Xiaomi’s Mi5 is expected to hit the market very soon, and many fans of the company are eager to get their hands on the new device. And as if there weren’t enough good reasons to follow its progress already, it was just announced that the Mi5 is going to launch with MIUI 7, based on Android 5.1 Lollipop.
The company has been using its own custom ROM for some time now and they have been enjoying a lot of success with it, even though they have been somewhat slow to adopt the most recent Android releases. There has actually been some criticism aimed at Xiaomi for the slow pace of their OS updates, but now the release of the Mi5 should be a direct response to that.
The next build of the custom ROM is apparently nearing completion, and the developers are already putting the finishing touches on it, so it should be ready for the market very soon. The codename for the new ROM version is reportedly “MiKangy”, and it will feature a significant revision of the interface as a whole.
From what we’ve heard so far, the interface is now “smart”, and adapts to the user’s habits. This means that the longer one uses the operating system, the more it will adjust itself to match their own preferences, and in the end the phone will be able to deliver a much more customized, personal experience for everyone who uses it.
While we don’t know exactly how far into the OS this will reach, other operating systems on the market have been toying with similar ideas for a while now, and it seems to be a very successful trend. Of course, it must also be implemented correctly in order to be viable – if taken to the extreme, it can actually downgrade the usability of the operating system. If everything keeps changing places, this can obviously confuse users and lead to frustration very quickly.
The collaboration between the AOKP developers and Xiaomi seems to be very successful so far, and it’s benefiting both sides quite nicely. Xiaomi are one of the companies with the most advanced customized Android experiences on the market, and it makes sense that they would continue that trend and push it even harder. On the other hand, they should also be careful to not stray too far away from the core Android experience that everyone is familiar with. After all, they’re trying to sell a phone to Android users in the end, and if it looks too different, it might scare them away and push them to other manufacturers with more traditional solutions instead. Hopefully, that will not be the case and people will be attracted to the innovative design of the Xiaomi Mi5.