Want to know more about the MIUI the new MIUI 13? Check out our guide on What you need to know about MIUI 13 for all the details.
The mobile operating systems that are coming out these days are getting insanely futuristic. From gestures to stuff like animations and transitions, the UI/UX is not only easy but is far more logical than ever before.
With Android and iOS bringing innovative features. The skins like MIUI are evolving with each OS update is absolutely brilliant. The MIUI 13 which was recently launched is far more advanced than it's predecessor. It contains features and functionality that will blow your mind.
Related: How To Disable Ads on MIUI
After using Both the Chinese and the English Version of the MIUI 13, I can say with complete confidence that it's definitely a brilliant update. It's the kind of update that comes once every few years.
After my team and I put it through a series of tests we discovered that it has drastically improved on various facets:
Xiaomi has significantly upgraded the MIUI 13. In addition to an improved gesture navigation, the MIUI 13 now has a dedicated app drawer, a new file management system, a control center that replaced the quick settings menu and a revolutionary file-sharing system - Mi share. User experience is also elevated with the addition of animations, dynamic wallpapers and much more. And finally, MIUI 13 has ironed out the bugs and issues that MIUI 12.5 faced making it more reliable now.
What you need to know about MIUI 13
MIUI 13: Performance
With how bug-ridden and glitchy the MIUI 12.5 was, Xiaomi has put a lot of effort into making the MIUI 13 more stable and smooth. There has been a lot of emphasis on the performance aspect of the MIUI 13.
Xiaomi claims that the new version offers better app fluency with 15% fewer dropped frames in third-party apps and 23% fewer dropped frames when running Xiaomi’s native apps.
Xiaomi also stated that Flagship phones will drop 15% fewer frames while mid-range models will drop 32% fewer frames. And finally, budget phones running MIUI 13 will drop 52% fewer frames compared to MIUI 12.5.
So with the new MIUI 13 update, a lot of users should be happy with the performance of their Xiaomi smartphones. Regardless of which model you'll be using, you'll experience smoother and stable performance which is great news.
Keep in mind that these are numbers from Xiaomi themselves, so you have to take them with a pinch of salt. And Xiaomi has used popular apps to test dropped frames so you might still face issues with a particular app, but at least we know that MIUI 13 is moving in the right direction.
Xiaomi also claimed that they have made improvements to RAM management which allows phones running MIUI to have more apps running in the background compared to the competition. So power users rejoice.
Xiaomi claims that they have made some huge improvements when it comes to multitasking performance. Xiaomi has added the following features that enhance multitasking on MIUI 13.
Liquid Storage: This feature is a smart defragmentation tool that manages data stored on your smartphone.
Xiaomi claims that this feature will improve the storage performance of a device over its lifespan.
Atomized Memory: This feature is similar to Liquid Storage, but instead of managing storage it manages RAM. The feature splits apps into different categories such as unimportant processes and important processes and then discards unimportant processes to free up Memory.
While it sounds like a good way to manage RAM, we don't know how it will affect background tasks yet, so we have to test and see.
Focused Algorithms: This feature is meant to dynamically allocate system resources based on usage. So based on an app's usage, the feature will allocate more or less CPU power, thereby improving performance or efficiency as needed.
Smart Balance: Xiaomi says this feature improves battery life by balancing performance demands and power consumption.
While all these performance claims seem like a good upgrade, we can only know for sure if they work as intended after testing MIUI 13.
MIUI 13: Security
With security being a huge focus for all smartphone manufacturers, Xiaomi has focused on improving that area with MIUI 13.
With MIUI 13, Xiaomi is making facial verification more secure. Xiaomi is enhancing facial recognition security by focusing only on facial features and preventing people from using photographs to enter your device.
MIUI 13: Design
While the MIUI 12 featured many redesigned features, MIUI 13 has been more focused on performance. The MIUI still brings some design changes in the form of tweaks to widgets and more. Here are some images of the changes to widgets.
Xiaomi is also using a new font for its UI called MiSans. It's a simple font that makes everything look more elegant. Xiaomi is planning to make this font public in the future.
Xiaomi is also including many new wallpapers with MIUI 13. These include live wallpapers.
And finally, Xiaomi stated that MIUI 13 will feature a new sidebar that will improve multitasking for users.
Users can swipe from the side of their display to access the sidebar which can house up to 10 apps. This feature is similar to the Panels features on Samsung's OneUI.
MIUI 13: Xiaomi MIUI 13 Pad for Tablets and Foldables
MIUI 13 is also available for tablets and foldable smartphones in the form on MIUI 13 Pad. This is aimed to improve multitasking and productivity for large screen devices.
Xiaomi is optimising apps for large screen devices too with over 3000+ popular apps already optimized.
MIUI 12
Control Center
The Control Center is one of the new additions that come with the latest MIUI 12 Update. Instead of the quick settings menu and the regular notifications interface, Xiaomi has revamped this portion of the User interface completely. The new-look is quite similar to that of Apple. However, as MIUI is known for its customization, it offers a much better user experience.
- You can access the control center by scrolling down the top of the screen. Of course, you can also customize it and separate the access to the control center and the notifications.
- For example, you can customize the gestures so that when you scroll down on the right top edge of the screen you can access the Control center and scrolling down of the left side would be for accessing the notification. The possibilities are quite endless with the MIUI 12.
- The control center is definitely "inspired" by its iOS counterpart. When you pull it down you get to see the cellular data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and flashlight toggle on top with cool animations and bold labels.
- Below these toggles, you find eight quick settings tiles and a brightness slider at the bottom. The craziest thing is that you can actually access more tiles by pulling it down further. Other than customizing the flawless gestures you can also fit over 25 quick setting tiles and customize the order based on requirements.
