Xiaomi smartphones

Xiaomi, in full Xiaomi Corporation, is a Chinese electronics maker. It is best known internationally for its competitively priced smartphones but Xiaomi also makes laptops, TVs, wearables and even electric scooters.

Xiaomi history

Xiaomi was founded in China in 2010 and is headquartered in Beijing. The name Xiaomi is pronounced "sjou mie". Because of the awkward pronunciation, the name "Mi" is therefore often used. You can see it in its logo and international domain name, for example. For that domain name, it paid a whopping $3.6 million in 2014. Mi is short for Mobile Internet.

Xiaomi released its first phone in 2011; the Mi1. The company grew at record speed to become one of the largest telecom manufacturers in the world. First in Asia but now also elsewhere in the world. This success is mainly due to its low prices combined with premium materials and components.

Xiaomi series

Xiaomi phones can be roughly divided into two series; Mi and Redmi. The latter is also often used as a standalone sub-brand consisting of budget smartphones. To make it even more confusing, many other series are used within Mi and Redmi. Which all of them you can find here;

• Mi - Affordable flagships
• Mi A - Mid-range phones running under Android One
• Mi Mix - Smartphones with innovative bezel-less screens
• Mi Max - Premium phablet series
• Redmi - Budget entry-level phablets for the young
• Redmi Note - Budget phablets
• Redmi Go - Entry-level phablets running under Android Go

In addition to the above series, Xiaomi also releases some lines aimed at a specific audience;

• Pocophone - High-end price fighter
• Black Shark - Gaming phones

MIUI

Xiaomi uses MIUI which is based on Google's Android for its smartphones. MIUI, which you pronounce 'Me You I', has a simplified interface which is more similar to Apple's iOS and is just capable of running regular Android apps. Xiaomi phones sold here have the Google Play Store and other Google services. These are missing from the Chinese version. Xiaomi tries to release a new version of MIUI with new features every year.

Downside of MIUI are the built-in ads. These can largely be switched off. How to do that we explain in this roadmap.