MIUI 10: Release Date, Devices, Top Features, Tips & Tricks

Even if you have been living under a rock on Mars with your ears plugged, you have definitely heard of MIUI - Xiaomi’s custom skin on top of Android. MIUI has been one of the most standout and consistent skin by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer which brings a host of features to an assortment of Xiaomi smartphones, quite popular in the subcontinent. This time around, Xiaomi has unveiled the touted MIUI 10, rolling out this month and to be available on smartphones from Redmi 3S, Redmi 5A to MI 6 and even the Mi Mix 2S.

There are a lot of smartphone models set to be revived by MIUI 10, which feels quite great as in the world where Android updates are nowhere to be found, Xiaomi makes the effort to give the latest of features and improvements to Its fans. So as always, MIUI 10 is a hot pot full of features and enhancements, without further ado, let’s take a sneak peek at the best ones as well as some of the tips and tricks. At the end, we have also listed the devices that will get MIUI 10 update phase wise and the release date of MIUI 10.

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1.AI & System-Wide Optimisations

This is the first interesting feature of the MIUI 10. So, we know the word ‘AI’ doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence since big brands have been using it for marketing gimmicks with no substantial ‘Intelligence’. Xiaomi has introduced a lot of system-wide optimisations that uplift performance of even older hardware and we know that isn’t a whole lot surprising but carries a great deal of significance in real life scenarios.

MIUI has always been close to stock Android in performance even with all that loaded UI and nitty gritty features and MIUI 10 continues that. Then there are AI Preload which studies app and device usage patterns to anticipate which apps you are going to use at the time and hence preload them, reducing load times substantially. It is a neat feature, coupled with slick animations and smooth operation.  

2.Gestures

Everyone is gunning for more screen area on smartphones and gestures are really an exciting new paradigm in how we operate our smartphones. With more and more display being packed, the value of gestures has pumped up as there are lesser physical buttons. MIUI 10 brings a host of well thought and equally well-implemented gestures to operate the smartphone. Unlike other skins, where gestures are not really well baked and sort of stick or lag, MIUI 10 gestures are really responsive and slick with some delightful and subtle animations.

There is no lag or stutter and makes us believe that gestures can replace usual controls if built well. So, you know who sparked the gesture game, and Xiaomi is shameless in borrowing things from Apple. So we have a swipe up to go home and swipe up and hold to access Recent Menu. Also, swipe from the left edge of the screen to go back. You can swipe from the left or right edge of the screen and hold to go back to the previous app instead of going back a page, which is really smooth and of course a welcome addition. MIUI 10 gestures are probably the most well-crafted gesture support in any Android ROM we’ve seen till date, praise be to Xiaomi. Thumbs to this second feature of MIUI 10

3.All New Recents Menu 

It is 2018 and pretty much every new smartphone from Xiaomi is gonna ditch those bezels, many already have. Considering the taller screen estate, Xiaomi has crafted an all-new recent apps menu, which leverages the taller screen to present recent apps in form of a vertically scrollable list as shown, an It is quite responsive. Swiping, tapping reveals controls to yield ram and delete apps from memory. It makes better use of the taller screens and is refreshing to use. 

4.Single-Camera Portraits 

Perhaps the most pronounced advancement in smartphone photography has been portrait shots, ergo the presence of dual sensors on smartphones to capture depth effect. Last year, Google showed the world that you don’t need a couple of sensors to do bokeh and AI can do the magic to get similar results with just a single camera.

Since then, a few have tried to get portrait shots with a single camera and they’ve been mildly successful. Xiaomi realises people’s wants and here we have software enhancements which enable single camera portraits on MIUI 10. Xiaomi claims it has trained its portrait mode algorithms on more than 100,000 photos, so we really hope It does well in real life. Hope you would love this new feature of the MIUI 10.

5. Redesigned Notifications

The next on the list of features of MIUI 10 is the notifications. A new Android update isn’t an update until there is some tweaking with Notifications. And MIUI has the pretty same pattern as well, this time around as well we find some nice visual changes in the notifications shade. It takes a lot of inspiration from Android P with a white background and coloured icons. Quick actions have been added to notifications which are really handy.

And that’s not all, Xiaomi reminds us of the very characteristic Samsung notification alerts, (remember that water drop effects for messages on Samsung TouchWiz?) Xiaomi says It has taken inspiration from nature itself to deliver notifications to create a serene rhythm and natural sounding experience for the user, which we don’t really get but we suppose people will like It. 

