Xiaomi 17T lands in SA

The Xiaomi 17T has arrived in South Africa, backed by a Leica camera. The company skipped the 16 series model globally and jumped to 17 after the 15 series, while the top of the range 17T Pro will not come to SA.

The Xiaomi 17T will retail for R20 999 on prepaid, according to the company, putting it on par with the base model Samsung S26. Vodacom has listed the device for R18 999.

It is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Ultra processor, 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

The handset has a 6.59-inch AMOLED display, supports a 120Hz screen refresh rate, and a 1.5K resolution. It has a peak brightness of 3500 nits.

Xiaomi continues its partnership with Leica, who is behind its triple rear camera set-up.

The Xiaomi 17T camera lenses

• 50MP main camera with Light Fusion 800 image sensor + OIS
• 50MP 5x periscope telephoto camera + 120x AI Ultra Zoom
• 50MP ultra-wide camera with 120° field of view
• 32MP front camera

The camera supports 4K video at 60fps, HDR10+ recording, and professional grade log video recording, aimed at content creators for more control over the quality of videos.

The device runs on Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3 with built-in AI features such as AI Writing, AI Interpreter, AI Speech Recognition, AI Creativity Assistant, Circle to Search with Google, Google Gemini integration, etc.

The 17T has a large 6500mAh silicon carbon battery with 67W fast charging; and an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

The device is available in South Africa, from Vodacom at R799 per month over 36 months, while the prepaid price is R18 999.

Potential customers also should consider a Samsung S26 for R19 999 on Vodacom at their price at the time of publishing, based on 7 years of operating system and security updates on Android. However, the S26 has 256GB storage, and a smaller 4300mAh battery.