The best camera phone of 2026 has a serious problem

Forget your Pixel and Galaxy phones, Xiaomi has returned with the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, a camera phone that’s set to be an early contender for the best of 2026.

You may think I’m giving everything away about the review in the introduction, but in reality, while the camera is unquestionably superb, there’s a lot more you need to know about the phone before handing over your money.

8/10

SoC

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

Display dimensions

6.9-inch

Battery

6,000mAh

Operating System

Android 16 / Hyper OS 3

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra’s camera, co-created with Leica, is the reason to buy the phone, and it won’t disappoint with its incredible ability.

Pros & Cons

• Outstanding camera
• Good performance
• Highly customizable, logical software

• Poor battery life
• Durability concerns

Specs, price, and availability

Xiaomi has not announced the price or the release schedule for the Xiaomi 17 Ultra at the time of writing. We are expecting it to launch in the UK and Europe, and it has been available in China for a short while already. Xiaomi does not officially sell its smartphones in the US, but it could be imported if you’re keen.

Design has lost its flair

No more Leica looks

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has an identity problem. Unlike previous Xiaomi Ultra phones, it doesn’t have the same Leica-inspired camera design on the back, which helped justify the enormous camera module.

Instead, it has shunned all this for a more iPhone-like design, with flat aluminum sides and a flat fiberglass rear panel. It’s reasonably thin at 8.2mm, and the 219-gram weight makes it manageable.

It’s certainly not ugly, but it is entirely forgettable, unlike the previous Ultra phones. I’ve been using the green, sparkly model, which has the unfortunate air of a 70s bathroom suite about it. It also doesn’t feel very expensive in your hand.

What’s more, because the camera module adds most of the weight, the phone is unbalanced in your hand, and this has put me off holding it for long periods, as it can get quite fatiguing.

The massive camera module also means the phone doesn’t sit flat when the screen is up, and wobbles about instead. Worse, I find it makes the phone awkward to hold in landscape orientation when playing games.

On a more positive note, the bezels around the screen are small, and I love the equally small buttons and the way the volume keys are round, separating them from the stadium-shaped power key.

Also, the biometric security is excellent, with the face-recognition and fingerprint sensor both working quickly and reliably. I’ve enjoyed the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, but I would have liked to see Xiaomi continue to build around previous designs, instead of throwing it all away without a clear plan for a new identity.

Outstanding camera

Shaping up to be one of 2026’s best

The camera is the reason to buy the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, and while the company has left the old design behind, it has brought the camera back to the highs of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. It’s a real winner, whatever situation you use it in.

It has a 1-inch 50-megapixel main sensor with optical image stabilization, a 200MP 75mm to 100mm telephoto, and a 50MP wide-angle. Leica has provided its Summilux optical lens.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has one of the very best zoom features I’ve ever used, taking colorful, sharp, and detailed images from 2x all the way up to 8.6x, with a 3.2x to 4.3x seamless mechanical zoom in the middle, making it wonderfully versatile.

Let me paint the picture for you. The 17 Ultra’s main camera starts at 23mm 1x, and with a tap goes to 28mm and 35mm, while the optical telephoto kicks in at 3.2x or 75mm, and includes a stop at 85mm and 90mm before reaching 4.3x or 100mm. Finally, there’s an 8.6x or 200mm zoom. The gallery below shows everything from 2x onward, including the 30x, 60x, and 120x digital zoom.

What makes it special is the mechanical zoom between 3.2x and 8.6x; there’s no discernible change in color or contrast, and the consistency makes it a joy to use. There is a switch in consistency between 1x and 3.2x, but it’s not too dramatic.

Photos taken at 8.6x are so detailed, it reminds me of how impressive Samsung’s optical 10x zoom was when we first saw it. The depth of field at any zoom is glorious, making your photos punchy and professional-looking.

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra’s camera suffered a little compared to the amazing Xiaomi 14 Ultra, but the 17 Ultra returns to the 14 Ultra’s heights. I adore the natural, yet still vibrant colors, the variety of Leica-tuned filters, and the speed of the camera app itself. Night performance at all zoom levels is also superb.

Versatility isn’t as desirable if the camera isn’t capable, but the Xiaomi 17 Ultra nails both aspects, and this encourages you to use it at every opportunity. It’s fantastic, and other phones released in 2026 are going to have to work very hard to beat it.

Battery life seriously disappoints

Higher capacity, shorter use time?

It’s time to illustrate the massive gulf between the highs of the camera and the lows of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra’s battery life and charging.

