Some phone generations earn their number with a better camera or a faster chip. The Redmi Note 17 5G earns it with one thing: battery. GSMArena ran its standard endurance and charging tests on the phone, and the verdict is simple. It lasts a very long time, and it takes a while to fill back up.
The Note 17 5G and its 4G sibling are almost the same phone. The only real difference is the chipset. The 5G model uses Qualcomm’s 4nm Snapdragon 4 Gen 4, and the 4G version gets the 6nm Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 2. Both carry a 7,700mAh silicon-carbon (Si/C) battery with 45W charging and 22.5W reverse charging. That is a big step up from the previous generation: the Note 15 5G had 5,520mAh and 45W, and the Note 15 4G had 6,000mAh and 33W.
Endurance that scales with capacity
Compared with the Redmi Note 15 5G, the new phone improved in every test. Its Active Use Score went up by nearly five and a half hours, to close to 20 hours. The gain tracks the hardware almost exactly: 39% more battery capacity produced a 38% better score. The display also grew, from a 6.77″ OLED to a 6.99″ OLED (both 1080p+ and 120Hz), so a small gain in efficiency cancelled out the extra screen. GSMArena says you can easily go 2–3 days between charges, depending on how hard you use the phone.
The rival phones in the test show where this puts the Redmi:
- Realme 16T: its 8,000mAh battery lasts 3 hours longer, and it wins the call, web and gaming tests. It uses a 6.81″ 144Hz IPS LCD at only 720p+ and the Dimensity 6300 chip.
- Poco M8 Pro: it has a smaller 6,500mAh Si/C battery, but it charges at 100W and runs a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 with a 6.83″ 1280p+ OLED.
- Redmi Note 17 Pro: it has 640mAh more capacity (8,340mAh), yet it lasted less than the vanilla model. GSMArena was surprised, because the Pro has a smaller 6.83″ screen and a 4nm Snapdragon 6s Gen 4.
- Samsung Galaxy A37: with 5,000mAh, it can’t keep up with these phones.
The charging bottleneck
Charging is where the Note 17 5G falls behind. The 45W brick took it to 23% in 15 minutes and 41% in 30 minutes, and a full charge from 0% took 1:25h. The Poco M8 Pro reached 83% in half an hour and was full in 0:47h. The Galaxy A37 is also rated at 45W, but it needed 1:12h to fill a battery that is 54% smaller, so the Redmi’s charging is relatively efficient. The Note 17 Pro, charging at 67W, finished only 5 minutes sooner, at 1:20h. The 4G Note 17 took 1:28h, and the Realme 16T took 1:32h.
This generation gives up some things. The 108MP main cameras of the Note 15 pair are gone, and the Poco M8 Pro outperforms the Snapdragon 4 Gen 4. That makes the battery the one clear upgrade. GSMArena would have liked 67W charging to go with it. Still, in terms of stamina, the Redmi Note 17 5G is one of the strongest phones in its class.
Earlier on GismoLand: Redmi Note 17 goes global. And it might just be a Poco in disguise.
