With the advancement of cellular technology, the new generation modems are getting extremely small. Most of them they are being fabricated in the same die as the SoC to reduce power consumption as well as boost the efficiency.
The first widely available 5G modem, Qualcomm Snapdragon X50, is available as a standalone module though.
Other than Qualcomm, we have seen phones from Huawei and Samsung using in-house 5G modems. For example, the 5G edition of Mate 20 X features HiSilicon Balong 5000 multi-mode 5G chipset. Unfortunately the current implementation is a huge battery juice drainer.
Xiaomi took a formidable approach. Unlike most of the manufacturers, they wait until the arrival of the half-yearly refresh of flagship Snapdragon 855 SoC (i.e. Snapdragon 855+) and then prepared a new phone from the template of an existing device. We are referring to none other than Mi 9 Pro 5G.
Well, the Chinese giant did release Mi MIX 3 5G earlier this year, but that was more of a trial run. The design-centric 5G phone is now available in Europe, but Xiaomi’s target was to reduce the base price as much as possible. With the price tag of ~$520 (3,699 yuan), Mi 9 Pro 5G is certainly a burgain.
After multiple leaks and official teasers, Xiaomi unveiled the Mi 9 Pro 5G alongside Mi MIX Alpha – the concept phone. MIUI 11 was also released in the same event that took place two days ago (September 24). As you may speculate, both these phones ‘should’ run MIUI 11 out of the box.
Matter of fact, the day-one software update for Mi 9 Pro 5G is now live in China and it is not MIUI 11! Rather it is from the familiar MIUI 10.4 branch (10.4.6.0 to be precise) which bundled typical stability and security fixes.
Other
– Optimized system performance
– Improved system security and stability
According to Xiaomi, a global variant of the phone is in the pipeline. Perhaps MIUI 11 will be available as the actual day-one software update for Mi 9 Pro 5G in later weeks, as most of the current inventory is staying inside the warehouses.
The download link of the full firmware is give below, thanks to my friend yshalsager and the Xiaomi Firmware Updater project. If you are planning to import this cheap 5G phone from China (or already ordered), the package could be handy for manual flashing and/or recovering from brick.
- Device: Mi 9 Pro 5G
- Codename: crux
- Channel: China Stable
- Version: V10.4.6.0.PFXCNXM
- Android: 9.0
- Type: Recovery
- Download: Link
- MD5: c396dc02bb7198b004029e6fcd0dd93f
- Type: Recovery
Do you think current gen 5G phones are matured enough for mass adoption? Comment below.
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Mi 9 Pro 5G miui
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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