Marques Brownlee, also known as MKBHD, is among the most respected tech YouTubers in the world. In his latest review, he dives into testing Xiaomi 17 Pro Max – a flagship that, according to him, was inspired by the iPhone, but in many ways even surpasses it.
In an episode with over two million views (at the time this article was published), he breaks down the design, performance, cameras, and the groundbreaking rear display. This is one of the very first independent reviews of this model.
Design straight out of Cupertino, but with a bold dose of Chinese attitude
At first glance, you might think Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is just another iPhone copy. Brownlee admits it with a smile, but adds that it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The phone has flat metal edges, an identical speaker layout, similar antenna lines, and even the camera module evokes the iPhone 17 Pro design.
Still, Xiaomi isn’t afraid to add its own signature—and you can feel it at every step. The phone has slimmer bezels, a smaller notch, and feels lighter in the hand than its American competitor.
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A display that outshines the iPhone
Marques praises right at the start the 6.9″ AMOLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate and extreme brightness. “It’s the same size as the iPhone Pro Max, but with higher resolution and brightness,” he explains. Instead of Face ID, Xiaomi offers an in-display ultrasonic fingerprint reader, which he says is “not only faster, but also more reliable.”
He rates the visual experience as top-tier—contrast, color accuracy, and responsiveness are, according to him, among the best we’ll find on the market in 2025.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 – the most powerful chip in the world
Under the hood, it’s the full top-end— the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is one of the first phones on the planet to get it. In the test, Brownlee confirms that performance beats even the Apple A19 Pro, both in multi-core and GPU benchmarks.
The phone comes with up to 16 GB of RAM and storage up to 1 TB of UFS 4.1, so it handles demanding tasks without even the slightest slowdown. “It’s literally like an iPhone, but faster,” says Marques with a grin.
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Battery from another planet
Xiaomi 17 Pro Max includes a 7,500 mAh battery with silicon-carbon technology—according to the YouTuber, the largest he’s ever seen in a flagship smartphone. The device supports 100 W wired and 50 W wireless charging, with the charger included in the box.
Brownlee says that even though he had the phone for just a few days, the battery life is “absurdly good,” and he estimates real-world usage for 2-days. There’s also reverse wireless charging up to 22,5 W, letting you charge, for example, an iPhone for up to 100 %.
Cameras: A triple 50 MPx setup with no weak link
On the back, there are three 50 MPx sensors—main, ultra-wide, and a telephoto with 5× optical zoom. Brownlee admits that it surprised him how consistent the image quality is across the lenses. The photos are sharp, with a natural bokeh effect and realistic colors.
“The telephoto lens makes beautiful portraits,” he adds. The camera also supports 8K video and a range of advanced settings, including a teleprompter mode or manual exposure shift.
Rear display: A breakthrough idea that finally makes sense
According to Marques, the biggest “wow” moment of the review is a 2.9-inch rear OLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and up to 3000 nits brightness. “Basically, the whole camera module is a screen—not some tiny gimmick,” he describes it.
It can be used as a selfie viewfinder with main cameras, as a clock, a notifications center, a mini Apple Watch—or even as a gaming display with an extra controller that Xiaomi actually sells. Brownlee also appreciates that, despite the second screen, the phone stayed lighter than the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
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Thoughtful details and durability
The phone comes with IP68 protection, pre-installed films on both displays, and maintains a thin, balanced design. The box also includes a charger, which is still rare for flagship models today. Marques also appreciates the little things—like haptic feedback, HyperOS 3.0 software polish, and the ability to customize the rear display in detail via a dedicated “watchface” store. “It’s the best implementation of a secondary display I’ve ever seen,” he summarized.
Marques: “It’s a shame it’s not sold globally.”
In conclusion, Brownlee admits that Xiaomi 17 Pro Max can’t be used as his main phone, since it’s a Chinese version. Still, he called it “the most interesting flagship of the year.”
Dbrand provided it to him directly from China so he could test the device, and—according to him—this kind of phone would deserve an international release too. “Next to it, our Western flagships look pretty boring,” he concluded.
You can watch the full video on his YouTube channel:
You can buy it here — we’ve got an exclusive coupon for you!
The latest flagship models Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max (Chinese versions) are now available in stock from our partner seller TradingShenzhen, and the promised exclusive coupon is included as well — as we offer it.
You can even use up to two coupons in one order – after registering / logging in on the seller’s website, you’ll automatically get a €5 coupon, while our special discount code just needs to be applied in the cart and both discounts will be combined. Even though it’s not a huge discount, we had to fight for this coupon because prices are currently limited and the seller didn’t want to enable the discount. In the end, we convinced them, so you can at least have the more expensive €16 shipping practically for free. Of course, when shopping on TradingShenzhen our VIP support also applies; what matters is that you buy through our links below or, respectively, click through via the orange buttonGET THE DISCOUNT.
