Theta Android News: This could be our first look at Xiaomi MIUI 12 (Update: Launch date)

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

This could be our first look at Xiaomi MIUI 12 (Update: Launch date)

Update, April 21 2020 (2:37AM ET): We got a taste of MIUI 12 earlier this month after Xiaomi's MiSettings beta APK showed off the new design language. Now, the company has announced a launch date for the new update.

Xiaomi announced on Weibo and its website that MIUI 12 will be revealed on April 27. This means we can expect plenty of information regarding visual changes and new features then.

MIUI 12 isn't the only announcement coming on April 27, as Xiaomi confirmed that it'll also launch the Mi 10 Youth Edition 5G smartphone then. Check out the poster below.

Mi.com

The poster shows a phone with a quad rear camera setup, but we also see 50X branding and what could be a periscope camera. We're guessing that 50x zoom is purely digital, but a periscope should allow for better quality 5x to 10x zoom.

The "5G" designation in the phone's name also confirms 5G capabilities obviously, but hopefully this comes at a reasonable cost.

Original article, April 15 2020 (2:24PM ET): Last year, Xiaomi accidentally released its latest Android skin — MIUI 11 — ahead of schedule. It looks like the company might have just slipped up again after it released the MiSettings beta APK on the company's own forums featuring what could be the new MIUI 12 design language.

XDA Developers first noticed the radical change in the app's UI. Xiaomi has since removed the new settings pages in an APK update. Luckily, XDA managed to snag some screenshots before then. Check them out:

Here are the equivalent MIUI 11 settings pages for reference:

The new UI is a bit rough and inconsistent, but we can see changes to the refresh rate and screen time settings. This includes an overall cleaner design, a new focus mode tab, and a new weekly usage graph in the screen time settings, as well as a general design overhaul to the refresh rate settings.

As of right now, there is no MIUI 12 firmware dump in the wild, and we aren't aware of any Xiaomi devices running the software yet. Though this new MiSettings APK isn't much, it could just be our first look at the company's upcoming Android skin design changes. Xiaomi doesn't appear to be reinventing the wheel here, but we like the direction it's taking.