Yes, the 6,000mAh battery is smaller in capacity than the Chinese version of the phone, but I’ve struggled to get two days use from a single charge, and that’s when using the phone lightly. Push towards five hours of screen time, and the battery lasts for a single day.

This is poor performance, and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra falls well behind the winning OnePlus 15, the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, and the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max. My regular use sees the battery in all these phones easily reach day three on a single charge.

It doesn’t seem to be an efficiency issue, at least through apps. Relatively simple games like Retro Racing 2 take just a few percent from the battery when playing for 30 minutes, and a 30-minute 1440p YouTube video takes 4%. This is what I’d expect from any current smartphone.

The phone doesn’t come with a charger in the box. I used an Anker charger, which charged at around 40W, and it took 20 minutes to reach 50%, and 100% in about an hour. Use proprietary charging hardware, and it’ll charge at 90W with a cable, and 50W wirelessly.

I have been using the Xiaomi 17 Ultra ahead of its official launch, and the short battery life may be improved with a software update in the future. In the meantime, and certainly based on my experience now, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra’s battery life is a considerable downside, and far behind the best of the competition.

Durability concerns

An unexpected problem

For my review, I used the Xiaomi 17 Ultra as my everyday Android phone for at least two weeks, and as I entered the third week, I encountered a problem.

Upon going to charge the battery overnight, I encountered unexpected resistance from the USB-C port, almost like something was stuck inside it and wouldn’t let the cable end seat properly. This had not happened before.

My treatment of the phone was the same as any other review device, and I had not dropped it. It still seemed to charge correctly when I tried it the day after, but I didn’t like the idea of leaving it to recharge while I was asleep, if the charge cable wasn’t making a secure connection.

I was left not trusting the phone and concerned over durability. This may be an isolated incident, and I am using an early review sample of the phone, which may also play a factor, but I test dozens of phones each year, and hardware concerns or failures are very rare.

Elsewhere, the phone has Xiaomi’s Shield Glass 3.0, which it claims is 30% more drop resistant than the 15 Ultra, and an IP68 dust and water resistance rating.

What else do you need to know?

Top spec smartphone

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra is another top-tier Android phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and, in my review model, 16GB of RAM.

Xiaomi isn’t keen to let us know more about its performance because it blocked the benchmarking app 3DMark from operating, but Geekbench 6 worked. It returned a 3684 single-core and 11111 multi-core score. The OnePlus 15, which also uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, recorded a 3504 single-core and a 10657 multi-core score in the same test.

The 6.9-inch OLED screen has a 1-120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, and a 3500 nits peak brightness. The 2608 x 1200 pixel resolution loses out to phones like the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, but it still looks great, and I haven’t noticed any issues with viewing in sunlight. Colors and contrast levels are strong, and combined with the really clear and powerful stereo speakers, watching video and playing games is fantastic.

The phone has Android 16 with Xiaomi’s HyperOS interface installed. There are many pre-installed apps to sort out, settings to be changed, and adjustments to be made during startup and the first few days. Setting your own wallpaper is a pain because of a confusing interface, but the rest of the phone is simple to understand and use.

I’ve used the phone in the UK connected to EE’s 5G network, and reception has been excellent, and it has maintained a 5G signal even in low coverage areas. Unfortunately, I did notice Wi-Fi performance being slower than I expected, particularly when downloading apps from Google Play.

Should you buy the Xiaomi 17 Ultra?

This all brings me to the frustrating inconsistency with Xiaomi phones, which has been highlighted by my time with the 17 Ultra. The last Xiaomi phone I reviewed was the 15T Pro, where the battery life was stellar, Wi-Fi performance was strong, and the hardware felt durable and expensive.

It’s a shame Xiaomi hasn’t nailed the fundamentals with the 17 Ultra, because the camera is fantastic, and a return to form after the 15 Ultra’s slight misstep. It’s the number one reason to buy the phone, provided you’re aware that some other aspects crucial to everyday use may let it down.

I say “may,” because I don’t think my issues with the phone will affect every Xiaomi 17 Ultra. However, I have to review the phone in front of me, and treating a smartphone purchase as “pot luck” when it comes to battery longevity and hardware durability is a risky decision.

It doesn’t stop me thinking about the brilliant camera, though.

8/10

SoC

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

Display dimensions

6.9-inch

Battery

6,000mAh

Rear camera

50MP main / 200MP telephoto / 50MP wide-angle

When the camera is this good, it’s possible to forgive the short battery life and durability concerns, but these have stopped the Xiaomi 17 Ultra from being a 9/10 phone.