Xiaomi has a reputation of selling well-built smartphones, which reflects positively on their sales chart. The only gripe with their phones is that they run a heavily customised version of Android, called MIUI, which doesn’t find favour with many users. It seems that Xiaomi is planning to address this issue by launching a Mi smartphone that runs on stock Android.
One Weibo user has unearthed photos of a device supposed to be the mystic Xiaomi A1 smartphone. The phone is believed to be a part of Google’s Android One program, which means Google will be responsible for handling timely software updates, whereas Xiaomi will be responsible for building the phone.
However, it is believed that Xiaomi will bring modern features like dual camera and thin-bezel display to the Android One lineup and to Google’s smartphone lineup. The leak shows a Galaxy S8-esque smartphone with extremely thin bezels with its display switched on. Although the leak claims that this will run stock Android, cautious readers will notice MIUI on the display, which also points towards the possibility of this being the Mi Mix 2 that is also doing rounds of the smartphone rumour world.
While this may not be the Android One phone from Xiaomi, it will be exciting to see a Xiaomi smartphone with a quality build running the purest version of Android, which should impart a premium experience to budget smartphone users.
