Consumers and media largely agree that Apple nailed the iPhone 17 series. Even the base iPhone 17 got plenty of upgrades this time, making it one of the best base flagship smartphones currently available on the market. Coupled with the newly designed iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max, it was expected that the iPhone 17 series would sell quite well. This is precisely what has happened.

According to sales data shared on X by Ice Universe, the iPhone 17 series sales, from the September 2025 launch to the second week of January 2026, stand at a staggering 17.27 million units in China. By contrast, the Xiaomi 17 series, the second-best-selling smartphone lineup, reportedly could only clock 3.08 million units in sales. The sales of the Xiaomi 17 series include the Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

In other words, Apple has, to date, apparently sold more iPhone 17 series units than all the other Chinese flagship phones combined. This is even more impressive when we consider that the sales figures shown here represent only the Chinese market. Globally, the iPhone 17 devices are also quite popular. For instance, it was predicted back in December 2025 that, by the end of the year, Apple would sell a record 247.4 million iPhones in 2025 alone. Samsung also had a pretty solid 2025, with more than 241 million Galaxy phones sold, but not enough to beat Apple.

It will be interesting to see if Apple can keep this momentum in the face of the imminent Galaxy S26 launch. From the looks of it, the Galaxy S26 phones appear to be an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary upgrade over the Galaxy S25 series. As such, it won’t be surprising if the reception is weaker than that of the iPhone 17 series.

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Fawad Murtaza – Senior Tech Writer – 1469 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021

I am Fawad, a fellow tech nerd. As a tech junkie, my relationship with technology goes back to my childhood years. Getting my first Intel Pentium 4 PC was the start of journey that would eventually bring me to Notebookcheck. Finally, I have been writing for tech media since 2018. From small no-name projects to industry leaders, I have worked with a number of tech publications.