Android MiUi is not bad at all!!

red dragon

red dragon

Justiceforall
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Recently bought a Xiaomi K20 Pro imported from India. It is a VERY GOOD phone for the price.
I don't understand anything about SoC, GPU etc, but SD 855 is a real good performer ( though I don't play video games at all, except chess) for normal usage. I was more than satisfied with the hardware in the phone, including the cameras.
However the software ( MiUi 12) was a completely different story. My experience with recent Android was restricted to Samsung and OnePlus only.
5T was really snappy, A50 was a POS, Note 10 lite is average ( the S pen stuff is brilliant)
I've used a Pixel 4 briefly and was familiar with what Google does with Android.
Now this MiUi thing was completely different, settings menu was different, has an iOS like control center and there were 2 apps for email, gallery, file manager etc.etc. Even the launcher was completely different looking.
So went with custom ROMs. The Pixel Experience and Bliss ROMs were more like typical Android.
However there were some issues with audio and on screen fingerprint scanner ( I tried the very popular Evolution X ROM too, it has the same issues)
After trying them for weeks flashed the stock ROM and decided to debloat the annoyances.
Now after 10 days or so, I'm finding really useful nifty little features in MiUi. The call recording function works great, The app switching and other gestures work perfectly. The camera is definitely better than ANX and the audio is great again.
The control centre finally working like iOS ( I'm more familiar with ios, used it from 4s to 8)
The battery life is fantastic ( it's definitely better with custom ROMs I tried, most importantly, it doesn't need disabling anything and messing up with kernels etc to get a decent battery life)
I've not seen a single ad yet, the annoying wallpaper carousel and weird app scanning before installation is gone. And the fingerprint works flawlessly.. basically I have not being able to find a single flaw in the phone now and easily getting 8 or more hours of screen on time.
All it needed was a careful initial setup. I didn't even install 5 apps from playstore, the stock ROM has everything I need.
Thank you Xiaomi!!
 
When setting up miui and you select europe as country ... uk etc ...the ads do not appear .
They only appear in asia / china .
 
If you long press on some icons in the notification drawer, it takes you directly to settings. Like wifi, auto brightness, bluetooth etc. The gestures are really well made. Good that they copy all the good stuff from Apple and put those in an affordable phone.
 
Yes, i was a big fan of 'stock' Android since the orange San Francisco days, but first tried miui as a custom rom for my xperia play. Have always used it since then. Today i find myself handicapped using asus' version on the 5z. Some of the small features in miui you just can't live without after.

However one of the reasons i wanted to move away from mi was there are some apps/processes which do telemetry and send your data to miui servers and they can't be debloated if I'm not mistaken. My last mi phone, the redmi4 was on a very old version of my miui, and while i can't remember the exact name of the processes, they were system apps which couldn't be removed.
 
AFAIK this new Java based debloater is really good. Yes, it can not delete certain system app, but practically everything can be disabled.
I've read a post @ Reddit, where there's an exhaustive list of things that can be deleted and disabled. That fellow was probably trying to de- Google Android as much as possible.
I like the MiUi messaging app also.
 
red dragon said:
AFAIK this new Java based debloater is really good. Yes, it can not delete certain system app, but practically everything can be disabled.
I've read a post @ Reddit, where there's an exhaustive list of things that can be deleted and disabled. That fellow was probably trying to de- Google Android as much as possible.
I like the MiUi messaging app also.
Click to expand...
After debloated the only apps i was left with were , Camera , Downloads, Security and Settings for my Redmi Note 9
Except these 4 rest all apps can be debloated on MIUI
Rest all are Google Apps . Seems a google Go phone these days if i forget MIUI launcher
 
Wow!! You uninstalled/ disabled everything available? I thought removing/ disabling some component may brick the phone. It is such a useful tool.
 
6pack said:
If you long press on some icons in the notification drawer, it takes you directly to settings. Like wifi, auto brightness, bluetooth etc. The gestures are really well made.
Click to expand...
Samsung also does the same long press thing, very useful. IMHO MiUi implemented the gestures better than Pixel.
Rockfella said:
Which tool man? Noob alert when it comes to rooting.
Click to expand...
github.com

GitHub - Szaki/XiaomiADBFastbootTools: A simple tool for managing Xiaomi devices on desktop using ADB and Fastboot

A simple tool for managing Xiaomi devices on desktop using ADB and Fastboot - GitHub - Szaki/XiaomiADBFastbootTools: A simple tool for managing Xiaomi devices on desktop using ADB and Fastboot
github.com github.com
I used this and it works fine. Very easy to use even with my non existent technical knowledge ( I even struggle with ADB/ fastboot commands)
 
red dragon said:
Samsung also does the same long press thing, very useful. IMHO MiUi implemented the gestures better than Pixel.

github.com

GitHub - Szaki/XiaomiADBFastbootTools: A simple tool for managing Xiaomi devices on desktop using ADB and Fastboot

A simple tool for managing Xiaomi devices on desktop using ADB and Fastboot - GitHub - Szaki/XiaomiADBFastbootTools: A simple tool for managing Xiaomi devices on desktop using ADB and Fastboot
github.com github.com
I used this and it works fine. Very easy to use even with my non existent technical knowledge ( I even struggle with ADB/ fastboot commands)
Click to expand...
I'm a total noob when it comes to flashing/rooting. I don't even know what ADB/fastboot is. Thanks to someone calling himself tech noob I got to know this today :)
 
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I'm still using a 3 year old Mi 4x, and miui was slowing it down considerably. Flashed lineage os and it's miles better, imo. Especially since it's got Android 9 features which were missing in miui.
 
red dragon said:
Wow!! You uninstalled/ disabled everything available? I thought removing/ disabling some component may brick the phone. It is such a useful tool.
Click to expand...
Everything , Tried it 2 times . Went into bootleg also once as uninstalled their Findmy Phone app . Then finally consolidated to a list which left only these 4 apps .
No ads and most important very very less tracking . Some tracking is still there as can see in my PiHole blocked lists
Rockfella said:
What's ADB.
Android debug bridge. Got it.
Click to expand...
Will post the file here ,Gimme 5
 
On older android 8.x miui roms, I think we cannot remove themes, security and some other apps. If we do that the phone bootloops. Themes gets uninstalled automatically if we set country to Europe I think.
 
kuduku said:
Check file. It did not allow to upload in rtf so zipped it
Click to expand...
Uninstall all till explanation comes in . Copy 10 cmds in one go and paste in ADB window
In 10 comds u can see if errors popup
Some might be repetitions as it was consolidation of 3/4 debloat xda guides
No bootloop till date and was left with only 4 apps as mentioned above . I have not added Google photo and chrome as no browser will be left . If u use firefox run it after adding your google account and installing any other browser


Another major issue was installing from ADB . With Playprotect and Xaoimi restrictions we cant install any app from File browser or ADB . Has to be playstore .
I use DNS66 https://github.com/julian-klode/dns66 for blocking Ads as its very small and negligible battery usage
Redmi didnt allow it and requires u to log in in Xaoimi account
Got this pic from https://superuser.com/ and install from ADB works beautifully
Follow the steps as in pic . Did it on two Note 9 devices
I am on latest MIUI version . Devices are stock unrooted

Added debloat in text file
 

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