Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Pro cameras mistook the Sun for the Moon during a solar eclipse — AI is to blame

During the solar eclipse on August 12, 2026, the cameras of Xiaomi's flagship smartphones, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Xiaomi 17 Pro, made a serious mistake: instead of the Sun, they displayed the Moon with characteristic craters on its surface. This was reported by NotebookCheck, citing posts on social media platform X and journalists from the French publication Fandroid.

The error was first noticed in a comparative camera video test featuring the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Oppo Find X9 Ultra. Only the Xiaomi devices exhibited the so-called "moon effect," while competitors correctly captured the eclipse. On Reddit, users also shared photos taken with the Xiaomi 17 Pro, confirming the flaw.

The root cause lies in the artificial intelligence algorithms, which mistakenly activated the "Moon" mode. This resulted in the overlay of lunar surface textures onto the image of the Sun. The phenomenon occurred both when the Sun was partially and fully visible in the frame. Since the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Xiaomi 17 Pro use Leica optics, the brand also suffered indirectly from these errors.

Similar scandals have occurred in the past with Samsung and Huawei, which also employed special modes for shooting the Moon, sometimes even using preloaded images. However, the Xiaomi case stands out because the smartphones confused the celestial bodies specifically during a rare astronomical event. It is noted that the error can be avoided by manually disabling the "Moon" mode in the camera settings.