- The fact, that the toggles have been decoupled from the notifications is honestly kind of annoying once, you're used to having everything in one place. Check out our What you need to know about updated MIUI 12 guide for more details.
Having said that, you can always switch back to the MIUI 11 layout from the settings if you're really finding it difficult. Other than being customized you also can use the default MIUI system when it comes to notifications. However, we recommend the Google-prescribed method.
App drawer
Xiaomi received a lot of flack as the MIUI never featured an app drawer. I remember being extremely annoying with the earlier versions at it took me ages to find an app. It's with the MIUI 12 that Xiaomi has finally decided to introduce this feature.
- MIUI is considered one of the best Android skins and with various other Chinese manufacturer's incorporating app drawers, Xiaomi finally couldn't hold out.
- To access the settings all you have to do is go to the Settings, then click on Home Screen and then set up the app drawer. This drawer is extremely similar to the POCO launcher. Hardcore Xiaomi fans will appreciate this launcher automatically sorts apps into its various app categories.
Most importantly, you also get app suggestions at the top of the drawer. It also comes with a search bar at the bottom and with an option to set up various custom categories. The customization level is pretty cool as it even lets you control the background transparency, making it look elegant.
Wallpapers
One of the coolest features in MIUI 12 is the dynamic features. These live wallpapers are similar to the live wallpapers you find on stock Andriod and the Google wallpaper app. However, it's much more dynamic and realistic.
- You get to choose between Mars and Earth Live Wallpaper for your background and every time you interact with the screen there's amazing high-quality animations. Specifically a swirling animation of Earth or Mars. It will get you hooked to be honest. I Personally love the blue sapphire like Earth wallpaper.
This animation really brings quality when doing simple things like unlocking the phone. There are also other animations. For example, when going to the lock screen to the home screen, with the background itself changing. It might seem like a simple change to the MIUI 12. However, it's still pretty damn cool.
Animations
Since we're on the topic of animations, it's important to mention that there are these extremely amazing animations sprinkled throughout the interface. These animations are futuristic and elegant, making the interface much more interactive and playful.
- This new system of animations and transitions appear when opening and closing apps to transitioning from going from apps to the home screen is also something new the MIUI 12 offers. Even the icon packs that come with the MIUI theme features a clean design making it look really good. This is probably a response to the new icon customization feature of the iOS 14. Check out our What you need to know about updated MIUI 12 guide for more details.
The most amazing animations would have to be the battery bar animation that interactively and dynamically shows the charge status and the battery usage chart animations which break down the allocation of charge. Another cool animation is the storage allocation which appears as a cylindrical structure with multi-colored discs that highlight the allocation of data across categories.
Floating windows
Xiaomi is holding nothing back with the MIUI 12. While they pretty much ripped off the Control Center from Apple and they've also managed to take the floating windows to feature from Samsung. However, I really don't care about the ethical bit, cause it's unbelievably useful.
- This floating window feature basically allows you to scale apps to fit a portion of the screen. this brilliant function is a godsend if you want to multitask. You can resize apps like calculators and place it one portion of the screen while you access various other features.
This useful feature can be launched from the floating windows button on the overview section. The best part is that there no need for guesswork as to which app has this feature enabled. The overview section provides a list of the apps you can scale. To remove a floating window, you can either hit the X mark or clear it from the overview plane.
Navigation Gestures
With Google's Prescribed navigation gestures getting an overhaul with the Android 10, Xiaomi has finally decided to incorporate it in the MIUI 12. The gestures will be familiar to those who have used phones with Android 10. With Google setting the standard, it's predicted all skins will eventually have commonality with regards to the navigation gestures in the future.
- The navigation gestures include an option to switch between apps with a left or a right swipe at the bottom of the screen. This isn't just limited to Web explorers anymore.
You also get a new back gesture when you swipe at either edges of the screen. To go to the home screen all you have to do is swipe up from the bottom edge. You can pull up the overview plane by swiping up from the bottom and holding the screen.
Mi Share
Mi share is one of the most important features that Xiaomi rolled out with the MIUI 12. Basically, Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo in a collaborative effort launched a file-sharing system across all its devices. The MI share is a one of kind tool to seamlessly transfer files across all Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO and Realme phones. Unfortunately it's only exclusive to these phones.
- To access the Mi share feature. All you have to do is go to settings, connection and sharing and then access the Mi share function. You can also find the Mi share option in the notification bar, if you want to use it immediately.
To actually share a file all you have to do is select the file and click on the Mi share Indent. This will automatically search for another eligible device that's enabled Mi share in the vicinity. As soon as it finds the device, you'll be able to see it highlight on the page, making it extremely easy to share the file.
File Manager
The MUI file Manager was always one of the best in the world and it's getting major upgrades in the MIUI 12. Xiaomi is seriously doubling down on one of it's winning features with a new interface that makes access and control even more simple.
- The simple nature seriously improves accessibility and the file manager also automatically categories all files into various categories like Images, Videos, Doc's, and much more. Those who need to access immediate downloads or transfer files also don't need to fret or go through the categories trying to find a needle in a hay stack. You can either go to recent files or access the search feature.
This new file manager even offers a built-in FTP server for transferring files, which is pretty damn amazing. However, the biggest change is the introduction of an option that the user arrange the folders by name, size, or creation date.
Should I update to MIUI 13?
This is a common question not just with the MIUI 13 but pretty much all new editions of MIUI. You should know that all first editions of any OS will have certain bugs that they fix and refine over time through multiple updates.
However, if you've held off on updating your OS to the MIUI 12, then I would urge you to not do the same for the MIUI 13. Even though it is not as fresh as MIUI 12, the performance improvements is much needed. It is better to grow with it. I strongly recommend updating to MIUI 13. Check out our guide on What you need to know about MIUI 13 for more details.
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