Xiaomi Redmi Note 17 Pro Max review

Display

The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max packs a 6.83-inch AMOLED panel with 1,280 x 2,772 pixels (447ppi), 12-bit color depth, and 120Hz refresh rate support. The screen supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision streaming formats.

Other notable specs include 240Hz touch sampling rate, 3840Hz PWM dimming, and DCI-P3 color gamut support.

The display is protected with a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 sheet.

This appears to be the same panel used on the Redmi Note 15 Pro and 15 Pro+, but with a higher peak brightness of 3,500 nits, up from 3,200 nits.

The maximum automatic brightness we captured on the Note 17 Pro Max was 1,109 nits, while the peak one was the impressive 3,415 nits - about what was promised.

Finally, we measured the minimum brightness on a white screen - just 1.1 nit.

Refresh rate

The Display settings menu offers two refresh rate options - Default and Custom. The default one switches between 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz where appropriate. Custom allows you to set a cap at 60Hz or force apps to display at a 120Hz refresh rate if supported.

In both Default and 120Hz the screen would dial down to 60Hz when idling. The Default mode indeed uses 120Hz for the important parts of the UI, and 60Hz and 90Hz for most apps and settings menus. Then there is the 120Hz mode that forces everything to go for the highest possible refresh rate.

The only time we observed 30Hz was on the always-on screen, which is not deserving of its name as it disappears after 10 seconds.

HDR and streaming

The screen on the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max supports HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision streaming formats. And it can serve such content across all popular apps, Netflix and YouTube included.

Battery life

We won't blame you if you jumped to this section first, as this is one of the most interesting aspects of the phone. This year, Xiaomi focused heavily on battery autonomy, and the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max definitely deserves the Max moniker with its massive 10,000mAh Si/C battery.

We are reviewing the EU version here, which has a reduced 9,210mAh battery. Other regions like Australia get this battery capacity as well, so the limitation is not strictly EU-related.

The battery inside the 17 Pro Max is accompanied by Xiaomi's Surge G2 management chipset, which allows for accurate display of the remaining power.

Finally, Xiaomi promises up to 6 years of battery health, as the cell is said to keep 80% of its battery after 1,600 cycles.

In our testing, the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max scored an Active Use Score of 22:31h, occupying the 10th spot in our all-time chart. The phone's battery was good for over 64h of talk time, and it lasted a few minutes north of 24 hours on web browsing. The Max also clocked 38 hours of video streaming, and 9:32h of game time.

The game time was not as long as we expected with such a big battery, but we guess the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 chipset is not very efficient under these loads. The Poco X8 Pro Max, for example, with its 8500mAh battery but using the Dimensity 9500s, lasted almost 16 and a half hours of gaming.

Charging speed

The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max supports Xiaomi's 100W HyperCharge fast charging and 27W of reverse wired charging. There is an option for Boost Charge when the screen is turned off, and we left that active.

We carried our test with Xiaomi's own 100W power adapter and the bundled 6A-rated USB-A-C cable.

The maker promises 56% of charge in 30 mins and a full charge in 64mins. And our charging test pretty much confirms this speed.

The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max huge battery went from 1% to 33% in 15mins and up to 57% in 30mins on the 100W charger. Finally, the Max reached 100% on the 61min mark. That's quite impressive given the extra-large battery.

The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max offers different battery protection features. The first one is Smart Charging, which intelligently controls the whole charging process with considerations for ambient temperature, app usage, etc.

Then you can turn on Battery Protection with an 80% charge cap or Intelligent Charging, which learns from your usage habits and recharges accordingly.

Using these features, Xiaomi promises that this battery won't drop below the 80% threshold in six years or 1,600 cycles.

Speakers

The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max has two speakers - the bottom one is larger and louder, while the top one is actually an amplified earpiece with two outlets for sound balance.

Xiaomi offers a 200% and 400% loudness boost over the max volume level. We tested the 100% loudness and 400% loudness for thoroughness.

When using the standard 100% volume, we recorded -26.8 LUFS - a Good score. The audio quality was very good, featuring sufficient bass, clear vocals, and balanced highs.

At the 400% volume level, you should not expect a 4x boost in loudness. Here, the 17 Pro Max achieved a Very Good mark with -24.3 LUFS, but the audio quality took a sharp turn for the worse by losing the lows, ruining the mids, and pushing everything into the highs.

The sample recorded below is from the 100% level output.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.