The Apple iPhone 17 series has been capturing attention since its announcement, and Android phone maker Xiaomi wants to steal some of the action, which it plans to do in an unexpected way.
Xiaomi’s president of smartphones, Lu Weibing, took to his personal Weibo account to announce the impending arrival of the Xiaomi 17 series, which may at first seem like coincidence, but it’s far from it.
Forget all about the Xiaomi 16
“The all-new Xiaomi 17 series will be released this month,” Weibing wrote, but glossed over how it’s entirely missing out on the Xiaomi 16 series. Those familiar with Xiaomi’s extensive range of phones will know it announced the Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Ultra in China at the end of October 2025, then the global release during Mobile World Congress 2025 in February, meaning any replacement wasn’t expected for a while yet and that logically, it would be called the Xiaomi 16 series.
This won’t happen, as Weibing also revealed we should expect the Xiaomi 17, Xiaomi 17 Pro, and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max in September 2025. There’s no mention of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which is usually the brand’s camera flagship. The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is a new device in the line-up, and the first time Xiaomi has used the very Apple-like nomenclature on its phones.
Weibing doesn’t make a secret about why it has decided to use the number 17, and introduce a Pro Max model at the same time, for its upcoming smartphone range.
Five years ago, we embarked on our premium strategy, learning from our greatest competitor and resolutely benchmarking against the iPhone. To this day, Apple continues to excel. The success of the iPhone 17 series is evident to everyone, but we remain confident, which is why we are directly competing with the iPhone in the same generation and at the same level.
Qualcomm joins Xiaomi in confusing name announcements
We all know marketing matters, but it’s still surprising to see Xiaomi place such importance on the number used to identify its next models. However, at least it’s up-front about the reason it’s doing so.
Weibing also talked about the specification for the Xiaomi 17 series, confirming Qualcomm’s next flagship chip, which he calls the fifth-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Edition, will be inside each model. This links it to Qualcomm’s own slightly bizarre branding announcement, where we now know the next top processor will be called the Snapdragon 8 Elite 5, and not the 8 Elite 2 or 8 Elite Gen 2 as previously thought.
Weibing closes his extensive post with a tease about the Xiaomi 17 series, saying it’s “bringing something new to the smartphones, which might otherwise leave you feeling a bit bored by the current crop of phones.” Recent rumors have pointed to the addition of a second screen on the back of the phones, which would certainly make the new models stand out from the iPhone 17 series, which it so obviously wants to compete with.
The exact release date for the Xiaomi 17 series has not been confirmed at the time of writing.
