New Mi 9 update brings lock screen enhancements & June security patch

The life of the oldest sibling is tough. The younger ones often get the shiny new toy, play with it in front of them – but the big brother/sister is asked to be responsible and not to bother their parents to get the same toy. ?

Well, the same saga happens with smartphones as well. For example, Mi 9 – Xiaomi’s current mainstream flagship – has started to lag behind newer models in terms of new features and security updates for last few months.

Don’t get me wrong! Xiaomi did provide tons of software based enhancements via the MIUI beta channel for the phone so far, but they are largely inaccessible to the regular users.

Modders even overclocked the screen refresh rate of Mi 9 to 84Hz, but your average Joe/Jane has nothing to do with it.

Back to the basics, Mi 9 owners yet to receive the June security patch on their phones. Forget flagships like Mi MIX 3, even the entry level Redmi 5A from 2017 got the updated monthly security patch last week.

The Chinese OEM indeed took some time, but they are finally rolling a new set of updates to Mi 9. Notice the emphasis on the plural nature, as two different builds are now available for global and European Mi 9 units.

In Europe, the version number of the new update is MIUI V10.2.28.0.PFAEUXM (can be noticed from the above screenshot). On the other hand, global models get the OTA with MIUI V10.2.13.0.PFAMIXM tag.

Albeit the changelog for the EU variant is rather generic, Xiaomi update server returns the following list of changes for both global and European builds:

System

– Optimization: Lock screen pocket mode

– Optimization: Updated Android Security Patch to June 2019. Increased system security.

Contacts

– Fix: Contacts couldn’t be deleted from SIM cards in some cases

Lockscreen, status bar, Notification shade

– New: You can choose not to show the fingerprint icon on the turned off screen. Fingerprint unlock will still work normally.

– New: Introducing customizable Lock screen clock (Settings > Lock screen & password > Advanced settings). New Lock screen clock doesn’t work with third party themes.

– New: Use your fingerprint to open Home screen once you unlocked the device using face data and stayed on the Lock screen

– Fix: Screen didn’t always light up for notifications

The highlighted features are not present in the European firmware, although it is possible to flash the global build on European units to get the taste of them.

On the other hand, the customizable lock screen clock is a common element in MIUI 10.3 branch, which is now backported to MIUI 10.2 by the company.

I like to thank my friend yshalsager and the Xiaomi Firmware Updater project for assisting me to track the OTA download links. The packages can be found below:

• Device: Mi 9
• Codename: cepheus
• Channel: Global Stable
• Version: V10.2.13.0.PFAMIXM
• Android: 9.0
  • Type: Recovery
    • Download: Link
    • MD5: b529c3de0785abe84863ba1308f4fb54
• Channel: Europe Stable
• Version: V10.2.28.0.PFAEUXM
• Android: 9.0
  • Type: Recovery
    • Download: Link
    • MD5: ac05750e9a7192b5babf11c17f50422c

Are you satisfied with your Mi 9? Let us know by commenting below.

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