Xiaomi has officially confirmed that the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, its next ultra-premium flagship, will launch in China next week. The announcement comes alongside a major expansion of Xiaomi’s long-running partnership with Leica, revealing that cameras will once again be the star of the show.
According to Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun, this new phase with Leica goes beyond simple tuning or branding. The two companies are adopting a “strategic co-creation” approach, collaborating from the earliest stages of product design to rethink how mobile photography should look and feel on future Xiaomi phones.
As part of this shift, Xiaomi is introducing a redesigned optical system built around the industry’s first Leica APO-certified telephoto lens on a smartphone. It’s designed to improve colour accuracy, reduce visible fringing, and deliver cleaner images in challenging lighting, especially at longer zoom levels.
The Xiaomi 17 Ultra is also expected to anchor a broader ecosystem push. Xiaomi may unveil a new NAS (network-attached storage) device at the same event, hinting at deeper integration between its phones and home or office hardware. Blind pre-orders for the 17 Ultra are already live in China, with a global rollout expected around March alongside the standard Xiaomi 17.
