I recently purchased the Xiaomi Poco F1, and I intend to use this device for the long-term. I am not a big fan of MIUI, and I come from Nitrogen OS, which is a custom ROM. When Xiaomi decided to open up a sub-brand, everyone thought it would be like OnePlus—a sub-brand of Oppo which runs their own ROM, Oxygen OS, which is stock Android with certain added features on top. This was a given, considering how Xiaomi said it would focus on speed.
The hardware on this device is excellent, without a doubt. But we will save that for later. Everyone knows that Xiaomi’s software is not great and comes with its own share of bugs. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people who actually prefer MIUI! You can find a lot of these people on Xiaomi forums. But here’s a list of bugs I’ve encountered and software quirks I am dealing with. As a challenge to myself, I have given Xiaomi one year to make sure that “MIUI for Poco” is up to the mark. If not, I’ll switch to a custom ROM.
Note: An update to the sofware has now been pushed out, and I will continuously update this article as and when bugs are fixed. However, the update, 9.6.18, adds audio related issues as a bonus, so don’t update just yet!
The notifications panel
The notifications on this device are quite frankly a big f****** mess. This comes with MIUI 9, and Xiaomi says that the notifications on MIUI 10 will be better. Right off the bat, the way the notifications are shaped are ugly.
This graphic image may look nice, but, in reality, with notifications of 5+ apps, your tray will look horrible (coming from Oxygen OS, that is). MIUI users would be used to it, though.
On top of that, the left part of the notch is taken up by a clock, and you do not get notifications about messages or calls without pulling down the notification shade. I have missed several calls and texts because of this.
Some Twitter users have shared ideas on how this can be done better, and below are a couple of their suggestions:
Ads in the notification shade
I don’t mind seeing ads—if that is how a company makes money. But let me get this straight: there are things that are ethical and things that just infuriate you. Receiving things like this will not make you happy:
Navigation buttons
Note: This has been fixed in an update. AOSP style navigation buttons have been added too.
Right off the bat, the navigation buttons are off center, causing me visual distress. Also, the position is reversed but can be thankfully changed in Settings.
Indian networks working weirdly with the device
There was a problem where Indian networks like Idea were not detected by the device. Fortunately, this was fixed in an OTA update.
Bootloader Unlocking
Xiaomi as a company has now decided that you must wait 1440 hours before you can unlock your device. This applied to Poco F1 too, but Jai Mani tweeted out that this has now been reduced to 3 days. This is a welcome change but the rest of Xiaomi phones now have a two month waiting period fo unlocking.
Audio issues
The audio in games like PUBG is distorted, and not proper. There is a static noise and crackling sound which has been accepted as a bug. I have noticed this with my earphones too. A person trying to play Asphalt 9 with Sony MDR-XB450 headphones was able to hear only lows and highs with random cuts in the audio. This may be a game specific bug, but I have observed a similar issue on PUBG too. The mic also seems to work weirdly with Discord too. I’ve reached out to Discord for an update on this.
A note of caution
If you are holding out purchasing this device because of the software, don’t. The hardware is fantastic for the price, and Xiaomi has been fixing bugs. On top of that, there are GSI ROM’s as well as TWRP available, with more ROMs coming as kernel sources are already out. This post is for my convenience as well, as I can keep a track of all the issues I face throughout the year.
Update 9/14, 3:50 PM/CT: Via Xiaomi’s MIUI Official Forums, below are more bugs and their respective status:
- Widevine L1 to support HD Netflix: Still investigating with Google and Qualcomm.
- No battery percentage in status bar: In progress.
- No app icons for notifications in status bar: In progress.
- Support for 4K 60fps on rear camera: Still investigating.
- “OK Google” detection not working:Â Originally planned to be released in next version, but stability issues still persist.
- PUBG Mobile audio issues: Next software update.
End of Update
