10,000mAh battery is a number that used to belong to power banks. The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max packs that number into an 8.57mm-thin phone, which shows how much has changed in this price segment. Earlier, it was all about which phone had a better processor or camera. Now, battery life is becoming just as important. Motorola takes a different approach with the Edge 70 Pro Plus. It packs a smaller 6,500mAh battery but focuses more on premium design, better cameras and a more powerful chipset. I tested both at our Digit Test Labs and used them as my primary devices to compare their design, displays, performance, and everything. Here is what I found.
These two phones feel completely different the moment you pick them up. The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max surprised me with a 10,000mAh battery inside, I expected this to be a brick-sized device. At 8.57mm, it is much slimmer than the number suggests. It is still a big phone though, and one-handed use gets uncomfortable, especially when you reach for the top corners.
The Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus feels more premium straight away. At 7.19mm and 190 grams, it is slimmer and lighter. The curved frame sits comfortably in the hand, and the silk-inspired finish gives it a flagship feel without attracting fingerprints.
The Redmi goes a different way, with a plastic back and a squarish camera module. It looks interesting, but the in-hand feel is not as premium as the Motorola’s.
Durability is where the Redmi comes ahead. You get Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and IP68, IP69 and IP69K protection. The Motorola offers IP68, IP69, and MIL-STD-810H certification. Both are built to survive rough use.
Both phones have stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos, though the Redmi’s speakers have slightly stronger bass. The Redmi also adds an IR blaster, which is a useful bonus.
Both displays are very good, but they deliver different experiences. The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max has a 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. The Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus uses a 6.8-inch Extreme AMOLED display and pushes the refresh rate to 144Hz. In daily use, both feel smooth. Scrolling, gaming, and switching between apps never feel sluggish on either phone.
Now coming to the benchmarks. We tested their displays at our Digit Test Labs, and on our Lux meter the Motorola peaked at 3,110 nits, while the Redmi reached around 2,700 nits. Both are readable outdoors, but the Motorola has a little more brightness headroom.
On paper, the Redmi has the stronger feature list. It supports Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR Vivid, while the Motorola supports HDR10+. Real life told a different story. While watching Netflix and YouTube, I kept preferring the Motorola’s display. Colours looked more balanced, contrast felt stronger, and the quad curved panel made videos feel slightly more immersive.
This is where the price difference starts getting interesting. The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 5, while the Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8500 Extreme. Motorola has the stronger hardware here.
Start with the benchmarks. In Antutu, the Motorola scored around 14,03,570, while the Redmi scored 9,95,983. In Geekbench, the Motorola scored 1,749 in single-core and 6,741 in multi-core, while the Redmi scored 960 in single-core and 3,002 in multi-core. The GPU test shows the same pattern. In 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test, the Motorola scored an overall score of 4,483, while the Redmi managed 1,165.
Those numbers clearly favour the Motorola, but benchmarks are not the whole story. In our CPU Throttling Test, the Redmi sustained around 76% of its peak performance, while the Motorola throttled to 71%. So the Redmi holds up a little better under sustained load, even though it is the slower phone.
In everyday use, both phones feel smooth for scrolling, multitasking, streaming, and social media. When you start editing videos or pushing heavier workloads, the Motorola’s stronger chipset becomes noticeable.
Gaming shows the gap too. The Redmi supports BGMI up to 90 FPS. However, you can play Call of Duty Mobile at up to 120 FPS. The Motorola lets you play both at up to 120 FPS. Frame rates stay stable on the Motorola during long sessions, while on the Redmi you can see the frame drops more often.
In terms of software, the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max runs HyperOS 3 on Android 16, while the Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus comes with Hello UI on Android 16. Both have some pre-installed apps. The difference is the overall experience.
Motorola’s UI feels cleaner, simpler, and much closer to stock Android. Navigation feels effortless, and animations stay consistently smooth. HyperOS gives you far more customisation, especially around the lock screen, and most of the bloatware can be removed.
In daily use, I ran into two software issues on the Redmi that are worth mentioning. Opening the app drawer occasionally felt jittery, with a small stutter before the icons settled into place. Swiping right from the home screen to open Google Discover showed a similar lag.
Now updates are where the Redmi quietly wins. Redmi promises four years of Android updates with six years of security patches. Motorola offers three years of Android updates and six years of security patches.
This is probably the biggest difference in philosophy between the two phones. The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max keeps things simple with a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide and a 32MP selfie camera. Motorola goes much further. You get a 50MP main camera, a 50MP ultrawide, a 50MP 3.5x periscope telephoto and a 50MP front camera. That hardware advantage shows.
Start with the main camera. Both capture good daylight photos, but the Redmi consistently produces more balanced colours and more natural-looking skin tones. Skin tones on the Motorola lean warmer, and that does not look great. HDR is good on both, though the Motorola handles difficult lighting a little better and manages exposure well.
Portraits get interesting. The Redmi’s main camera takes surprisingly good portraits, but edge detection struggles at times on both phones. The Motorola’s dedicated telephoto lens gives it much more flexibility. You can shoot better zoom portraits, although results become slightly inconsistent in tricky lighting.
The biggest difference comes with the ultrawide. Motorola’s 50MP ultrawide is in another league compared to the Redmi’s 8MP sensor. You get noticeably more detail, stronger dynamic range and much better consistency.
Selfies also favour the Motorola. The 50MP front camera captures more detail, more natural skin tones and cleaner portrait selfies. The Redmi’s selfie camera is perfectly usable, but the Motorola feels much more flagship here.
This is the biggest reason anyone will buy the Redmi. The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max packs a 10,000mAh battery with 100W charging. The Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus comes with a 6,500mAh battery and 90W charging. The difference is fairly large.
In our PCMark Work 3.1 test, the Redmi delivered 27 hours and 41 minutes of screen-on time, compared to 15 hours and 55 minutes on the Edge 70 Pro Plus. That is one of the best battery results I have ever recorded. In real life, I comfortably got up to 2 days on moderate use. The Motorola cannot match that level of endurance.
Charging-wise, the Redmi takes around 1 hour and 36 minutes to charge fully. The Motorola is noticeably quicker, at around 1 hour and 12 minutes, but this is because of the smaller battery size.
The Redmi Note 17 Pro Max is all about one thing, battery. The 10,000mAh cell, the strong durability, and the longer software support make it an easy pick if you want a phone that can last up to three days on a single charge.
Then comes the twist. The Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus costs Rs 47,999, while the Redmi Note 17 Pro Max costs Rs 49,999. Despite being the cheaper phone, the Motorola gives you the stronger chipset, better cameras, a more polished display and a premium in-hand feel.
So the choice is simple. If battery life is your biggest priority, go with the Redmi. If you are spending around Rs 50,000 and want the better all-round smartphone, the Motorola Edge 70 Pro Plus is the one I would pick.