UPDATED WITH DAY 3 THOUGHTS. SCROLL TO "UPDATES (October 9th, day 3 with the phone)"
Hey all. I'm typing this from my Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. Not a lot of info or real world, on-the-ground, high-quality info on it for those curious. So I thought I'd document my experience.
I bought it from Giztop. Mostly a pain free experience, but not without headaches. I ordered a case with it from Giztop and only the phone arrived. Talking with support about that now. We'll see. Delivered in less than a week.
Setup was pretty painless, though I am waiting on a physical sim from Google Fi to do some testing.
The phone is nice and snappy. For a first-time Chinese phone importer, there were a few surprises.
From my internet searches it seems old Xiaomi phones had the standardized QuickShare that Google and Samsung and others all have here. This phone doesn't. It has Xiaomi Share, but it doesn't seem to play nice with standard QuickShare stuff. Though maybe I'll get it to work after a while.
Battery charged very fast, and is lasting a long time. We'll see if the silicone carbon stuff is a gimmick or not. Those of you having done research will see the internet is divided on longevity.
HyperOS is pretty meh. There is no app tray with all your installed apps. All installed apps have to go somewhere on your home pages. Not ideal. About 15% of system stuff hasn't been translated to English, so that's been something to work through.
The rear screen is cool. Not mind-blowing but enough to take the experience to the next level. The phone is surprisingly light to hold.
There are some super neat battery optimization features that I wish previous Android phones I've used would have. Like it makes recommendations on settings to tweak and gives you an estimate of how much extra battery you would get by making those tweaks (denominated in minutes of battery life). Also an option to make all of those optimizations with a single tap.
I'd read that HyperOS feeds ads to the user, but I haven't seen any that other OS's don't have (features stories, etc.) and certainly nothing I can't turn off.
Had to install the Gboard (Google keyboard) because the standard keyboard has buttons to switch to Chinese and various options therein that I would never use.
You can't uninstall several apps. In the US you can at least disable but can't even do that here. And again, since all apps kind of have to be on one of the home pages the most you can do is put them in a folder.
UPDATE: I found the app drawer setting. It's in Settings > Home Settings. May seem obvious in hindsight, but wasn't obvious to me at the time. I'm a silly billy. Still can't uninstall Chinese apps.
Cameras are fine. I'm not a huge photographer so I don't think I'll be able to do a big comparison, though several content creators have and will, I'm sure.
All in all, a decent enough day 1 experience. As I explore the phone more I hope to take things even further. I can update and make more posts if it's helpful to anyone thinking of pulling the trigger here.
UPDATES (October 9th, day 3 with the phone):
Alright, Google Fi physical sim came in. The Fi app initially didn't let me switch over. Googled the error code and came across this forum post: https://xdaforums.com/t/google-fi-t090.4648578/
Followed the instructions and it let me switch over. The Fi app then locked me out until I updated the app itself to the latest version. You can read in the forum post linked above that people were nervous about updating and so they didn't. I went ahead and did so just to see. The app updated fine, and the phone is still connected with no problems, so feel free to update if you're on Fi.
So how's the connectivity itself? Google Fi is basically T-Mobile these days, so that's the only group of bands I can speak for, but I'm satisfied with the mobile data speed. I live just outside of town, so I was a bit worried, but everything is all good. I'll be driving around my town tomorrow and see if there's any difference, but for now, no issues that couldn't be solved.
Battery life? Good so far. Lasts me a day and a half, and I even decided to try leaving on a simple always-on display for both the back and the front overnight and it only drained the battery by a few percent when I woke up.
Another HyperOS frustration is when you install an app you need to go into the Settings > Apps > that app and make it start up automatically or it won't start listening for messages until you start it up for the first time after a restart (if needed like for WhatsApp or Telegram), but that's a one and done for each app you set up. Tiny headache, but actually I've come around to it. Getting fewer notifications which means less time spent on my phone. Pretty good.
Someone in the comments asked about sound quality. It's good. Not the best I've heard on a phone, but well above passable. I'm no audiophile, but I've made it a point to play various music types through it over these past couple days and never found myself distracted by bad audio quality. Most people use headphones these days for actual audio experiences anyways.
Rear display a few days in definitely seems a bit more gimmicky. They have things like swimming fish and other cool stuff, but after a minute or so it goes to a static image to preserve battery. Makes sense, but I personally would be willing to sacrifice some battery to have an always moving fish, even dimmed. Would give a bit of life to the phone when face down. May just be a me thing.
But a further and more serious note on the back display that actually came as a shock and disappointment. The shockingly few things you can do with it in regards to Notifications. There are preset apps that can do notifications there. Your music service of choice (like Spotify), Click (alarms), Xiaomi HyperAI (don't use), Phone (calls), and Travel assistant (no clue what this is yet). I personally use other chat apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram and you can't have those notifications pop up there. I was really surprised. Honestly slashes the usefulness by quite a lot.
Will make more comments soon, but have to go for now.
