First Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 5G firmware (MIUI) is live

The 5G mania is spreading rapidly, as to hold the latest and greatest piece of tech is an obsession of some people. At this moment, the new generation of cellular connectivity is in a nascent stage with only a handful of 5G capable phones in the market.

On the other hand, very few wireless providers has started to offer true 5G networks (we are not considering AT&T’s 5G Evolution). As a consequence, the availability of 5G phones is not widespread.

Samsung Galaxy S10 5G: One of the first 5G phones in the market

Besides the 5G variant of the Galaxy S10 lineup, phones from other OEMs made their way to the Media World Congress (MWC) 2019. Among them, Xiaomi’s offering drew a huge attention due to the aesthetics and the unimaginable (tentative) price tag.

Source

Unlike other phone makers, the Chinese OEM took their design oriented MIX series as the foundation of the first 5G device instead of regular flagship phones.

The original Mi MIX 3 sported a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, coupled with a unique slider design housing the dual front cameras.

Xiaomi replaced the heart of the phone with 2019’s Snapdragon 855 as well as included a dedicated Snapdragon X50 5G modem to materialize the 5G variant of Mi MIX 3. As mentioned earlier, the tentative price tag was set as €599 (~$670) for the beast.

Xiaomi opted for a premium class ceramic body instead of typical glass sandwich design. They also included a dedicated Google assistant button with the phone. Color options are limited to Onyx Black and Sapphire Blue.

The OEM partnered with a number of European cellular carriers, including 3, Orange, Sunrise, Telefonica, Tim, and Vodafone to sell the phone. Among them, Switzerland’s Sunrise took the pole position to be the first worldwide carrier to launch the MIX 3 5G.

MIX 3 5G crossing 1 Gbps on Sunrise network (Image source: Twitter)

Touching the Gbps barrier is nothing new with the Mi MIX 3 5G. Qi Zhiyuan, Xiaomi Mobile MD, was able to reach 1,026 Mbps network speed with the same phone on China Telecom’s network.

Sunrise is currently selling the phone for CHF 847 (€750, $835). As a matter of fact, one can also buy the phone directly from the Mi online store of their country (Europe only).

Wen Ou aka Owen, head of Xiaomi’s Western Europe section, revealed that Mi MIX 3 5G would be available for purchase starting on May 23 (tomorrow) for two new European markets: Italy and Spain.

Italian users need to pay little extra though – €699 instead of the original €599 tag.

Xiaomi went one step further and included the phone in Google’s Android Q public beta testing. MIX 3 5G was originally launched with MIUI 10 based on Android 9.0 Pie, but interested users can give the beta version of Android Q a try on their phones.

Please note that the current build of Android Q for Mi MIX3 5G contains the following bugs:

1. Alarm does not ring when the device is switched off.
2. Device restarts after user selects wireless projection device in the “Wireless display”.
3. Default print service stops after device connects to WiFi to print photos from gallery.
4. “Settings” app stops running after user deactivates shortcut to mute device.
5. “Settings” app stops running after user selects “Gestures”.
6. “File” app stops running after refresh.
7. Unable to switch color in settings.
8. “Settings” app crashes after “Automatic brightness” is selected.

The company has shared a fastboot package for installing the beta build. They have mentioned about a rollback package, although no such thing is available yet.

Mi MIX 3 5G running Android Q beta

Nevertheless, we are able to get our hands on the MIUI firmware package for the MIX3 5G. It can useful to restore your device to stock MIUI in case of emergency.

• Device: Mi MIX3 5G
• Codename: andromeda
• Channel: Global (Europe) Stable
• Version: V10.3.4.0.PEMEUXM
• Android: 9.0
  • Type: Recovery
    • Download: Link
    • MD5:d058723ed69571b3210b938f06ef09b4

This time, credit goes to xiaomi.eu contributor Kacper Skrzypek (aka kacskrz) along with yshalsager and his Xiaomi Firmware Updater project.

Looking for an affordable 5G phone? Give Mi MIX 3 5G a try.

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