6. Android P Style Volume Sliders & Autofill Support 

Xiaomi isn’t exactly consistent on giving out the latest Android on Its smartphones but It does take care that you get the most of latest Android updates in every new MIUI release and this time, Its no different. MIUI 10 takes a lot of cues from Android P with Volume sliders appearing on the side of volume rocker buttons on the display which is more intuitive. The same is the case with the brightness slider. On default, the volume slider alters the media volume instead of ringing volume which is a small but helpful addition.

Another small addition which has been missing on MIUI since Android Oreo is AutoFill, now It is not a big feature but It sure makes life easier. MIUI 10 supports AutoFill, allows you to login to apps without punching your credentials again and again. 

7. The picture in Picture Mode

Picture in Picture isn’t exactly new to stock Android users as It came back with Android Oreo, MIUI 9 couldn’t include the feature but MIUI 10 does. Its a really significant addition to the experience which allows users to do multiple things without really doing a lot of switching between apps, It is really cool. For instance, you can check out your Instagram feed while watching a cool YouTube video your friend sent, without switching between Instagram and YouTube. 

8. Linking With Apps

There’s no counter-argument to the fact that Xiaomi is the biggest smartphone seller in India and to remain one, you have to give out useful features custom to use of Indian population. Since Digital payments have been booming in India lately, Xiaomi has built a deeper integration with the Paytm app. Scanning a Paytm QR code with the camera app’s QR code reader will launch the Paytm app to finish the payment process. Other examples of linking could be found is messages where messages will ask you to open the Flipkart app if you received your Flipkart order details in an SMS, neat!  And seems like this feature of MIU 10 will make life a lot easier.

9. Better Integration With Other Xiaomi Devices

Xiaomi Ecosystem of devices in India except the smartphones isn’t a whole lot rich right now, but there are some devices and MIUI 10 presents early signs of a rich, connected MI Ecosystem with one-touch control from an inbuilt application. It sounds much like Apple’s HomeKit and It is. It is not really an enticing feature for Indian users but It will surely lay foundations for Xiaomi to build a better ecosystem of devices.  

10. MIUI Lab & Others 

You must remember the MIUI Lab from MIUI 9 which is quite literally a lab for Xiaomi to push out experimental features for testing by users. MIUI Lab on MIUI 9 didn’t see much usage or experiments so to say but MIUI 10 promises a lot more in this department. There are some amazing additions here like ‘TapPlus’ which reveals a set of actions when you press and hold some icons (uh-huh 3D Touch!).

Then there comes ‘Super Resolution’ which turns high the resolution of Images using Machine Learning, it isn’t really on the money but since It is an experiment we won’t mind. Last but not the least, we have a dedicated ‘Car Mode’ which will augment your driving experience by helping you navigate, answer calls, play music and read and reply to messages, using your voice. It is not ready yet, but we are looking forward to It. Moreover, for the geeks out there Mi Browser now supports Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), If you use Mi Browser, this is a great enhancement.

Release Dates and List of Eligible Devices for MIUI 10

Now that you are all in hunger to drive the new MIUI 10 on your Xiaomi smartphones, MIUI 10 Open beta has started rolling from Mid-June 2018 onwards. However, there’s more to your hunger as there’s no time-frame for a stable release. If you are wondering whether your device is eligible for the update, don’t, here’s the list -

In the first phase, the closed and public beta of MIUI 10 ROM will be offered for:

• Mi MIX 2S
• Mi MIX 2
• Mi MIX
• Mi 6X
• Mi 6
• Mi 5

In the second phase, the update will be rolled out for:

• Mi Note 3
• Mi 5X
• Mi 5c
• Mi 5s
• Mi 5s Plus
• Mi 4
• Mi 4c
• Mi 4S
• Mi Max 2
• Mi Max

SuggestPhone’s Verdict on MIUI 10

MIUI is definitely a stallion among all custom Android skins with an optimal performance which matches stock level and some commendable additions by Xiaomi that make It a pretty worthy update and a revival for many Xiaomi devices. Xiaomi’s commitment towards customer satisfaction iterates from the fact that It provides regular software updates, whether or not they reach the whole demographic of Xiaomi devices and users is another question.

We really like and recommend MIUI 10, It has some neat features which take It closer to Android P and Xiaomi’s magic sauce which makes these features available on devices that won’t ever get Android P. We’ll keep updating this space as we dig deeper in MIUI 10, so stay tuned and do share any amazing features of MIUI 10, we missed in this article.