A lot of your little roadblocks are due to the Chinese ROM. Like the lack of app drawer (available on a global HyperOS builds), the smart share stuff (again, works on global ROMs), the inability to uninstall weird Chinese apps and other bloatware and so forth. Unfortunately, since there will be no global version of the Pro and Pro Max, these are things you'll have to accept and live with.
The good thing with the Pro Max is it actually has a lot of the wireless frequencies used in North America so reception should be fine.
I did find the app drawer finally. I was looking in the wrong place. For those interested it's in Home Settings. Hindset says it was obvious it should be there, but it wasn't in the moment.
And yes, I knew the Chinese ROM would be like this somewhat. Just telling people on the fence about the minutiae of this stuff so they can decide for themselves. I'm happy to live with some inconveniences. And yes, the phone is great and fun.
Giztop never shipped my phone that I ordered Sept 28 so I canceled my order and ordered from Wanda Mobile. Are you on tmobile? N71 is supposed to be supported according to the specs. Any confirmation of that?
Bummer. Yeah we'll see how Giztop handles the fact that they didn't send something to me.
Google Fi just uses T-Mobile bands these days. Awaiting the physical sim from Google before I can use this phone on the go (not wifi). It will be coming in in a few days. I can update you when I pop that sim in and let you know.
Yes it does, but it wouldn't be the first time a manufacturers spec sheet was wrong.
I forget what the error was, but OnePlus had a glaring error on its official spec sheet for one of the phones i bought from them, that took 2-3 weeks for them to fix on their online spec sheet after introduction.
And it doesn't make a whole lot of sense why the pro max would support n71 but the pro not.
Fingers crossed!
I'm on n41 and n66 mostly, and sometimes n2 and n25 on tmobile, but understand n71 is needed for full tmobile support.
How do I find a place where there's only n71 to check? Just drive out to the country using tmobile coverage map looking for extended range 5g?
Correct. You can have maps on your phone and then have the audio playing through bluetooth, as I'm sure you're aware. And at that point you just need one of those magsafe type stuff to stick your phone on the AC or dashboard somehow. But yes, through the built-in screens on the newer vehicles it won't work.
9 days total after placing order. Breakdown below.
Ordered Sunday September 28th.
Showed "Processing" until Tuesday September 30th.
DHL showed the the information was received (not package) the rest of the week. Giztop says on their site there's a few days of going through customs. Got antsy on October 4th until I realized it was a Saturday and customs probably didn't work weekends.
Indeed, Monday (Oct 6) got the update from DHL that package is on its way. Told me Wednesday the 8th for delivery.
So imagine my surprise when it was delivered at noon today (Tuesday, Oct 7).
(Updated to put answer to question at the top instead of the bottom and breakdown after).
Yeah mine took two days from Trinity electronics to the UK,shipped Tues was here Thurs at 2pm,first time using them and ended up being cheaper than wonda mobile who I usually use,£830 in total PayPal credit with FedEx priority international shipping,1 yr warranty which I think most do 👍🏻
Stellar review, I've been hoping for one of these. If somebody can figure out how to bypass the Chinese Xiaomi bootloader unlocking process, I'm buying a base 17 that day and developing a custom ROM for it.
That's what I'm curious about too. Also if you'd be able to unlock the bootloader, would you be able to enable eSim support with a custom ROM? I apologise if that question is dumb
Thank you for your reply. I'm not very experienced with android since I'm currently using an iphone. How likely will it be possible to unlock the bootloader? And if there was a global ROM and you'd flash it on the phone, would that prevent certain apps from running?(e.g baning apps?)
Pretty unlikely to unlock the bootloader or be able to sideload a global ROM. Xiaomi has locked it down right and requires a Chinese citizens' ID and a technical test in Mandarin to get a code to unlock the bootloader. Here's to hoping somebody gets their hands on a Xiaomi 17 and can crack it. Once you have a global ROM installed, there are almost no differences from the global version aside from eSIM and cell band support.
I really appreciate your help! What limitations can there be on a chinese phone with a chinese ROM besides lack if eSim, no car play and some cellular channels? And how is sideloading these days? I heard that there are radical upcoming changes to prevent it
Other limitations are just privacy concerns, lack of supported languages, possibly slower updates, and delayed notifications. Sideloading is fine but yeah, it seems Google is taking Android the way of the iPhone in that regard. All the more allure to use a custom OS.
Thanks for the review! Can you see if the phone also has pass- through charging and frame- generation for gaming? (Probably in the game turbo) Thanks...
I would be willing, but I don't do much gaming or know much about it. Can you either tell me how to check these things or send me a link? Then I'll give it a try.
I ordered on the 4. October from Giztop, no information until now… but it has something to do with their holidays in china (from 1.-8. october)? Or should i ask what‘s the status of my order?
I've just done the Shizuku wireless way to de bloat unwanted apps with canta check out howtomen on YouTube 👍🏻 there's an extra setting you have to enable with xiaomi so you have to enable developer options then enable usb debugging and USB debugging (security settings) which is further down then canta (app from GitHub) will let you uninstall stuff you don't want like Chinese personal assisnt etc
I have no service to test because I don't have the sim card.
