At an event in Beijing, Xiaomi unveiled MIUI 7, the manufacturer’s latest OS. Based on Android 5.1 Lollipop, MIUI 7 brings a host of UI changes, themes, features and a whole new way to receive calls.
Laugh about Xiaomi all you want, but they will bring their Android 5.1 (MIUI 7) to virtually all of its phones – only a phone form 2011 is not getting it.
This is how you do it.
One of the selling points that Xiaomi advertises is that a weekly OS update is offered. And that is not always true.
One year ago I purchased a the RedMi 1 model (not to confuse with the similar RedMi 1S model). The OS is MIUI v5 and I am still stuck on it. In the last twelve months we, the RedMi 1 model owners, have been offered three minor updates.
It is not that I am eager to run the very latest OS version in my smartphone. Simply, I just want to be offered a OS update every three or four months in order to get rid of bugs and security holes.
To add the insult to the injury, Xiaomi has released for free MIUI 6 for other manufacturers’ smartphones. That is, users that have not spent a single cent in a Xiaomi device are getting more support than paying customers.
Last and not least, Xiaomi has ignored any complaint about this issue.
This is how Xiaomi actually works. If Xioami decides, for whatever reason, to drop support for your model you will be ignored and get no solution – no matter if it is new.
Guys, let me advise to avoid Xiaomi’s enormous hype and Apple-cloned fanfare: they want to fool you.
Edited 2015-08-13 18:40 UTC
“This is how Xiaomi actually works. If Xioami decides, for whatever reason, to drop support for your model you will be ignored and get no solution – no matter if it is new.”
Well, just like Apple in facts :
“No, the 3GS is no more powerful to support the functionalities it used to, so we removed them in the new shiny iOS upgrade”
In my opinion, expecting that your smartphone OS will be updated forever and ever is not reasonable.
Since I am not a Apple stuff user, I do not know how many years Apple kept on offering OS updates to the iPhone 3GS model customers.
But I guess that iPhone 3GS support period was much longer than I got from Xiaomi, just few months.
If you want the weekly updates you have to stop using the stable rom and go for a weekly rom, those are adapted to occidental users weekly and offered by OTA in various sites, i.e xiaomi.eu
Nope and nope.
Xiaomi.eu is an UNOFFICIAL web page, a fact that it is clearly claimed in the own website.
On other hand, at official Xiaomi web page the ROM weekly released can be gotten… provided it is ona available for your device.
It is not the first time I hear about xiaomi.eu. Personal thought: it is amazing how people make claims on the Internet without previous verification.
I’m not at home now and can’t look it further, but IIRC when I looked at it Xiaomi released weekly dev roms and these pages basically translate and take out chinese only stuff. Sources were avialable when I looked for.
Aren’t they even at this of update better than nexus updates (Galaxy Nexus)? Even 1 out of that many can be considered best of other androids, right?
The Galaxy Nexus is no longer supported, in part because it’s so old and in part because TI no longer supports their own OMAP SoC, so Google has no way to build newer images even if they wanted to. Besides, it’s approaching its fourth birthday; that’s ancient in cellphone life cycles.
I’m surprised the Nexus 4 is still supported given its age, but I’m not complaining. And if it ever does fall out of support from Google, I’m sure the CM folks will continue to support it for a while yet.
Right, because there is no way Google could afford to buy the code & update it themselves, or pay TI to update it for them.
Also, the Nexus 4 is faster than many current gen devices, ofcourse it should receive the latest updates. That’s the whole point of the Nexus devices – this allows us devs to be able to test our software on the latest software not just on the latest & fastest device, but also on a few devices that are a little older/slower/lower specced.
Edited 2015-08-14 05:56 UTC
You just answered yourself there: Why would Google go out of their way to support a four year old phone whose SoC is no longer supported, when the next generation (Nexus 4) is practically a super-phone compared to it?
Don’t be surprised if it’s dropped from official support with the next round of Nexus devices. Google will want to have a modern baseband and WiFi (LTE, 802.11ac) and the 4 won’t meet their requirements. That’s pure conjecture on my part, so I may be wrong and the 4 will (hopefully) get another year of support. If it is dropped, I’ll move my wife’s Nexus 4 over to CM rather than spend money on the 5.
Actually MIUI 7 doesnot mean Android 5.1.
Older devices will still run 4.2 or 4.4 under the MIUI 7
Yeah. I’ve been getting MIUI updates for my Mi 3, but the Android version is still 4.4.
Yep, Thom was misinformed and thought MIUI 7 == latest MIUI so it is latest Android…and who wouldn’t think that. I just think of MIUI as a skin that runs on whatever Android you had below it to explain this “MIUI can be different Android versions”
But this part I don’t understand: “Laugh about Xiaomi all you want”. Why would anyone laugh about Xiaomi? Because they are too much an Apple clone while denying that they are an Apple clone is just about the only thing I could think of. They make great phones, sell boatloads of them for great prices and seem to have a clear corporate identity, direction and (my opinion) future. They are basically the company that proves that “not all China phones are burners”
No way will I buy a chinese phone with an in-house OS build, especially not some tacky hack like Miui. I’ve had my share of chinese electronics with badly designed, unmaintained firmware, and I’m done with it.
They could save the money they spend spoiling the user interface and make customers a lot happier by shipping standard Google Android. Or simply make customers a lot happier by letting them choose. When they offer stock Android, like OnePlus does, I might be interested. Miui, kindly die.
Since when does OnePlus offer stock Android?
It used to be Cyanogen and it is now Oxygen right? (close to stock, but not stock)
My bad — I first put OnePlus in the same bag as Xiaomi, but then I quickly googled OnePlus just in case, and a cursory scan led me to think I was wrong and they indeed provided stock Android ROMs. OK, so they can take both Miui and Oxygen and stuff it.
I cannot understand how can Xiaomi be so proud of throwing that layer of garbage, just a badly hacked imitation of a competitor’s ideas, over good hardware and software. The Apple of China, Ha!
True, Sony and Samsung and LG and HTC and Lenovo do the same, but not as invasively and with such bad taste as Xiaomi.