Xiaomi 17 launches alongside Redmi Buds 8 Pro, Xiaomi Watch 5, Xiaomi Tag, and more

Xiaomi’s gadget ecosystem is expanding.

As usual, the company presented its new flagship phones at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​including the Xiaomi 17 and Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

Xiaomi also launched a new smartwatch called Xiaomi Watch 5, a new pair of earbuds called Redmi Buds 8 Pro and, for the first time, an AirTag-like tracking device called Xiaomi Tag.

Xiaomi Tag is here to compete with AirTag

Xiaomi Tag is as simple as it gets: a white puck that you can attach to your keys and track via your phone. But the big problem with this one is that it works with Apple Find My, making it a very real competitor to Apple’s AirTag. Xiaomi sent me one to test, and I can confirm that it’s trackable through Find My like any other Apple gadget (you don’t get Apple’s precision tracking, though).

Yes, Xiaomi brought a lot of new gadgets to Barcelona this year.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

Xiaomi Watch 5 is ready for your wrist

Xiaomi’s new Watch 5 was launched in December 2025 in China. It’s a round smartwatch running Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3, with a 1.54-inch AMOLED display inside a stainless steel frame, a Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chip inside, and a 930 mAh battery.

Xiaomi also has another line of smartwatches called the Redmi Watch, which are square and look a lot like the Apple Watch. The Xiaomi Watch 5 is instead a successor to the Watch S4 from 2024, which had a slightly smaller screen and a battery half the size.

The Xiaomi Watch 5 is a heavy, sturdy device that looks more like a dress watch than a sports watch. Of course, it comes with various health and activity tracking features, including an EMG sensor and an ECG heart rate sensor.

The Xiaomi Redmi Buds 8 Pro are packed with features

Launched a few weeks ago, the Redmi Buds 8 Pro are a sleek-looking pair of earbuds with high-resolution audio support, active noise cancellation, and up to 36 hours of battery life.

The Buds 8 Pro also feature a noise reduction system that should make calls clear in extremely noisy scenarios (up to 95 dB of external noise), as well as in very windy environments.

Other features worth noting include Dolby Audio support, dynamic head tracking, and IP54 dust and water resistance.

Xiaomi 17 brings all the megapixels

The Xiaomi 17 has a crisp 6.3-inch screen and is just the right size for my hand.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

Finally, the star of the show is the Xiaomi 17. This is Xiaomi’s flagship, a powerful Android smartphone that sets its sights on Apple’s non-Pro iPhone. It has a 6.3-inch 120Hz OLED display, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, 12GB of RAM, 256/512GB of storage, and a hefty 6,330mAh battery with 100W fast charging (and 50W wireless charging).

On the back, you’ll find a Leica-branded triple camera system consisting of a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel telephoto lens, and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera. There’s also a 50-megapixel selfie camera on the front, hidden in a cutout at the top of the screen. Yes, Xiaomi just put a bunch of 50-megapixel cameras on this one, and we don’t mind that at all.

Having spent some time with the Xiaomi 17 and 17 Ultra, I can say that I actually prefer the “normal” variant of the Xiaomi 17, even though it has a less powerful camera system. It has a very sleek design with glass on the front and back, and I love the Venture Green color of my device, as it covers both the back and sides of the phone (other colors offered are black, alpine pink, and ice blue).

The Xiaomi 17 has a 50-megapixel triple camera system on the rear and a 50-megapixel selfie camera on the front.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

The phone fits perfectly in the hand as it is not as heavy as its Ultra sibling. Xiaomi includes a transparent case which isn’t bad, but the color and feel of the phone are so nice that it’s a shame to wrap it in plastic.

Other features worth noting are an in-display fingerprint sensor, hi-res audio support, and IP68 dust and water resistance. Xiaomi also offers a very simple and ultra-thin magnetic battery that charges the phone wirelessly when connected. Interestingly, this only works with the Xiaomi 17; The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has a rear camera bump so massive that the magnetic battery won’t fit.