Xiaomi announced that the Xiaomi 17 Ultra would be unveiled on Christmas Day. In line with this, the brand released its design and first sample photo to the public and also confirmed its price hike.
The news follows several leaks about the device. Now, the Chinese giant has confirmed that the phone retains the same circular camera module design as its predecessor. In the first poster shared by the company, the device was flaunted in its black, white, and green variants.
Despite having similar looks to the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, the handheld is reportedly coming with some improvements in the camera department. According to rumors, it will feature a 1″ OmniVision OV50X LOFIC Gen 3 f/1.67 main camera and a 200MP f/2.9x 14mm-100mm periscope with 3x to 4.3x continuous optical zoom. Xiaomi also recently released the phone’s camera sample to highlight its incredible low-light performance.
Sadly, Xiaomi also confirmed that it would implement a price increase for the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. This is somewhat expected, as it is now widespread among smartphone manufacturers in the market. To recall, other brands, such as Realme, OnePlus, and iQOO, have also pushed for price hikes in their recent releases. In line with this, fans can expect to pay higher than the CN¥6,499 price tag of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
Xiaomi’s Lu Weibing shared that there has been an increase in the cost of the needed processor, camera, and memory for the phone. He earlier explained that the reason behind this is the growing trend of AI, with memory manufacturers now focusing on data center production instead of creating more for smartphones.
“I expect pressure to be much heavier next year than this year,” the executive noted. “Overall, consumers are likely to see a sizeable rise in product retail prices. Some of the pressure may have to be addressed through price hikes, but price increases alone won’t be enough to digest it.”
