Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Xiaomi is skipping the 16 series and jumping straight to the 17 series flagships.
- The company says it has decided to take the generational leap to better compete with the iPhone 17 series.
- The Xiaomi 17 series will consist of three new flagships launching later this month.
Xiaomi’s next flagship smartphone series will launch this month, but there’s one thing you won’t see — the Xiaomi 16 series.
Xiaomi president Lu Weibing announced on Weibo that the company is skipping a whole generation of flagship phones to better compete with the iPhone 17 lineup. Instead, the company will launch the Xiaomi 17 series in a few weeks, positioning it as a direct competitor to Apple’s new iPhones.
According to Weibing, the Xiaomi 17 lineup marks the most important milestone yet in the company’s five-year push into the premium smartphone market. He said that since the new lineup represents such a major generational leap, it didn’t make sense to call it “16.” Weibing also admitted that the decision to skip a generation was made to place its latest flagships alongside the iPhone 17 lineup.
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The Xiaomi 17 series, which includes the Xiaomi 17, Xiaomi 17 Pro, and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, will also be the first smartphones powered by Qualcomm’s newly announced Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor.
Weibing pointed out that Xiaomi has spent the last five years refining its premium strategy, with heavy investments in R&D, which will double in the next five years. He added that the 17 Pro Max will be Xiaomi’s most powerful flagship yet.
It’s rumored that major battery upgrades are coming to the whole lineup, with sizes varying from 7,000mAh for the standard Xiaomi 17 to 7,500mAh for the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. The top-end phone is also expected to house a secondary display.
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