The Xiaomi Redmi Note 17 has one heck of a battery under the hood, but we're not convinced that's enough to justify the R10,000 asking price. Between underwhelming cameras and sluggish performance, there's a whole lot of phone here that doesn't quite add up to a lot of value. It's got staying power, sure, but so does our disappointment.
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Design
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Display
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Performance
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Battery
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Camera
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Value
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 17 is one mighty confusing smartphone. On the one hand, it knows how to play to its mid-range market with its 7,700mAh battery. On the other… Xiaomi has made sacrifices in a couple of key areas that left us wondering why this smartphone costs R10,000. Brands like Oppo have proved batteries (nearly) as big as this one can be had for less, even in South Africa. And even that… raised eyebrows at Stuff.
A big boy without much ambition
It’s immediately clear that Xiaomi is playing it safer here than with the Redmi Note 15. We’re not talking about the fully plastic rear, or the Gorilla Glass protecting the display, which is par for the course. The Note 17 has ditched the giant circular camera component and time-travelled back to when cameras hogged the whole upper-left side of the rear. It makes a sort of sense. If you’re dropping a whole sensor, why build it somewhere to live?
This is still a big boy, thanks to the 6.99in AMOLED display. It’s hunkier than ever, too, measuring 8.5mm deep and weighing a hefty 225g. You know, we expect that from the budget heroes doing their best. Hey, Xiaomi has at least stuck to the bit, offering an IR blaster (that we can’t say we needed) and a microSD slot.
We, at least, can’t fault that AMOLED display. Much. Stuff enjoys a big screen for whenever Eskom comes a-callin ‘. The FHD+ here held its own in that regard. Colours, especially, look great. The 120Hz refresh rate is fine, though Xiaomi’s processor meant it hardly ever got to stretch its legs. It did give the illusion of speedier navigation, and for that, we’re grateful. Less so about the 1,800 nits peak brightness; a big downgrade.
The lack of HDR support was a bit of a blow, too. Again, it seems a sensible omission for phones trying to keep their price way down, but when you’re dropping shy of five digits to own, it’s less forgivable. The IP65 rating didn’t bother us — it survived a routine “oh, that was on my lap” drop more than once, but it’s still a step down.
A little more RAM wouldn’t hurt, would it?
Would you believe the Redmi Note 15 didn’t even stoop as low as 6GB of RAM? Those were back in the good ol’ days, when Sam Altman was only eating RAM for breakfast, instead of lunch and dinner. Whatever. The Redmi Note 17 embraces 6GB in our review model (8GB can be had for more money, somewhere).
It’s not like the Snapdragon 4 Gen 4 is doing much to make up for the subpar system memory. While technically better than the last, the resultant smartphone is a bit of a bugger to use. This is clearest in Xiaomi’s choice of a stripped-back HyperOS 3. While not a huge deal even for us, it makes quick multitasking a hassle, and floating windows are out of the question. Even the animations slowed to a crawl once we gave the Note 17 a little too much to do.
Still, it trudged through day-to-day usage without much fuss, opening search tabs and scrolling through Instagram. Until we tried booting up Marvel Snap, which never quite managed despite its meagre gameplay loop. It’s playable, sure, in the sense that the app will open, but we wouldn’t call it a fun experience.
You’ve heard it before, and you’ll hear it again: the 7,700mAh battery was the star of the show, netting us a little under a day and a half of life under regular use. We could easily see that stretched to two full days if you’re smart about what you do. 45W wired charging isn’t the selling point it used to be, though it’ll still do a fine job.
A flash in the pan
Onto the cameras. It’d be easy to rag on the Redmi Note 17’s massive downgrade in that department. Xiaomi opted for a single 50MP sensor instead of a 108MP one accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide. Low-hanging fruit aside, the lone rear shooter did fine. Just fine. We managed to snap a couple decent shots with it.
Almost all of them in daylight. Get up close and personal with the subject, and you’ll almost always come away with something respectable. It retains much of the detail, and colours look natural enough ’til you pull out the microscope. Pull back a bit, and some of that detail begins disappearing into the background — though Xiaomi will do its damnedest to sharpen the image. More often than not, to a fault. We’d also keep zoom to a minimum.
Whip out the Redmi Note 17 at a night-time gathering, and your mates probably won’t ask you to send the results their way. Most detail is lost here, even when attempting to focus on artificially lit objects or people. We wish we had something kinder to say about the 16MP selfie camera other than ‘it did okay’. That about sums up the shooter’s decent colour reproduction, even if the finer details appear a tad washed out.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 17 verdict
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 17 is an odd case. It feels like it’s taken one step forward and two steps back. The 7,700mAh battery is undoubtedly impressive, and the AMOLED display still makes for a pleasant-enough viewing experience. But those wins are let down by sluggish performance, a disappointing camera array, and a handful of display compromises we couldn’t quite overlook. Especially when Xiaomi is asking R10,000 for the privilege. It’s not that the Redmi Note 17 is a bad smartphone. But it’s difficult to recommend when even Xiaomi’s last-gen device feels like a more complete package for a couple of grand cheaper.
