Xiaomi 17 Ultra vs Galaxy S26 Ultra: Specs, Camera and Price Compared

The short answer: the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is the safer all-rounder, with a more flexible four-lens camera, Samsung's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip, and a US price Samsung has already discounted to $1,149.99. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra hits back with a genuinely bigger 6,000mAh battery, a 1-inch Leica main sensor, and 90W wired charging that leaves Samsung's Super Fast Charging 3.0 behind — but Xiaomi still doesn't officially sell it in the United States. Below is what each company's own spec pages actually say, lens by lens and watt by watt.

Price and availability

Samsung's own Galaxy S26 Ultra buy page currently lists the 256GB model at $1,149.99 (down from a $1,399.99 list price), the 512GB model at $1,349.99 (from $1,599.99), and the 1TB model at $1,749.99 (from $1,999.99). It's sold directly by Samsung and through US carriers including Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T.

Xiaomi never launched the 17 Ultra in the US. According to Xiaomi's own regional spec and FAQ pages, the phone's confirmed markets are China, Europe and other Xiaomi regions — the 16GB/512GB and 16GB/1TB configurations are the ones Xiaomi lists globally. Xiaomi has not published an official US dollar price, and the only concrete currency figure we could verify came from European retail listings tied to the phone's roughly €1,499 (16GB/512GB) launch tier. If you're in the US and searching "xiaomi 17 ultra vs samsung s26 ultra" to decide what to buy, that availability gap is the first thing to know: one of these two is a one-click US purchase, the other is an import.

Display

Both phones use a 6.9-inch panel, but they get there differently. Samsung's page describes the Galaxy S26 Ultra's screen as a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a built-in Privacy Display mode — Samsung's own description calls it a "newly refreshed design" meant to shield the screen from side-on glances, a first for the Ultra line.

Xiaomi's official FAQ for the 17 Ultra specifies a 6.9-inch HyperRGB OLED panel at 2608 × 1200 resolution with an LTPO adaptive 1–120Hz refresh rate, 3,500-nit peak brightness in multi-scenario mode (2,000 nits in High Brightness Mode), Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support, and Xiaomi Shield Glass 3.0 on top.

Why compare these two specifically

Both phones are the top-tier "Ultra" model in their respective 2026 lineups, both launched with Qualcomm's current flagship chip, and both are realistically cross-shopped by anyone deciding between Samsung's and Xiaomi's best camera phones this year. It's worth being precise about naming, though: Samsung's own lineup includes a separate Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ below the Ultra, and Xiaomi sells a non-Ultra Xiaomi 17 and 17 Pro alongside this model — so make sure any price or spec you see quoted elsewhere is actually for the Ultra tier covered here, not a Pro or base variant with a different camera system and price point.

Performance, chipset and RAM

There's no debate on paper here: both flagships run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the current top-tier Android chipset. Samsung's version is badged "for Galaxy," its usual branding for a chip tuned in partnership with Qualcomm, and Samsung pairs it with a new vapor chamber design and says it delivers meaningful generation-over-generation gains in NPU, GPU and CPU throughput on the Galaxy S26 Ultra's own spec page. Xiaomi uses the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 across the 17 Ultra lineup. In practice, day-to-day performance between the two should be extremely close, since they're built on the same silicon.

Where they diverge is RAM strategy. Xiaomi keeps this simple: every global 17 Ultra, in every storage tier, ships with 16GB of RAM — you're choosing between 512GB and 1TB of storage and nothing else, according to Xiaomi's own regional spec pages. Samsung segments its RAM by storage tier instead. The Galaxy S26 Ultra's 256GB and 512GB configurations both get 12GB of RAM, and only the top-end 1TB model steps up to 16GB, per Samsung's own listing. If multitasking headroom matters to you and you're not planning to buy the most expensive Galaxy S26 Ultra tier, that's a real practical difference worth knowing before you compare sticker prices — the cheapest Galaxy S26 Ultra and the cheapest Xiaomi 17 Ultra aren't actually matched on memory.

Camera: four lenses vs. Leica glass

This is where the two phones take genuinely different approaches. Samsung's rear array, per its own spec page, is a 200MP wide sensor at f/1.4 with 2x optical-quality zoom, a 50MP ultrawide at f/1.9, a 50MP telephoto at f/2.9 offering 5x optical zoom (10x optical-quality zoom), and a 10MP telephoto at f/2.4 for 3x optical zoom — plus software-driven zoom up to 100x. It's the most zoom-flexible setup Samsung has shipped, with two dedicated telephoto lenses covering both mid-range and long-range framing.