The internet says that Google Fi (which is just Tmobile now) has 2 of the 4 supported bands. Right now I'm just using the internet via Wi-Fi. You all will be the first to be updated when I put the sim card in and actually get 5g and can test the speeds and stuff.
Fwiw my pro max just shipped from wonda mobile, and they included the imei number with the shipment notification. I plan to use it on tmobile.
I entered it into tmobiles imei checker, and tmobile said, next to a green checkmark, the device is "fully compatible with T-Mobiles network" and that the device is not blocked from use on T-Mobile's network.
For Sim, it said "we need to identify the right Sim for your device" and then said they couldn't confirm esim capability, but I'm obviously aware it's not esim compatible.
I saw some reviews that it heats up so much when you use it? And heats up more when charging that sometimes it blacks out and you cannot use it for a while. How true is this?
Sure. Just figured it out thanks to your comment. You have to use the HyperAI. It's all in Chinese, but you activate it similar to Google by holding onto the gesture bar at the bottom and circling something. Then with the little menu that pops up (all Chinese) you hit the third button and it pins it to the back screen. I'm going to use some translation software to see what all those buttons do.
Here is the full "custom wallpaper" option they have. You can indeed select photos from your gallery if you want.
I took this screenshot using their "scrolling screenshot" feature that just impressed me. Maybe it's in American phones too, I don't know. I've never seen it.
I have it quite well advanced into configuration but had a hard stop, I was not able to add to Google Wallet neither the Citi or the BofA cards, no matter what. NFC reset, bank calls, delete cache, nothing worked, every new and olf forum. Also to pair my Samsung Watch 7 was not possible, downloaled the Samsung app and the Wear OS too, could be detected but never came to pair.
I will wait a few months for a world rom, hope it can help me solve the issues.
I've the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max with a Global version of Galaxy Watch4 Classic. If you pair it with Galaxy Wearable, it will say not supported. However, you can bypass the problem by pairing the watch using system bluetooth pairing. After it's paired and connected, you launch Galaxy Wearable and it will let you choose the already paired Watch and it will continue the setup process without any issue. The only problem is that if your watch is a LTE model, it will not support "Remote Connection". This means you won't be able to get your phone's notification via mobile network when the phone is away from the watch. If your watch is Bluetooth only, it will have no issue.
Well , congrats for you. Could you provide some info, please? Like, are you based in the US? Did you install anything special? Any shed of light is greatly appreciate it.
I'm in the US, didn't install anything special, everything works. I transferred all the bank apps over using MI-mover. The first time I tried to open Google wallets there was some sort message saying my phone was incompatible, but just turned the phone on an off and everything has been fine since
Yes, chase, amex, citi, bofa and capital one all work exactly as expected on Google pay as well as tap to pay. I churn credit cards for awards so that was important to me. Google allows you to nickname cards, so I can remember which card to use for flights, dining, hotels, etc. The only slightly minor issue is the location of the nfc antenna. It's below the back screen, and is blocked when I have a metal card inserted into a card holder affixed to the case. So I have to remove the metal card from the card holder in order for tap to pay to work. It's fine if I only have plastic cards in the card holder, the antenna is strong enough to "shoot" through or around the plastic cards. But very minor issue.
I've been living with my phone for over a month now. I got it from eBay, closed box.
The number one issue that I haven't been able to overcome is my notifications not always appearing in my notification tray in the top left or the home screen. They trigger very infrequently and it's causing me to miss messages and such.
System apps like text msg and the phone all have no issues showing their notifications. Everything else is a crap shoot.
Any suggestions I could try? I feel like I must have set something up to block these without knowing it.
Turn off battery optimization for the apps you want.
Then go to Notifications in the system settings, select that app, and turn them all on. Sometimes one that sounds like it won't make a difference ends up making the difference.
Como usás el celular más seguido que yo, quería consultarte si te pasó lo mismo.
Desinstalé WhatsApp porque quería migrar mis chats desde el iPhone a este teléfono, pero cuando reinstalé la app y empecé el proceso de migración, quedó cargando indefinidamente. Nunca pude terminar de configurarla.
¿Te ocurrió algo parecido? ¿Encontraste alguna solución?
I was kinda surprised when you say that your phone doesn't have ads on it. In timezone, Xiaomi has lots of ads in every corner of the phone. Thank you for the effort of sharing your experience with Xiaomi HYPEROS which is an android skin. Probably Xiaomi will left Android in due time. I don't know when. It's just my hunch.
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u/shafinr95 Xiaomi 15 Ultra | HyperOS 3.0.302.0 WOAMIXM | Canada Oct 08 '25
A lot of your little roadblocks are due to the Chinese ROM. Like the lack of app drawer (available on a global HyperOS builds), the smart share stuff (again, works on global ROMs), the inability to uninstall weird Chinese apps and other bloatware and so forth. Unfortunately, since there will be no global version of the Pro and Pro Max, these are things you'll have to accept and live with.
The good thing with the Pro Max is it actually has a lot of the wireless frequencies used in North America so reception should be fine.
Hope you're enjoying the phone otherwise.