Xiaomi recently launched its 17 and 17 Ultra smartphones in Europe, marking a notable departure from prevailing industry trends. The company conspicuously avoided extensive discussions about artificial intelligence, particularly concerning the advanced camera systems on both devices, including a special edition 17 Ultra co-created with Leica. According to Angus Ng, Xiaomi’s director of communications and public relations, this strategic decision was entirely deliberate.
During MWC 2026, Ng explained Xiaomi's distinct photography philosophy, which contrasts with the AI-heavy approaches seen in Google's recent Pixel 10A and Samsung's Galaxy S26 launches. "We’re still currently focusing on what is the limitation of hardware," Ng stated, emphasizing a hardware-first innovation strategy. He further clarified the company's future outlook, adding, "If it really comes to a point where we cannot do any more innovations, then we’ll also start looking at the software side."
Ng acknowledged that Xiaomi's current imaging sensors and systems do incorporate "software and AI processing within our current imaging sensors and imaging system," but he stressed that its integration is "just not as obvious as Samsung." Reflecting on past experiences, he shared, "When we did use AI processing two years ago, a year ago, when we really focussed on that, the feedback wasn’t that overwhelmingly positive."
Offering a personal, and somewhat pointed, theory on why Samsung has adopted a different strategy, Ng suggested, "Because their hardware did not upgrade, they focused their strategy on software."
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