Redmi 17C First Impressions

There is a saying that goes, “If it ain't broke, don't fix it”. Xiaomi seems to have taken this to heart with the launch of its Redmi 17C, the latest smartphone in its budget lineup. The Redmi 17C is the successor to last year's Redmi 15C, which is priced much lower at Rs. 12,499. The Redmi 17C gets nothing new, but thanks to the ongoing memory crisis and rising memory prices, it now starts at Rs. 20,999 for the base variant with 4GB RAM + 128GB of storage. Also available is a 6GB RAM variant that will cost you Rs. 22,999. After a few hours of use, here are my first impressions.

What's in the box?

Xiaomi covers the basics in the box. It includes a transparent TPU case, a 33W charger, a USB Type-A to Type-C cable, and a SIM ejector tool.

We received the phone in the Coffee Brew colourway. It has a textured rear panel compared to the Dark Knight and Textured Black colourways. The rear panel has a grippy but rough, leather-like texture, accompanied by a light gold camera module and frame that are made from polycarbonate. The SIM card tray is located near the top right corner and can hold two Nano SIM cards along with a dedicated slot for a microSD card (expandable to 1TB). On the right is the volume rocker and the power button, which also houses the fingerprint reader. The phone is IP64-rated and offers excellent dust resistance but is only splashproof.

At the bottom are a familiar 3.5mm headphone jack, a mic, a Type-C USB port, and a single bottom-firing speaker. Given its large overall dimensions, the phone feels sufficiently heavy at 211g.

Like the Redmi 15C, the Redmi 17C also has a 6.9-inch HD+ panel, with a resolution of 700 x 1,600 pixels. It has noticeably thick borders and a waterdrop notch at the top. Xiaomi claims it offers a maximum brightness of 600 nits and manages 810 nits in high brightness mode. It also has a 120Hz refresh rate and a 240Hz touch sampling rate. The 8-bit IPS LCD panel also supports DC dimming, which reduces low-frequency flickering in dimly lit settings.

The Redmi 17C, like the Redmi 15C, has a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 processor, manufactured on the 6nm node and offering a maximum clock speed of 2.4GHz. The phone pairs LPDDR4X RAM with UFS 2.2 storage and supports up to 12GB of memory extension.

The Redmi 17C has a 50-megapixel rear-facing camera

The cameras have also remained the same. It has a 50-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture, plus an auxiliary lens to help with depth mapping in Portrait mode. An 8-megapixel camera handles selfies, with an f/2.0 aperture. There's a 6,000mAh battery that supports 33W wired fast charging and 10W reverse charging. The Redmi 17C runs HyperOS 3, based on Android 16.

Apart from its design, literally nothing about the Redmi 17C appears to have changed… except for its price tag. At a time when most smartphone brands are trimming down features, no hardware changes on a new model, seems like a win for interested buyers. The Redmi 15C was launched at Rs. 12,499, but recently saw a price hike to Rs. 15,499 in April. The phone is currently listed at Rs. 18,499 (4+128GB) on Xiaomi's website and should continue selling at that price until stocks run out. Meanwhile, the new Redmi 17C starts at Rs. 20,999 for the base 4GB RAM + 128GB storage variant, which is an additional Rs. 2,500 for a slightly refreshed design.

Sadly, with rising memory prices, we can expect Xiaomi to raise the Redmi 17C's price in a few months. To see how the Redmi 17C stacks up against other smartphones in this segment, stay tuned for our full review, coming soon.