Xiaomi 17

Technical specifications

@Greg. Congratulations, you have exchanged something superior for something inferior. The S26 is nothing more than the S23, but with an inferior Exynos processor, which performs worse under load than the Snapdragon in the Xiaomi 17, while being even more power hungry and heating up more, in addition to being less efficient and experiencing greater throttling. That is why after the S23 I bought the Xiaomi 15, because I saw the direction Samsung was taking. A small battery, still extremely slow charging, an inadequate telephoto lens, a main camera that is average by today standards and a weak wide angle lens. Samsung basically introduces nothing to its smartphones except for the Ultra models, and even there the cameras are falling behind the top flagships from China. However, I know that software and AI alone will not fix many hardware level shortcomings that Samsung has been neglecting for years.

For years, I used only Samsung S series devices, from the S5 all the way to the S23. A few months ago, I decided it was worth giving Xiaomi a chance. I was tempted by the great screen, very fast charging, and a compact size similar to the S23. I thought: why pay more for a Samsung? I bought the Xiaomi 17 and used it for about 2 months. Unfortunately, despite the very good hardware, I could not convince myself to like it. Only then did I realize how much I had grown accustomed to many small functions known from One UI. I am talking about seemingly small things like the free arrangement of icons, the way the Phone and Contacts applications work, call handling, or the general logic of the interface. These are not groundbreaking features, but on a daily basis, such details determine the comfort of use. After two months, I sold the phone on OLX, and the next day I bought a Samsung S26. The S26 is not perfect. It charges slower than the Xiaomi, but I returned to a system that simply works the way I am used to. For me, it was a valuable lesson: technical parameters alone are not everything. The ecosystem and user habits are of great importance. Personally, I will not return to Xiaomi again.