Chinese tech giant Xiaomi unveils HYPERCAR, off-road scooter & new iPhone rival in gadget mega-event

A HI-TECH scooter, a smartphone built by a camera giant and a hypercar of the future – these are just a few of a smorgasbord of new gadgets unveiled by a top Chinese tech giant.

Mobile titan Xiaomi has unveiled loads of new products at a special event in Barcelona, including a snazzy iPhone accessory.

The headline act was the new Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which is meant to be a direct rival to the iPhone 17 Pro Max and SamsungGalaxy S26 Ultra.

It’s got a large and bright 6.9-inch OLED display, is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, and comes with 16GB of RAM plus 512GB of storage.

And it comes in three colours: Black, White, and a fun Starlit Green option with a sparkly effect that Xiaomi told The Sun was made possible by using five separate layers of composite fibreglass with a sparkle layer embedded.

But the most interesting part of the phone is its triple-camera module, which was built in partnership with German camera titan Leica.

It concludes a 50-megapixel camera that uses a large 1-inch sensor to collect as much light as possible (which is especially handy in nighttime shooting).

Plus there’s a 50-megapixel ultra-wide Leica camera with a 115-degree field of view.

But most unique of all is the 200-megapixel 75-100mm telephoto zoom camera, which features proper mechanical zoom (like what you might find in a standalone camera).

That means at between 3.2x and 4.3x zoom, you’re getting true optical zoom – no computational tricks, or cropping and blowing up the image.

And there’s also a 50-megapixel selfie camera for good measure.

There’s also a cheaper alternative called the Xiaomi 17, which loses the mechanical camera, but includes a slightly larger battery.

And it comes with three months of Google AI Pro at no extra cost.

And if you want to spend big, you could splash out on Leica’s own Leitzphone, which was built in partnership with Xiaomi.

It’s largely similar to the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, but it has a special perk.

There’s actually a mechanical ring encircling the camera module on the back of the phone.

And you can twist this just like you would on a real camera to make adjustments to, for instance, focus or zoom.

It’s aimed at photography aficionados who want to get that physical feel of camera without lugging heavy equipment around.

As well as new mobiles, Xiaomi also showed off an iPad Pro-esque Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro, which also comes paired with a Focus Pen Pro stylus.

It has an enormous 9,200mAh battery for all-day use, as well as an 11.2-inch 3.2k display with a 144Hz refresh rate (that means the display can refresh its image 144 times every second for a smooth visual effect).

It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and supports speedy 67W HyperCharge charging.

You’ve got the new Xiaomi Watch 5, which uses a micro-detection system to pick up hand gestures.

That way, you can control the smartwatch just by tapping your fingers together.

And you can also use this system to remotely trigger your mobile’s camera shutter, which is less awkward than using a timer.

Xiaomi says it’ll last for six days on a single charge in smart mode, courtesy of a 930mAh battery.

And then there are two more mobile accessories too.

You’ve got the Xiaomi Power Bank, which uses a 5,000mAh silicon carbon cell to recharge your gadgets.

However, it’s a strikingly svelte 6mm thin, and also supports MagSafe charging – meaning it’ll tag onto your iPhone too.

Then there’s the Xiaomi Tag, which is an AirTag-style tracker tag that serves up a year of battery life.

And it also works with Android’s Find Hub and Apple’s Find My.

The idea is that you stick it on to your luggage so that you can keep tabs on it and, ideally, not lose it. The same goes for your keys, wallet, or anything else that seems to go walkabout.

Lastly on the accessories front, there are the new Redmi Buds 8 Pro headphones.

These are wireless earbuds that deliver up to 55dB of active noise cancellation.

And they also implement smart noise reduction that adapts in real time based on your surroundings.

As well as that, they support built-in dimensional audio that uses head-tracking to create an immersive listening experience.

You can get those in Obsidian Black, Cloud White, or Glacier Blue.

As well as all of this mobile gear, Xiaomi unveiled two arguably more thrilling items.

The first is the Xiaomi Electric 6 Ultra scooter, which – as the name suggests – is an electric scooter.

But it comes fitted with 12-inch all-terrain tyres, high ground clearance, and promises to work on “grass, gravel, stone pavement, and asphalt”.

It has a range of 75km, and even has traction control, as well as bright headlines, turn signals, and a 1,200W motor for acceleration.

There’s a 3-inch colour display on the handlebars, and the scooter comes in Lightning Yellow.

But if that paintjob isn’t enough to not lose it, the scooter also works with Apple’s Find My.

Lastly, there’s the Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo, which is a hypercar.

That’s not as wacky as it sounds: Xiaomi is already a popular carmaker in its Chinese homeland.

And its impressive Xiaomi SU7 EV is expected to roll out across Europe in the next couple of years.

The Xiaomi Vision GT isn’t intended for production: instead it’s courtesy of a partnership with gaming giant Gran Turismo, which invites carmakers to mock up hypercars of the future for gamers to enjoy.

So while it looks cool (and is highly aerodynamic, according to Xiaomi), you won’t be getting behind the wheel of this slick EV any time soon.