Redmi Note 17 Pro Max 5G Review: I Was Not Expecting This

Quick summary: The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max 5G has a 10,000mAh battery good for up to three days, 100W charging, a premium build, and a bright display for about €650. Performance is just okay.

Specs

• Battery and charging: 10,000mAh, 100W wired and 27W reverse charging. No wireless charging.
• Chip and memory: Snapdragon 6 Gen 5, 8GB of RAM plus 4GB virtual, and 256GB of storage.
• Cameras: 50MP main and 8MP ultra-wide on the back, 32MP on the front, all shooting 4K.
• Display: 6.83-inch 1.5K (2772 x 1280) AMOLED, up to 3,500 nits, Gorilla Glass Victus 2, 240Hz touch sampling, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.
• Weight: 229.5g, about 15g more than a Z Fold 8 Ultra but with double the battery.
• Other: Android 16, Wi-Fi 6, and the green color I have.

Performance

Geekbench gave me 950 single-core and 2,992 multi-core, not crazy impressive. Websites and scrolling are fine day to day, but AAA games will struggle. Roblox is playable at around 25 to 30fps, even with graphics turned up, though backgrounds load late.

Software

There’s quite a bit of bloatware, like Booking.com, a foreign app and some games, but it all uninstalls. You get Xiaomi’s wallpaper, widget and theme store, HyperAI features, a custom 120Hz refresh option and color modes (I use Vivid).

Build

It feels really premium. If someone handed it to me, I wouldn’t think it was a cheap phone.

Speakers

Volume goes up to 400% in settings. I’d rate volume 8.5/10 and quality 7.5/10, slightly tinny but good. The speakers are a strong point.

Cameras

The camera app has Pro, video, photo, portrait, document scanning, Ultra HD, slow-mo, time-lapse, underwater (added in an update) and dual video. Zoom goes to 6x and stays fairly stable. Quality is very good for the price. It’s not Pixel or high-end Samsung level, but close enough.

Display

The display looks beautiful. I have no real complaints, and I’d be very happy with it at this price.

Verdict

Multi-day battery, decent cameras, great build, really good speakers and good AI features, with just okay performance. It’s a great phone.

• Redmi Note 17 Pro Max 5G on eBay