Cart coupons can be combined
The advantage of buying via TradingShenzhen is unmatched and precisely tuned shipping, which guarantees delivery from China directly to Slovakia and the Czech Republic without customs duties and VAT. Everything is already included in the price, so you won’t run into any unpleasant surprises upon delivery. On our website, we’ve already published several articles with orders from this seller, for example an order of a 1600 € notebook.
Delivery is usually within 10 days from shipping, which is currently the fastest option among all Chinese online shops.
Platba cez DHgate: The platform has finally launched safe and reliable Google Pay payments! So now you don’t need to use Revolut / Wise cards for payment, and you can pay directly in EUR. We’d also like to remind you that orders from DHgate come with our VIP support, which you get after downloading our extension for the Chrome browser on desktop only (when shopping on a smartphone, you can use the DHgate app).
For this product, shipping is available completely free of charge. However, this is the slowest delivery method and the item may take 20 days up to 1 months to arrive.
When ordering from the Chinese warehouse, AliExpress will add the customs duty in your cart—approximately 3,70 € per order. When you receive the package, you won’t pay anything extra.
For this product, shipping is available completely free of charge. However, this is the slowest delivery method and the item may take 20 days up to 1 months to arrive.
When ordering from the Chinese warehouse, AliExpress will add the customs duty in your cart—approximately 3,70 € per order. When you receive the package, you won’t pay anything extra.
For this product, shipping is available completely free of charge. However, this is the slowest delivery method and the item may take 20 days up to 1 months to arrive.
When ordering from the Chinese warehouse, AliExpress will add the customs duty in your cart—approximately 3,70 € per order. When you receive the package, you won’t pay anything extra.
Our extra service with VIP support — we’ll handle the order on DHgate for you and ship it straight to your address.
If you don’t have experience buying on DHgate, your payment won’t go through, or the coupon doesn’t work, we offer our readers and customers an order-handling service delivered directly to your address. You send us the money by bank transfer and we order the product straight to you. That way, you don’t have to worry about a failed payment or applying the coupon, and you can be sure the whole order goes through 100 % correctly. On top of that, you automatically get our VIP support — we handle any shipping issues for you and assist with warranty claims. The fee for this service is 15 € for the product price. You can contact us by email at info(@)xiaomiplanet.sk or on Messenger, where we’re active all the time.
For this product, shipping is available completely free of charge. However, this is the slowest delivery method and the item may take 20 days up to 1 months to arrive.
When ordering from the Chinese warehouse, AliExpress will add the customs duty in your cart—approximately 3,70 € per order. When you receive the package, you won’t pay anything extra.
Are you shopping on DHGate for the first time?See the guide!
Updated 13. 10. 2026 on 09:29
TIPShipping absolutely free.
For this product, shipping is available completely free of charge. However, this is the slowest delivery method and the item may take 20 days up to 1 months to arrive.
When ordering from the Chinese warehouse, AliExpress will add the customs duty in your cart—approximately 3,70 € per order. When you receive the package, you won’t pay anything extra.
For this product, shipping is available completely free of charge. However, this is the slowest delivery method and the item may take 20 days up to 1 months to arrive.
When ordering from the Chinese warehouse, AliExpress will add the customs duty in your cart—approximately 3,70 € per order. When you receive the package, you won’t pay anything extra.
TIPWith Standard Shipping via GShopper, you pay no extra fees—everything is already included!
With the GShopper seller, we recommend choosing Standard Shipping, where you won’t pay anything extra. Customs fees and any VAT are handled by the seller. You can select the shipping method in the cart only, after entering your delivery address. Delivery with this option usually takes about 15 business days from dispatch from the warehouse, but it may take longer.
Will the Chinese version of Xiaomi 17 / 17 Pro / Pro Max work for us?
Yes, it will work, but with certain limitations. We’ve listed all the important details below in the list:
Full support for 4G LTE and 5G networks for Europe ✅
Full support for Google apps – Google Play, YouTube, Gmail… ✅
Support for all banking apps ✅
NFC payments support via Google Pay ✅
Automatic OTA updates ✅
Option to uninstall Chinese apps ✅
Option to switch the most commonly used apps to the SK and CZ language via the MoreLocale tool 2 ✅
Slovak and Czech language ❌ only English and Chinese
Android Auto ❌ most likely won’t work
We want to remind you that the base model Xiaomi 17 will be officially available in Europe as well, in the global version, sometime during February – March 2026. If you don’t want to wait, don’t mind smaller limitations, and want to save some money, since the global version will definitely be much more expensive, you can buy the Chinese version already now.
To get more updates from the Xiaomi world, keep following our Xiaomi Planet website — join our Facebook group, where we build an active community and help each other out. Also subscribe to our Telegram, where we add the best offers and coupons from China every day.
