New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Product manufacturers often release a handful of their prototype creations to the public. The notion is mainly about showing the world the little glimpses of what’s cooking inside. In some cases, the concept devices are being sold as exclusives for the sole purpose of collection.

mit_citycar_folding
MIT CityCar: A futuristic concept car project

The world of smartphones are not free from such concept devices. Sometimes a lucky chap got a rare chance to visit the secret lair of the company and discovered a bunch of never-released prototypes.

On the other hand, few phonemakers actually released limited number of prototype phones commercially. Some went one step further and decided to opt for crowdfunding to materialize the concept into reality.

vivo_apex_2019_front_back
Vivo Apex 2019: A ‘holeless’ concept phone

Xiaomi, being one of the largest smartphone makers, have dipped their toe in the same water. As a matter of fact, they kickstarted the trend of virtually bezel-less display back in 2016 with the release of Mi MIX.

The Chinese OEM continued to support the MIX lineup by launching the Mi MIX 2 in the subsequent year. Unlike its predecessor, Mi MIX 2 saw a wider global release (including India).

mi_mix_2_black_front_back
Mi MIX 2

Xiaomi used flagship grade Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC in the second generation MIX smartphone, same as Google Pixel 2/2 XL and OnePlus 5/5T.

The 5.99 inch screen had an impressive ~81% screen-to-body ratio. The phone came with four-sided curved ceramic back plate coupled with aluminum alloy frame.

Mi MIX 2 was initially launched with Android 7.1 Nougat based MIUI 8.5. The phone eventually got Android 8.0 Oreo update in the form of MIUI 9. Later on, Xiaomi brought MIUI 10 for this iconic phone, but the base Android version remained unchanged.

mi_mix_2_miui_10_stable_tweet

Interestingly, Xiaomi refreshed the MIX lineup by launching Mi MIX 2S as a minor update of the original MIX 2. The MIX 2S was one of the few non-Google phones to be selected for early beta testing of Android P (later named as Pie), while MIX 2 users were stuck with Oreo.

mi_mix_2s_black_front_back
Mi MIX 2S – notice the dual rear camera

MIUI beta organisers are maintaining a public thread in Xiaomi’s China forum regarding beta testing of Android Pie. In fact, We mentioned about this list in one of our previous articles. The most current revision of this list indicates that Mi MIX 2 should receive Pie update in Q2, 2019.

mi_mix_2_pie_update_q2_2019_list

As a matter of fact, the first Android Pie based MIUI beta builds are already live for Mi MIX 2. Both the Chinese and global variants of the phone are eligible for the internal beta testing.

mi_mix_2_miui_9.5.9_china_pie_ota
Source

The changelog does not mention anything elaborate, except the obvious (“Hey, this is Android P update!”). According to early adopters, most of the fundamental functionalities are working properly.

mi_mix_2_miui_9.5.8_pie_about

As you can see, the current Pie build features March 2019 security patch, which is rather old. Xiaomi decided to stick with the 4.4 kernel.

While there is no showstopper bug (at least according to the testers) in these builds, Camera2 API is still not officially enabled. Moreover, there is no reference of dark mode in this update.

mi_mix_2_miui_9.5.8_pie_adaptive_battery
Pie’s Adaptive Battery can now be accessed on Mi MIX 2

The xiaomi.eu guys have already prepared the first Pie based build for MIX 2 (codename: chiron) based on the MIUI China 9.5.9 build. Those who want to stick with untouched global/China build, download them from the following links:

  • Device: Mi MIX 2
  • Codename: chiron
  • Channel: Global Beta (Closed)
  • Version: V9.5.8
  • Android: 9.0
    • Type: Recovery
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: abbfb1e4ff8aa118eaa36eeddffd5762
  • Channel: China Beta (Closed)
  • Version: V9.5.9
  • Android: 9.0
    • Type: Recovery
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: 5a5f9c3558e203083f40f9c57aca7329

Being a private beta build, users can’t flash it from the built-in updater. Rather you have to rely on a custom recovery like TWRP, to force flash the update package bypassing the account verification.

twrp

PSA: You may face userdata decryption issues with TWRP after updating to this Pie build. Make sure to backup your data beforehand.

Are you planning to flash this internal beta build on your Mi MIX 2? Or prefer to wait for public beta testing?

Update 1 (May 18)

Xiaomi rolled out the first public beta build of Pie update for the Mi MIX 2 as a part of this week’s MIUI 9.5.16 beta release.

Download links are as follows:

  • Device: Mi MIX 2
  • Codename: chiron
  • Channel: Global Beta
  • Version: V9.5.16
  • Android: 9.0
    • Type: Recovery
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: 25e576bc8a9aa0fe1bccc74fc1b0cf5e
    • Type: Fastboot
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: 8d110dd36c7f22a41359e43dbeac3f07
  • Channel: China Beta
  • Version: V9.5.16
  • Android: 9.0
    • Type: Recovery
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: db2051ea00a898e294b8b134aeee8f32
    • Type: Fastboot
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: 8eae7ad19dc2b8c38d65edc665be9af7

Update 2 (July 30)

Xiaomi is currently rolling out the Android Pie update for Mi MIX 2 via MIUI stable channel (10.4.1.0). The new build comes with June security patch. Details here.

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Tags

miui MIX 2

Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

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