Xiaomi launches MIUI 9 Global ROM in India

Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi will start rolling out the MIUI 9 Global ROM for India, starting tomorrow.

The MIUI 9 update was rolled out on a beta phase for the global market on August 11. The stable version will start rolling out from tomorrow, Friday (November 3). The update will be available for Redmi Note 4, Mi Mix 2 and Mi Max 2.

The recent update offers an explosively fast app launch time on the back of optimised haptic feedback, intelligent CPU acceleration, and optimised thread scheduling.

The company claims that the new update has multiple features on top of Android. Commenting on the same, a Xiaomi spokesperson said, "I think if you were to complain about feature differences between MIUI and stock Android, the biggest thing that people complain about is notifications. So in MIUI 9, the notifications are basically the same as stock Android. We support multiple styles of notifications including bundled notifications from an app, quick reply, and one-finger swipe to expand." He further added, "It may be designed MIUI-like, but feature wise it's on par with stock Android."

Apart from a fast app launch Xiaomi this year is banking on features like Image Search, Smart Assistant, Smart App Launcher, Split Screen Mode, and System Optimisation in the new MIUI 9 ROM.

Talking about the split-screen function the spokesperson said, “We've added split-screen to every device with MIUI 9 on Android N and above. It's the same split screen API from stock Android. We made one slight improvement where if you want to switch the app that's on the bottom to the top, you'll just have to double tap the bar in the middle: which makes it a little easier to use."

The MIUI 9 update is still based on Android Nougat and has not been updated to Android Oreo. The MIUI 9 stable version for the rest of the eligible Xiaomi phones will be rolled out by the end of this month. These devices include Xiaomi Mi Note 3, Xiaomi Mi 6, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X, Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A, Xiaomi Redmi 4, Xiaomi Redmi 4X, Xiaomi Redmi Y1, Xiaomi Redmi Y1 Lite.

The new ROM will be available for entry-level Redmi phones like Xiaomi Redmi 3, Xiaomi Redmi 3S, Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime, and Redmi 2 Prime. Lastly, MIUI 9 will also be available for Mi 3 that was launched in 2013 and Mi 2 launched in 2012.

Xiaomi competes with other key players in the Indian smartphones market, including  Samsung, Lenovo, Vivo, and Oppo in India. This year, Xiaomi is targeting to clock about $2 Bn revenue in India. With shipments of 6.2 million in the Oct-Dec quarter last year, Samsung still leads the market with a 22 per cent share.