Redmi Note 17 Pro Max: three-day battery, weaker camera

Xiaomi usually put the Redmi Note range on sale in Europe in January. This year the Note 17 series arrived in September, only nine months after its predecessors, and Xiaomi skipped a series number so that its phones share the number 17. The first unit Digigeenius tested was the dearest model, the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max, which replaces the old Pro+ and is built around battery life.

The tested phone has a cream-toned glass back with a smooth colour shift. A square camera module sits at the upper left in a similar, though not identical, shade. The power button is at a comfortable height on the right, with volume keys above it, and the left side is empty. An optical fingerprint reader under the display sits a little low but works quickly and reliably. The top edge has a noise-cancelling microphone and speaker openings. The bottom has the main speaker, a USB-C port and a SIM tray. Dual physical SIMs and eSIM are supported. There is no memory-card slot. The phone is IP68 dust- and splash-resistant, and it supports VoLTE, VoWiFi and 5G from every Estonian operator. A dark grey silicone case is included, though it hides the back.

The 6.83-inch AMOLED panel runs at 120 Hz with a resolution of 1220 by 2712 pixels. When nothing is moving, and also during games, the refresh rate falls to 60 Hz. Size and resolution match last year’s Pro models. Peak brightness is listed at up to 3,500 nits, a small numerical gain that is not obvious to the eye. Eye-comfort options include 3,840 Hz PWM dimming to reduce flicker. Dolby Atmos stereo speakers are loud for the class, with the smaller top speaker a little brighter than the bottom one. Bass is modest, as usual at this price, and Atmos adds audible detail.

The chip is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 5. Compared with last year, both the processor family and real-world performance are a small step back, though the gap is not large and graphics are slightly better. It still trails the Exynos chips in Samsung’s mid-range Galaxy A phones by a wide margin. Demanding apps and games sometimes show that this is not a flagship chip. Everyday use usually does not. The cheapest configuration has 8 GB of RAM, with 12 GB available. Storage starts at 128 GB, but Estonia is offered only 256 GB and 512 GB. The spec sheet lists 12 GB of RAM with those two storage sizes, Android 16 with HyperOS 3.0, USB-C 2.0, Wi-Fi up to Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0 and GPS. The phone measures 163.4 by 78.3 by 8.6 mm and weighs 229 g.

Battery life is the distinctive feature. Digigeenius says this is the largest battery it has tested. The Chinese Redmi 17 Pro Max uses a 10,000 mAh cell. Europe and other regions get 9,210 mAh. That is enough for two untroubled days, and three days is usually not a problem. A cell this large could last even longer, but Xiaomi still does not manage standby power as well as Samsung. In active use the battery drains a little faster than on flagship phones because the weaker processor has to work harder and uses more energy. Size offsets that, yet the review finds that the phone does not use the full potential of so large a cell.

Charging reaches 100 W, and an empty battery fills in about an hour. The curve is unusually flat: a little over 50 percent in 30 minutes and 30 percent in 15 minutes. Wired reverse charging at 27 W lets the phone act as a power bank. There is no wireless charging.

Under the chip shortage, the camera system was cut back and now matches the setup on cheaper Poco phones. The main camera is a large step down from recent Redmi Note Pro models, which had been the series’ main advantage for the price. A 50-megapixel sensor of about 1/1.95 inch replaces the earlier 200-megapixel sensor of about 1/1.4 inch, so the sensor is nearly half the size. The lens is a slightly wider f/1.5 than before.

In good light the main camera takes decent photos that suit Instagram. Detail and dynamic range are solid, colour is sometimes weak, and tones are not always well separated. Cropped images show quite a lot of noise, which grows indoors. The review links that partly to weaker processing on the leaner chip: a Poco F7 with the same camera system produces clearly better pictures. The 2x hybrid zoom is again a surprise and stays close to unzoomed shots, ahead of some rivals. The 8-megapixel fixed-focus ultrawide uses a very small, dark 1/4.0-inch sensor at a normal f/2.2 and is familiar from budget Xiaomi phones and rivals. In enough light it is acceptable, with too much noise and limited dynamic range. The 32-megapixel selfie camera is an older Xiaomi part. It is fine for video calls and poor for stills.

