Xiaomi skips ahead to ‘17’ smartphone series to take on iPhone 17 in heated Chinese market

“The Xiaomi 17 series represents a generational leap in product capability,” said Lei Jun, the founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, in a social media post on Monday. The new devices were “fully benchmarked against the iPhone and ready for head-to-head competition!” he added.

Xiaomi has moved up the launch of its new series to later this month, compared with last year’s October unveiling of the Xiaomi 15.

This is only the second time that the company has skipped a numerical designation since the 2011 release of the inaugural Mi 1. In 2018, Xiaomi bypassed the Mi 7 and launched the Mi 8 to commemorate its eighth anniversary.

Lei shared a post from company president Lu Weibing, who revealed more details about the new devices, including the names of three variants: Xiaomi 17, Xiaomi 17 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max – similar to Apple’s naming convention for the iPhone 17 series.

Lu said Xiaomi’s devices would be the first in the world to feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a chipset introduced by Qualcomm on the same day.