At a new event in Beijing, the Chinese giant Xiaomi announced the new Mi 11 flagship smartphone, a new Wi-Fi 6 router, along with a new massive update for their Android user interface skin called MIUI 12.5.
This new update is an intermediate update between MIUI 12 that was released only 8 months ago, and the next major release, MIUI 13, which is expected sometime next summer. However, MIUI 12.5 is not a minor update, but a massive one that comes with a lot of visual changes to the user interface and many new features aimed at improving the users' experience, security, and privacy.
The back-end development of MIUI 12.5 includes the re-writing of the core structure so that it uses 20% less memory and 25% less power, with 35% lower background memory usage, and due to the custom device model adjustments and the new animation framework that makes animation more realistic, any phone becomes faster after the upgrade. It comes with only nine pre-installed system apps (Security, Gallery, Camera, Alarms, Settings, GetApps, mi Browser, messages, and dialer) by default, which makes it -according to Xiaomi- the least Android skin in apps installed by default, and even better than iOS that comes with 11 preinstalled apps out of the box, which make MIUI lighter, faster, and more durable than before.
The first and notable big change in this new update is the completely redesigned Wallpaper and personalization settings section that combines the Always On Display (AOD), icons, wallpapers, fonts, notifications, themes, and ringtones settings in one beautiful place. Speaking of notifications, MIUI 12.5 comes with more than 125 animal sounds that you can use as notification sounds from different regions of the world like Africa, Arctic, Austria, and Amazon, and you can also collect up to 5 animal sounds and use them as custom notification sounds.
The Super Wallpaper feature that was introduced with MIUI 12 has garnered a little attention in this update as well. It loads faster now and consumes less power. The Home (or Earth) Super Wallpaper gains two new locations: the Dolomites (Italy) and the Navagio Beach (Greece), and MIUI 12.5 includes also a new Super Wallpaper named "Snow peaks" that shows the sunlit mountain slopes of Siguniang Mountain and its appearance changes according to the day time.
The Volume indicator menu has been redesigned in this update, the response to gestures is now instant and the system launcher app is now more fluid and gives a new horizontal layout mode to arrange items in the "recents" view similar to that used on the stock Android ROM.
The notes app's user interface has also been completely updated in MIUI 12.5 and it lets you easily create mind maps with complex structures, Press and hold a sketch to adjust the strokes automatically, save text snippets, URLs, and images in Notes in a few simple clicks and contains new tools for doodling and sketching. The Dynamic layouts make printing in Notes easier, and a new Gesture shortcut now lets you create notes, tasks, and snippets anywhere.
The new Xiaomi update also comes with a lot of new tools and features to protect your privacy in the all-new privacy protection page, and now you can see which apps access your clipboard and allow or deny the access, and when an app requests your location, you now have with MIUI 12.5 the ability to give the app the only the approximate location instead of your exact location, web page behavior is also tracked now, helping you block unwanted and harmful actions, all apps now come with a security statement from GetApps, and you can control which apps access and delete items from your gallery, You will also be notified when high-risk permissions are used and you will be able to block corresponding actions, and now it is up to you who and when your behavior can be tracked online, and you can now also independently manage sensitive permissions and related app behavior.
Haptic feedback brings a new dimension to familiar actions, and all accessibility features become more informative and intuitive with it.
Last but not least, you can now connect your Xiaomi phone to your Windows PC to easily access apps, photos, and documents directly on your computer using the MIUI + feature, and many Xiaomi apps like Notes and File Manager have also been rewritten to work perfectly on the larges screens
*Note: Pictures source = xiaomimiui Telegram channel
