Redmi Note 17 5G Packs 8,000mAh Battery as Xiaomi Cuts Chip, Camera and Speakers

Q: With the identical Poco M8 Power expected to be cheaper, is buying the new Redmi Note 17 5G actually a massive mistake?

Yes—if the Poco M8 Power is available at the reported lower price, buying the Redmi Note 17 5G at full price is hard to justify. The key issue is not that the Redmi Note 17 is a bad phone. It offers a genuinely huge 8,000mAh battery, a 7.0-inch 120Hz AMOLED display, 45W charging, reverse wired charging, bundled accessories, and an unusually long software promise of four OS upgrades and six years of security updates. For buyers who mainly want battery life and a very large screen, it does its job well. The problem is value. Multiple reports indicate the Poco M8 Power is functionally identical, yet is priced about INR 3,000 lower in India. If the hardware, battery, display, chipset, charging, and software support are effectively the same, paying extra for the Redmi badge brings little practical benefit. That pricing problem is made worse by the Redmi Note 17’s own compromises versus the older Redmi Note 15. Xiaomi downgraded the chipset from Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 to Snapdragon 4 Gen 4, reduced the rear cameras to a single 50MP sensor, and dropped stereo speakers. So even at its own price, the Note 17 is not clearly a better overall package than its predecessor unless battery endurance is your top priority. The smarter move is simple: buy the Poco M8 Power if it is indeed cheaper, or consider the older Redmi Note 15 if you care more about performance and features than extreme battery life. The Redmi Note 17 only makes sense if discounts erase that price gap.

3 articles · Updated · GSMArena.com · Aug 11

8,000mAh is the Redmi Note 17 5G’s standout upgrade, paired with a larger 7.0-inch 120Hz AMOLED display after its India launch.
Price pressure drives the trade-offs: Xiaomi swaps last year’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 for a weaker Snapdragon 4 Gen 4 and drops to a single 50MP rear camera.
Audio also takes a hit, with stereo speakers replaced by one bottom-firing speaker, even as the phone keeps a 45W charger, cable and case in the box.
The result is a big-screen budget phone that stretches battery life but gives up performance and multimedia features compared with the Redmi Note 15.