What comes to your mind when you think about buying a flagship phone in 2025? Best-in-class cameras, next-level performance, long-lasting battery, and of course, reliving your Game Boy days, am I right? Wait, that last one isn’t a mistake, it’s actually a feature of the recently launched Xiaomi 17 Pro and the 17 Pro Max that can transform into a handheld retro console.
A Phone That Turns Its Back Into a Game Console
The Xiaomi 17 Pro models come with a secondary display on the camera island that spans the width of the phone. It lets users check incoming calls, serve as a viewfinder for selfies, and more. But slap the Retro Handheld Console Case on the phone, and the small display turns into a Game Boy-esque console. Complete with a selection of preloaded games like Angry Birds 2 (which is 10 years old, so it can be considered retro) and a Space Invaders-style game.
The Retro Handheld Console Case comes separately for ¥299 or $41. It has 4 face buttons, a D-pad, the Start, Select, and the Power button at the bottom, and comes with a 200mAh battery. According to Xiaomi, this should last for 40 days if you limit to a 3-hour session every day. But when you do run out of the battery, you need to charge it separately using the pins at he top of the case. It’s a bummer that you can’t even charge it wirelessly through the phone itself.
The Gaming Experience on Xiaomi 17 Pro’s Retro Case
When you put on the case and hold the Power button, the phone enters into gaming mode. Here you can browse a carousel of games, and it even has tutorials on how to play them with the controls on the case. I guess it is not as tacked on as I thought initially. But I question the kind of gaming experience you can have on it, given that the giant cameras take up a good portion of the screen.
You only get two-thirds of the display, which might feel a little cramped to play on. Plus, I doubt that Xiaomi will be adding support for more games after the initial launch. Neither will it allow users to emulate other retro games. So, it really seems best suited for killing time while you wait in line, or desperately want to relive your childhood.
Beyond the Case, the Xiaomi 17 Pro is a Serious Flagship
As for the phone itself, the Xiaomi 17 Pro and the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max are the first flagship phones to come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. These are coupled with up to 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1 TB of UFS 4.1 storage.
The display is a 1.5k 12-bit LTPO OLED panel, and there’s a Leica Summilux triple camera setup including a 50 MP main + 50 MP 5x telephoto + 50 MP ultrawide. There’s also a 50 MP selfie camera, and the phone come with the latest HyperOS 3 based on Android 16. Inside, the 17 Pro has a 6300mAh battery, and the Pro Max has a 7500mAh cell.
The device will definitely remind you of the iPhone 17 Pro series, and that’s not a coincidence. It’s an intentional decision by Xiaomi, even evident in the naming, too. But unlike Apple, Xiaomi makes use of the large camera island with the second screen called the Magic Back Display that I discussed above.
Because Nothing Says Flagship Like a Game Boy on Your Camera Bump
The Xiaomi 17 Pro and the 17 Pro Max will start at ¥4,999 (approximately $700) and ¥5,999 (approximately $840), respectively. Currently, these are launched in China with no news about international release. Now, whenever the Xiaomi 17 Pro and the 17 Pro Max make their way to international markets, I just wish they ship the Retro Gaming Case along with them.
I don’t know whether it’s ingenious or dumb, but the mad scientists at Xiaomi definitely deserve a raise for cooking up something so bizarre. While the rest of the Chinese phonemakers like Oppo and Vivo are coming up with camera cases to show the photography prowess of their phones, Xiaomi’s out here competing with Nintendo.
