Chinese smartphone and consumer electronics company Xiaomi unveiled the Mi MIX 2S back in March last year – a high end device that was launched with Android Oreo (upgradable to Pie) integrated with the company’s own flavor of Android – MIUI.

Mi Mix 2s-camera

Image: MI MIX 2S dual camera

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S was the third iteration in the Mi MIX line up, which was also the company’s first bezel-less phones launched in 2016. The new dual camera setup in MIX 2S replaced its predecessor MIX 2’s single module, and was the key highlight apart from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor.

mi-mix-2

Image: MI MIX 2 single module camera

Mi MIX 2S initially landed with Android Oreo and was bumped to Android Pie a few months later. While things went smooth initially, ever since the stable global ROM 10.2.1.0 got rolling (January, 2019) MI MIX 2S users have been chiming about issue related to weak cellular signal.

mi-mix-2s-weak-signal

Clearly, the above mentioned ROM is not the latest one. But the weak signal strength problem on Mi MIX 2S reportedly instigated with this particular update, and sadly continues to exists even in the current stable build i.e. 10.2.2.0.

The issue was first brought to notice on the Xiaomi’s official help forum soon after the 10.2.1.0 ROM got rolling with users explaining the problem behavior saying their Mi MIX 2S devices receive reduced cell signal bars since the update and fails to make/receive phone calls and text messages.

My carrier is O2 Germany. Everything was okay before updating the ROM to 10.2.1.0 global, now I get about 2 to 3 bars less then the cell signal level before the update.

I can confirm there’s a problem with the network since a few updates. I’m in France, and lost the possibility to make and receive calls in 2G/3G. However VOLTE 4G calls have no problems.

Forcing to switch the network from 4G to 3G allow to quickly make a call in 3G however if you try to call again a few minutes after switching it’s impossible. This is very problematic.

Apart from vaguely explaining the problem, others who were affected said it was the call handover from 4G/Volte to 3G/2G which wasn’t working smoothly and resulted in terminated calls.

Not only that, once the device lost 4G/LTE connection it failed to reconnect to the available 3G/2G network.

What’s irritating is that while the signals weren’t out completely, some of those affected still found their phones not reachable.

I am seeing signal with 2 bars, but i am not reachable. No calls or text messages. I even had a call which was interrupted 2 times….

Here’s how a user shared their problem in detail:

user-comment

A couple of users even checked if the issue was to do with their carrier, but ruled out that possibility after checking their SIM cards in other devices and getting in touch with the service providers who acknowledged no such issues at their end.

The signal is back to normal if I switch back to my old iPhone 6, so it shouldn’t be the carrier’s problem.

I called the operator, no problem on their network and also no problem if I use my sim card in another phone.

A user also shared a screenshot of German forums where they could locate more complaints related to data connection and network issues on MIX 2S, as they were not able to find many reports on the English forum. Here’s what they said:

Here are the reports, I cannot find them here on en.miui.com, though

user-shared-screenshot

And the problem persists even in the current ROM (V10.2.2.0). Here’s a report:

issue-10.2.2.0-comment

Here’s another one:

issue-10.2.2.0

It’s worth mentioning that this connectivity issue could be due to the European SAR limit breach on Xiaomi’s Mi MIX 2S, wherein the SAR value was found to be 2.94W/kg, which was way above the allowed limit of 2W/kg.

Once the matter was highlighted by ANFR, Xiaomi immediately responded by reducing the power of its terminals through an update on Mi MIX 2S with bulid number V10.2.1. And coincidentally, users started reporting the connectivity problem after receiving the same update.

mi-mix-2s-update

Currently, there is lack of clarity about whether this data connection or weak signal issue on Mi MIX 2S has been caused by the changes implemented by the company after the SAR limit incident as there can be seen a few reports from non-European Mi MIX 2S users in regions like US, Chile and Tunisia.

LTE, T-Mobile in the United States

mi-mix-2s-network-issue-user-comment

me too the same problem in Tunisia … any solution for that moderators?

So right now, everything is up in the air, and the affected users await clarity from the company about what’s causing the connectivity glitch on their Mi MIX 2S units. Some even took to the micro-blogging site Twitter to inquire about it.

But were not entertained.

We hope Xiaomi sheds some light on the matter soon. Rest assured, we are keeping an active tab on the matter and will update the story as and when any new development comes to our notice.

Meanwhile, if you are also one of those who are facing these network related issues on your Mi Mix 2S smartphone, use our comments section below to share your observation with us.

Note: Just in case you are still running the older version on your Mi MIX 2S i.e. V10.2.1.0, here’s how you can download the latest V10.2.2.0.

Xiaomi OTA:

  • Device: Xiaomi MI MIX 2S
  • Codename: polaris
  • Channel: Global Stable
  • Version: V10.2.2.0.PDGMIXM
  • Android: 9.0
    • Type: Recovery

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.

Tags

Dr. Aparajita Sharma
1261 Posts

A budding entrepreneur by profession, and a psychologist by education. As a founding member of PiunikaWeb, I am nurturing this firstborn with my sharp-eyed expertise and even journalistic writing when needed.

Next article View Article

[April 10: Official acknowledgement for recommended videos bug] YouTube Library tab broken and sidebar missing, users say

This story is being continuously updated…. New updates are being added at the bottom….. Original story (from 2019) follows: Incoming are reports related to two separate YouTube-related issues. The...
Apr 10, 2020 0 Min Read