The MIUI 9 mobile firmware is set to start hitting Xiaomi-made phones in India on Thursday, November 2nd, the Chinese original equipment manufacturer confirmed earlier today. The company didn’t specify which handsets will be prioritized during the rollout and will presumably share more information on the matter by next week. Xiaomi’s software support practices are traditionally comprehensive and MIUI 9 isn’t an exception to that rule, with the mobile suite being compatible with virtually all of the firm’s contemporary offerings, even devices which were released years ago like the Redmi 2 and Redmi 2 Prime. The list of supported Android smartphones includes all additions to the Redmi series from the last several years, as well as Xiaomi’s Mi-branded devices as old as the 2013 Mi 3, with some minor exceptions.
MIUI 9 will be rolling out to users as an over-the-air (OTA) update, with the distribution itself being likely to be gradual in nature. Owners of eligible devices can hence expect to receive a notification prompting them to download MIUI 9 starting from early November or can try searching for the new software package manually from the system Settings app on their Android-powered handsets. Many phones eligible to receive MIUI 9 are also planned for an upgrade to Android 8.0 Oreo in the near future, though it remains to be seen how long will Xiaomi take to bring them to the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system. Compared to its direct predecessor, MIUI 9 has been significantly streamlined with the goal of facilitating navigation and comes with some major features like a new Smart Assistant and a robust image search engine. The general performance of the firmware should also be even smoother than that of MIUI 8 and Xiaomi’s new firmware should also prolong your battery life as it’s been specifically optimized for peak energy efficiency, Xiaomi said earlier this year.
India remains one of Xiaomi’s key markets where the company has slowly been outpacing all competitors bar Samsung and is presently the second largest phone vendor in the country by both shipments and sales, according to numerous industry trackers. The OEM is expected to launch at least one more device in India by the end of the year, with recent reports suggesting that its next product aimed at the South Asian country may actually debut alongside MIUI 9’s rollout.