR port is included with all configurations. So, this is a very compromised device, which has many more interesting competitors in its price range.