Xiaomi's 14 Ultra blew me away with its photography skills, making it one of the most accomplished camera phones money could buy when it launched. And while the 15 Ultra wasn't much of an upgrade, the company's 17 Ultra is shaping up to be one hell of a photography phone. As a professional photographer myself, I'm excited.
The key to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra's photography prowess was its main imaging sensor. It had a 1-inch type chip that's physically much larger than those you'd find in almost any other smartphone camera. A bigger sensor can capture more light, which typically results in better dynamic range and details without having to rely as much on software processing. It's why professional cameras like the Hasselblad X2D II have enormous imaging sensors for pristine photographic quality.
The 15 Ultra used the same sensor and while the phone had some changes I didn't like -- such as getting rid of the variable aperture from the 14 Ultra -- it maintained the overall image quality. And, like its predecessor, it was available with an optional photography accessory kit that added a camera grip and filter mount. This allowed you to hold and shoot images with the phone in much the same way you might with any compact digital camera.
Xiaomi's two biggest competitors, Samsung and Apple, are also known for their superb camera phones and with Samsung's S26 Ultra range just around the corner, competition is fierce. But what makes Xiaomi stand out is that it truly seems to tailor its Ultra phones to professionals and enthusiasts. People who, like me, expect to control every aspect of the photo-taking process, rather than relying on automatic AI gimmicks.
At this point I'd normally share rumors about how the 17 Ultra (the company opted to skip the number 16 to keep pace with Apple's iPhone 17 line) is going to get some key camera system upgrades that could make it the best camera phone around. But in this case, the "rumors" are what Xiaomi has already revealed when it announced the phone for the China market. Many of the key details are already known ahead of its expected launch in the UK and wider Europe (Xiaomi doesn't officially sell its phones in the US) within the next couple of months.
Here's what's coming.
Xiaomi has already taken the wraps off the 17 Ultra in China. Xiaomi
Xiaomi 17 Ultra already launched in China
Xiaomi officially took the wraps off the 17 Ultra for its native China market over the 2025 Christmas period and while some of the specs -- especially the battery -- may differ slightly when the phone goes on sale elsewhere, I wouldn't expect the camera specs to change all that much.
On the surface, not much seems to have changed since the last generation. The main camera still uses a large 1-inch-type sensor, there's an ultrawide camera and a telephoto zoom with a 200-megapixel resolution -- not dissimilar to the 200-megapixel telephotos already seen on the Oppo Find X9 Pro or Honor Magic 8 Pro. But dive deeper and things get interesting.
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