The REDMI Note 17 Pro 5G packs an 8,340mAh battery into a surprisingly manageable body. As my first Xiaomi smartphone, there is already plenty that has caught my attention.
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For all the smartphones that have passed through my desk over the years, Xiaomi has somehow remained a notable omission. That changes with the REDMI Note 17 Pro 5G, and it is an interesting device with which to make a first acquaintance.
REVIEWED BY SRIJITH KN
The first thing I did was put it alongside my Nothing Phone (3), the phone I use every day. And that comparison immediately made the Redmi interesting.
They are remarkably close in overall thickness, with the Redmi even appearing marginally slimmer depending on where you measure it. The Nothing feels a little heavier in my hand too. But here’s the part that makes you look twice: the Redmi is carrying an enormous 8,340mAh battery.
That was probably my first genuine “how have they done that?” moment with the phone. An 8,000mAh-plus battery still sounds like something that should come inside a thick, heavy handset. It simply doesn’t feel that way here. Xiaomi also includes a 67W HyperCharge adapter in the box, which is a welcome sight when you’re dealing with an 8,340mAh battery.
I’ll admit that I’m increasingly becoming a compact-phone person. But that doesn’t mean I don’t see the utility of a larger phone, particularly when that extra space translates into something genuinely useful. With the Note 17 Pro 5G, that enormous battery is clearly one of the biggest reasons Xiaomi wants you to pay attention.
But has Xiaomi focused so much on the battery that it has forgotten about everything else that makes a phone approachable?
It doesn’t feel like a battery-first phone
That’s perhaps what surprised me next. Once you get past that 8,340mAh number, the Note 17 Pro 5G starts behaving like a fairly conventional modern smartphone.
The flat sides sit nicely in the hand, and the Sky Blue finish on my review unit gives it a clean, understated appearance.
The camera housing doesn’t dominate the entire rear either. It is still a large phone, there’s no getting around that, but it doesn’t constantly remind you that you’re carrying something built around an unusually large battery.
The display has also made a good first impression. I’ve already spent some time streaming video on it, and the large screen naturally lends itself well to that sort of use. Colours have plenty of punch and the overall viewing experience feels immediately inviting. I’ll reserve judgement on outdoor visibility and longer viewing sessions until I’ve spent more time with it.
My first taste of Xiaomi’s software
There’s another first for me here: HyperOS.
Coming to Xiaomi without years of MIUI or HyperOS muscle memory means I’m probably looking at the software slightly differently from someone upgrading from an older Redmi. So far, finding my way around has been relatively straightforward.
My unit pairs the Snapdragon 6s Gen 4 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, with another 4GB available through memory extension. In these first few hours — setting up the phone, jumping between apps, browsing, using the camera and streaming video — it has felt suitably fluid.
I’m deliberately not going much further than that yet. Any operating system needs a reasonable amount of time before you really understand its strengths and frustrations. So far, HyperOS hasn’t particularly impressed me, but neither has it given me much to complain about. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve lived with it for longer.
The cameras need more time
I’ve also started playing around with the cameras, although this is another area where I’m not ready to reach any conclusions.
A handful of photographs in good light can tell you something about colour, processing and responsiveness, but not nearly enough about consistency. Travel should give me a considerably better opportunity to test the cameras across daylight, people, landscapes and lower-light situations.
And that’s really the theme of these first impressions: there are several things here that need to be lived with rather than benchmarked over a few hours.
The phone is already producing some rather optimistic-looking endurance estimates, but I’m not going to draw conclusions from those either. Fortunately, I won’t have to wait long to give that battery a more meaningful workout. I’m flying to India tomorrow.
An airport, a flight, photography, navigation, messaging, streaming and long stretches away from a charger should tell me considerably more about whether 8,340mAh actually changes the way I use a phone.
The price makes things interesting
For now, Xiaomi has already managed the first trick: making me forget that there’s an 8,340mAh battery inside.
Price is another part of the smartphone conversation that increasingly matters to me. Phones are getting better, but they are also getting increasingly expensive, and that inevitably changes what I expect for my money.
The REDMI Note 17 Pro 5G starts at AED 1,499 for the 8GB + 256GB version, while the 8GB + 512GB model costs AED 1,749.
At AED 1,499, that huge battery starts to make considerably more sense as part of the proposition. But battery capacity alone doesn’t make a good phone, and that’s really what I want to find out next: how much of the complete smartphone experience has Xiaomi managed to deliver at this price?
The REDMI Note 17 Pro 5G will be available in Sky Blue, Satin Orange, Purple and Black. My review unit is Sky Blue.
And with a flight to India tomorrow, I probably couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to find out what an 8,340mAh phone is actually like to live with!
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