ok so first thing i gotta say is i dont even know why they called it the 17 ultra when there was no 16 ultra. like who makes that decision? some marketing guy probably woke up one day and said “samsung has the s25, apple has the 17 pro max, we need to skip a number too” and everyone just nodded. weird. but whatever. phone is a phone.
so gaming.
ok so i play a lot of cod mobile. not like pro level or anything but enough that i notice when a phone sucks. and this phone? it doesnt suck. but it also isnt perfect.
the good parts first because im not totally negative
the screen is flat finally. you have no idea how happy that makes me. curved screens were the stupidest trend in phone history. like who thought that was a good idea? your fingers slip off, screen protectors dont work, and for what? so the phone looks like water dropping off the edge? dumb. anyway its flat now. so when youre playing shooters and you gotta swipe fast to turn around, your thumb doesnt slide off the edge and get you killed. that happened to me so many times on the 13 ultra. so yeah flat screen is a win.
touch response is crazy fast too. like 2000hz or something. honestly i dont even know what that number means but i can feel the difference. you tap and the game responds. no lag. no delay. if you play ranked matches and you need every millisecond, youll appreciate it. me? im not that good. but its nice to have.
games run smooth. like really smooth. 120fps on cod mobile easily. genshin impact too. whatever new game comes out next year will probably run fine too. the chip is the snapdragon 8 elite gen 5 or something like that. best one you can get right now. so speed is not a problem.
but
and this is a big but
the phone gets warm
not like burning hot. but warm enough that after like 45 minutes of gaming, you notice it. and then the screen dims. automatically. to cool itself down. so you’re sitting there trying to see enemies in a dark corner of the map and your screen is like half brightness because the phone decided it was too hot. that is so annoying. like i paid 1500 dollars for this thing and it cant stay bright for an hour of gaming? come on.
and the battery
6000 mah sounds huge right? and it is. but gaming eats battery like crazy. two hours of playing and you’re down to maybe 50 or 60 percent. thats fine if youre at home. but if youre on a long train or waiting somewhere with no plug, thats a problem.
and the charging is fast but you need the right charger. xiaomi doesnt include one anymore. so add another 50 bucks for the 90w charger. and even then, fast charging makes the phone warm too. so if you play while charging, its even worse. the phone gets really warm then. like uncomfortably warm.
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now the camera bump thing
nobody talks about this but the camera bump is huge. like really huge. and when you hold the phone sideways to play a game, that bump digs into your fingers. depending on how you hold it, its fine. but i hold with my left hand supporting the bottom of the phone and my right hand doing the aiming. the bump hits my left palm. after an hour of playing theres a red mark on my hand. not painful but annoying. like why couldnt they put the camera bump in the middle? or make it smaller? i know the one inch sensor needs space but still.
ok lets talk about the camera since you asked
the camera is actually amazing. like genuinely amazing. not just marketing amazing.
the main sensor is one inch. same size as a real camera. so photos in low light are clean. no grain. no weird blur. just clean. i took a photo of my street at night and it looked like it was taken in the afternoon. thats not an exaggeration.
the zoom is wild too. theres a mechanical zoom that moves between 75mm and 100mm. you can actually hear the lenses moving if you put your ear close to the phone. sounds like a tiny little machine. its cool. and the telephoto is 200 megapixels which is just stupid. you can zoom in so far it feels wrong. like you can take a photo of a bird on a tree from across a park and see its feathers. i tried it. it works.
but
low light video is not great. grainy. and the phone gets warm shooting 4k for more than 5 minutes. then it stops recording to protect itself. that happened to me twice. i was filming my nephew’s birthday and the phone just stopped. had to wait for it to cool down. missed the cake cutting. i was so annoyed.
macro photos are worse this year too. because of how the zoom lens works, you cant get as close to small things. like if you want to take a photo of a flower or an ant or something, its not as good as last year’s model. thats a bummer if youre into that kind of photography.
selfie camera is 50 megapixels which is ridiculous. you dont need that many pixels for your face. but its there. and it takes good selfies. front video is fine. not iphone good. but fine.
ok so advantages for gaming
flat screen is great
touch response is fast
games run smooth
battery is big (if youre not gaming)
charging is fast (if you buy the charger)
disadvantages for gaming
gets warm then screen dims
camera bump hurts your hand
battery drains fast while gaming
no charger in the box
macro photos not good
should you buy it?
depends
if you mostly want a camera phone and you game sometimes, yeah probably. the camera is top tier. like top three easily. maybe the best.
if you mostly want a gaming phone and you take photos sometimes, no. get the redmagic 11 or the asus rog phone 9. they have fans and better cooling and no camera bump digging into your hand.
if you want both equally? maybe. but you have to be ok with the heat and the bump. those two things will annoy you. they annoy me. but i still like the phone. i dont know. its complicated.
like yesterday i was playing for an hour and the screen dimmed and i got so mad. but then i took a photo of the sunset and it looked incredible and i forgot about being mad. so its a love hate thing.
oh also the software has weird bugs
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forgot to mention that
hyperos is better than the old miui but its still not great. sometimes apps freeze for a second. sometimes the keyboard doesnt pop up when you tap a text box. sometimes the fingerprint sensor doesnt work on the first try. nothing major but little things add up. you know?
and if you use a third party launcher like nova? sorry. full screen gestures dont work. youre stuck with the old three button navigation. thats crazy to me.
the speakers are actually good though. forgot to mention that too. theyre really good. loud and clear. doesnt distort until you go past 75 percent. so when youre gaming you can actually hear footsteps and gunshots clearly without headphones. thats a win.
ok im getting tired of typing but one more thing
the leather back
its fake leather but it feels good. warm. not cold glass like every other phone. and it doesnt collect fingerprints. so you can game with greasy fingers and it doesnt look disgusting afterwards. nice.
but the leather gets scratches kind of easy. so if you use a case you wont notice. if you dont use a case, you will.
alright thats everything i think
gaming = good but hot
camera = amazing but video not great
battery = big but drains fast while gaming
software = fine but buggy
camera bump = annoying
screen = flat finally
charger = not included which is stupid
would i buy it again? yeah probably. but i would complain about it the whole time.
you got any specific questions? like about the zoom or the screen dimming or whatever? let me know. i can go on forever about this stuff apparently.
