Xiaomi 17 Pro Max vs. iPhone 17 Pro Max: A Head-to-Head Showdown for the Ages

Marques Brownlee recently put the spotlight on a comparison that’s been on everyone’s radar – the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max versus the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Both devices are vying for the top spot in the smartphone world, but what stands out about Xiaomi is that they seem to be on a mission to match Apple’s polish – but also to push past it in some key areas.

Brownlee starts off by talking about design. At first glance, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max bears a striking resemblance to its Apple rival – flat sides, familiar speaker placement, and those antenna lines give it an unmistakable iPhone-esque look. The way the camera module is laid out, with a plateau-like arrangement, is almost an exact echo of the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s look. They’ve managed to make the phone feel like a solid alternative to the iPhone, with a shape that’ll feel familiar to Apple fans but also a few features that Apple haven’t even touched yet. For one, its significantly lighter than the iPhone despite packing a battery thats larger than Apples, and it also has an IP68 rating. One thing will appreciate is how the Xiaomi comes with a screen protector pre-installed on both the front and back glass.

Both phones have 6.9-inch screens with pretty much identical looking bezels around the edges. Where the Xiaomi really holds its own is in the brightness department. Another thing that Xiaomi has done differently is opting for an ultrasonic fingerprint reader under the display instead of Face ID. Brownlee was pretty impressed with how fast it was – and by getting rid of the Dynamic Island cutout, Xiaomi has managed to give the phone a sleeker look as a result.


When it comes to performance, this is where the real battle is – and Xiaomi comes out swinging with some serious firepower. The iPhone 17 Pro Max runs on Apples trusty A19 Pro chip, and with a vapor chamber to keep things performing at top-tier levels – its a beast of a phone, that’s for sure. But the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max has a few tricks up its sleeve too, thanks to its use of Qualcomm’s brand new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which matches the former in single-core performance and actually surpasses it in multi-core and GPU tasks. With 16GB of RAM and a whopping 1tb of UFS 4.1 storage, Xiaomi has really set a new bar for what a smartphone can do.

Battery Life is where Xiaomi really goes all out. The iPhone 17 Pro Max has already set the bar pretty high but the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max takes it to an entirely new level with a 7,500mAh silicon-carbon battery. And don’t even get me started on charging speeds – we’re talking 100W wired charging with a charger thrown in for good measure, plus 50W wireless charging.


Cameras tell a pretty similar story of one-upmanship going on here. The iPhone 17 Pro Max comes with a trio of 48-megapixel lenses, which do the job, no complaints there. Xiaomi jumps in with three 50-megapixel cameras and somehow manages to top the lot with some seriously detailed images and a natural depth of field to boot. The 5x optical zoom telephoto lens stands out as the star of the show, offering a portrait-ready look with a pleasing bokeh to it. Brownlee does mention that Xiaomi has a tendency to overexpose certain skin tones.


The real head-turner though is the back display on the Xiaomi. This 2.9-inch, 3000-nit, 120Hz OLED screen that’s tucked away across the camera module is basically a mini functional space that’s just crying out to be used. The main purpose of it is as a viewfinder for the main cameras, so you can take selfies with the same quality as your primary shots, but it’s not just a viewfinder, it also handles notifications, shows the time with some really cool customisable styles to boot, and even supports a few mini-games.