The Xiaomi 17 phones are excellent devices, but their blatantly stolen iPhone 17 Pro designs leave me wishing that the company had been a bit more original.
*Image credit — Ice Universe
The Xiaomi 17 series is official, and all of the models are packing some pretty epic hardware. No, seriously, these are some of the nicest phones that Xiaomi has ever released, and almost every early reviewer seems to think so too.
And yet, for the first time in my life, I find myself not wanting to get a Xiaomi phone. Unlike so many others, I’ve never written off the company’s phones as cheap hardware that I wouldn’t spend money on. I have always respected Xiaomi and the devices it has made. Until now.
And this is because of just how blatantly Xiaomi has plagiarized from Apple this year. It’s just a bit too much, you know?
The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max has a very familiar ring to it. | Image credit — Xiaomi
For starters, Xiaomi completely abandoned its previous naming convention, and just straight up copied Apple. The new phones consist of the following models:
Sound a bit familiar? You’d hardly be alone. In fact, I’m almost surprised that there isn’t a Xiaomi 17 Air here too. But the company went so, so much further.
The Xiaomi 17 Pro and the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max took the redesigned rear camera module from the iPhone 17 Pro, in an attempt to look just like Apple’s newest flagships. Furthermore, Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3 — which is coming to supported phones soon — looks extremely similar to iOS 26 and Apple’s Liquid Glass redesign.
