Flashback: Xiaomi's promising but ill-fated Android One phones

03 April 2022
Xiaomi's excellent value-for-money hardware married with a mostly pure Android. What could go wrong?

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The poor software support/development/implementation and the constant hardware downgrade (720p screen?? really...) was a death sentence. Xiaomi wasn't making any profit out of this so it was a lost project...

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • Jvt
    • 03 Apr 2022

    it would be amazing if samsung partnered with google to make galaxy devices with android one, something like a galaxy phone with hardware by samsung and software by google (without one ui) using only qualcomm processors without shitty exynos, at a reasonable price, micro sd, 3.5mm, it would be a perfect phone...

      Sad, google doesn't care anymore android one. straight from google and killing Mi A series with many problems and delays in updating. And skinned android is better now.

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        • Anonym
        • LiK
        • 03 Apr 2022

        Let us not forget Xiaomi was fundamentally incompetent in delivering the Android One updates. It was not just the Mi A3 that had faulty updates that bricked quite some phones -- both the Mi A2 and Mi A1 also had them, and Xiaomi learned nothing over the years from those blunders. If anything, the blunders got more frequent and more severe.

        Furthermore, I strongly believe that Xiaomi's serious update blunders were already at a point where Google would have to say "enough is enough". Don't get me wrong, it's not like Google's own Pixel phones don't get buggy updates, or Nokia and Motorola didn't have their issues with some updates. Xiaomi took that to a whole new level of bricking phones at a massive scale and then having the crappiest of support: no responsibility taken (until the A3 bricking incident in this article) and best of luck explaining what happened to whomever sold you the phone.

        I am ashamed for buying the Mi A3 when I had already experience the issues with Mi A2, and knew what happened with the Mi A1. I truly believed these were just growing pains and that Xiaomi would (eventually) get past them. How blissfully wrong I was. The poor customer experience I had with this program solidified my view that Xiaomi was just a budget brand. Know what to expect: only buy Xiaomi if the price is right and some 3rd-party already has alternative software to get you going.

          I used to have Mi A2 lite and it was a pretty good phone... it did become abit slow and laggy but overall it was good for the price!

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            • Sandy
            • gN}
            • 03 Apr 2022

            I am still using A1. So far very promising. Battery downgraded but still working like a charm without any issue.

              I've been helping my friends who use Xiaomi phones to flash custom ROM, particularly LineageOS, and even they admitted that stock AOSP UI shows much better performance than MIUI.

                This is so troll. Xiaomi's Android One program failed because they intentionally killed it. There were rumors they were going to kill it before they even made the Mi A3. Then they release the Mi A3 with a downgrade to 720p, used a SoC that was more of a sidegrade from the SD 660 in the Mi A2, made it all plastic (it still felt pretty good in hand tbh) and finally they botched almost every update on the Mi A3. The Mi A2 phones were a great experience because they weren't actively trying to make you not buy it. Xiaomi could easily do an Android One phone today with the same effort of the Mi A2 and it would be wildly successful. Xiaomi probably assumed Mi A2 fans would rather buy a Mi 9 Lite over Mi A3 (i had both phones), but I think most would just look elsewhere. The Mi A series was about offering Xiaomi hardware to people who don't like MIUI. Put MIUI on the phone and it's a deal breaker to this audience. The end of the Mi A series ultimately ended up making me just buy Pixel A phones.

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                  • Anonymous
                  • nxF
                  • 03 Apr 2022

                  Still using A2 as daily driver, custom ROM though.

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                    • Anonymous
                    • tZ4
                    • 03 Apr 2022

                    A little trivia: Mi A3 was the last Android One with AMOLED display, launched way back in the 2nd quarter of 2019. I am still using one mainly because it has 3.5 mm jack, expandable storage and acceptable camera. Battery life still pretty good, with the battery health at 87% after 2.5 years of use. And it is still receiving monthly security patches (it's on March patch currently). Also never encountered the bricking issue that affected some users.

                      Anonymous, 03 Apr 2022Xiaomi has left my MI A2 with the last buggy update. Now t... moreThis is unacceptable. If I was you I would flash a custom rom. There are a lot of tutorials that can help you.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • tZ4
                        • 03 Apr 2022

                        chris1998, 03 Apr 2022Wasn't android one as a whole a complete fail ? I feel... moreAmong the OEMs that joined the Android One, only Nokia remains. After Xiaomi left in 2019, Motorola followed soon after. The funny thing is, even Google itself seems uninterested in the program. Just take a look at the official Android One site to see what I mean. The devices featured are from years ago and looks like no update has been performed by Google since 2020.

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • X%q
                          • 03 Apr 2022

                          Xiaomi has left my MI A2 with the last buggy update.
                          Now there are no more updates. And so no bug fixing.

                          They should have sent the last update with no bugs.

                          They over promised and under delivered.

                          Only Pixel seems to be good in Android but they are not available everywhere.

                            • c
                            • cyber
                            • pwT
                            • 03 Apr 2022

                            one of the lousiest phones xiaomi ever made,prone to sudden death,yellow spots and so on,mi a2,a2 lite same business,mi a3 was actually good but android one was no more

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                              • AnonD-791402
                              • XUi
                              • 03 Apr 2022

                              I have owned my Mi A3 for at least 3 years. It worked completely fine, no problems with bricking.
                              The AMOLED at that price point was really cool. You don't even notice it is 720p at that size. You get to play games on it because of 720p. People are kidding themselves that 1080p makes a real difference. The smallest fonts are 'just a bit jagged' thats all. For that practically unnoticeable compromise, you got AMOLED goodness all the time and played heavy graphics games.

                                This is why we need a Nexus-like phone for 2022.

                                  Wasn't android one as a whole a complete fail ? I feel like the only OEM that was successful with Android one was Nokia and even then their mobile division isn't what it once was