Last week, we were invited by Xiaomi India to the wonderful Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc. The purpose of the trip was to test the cameras of the new Xiaomi 17 series phones and put them through their paces in this bustling, vibrant environment.
Our weapon of choice for this trip was the flagship Xiaomi 17 Ultra. This phone has a wide array of cameras on the back, including a 50MP main camera, a 50MP ultra-wide camera, and a 200MP telephoto camera with 3.2x to 4.3x optical zoom. We recently did a full review of this phone, which you can see here.
All photos below were captured on a phone running the latest global firmware. They were captured in JPEG in the phone’s camera app, with the occasional in-camera filter enabled. Some photos switch back and forth between the two shooting modes the phone offers, the default Leica Vibrant mode and the more muted Leica Authentic mode. The images have not been altered in any other way.
telephoto camera
Let’s start with the star of the show, which is the 200MP telephoto camera. On the first day of our trip, we visited Grand World along the north coast of the island city. It’s a tourist attraction modeled after the Italian city of Venice along with some other European influences, but upon closer look, some local Vietnamese charm still comes through.
The Leica Vibrant mode was in its element here, capturing stunning colors from these flamboyant buildings that line the central canal. The telephoto camera has excellent image quality, and while the 3.2x-4.3x optical zoom range seemed limited, a quick punch to the 8.6x mode produced exceptionally useful results.
Later in the day, we headed to the southern tip of this small island. The area also contains European architectural influences and has many attractions, including the stunning Kiss Bridge, which is a bridge that is split down the middle and requires a couple to travel individually from either side to meet in the middle. Then there is also the Dragon Staircase, which leads up through a wall of vines. The day concludes with a spectacular Kiss of the Sea show, which projects moving images on a wall of water with live performances below, followed by a breathtaking fireworks show.
telephoto camera
On our second day, we went back to the northern tip of the island, this time to a place called Rach Wam. From there, we took a short boat ride to Starfish Beach, a relaxing beach area with crystal clear shallow waters and hundreds of thousands of starfish on the beach. Finally, the day ended with a fire dance show at the hotel.
telephoto camera
Speaking about the hotel, special mention should be made of this gorgeous school of koi in the lobby area of the hotel.
telephoto camera
We also took some photos with the main 50MP camera. These are not as numerous, but this is not due to lack of quality. It’s just that it was a lot more fun to punch out with the telephoto every now and then and get more attractive shots than the generic look of a typical wide-angle lens. Still, this camera is a capable shooter, and with the change in aspect ratio, you can definitely get some interesting looking shots from this camera too.
main camera
Finally, here are some shots from the 50MP ultra-wide camera. It’s not the fastest camera in the world, nor the sharpest camera on this phone, but it certainly has a more interesting perspective than the main wide-angle camera, while it has good enough image quality and color performance to keep up with the high standards of this phone.
Xiaomi also provided us with a photography kit for the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which included a case and grip that basically turns the phone into a point-and-shoot camera. However, we ultimately decided to use the phone in its naked form, just to see how well it would perform without any changes. The photography kit is definitely a nice thing to have if you’re serious about this thing, but from experience, we can say you don’t need it, and the phone does quite well without it thanks to its generous proportions and easy-to-use UI.
And this is the conclusion of this journey. We hope you enjoy viewing these images as much as we enjoyed capturing them. There’s no shortage of great camera phones on the market today, and we couldn’t be happier, but if you like the ‘phone’ part of this cameraphone, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra should be at the top of your shopping list.