Xiaomi Redmi Note 17 5G hands-on review
Design
The design of the Redmi Note 17 shows a major departure from last year's model. Gone is the centrally located distinct camera module in favor of a more familiar design. The sides have now been flattened, and the corner radii have been increased. It's a fairly typical 2026 smartphone design, and while it's certainly trendy, the ostentatiousness of the previous generation made it stand out more.
The phone comes in three colors. The black and blue are simple enough, but the purple has an interesting streaking pattern across the back, reminiscent of long-exposure night sky photos. The back panel also has an iridescent finish to it, and glows in all the shades of the rainbow as you flick the device side to side. None of this shows up well in photos, however, and it's something you need to see in person to appreciate.
The Redmi Note 17 is a large phone, larger even than the sizable Redmi Note 15. It will definitely be too large for some people, who may struggle to operate the device with one hand. Thankfully, both the weight and the thickness are quite manageable, especially considering the size of the battery within.
In terms of build quality, the Redmi Note 17 feels sturdy enough in hand. There is Gorilla Glass 7i on the front, and the frame and the back panel are plastic. When it comes to ingress protection, you get basic IP65 support.
Display
The Redmi Note 17 has a 7.0-inch AMOLED display with 2396 x 1080 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. It is a flat panel as opposed to the curved display on the Redmi Note 15. However, it does have more noticeable bezels, especially at the bottom.
The display on the Redmi Note 17 has good image quality. It's sharp, has good viewing angles, and can get very bright. However, the colors are quite oversaturated. There is an option to switch from the default Vivid preset to Standard in the settings, but even that is not able to tone down the colors to reference levels. As a result, the colors always look a touch too vibrant in every app. Saturated colors are fine, but there should be at least one reference-level preset available for the sake of color accuracy.
The display has a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. The software is quite conservative with regards to which apps can and can't access the full refresh rate by default. You can choose to wrest control away and manually set every app to 120Hz if you want from the settings.
The phone does not support HDR. All HDR content on YouTube, Netflix, and other apps will play in the standard version.
At the bottom of the screen is the optical fingerprint scanner. The scanner is placed far too low for such a big phone, but it does work well, even if your fingers are a bit wet. Similarly, the touchscreen also works well if your fingers or the display itself is wet.
Battery and charging
The Redmi Note 17 has an 8000mAh battery. That is a sizable capacity, especially for a phone that does not have a power-hungry processor. The result is a battery life that can genuinely be made to stretch out for days, with up to three days being well within the realm of possibility. Alternatively, if you are a heavy user, say, someone who uses their phone for navigation all day, you can still get a full day or even two days of use out of the phone.
When it comes to charging, the phone supports 45W fast charging with the provided charger. A 30-minute charge gives you enough power to use the phone for an entire day, and maybe then some. A full charge only takes about an hour and a half, which is perfectly acceptable for such a large battery. The phone also supports 22.5W reverse wired charging.
Charging speed
- in 15 min
- in 30 min
- Time to full charge (from 0%)
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Speaker
The Redmi Note 17 has a single mono speaker at the bottom. It's a reedy-sounding unit that is also relatively quiet, and you need to be above 50% volume to get usable sound out of it. At maximum volume, it's just too thin and shouty to be pleasant. The phone has a claimed 200% volume that activates at the final volume step, but that's just an arbitrary number and based on whatever the manufacturer decides is the 100% value.
