Mobile World Congress 2026 kicks off
Here's Xiaomi's usual barrage of announcements to start
It is officially tech hardware news season again as Mobile World Congress kicks off this weekend, with Samsung pre-empting the with an underwhelming Galaxy S26 Ultra launch the other day and Apple set to join in the fun with a series of new products next week.
In recent years, Xiaomi has dominated MWC with its sheer volume of announcements for the global market, and 2026 is no different. The Chinese tech giant announced today that it’s bringing the Xiaomi 17 Ultra to other countries, along with a bunch of other gadgets.
I’ve already covered the Leica-branded Chinese version of the 17 Ultra extensively, so I won’t focus too much on the global model. But here’s everything else of note, and I’ll follow up on the rest of the show as it gets underway.
17 Ultra Photography Kits
Ahead of this global launch, I did get the chance to check out the photography kits for the 17 Ultra. Xiaomi is producing two separate versions this time around, the €99 Photography Kit and the $199 Photography Kit Pro.
The regular Photography Kit is a totally new design that brings some of the previous kits’ functionality into a more slimline form. The grip only extends out about as far as the camera bump, so the combination sits flat on a table, fits easily into a pocket and is easy to use as a regular phone.
There’s a dedicated two-stage shutter button, of course, although it isn’t quite as substantial as the previous kits’. This case also connects over Bluetooth, not USB-C, and has a small onboard battery that can be charged through the phone so as not to drain it when away from a power outlet.
I actually think this is a pretty great product for anyone who doesn’t want to go all-in on the bulkier setups. I used it for my recent trip to Hachijojima where I tested the awesome M9 mode, and found it added useful functionality and tactility without getting in the way.
One thing to note is that it does cover up the control ring on the Leica edition of the phone, so if you still want to use that you’ll be better off with this year’s higher-end model.
Xiaomi has been making these photo grips for a while now, and the Photography Kit Pro for the 17 Ultra is by far the best-designed iteration to date. It adds a more substantial triangular grip with a serious control dial next to the shutter button and zoom lever; the thumb grip is also built directly into the case.
If you use the filter thread adapter around the lens, you can use it to control the physical ring on the Leica variants of the phone. Between that, the zoom lever and the dial, you have much more manual control than on any phone camera to date.
This year’s kit also just feels much better built, with a rough PU leather finish and lower tolerances between all the modular parts. Between the new camera hardware and this kit’s updated design, I think the combination is the best general-purpose compact camera setup you can get.
Leica Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi
If you thought “Xiaomi 17 Ultra by Leica” was an unwieldy name for a phone, the global version flips it around. The new Leitzphone, a term previously used by Sharp in its Japan-only (and much less successful) branded collaborations with Leica, carries the same exclusive features as the 17 Ultra by Leica, including the physically rotating control ring and the awesome M9 mode.
One curio is that the prestigious red-dot Leica logo is oriented to be read when the phone is held in portrait, unlike the horizontal camera-style 17 Ultra by Leica. The design looks very clean and perhaps even more Leica-like than the Chinese model.
The Leitzphone will only come in a 1TB model and cost around €1,999, which is €500 more than the 512GB base model 17 Ultra.
Xiaomi 17
The regular Xiaomi 17 doesn’t change much from last year’s 15, which itself was very much in keeping with the previous two models. That’s fine by me; this is the fourth iteration in the line of what has become some of the most reliably great compact phones available.
The most visible design change is on the back, where the camera bump now separates out the lenses similarly to the T-series. Other than that, we’re looking at the same 6.3” OLED panel with slightly higher peak brightness and a tweaked take on the squared-off 8.1mm-thick frame.
The camera hardware is also the same except that the main sensor has been upgraded to the Light Fusion 950, last seen in the Poco F8 Ultra, which should give better HDR performance. Unlike Poco, though the Xiaomi 17 still makes use of Leica’s image processing. Xiaomi has also added a new 50-megapixel selfie camera.
The biggest changes are really on the inside, where the processor is Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and the battery has been boosted 20% to 6,330mAh, which is pretty huge for a phone in this form factor.
This is a welcome spec bump to a line of phones that I always enjoy using for a while every year. There’s nothing revolutionary here, but you still won’t find a better camera in a phone this size.
Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro
The Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro is a similar update in scope to the Xiaomi 17 — the 11.2” LCD screen is the same, but you get a higher-class chip in the Snapdragon 8 Elite and the battery is now larger at 9,200mAh.
Xiaomi did slim down this year’s tablet by about half a millimeter, so it comes in at 5.75mm; that’s not quite as thin as the iPad Pro, but it’s now thinner than the iPad Air, which the Xiaomi is more directly competitive with in terms of specs and pricing.
There’s also a new stylus called the Focus Pen Pro, which ditches the physical buttons for haptic gestures and swipes that can bring up on-screen controls like the Apple Pencil Pro. This already feels like a good move after using it for a few days; the gestures are much easier to remember than the button functionality.
Xiaomi’s tablets are really good at this point and I can recommend this one to anyone for whom not being an iPad isn't a dealbreaker. It's now arguably better than the iPad Air the same way the Xiaomi Pad Mini is better than its Apple equivalent, though the iPad’s productivity advantage is more relevant at this screen size.
Xiaomi UltraThin Magnetic Power Bank 5000 15W
Last year I wrote about an ultra-thin MagSafe-compatible 5,000mAh battery from a Japanese company called Matech. It looks like Xiaomi is the first major manufacturer to outdo Matech, with the UltraThin Magnetic Power Bank 5000 15W coming in nearly a millimeter thinner at just 6mm.
Xiaomi claims up to 15W of charging speed on the 17 series, but you’ll need a compatible case because the phones don’t have magnets built in. It worked similarly to the Matech battery on my iPhone Air, popping up a “slow charger” message on the lock screen. The battery also supports wired charging at up to 22.5W.
This Xiaomi product actually launched in Japan before anywhere else; perhaps there is greater demand there for thinner phone batteries. But now it’s coming to the rest of the world in black, silver and iPhone 17 Pro-style orange — the latter of which for some reason costs €65, a €5 premium on the others.
I think ultra-thin magnetic batteries are a game-changer, particularly if you’re one of the 17 other people in the world who love the iPhone Air, so I’m glad to see one come out from a big name with wide distribution.
Xiaomi Watch 5
The Xiaomi Watch 5 is, confusingly, the follow-up to the Watch 2 from 2024, as it’s the company’s latest watch to run on Google’s Wear OS 3. It's actually a pretty big upgrade: a huge-for-a-watch 930mAh battery and a larger 1.54” screen alongside a new design with a rotating crown, a stainless steel case and sapphire glass on the front and back.
I like the design and the battery has lasted me around three days with the always-on display activated; Xiaomi claims up to six days with it turned off. This probably wouldn't get me to switch away from my Apple Watch Ultra or Pixel Watch 4, but it's good value at €300 for a full-featured Wear OS device with Gemini support.
Xiaomi Tag
The Xiaomi Tag is, unsurprisingly, Xiaomi’s take on the AirTag, which you can see it pictured next to above. It works with Google’s Find Hub on Android as well as Find My on Apple devices, though I actually couldn't get it to connect to my iPhone at first.
Still, assuming that isn't a widespread issue, the broader compatibility should be a useful differentiator for a product that at €15, costs half as much as the AirTag. It also adds another missing feature by including a built-in loop for attaching to luggage or keychains.
I'm bummed that Xiaomi dropped the N71 band from their "global" version of the Ultra this year. That immediately rules it out here in Hawaii where T-Mobile relies on it heavily. The flip-flopping on bands each year doesn't make any sense...