MIUI 9 Chinese Beta Rolling out for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X

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The Chinese variant of MIUI 9, based on Android Nougat is now rolling out for Chinese Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X users. The release is marked as “stable beta”, meaning it’s deemed safe enough to go out to normal users but may still have bugs.

The upgrade is being pushed to “random users” with or without a changelog, so keep an eye out if you have this device and live in China! As always is the case with Xiaomi, if you don’t receive the update during the “beta stable” upgrade, you will in about a week’s time unless there are any major issues. Those on global versions of the device should receive the upgrade around the same time as the Chinese stable releases, as other than language there are no huge differences.

As always, Xiaomi are updating their devices, though their naming conventions are confusing. “Beta stable” sounds counter intuitive at first. It makes sense, but it’s definitely not intuitive. Also, sending out beta software to random customers seems like an interesting approach to beta testing. If things go bad, you can end up with situations like Google had with the Nexus 6. Sending out beta software to consumers is a poor decision unless the software is basically stable anyway.

Nevertheless, the update should follow up to Xiaomi’s other phones afterward. Devices which won’t receive Nougat may receive an upgrade to MIUI 9 through Android Marshmallow, where Xiaomi backport some features to previous versions of Android. The Xiaomi Mi 2, a 5 year old phone, will also be receiving MIUI 9. Xiaomi don’t care hugely about iterative Android upgrades, instead spending time on upgrading MIUI where the bulk of their features are.

If you can get the update, update at your own risk, but it should be okay. Let us know in the comments!