Night mode follows the same pattern. The main camera is reasonable in low light but noisy. The 2x hybrid zoom is very noisy. The ultrawide is weaker than in daylight, with poor detail, and the selfie camera is the same. The main camera records 4K at 30 frames per second. Ultrawide and selfie cameras stop at 1080p and 30 fps. Normal main-camera video is quite good. 2x zoom is worse in video than in photos, and detail tends to disappear. The ultrawide is reasonable in good light. Selfie video is soft again. Stabilisation is good enough for the price and fairly smooth while walking, short of dearer phones.

Software is HyperOS on Android 16, familiar from Xiaomi and Poco’s other phones this year. Xiaomi promises four software version updates and six years of security patches. The most visible HyperOS change moves the Google search widget to the bottom edge, in the manner of Pixel phones. Settings can replace that bar with a small Xiaomi AI search button above the dock, after which the Google search widget can sit anywhere on the screen. New widgets include some useful ones, but the European selection still lags the Asian models. Themes, icons and other design elements are the same story: the themes app has many paid and free options, most of them unattractive, and Europe’s range is much smaller.

The always-on display exists only in a limited sense. It is described as present, yet it switches on only after a touch. The review calls that acceptable on very cheap phones and unusual, and unwise, in the 500-euro class, where cheaper rivals implement the mode properly. Xiaomi again offers a wide set of AI tools, including translation, web-page summaries and a writing assistant familiar from rivals. Many of those services still do not support Estonian. Gallery and video tools work fairly well, including image enhancement, a magic eraser and simpler edits. Google’s Gemini and circle-to-search are present as well.

The review says Xiaomi still copies a great deal from Apple, often the more annoying iOS habits, such as a notification area around the selfie camera, and has spent heavily on compatibility with Apple devices. That attention has left HyperOS with many small bugs and gaps, so the experience trails rivals. The Estonian interface still has odd translation errors, which rivals are not entirely free of either. Each update improves HyperOS, but the reviewer argues Xiaomi still has a long way to go in software and would do better to improve it faster than to keep copying Apple.

Memory-price swings make a final verdict harder. The recommended price of the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max is 549 euros, 50 euros more than last year’s dearest Redmi Note. Buyers get a battery about a third larger and a much weaker main camera. Other changes are minimal. In some Estonian web shops the price has fallen to around 450 euros, and the spec list starts at 449 euros, while operators and larger stores still sell it at the recommended price.

The review reads the camera cut as a cheaper way to offset soaring memory prices, with a huge battery as a relatively inexpensive marketing feature. The reviewer dislikes that choice: a battery can be topped up with accessories, while a better camera cannot be added later. People who care most about endurance and little about the camera are the intended buyers, and the review says there are not many of them. For others, a different mid-range phone fits better.

In normal times the reviewer would point to the sister-brand Poco X8 Pro Max, largely the same phone with a slightly smaller 8,400 mAh battery and a much stronger flagship processor. Its price has risen by almost 100 euros in recent months, so the deal is weaker, and the question is whether the extra performance is worth the gap. The reviewer would wait for Christmas promotions if possible and would not buy the Poco above 500 euros either.

The closest rival inside Xiaomi’s range is the cheaper Redmi Note 17 Pro. It has a slightly smaller battery, slightly slower charging and a slightly weaker processor, a difference the review does not expect users to feel. Everything else is identical, and it costs 100 euros less. Among the large brands, the Samsung Galaxy A57 and last year’s Galaxy F25 FE are strong alternatives. Both Samsungs have much better cameras, more capable processors and better software with longer support. Their batteries are almost half the size. Real-world endurance is closer to a one-and-a-half-times gap, which is still why the review does not treat the Samsung phones as direct competitors.

Xiaomi’s compromises put a large battery ahead of a strong camera. That can suit some buyers and will not suit many. Even inside Xiaomi’s own range there are similar phones that are much cheaper, or similarly priced phones that are better.