Xiaomi's 17 Ultra instead leans on its long-running Leica partnership and a 1-inch-type main sensor — a larger sensor than Samsung's main camera uses, in principle good for sharper detail and background separation in a single wide shot. It pairs that with a 50MP ultrawide and a 200MP periscope telephoto covering a 75–100mm variable focal range. Xiaomi's front camera is also unusually capable for a selfie shooter: its own specs list a 50MP f/2.2 sensor with a 90-degree field of view, versus the 12MP f/2.2 front camera Samsung specifies for the S26 Ultra.

Neither company's spec sheet settles which camera system is "better" in real shooting conditions — that depends on processing, computational photography and personal taste — but the hardware philosophies are clear: Samsung bets on dual telephoto reach, Xiaomi bets on one larger, Leica-tuned main sensor plus a longer periscope zoom.

Battery and charging

Xiaomi has the clear numbers advantage here. Its official German spec page lists a 6,000mAh battery for the global 17 Ultra (the China variant reportedly ships with a larger cell), charging at 90W wired and 50W wireless via Xiaomi's HyperCharge. Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra sticks with a 5,000mAh battery, which Samsung rates for up to 31 hours of video playback, charging through what Samsung calls Super Fast Charging 3.0 — its own page claims 0–75% in roughly 30 minutes, though it doesn't publish a specific wattage figure on the page we reviewed. On capacity alone, Xiaomi's 1,000mAh edge is the single biggest hardware gap between these two phones.

Design, build and durability

Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra measures 7.9mm thick and weighs 214g, comes in Silver Shadow, Pink Gold, Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black and White, and is IP68 rated for dust and water resistance according to Samsung's own regional specification pages. It also remains the only Galaxy S26 model that includes the S Pen, which slots into the chassis the same way it has on previous Ultra models.

Xiaomi's 17 Ultra is 162.9 × 77.6 × 8.29mm and weighs roughly 218g per Xiaomi's own India FAQ page, ships in black, white and a green finish globally (with a Leica Edition variant in some markets, closer to 223g), and carries the same IP68 rating, tested to Xiaomi's stated IEC 60529 standard for submersion in static freshwater up to 6 meters for 30 minutes. Xiaomi's fine print, like Samsung's, notes the rating reflects lab conditions rather than a guarantee against beach or pool use, and that water damage typically isn't covered by warranty once you're outside those test parameters.

Neither company builds its Ultra model as a rugged phone, but both are positioning IP68 as a baseline expectation at this price tier — a useful reminder that "premium flagship" and "indestructible" are not the same claim, whichever brand is making it.

Software

Xiaomi's official FAQ confirms the 17 Ultra ships on Android 16 with HyperOS 3 layered on top, and includes an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor. Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra runs Android with One UI and Samsung's Galaxy AI features; Samsung's own materials emphasize ongoing software and security updates as part of the Galaxy ecosystem, though the exact update-year commitment wasn't specified on the page we pulled directly from samsung.com. If you want the deeper context on what changed in Samsung's own lineup this generation — including why the base Galaxy S26 costs more than before — Samsung's Galaxy S26 pricing shift is worth reading alongside this comparison.

Which should you actually buy?

If you're in the US, this is a short conversation: the Galaxy S26 Ultra is sold by Samsung and every major carrier, while the Xiaomi 17 Ultra isn't officially available at all, so importing one means giving up US warranty support and possibly full band/carrier compatibility. If you're outside the US and both are realistic options, the decision comes down to priorities — longer battery life and faster wired charging favor Xiaomi, while a more flexible dual-telephoto camera system, the S Pen, and Samsung's broader retail and service network favor the Galaxy S26 Ultra. It's also worth comparing the Ultra against Samsung's own smaller sibling if budget matters more than cameras — see how the standard Galaxy S26 stacks up against the Xiaomi 17 Pro — or against Apple's current flagship, in our look at the Galaxy S26 Ultra versus the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

What's next

Watch two things from here. First, US pricing on the Galaxy S26 Ultra tends to keep moving — Samsung has already dropped the 256GB model from $1,399.99 to $1,149.99 since launch, and further seasonal discounts are likely around the holidays. Second, keep an eye on whether Xiaomi brings any variant of the 17 Ultra to the US through unlocked import channels or a carrier partnership; the company has stayed out of the US smartphone market for years, and nothing in its current official pages suggests that's changing for this generation. Both companies' spec pages are the place to check for updates — Samsung's buy page reflects live US pricing, and Xiaomi's regional FAQ and specs pages are the most reliable source for confirmed availability by country.

Written byNadia Osei

Nadia Osei covers mobile and consumer gadgets for Pandromeda: smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, earbuds and smart-home devices. She tracks launches, software updates and pricing across Apple, Google, Samsung and the rest, and builds comparisons from the manufacturers' published specifications.

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