New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

The wait is finally over!

After a long (and seemingly endless) phase of rumors, leaks and speculations, Xiaomi’s cousin launched the Redmi K20 series in Mainland China on May 28 (yesterday) as per schedule.

redmi_k20_series_launch_poster
Redmi K20 series launch poster (Source: Weibo)

Thanks to the enormous amount of hype generated around K20 and K20 Pro, the Android community properly determined most of the key features of the phone duo. The beefier Pro variant with the codename ‘raphael’ sports the mighty Snapdragon 855 SoC.

On the other hand, the regular Redmi K20 is powered by Qualcomm’s mid-ranger Snapdragon 730 platform, making it the first commercially available phone featuring the new SoC. The codename of the device is none other than ‘davinci’.

redmi_k20_series_model_number_mishaal_tweet
Source

In case you forgot, we were the first publication to report the existence of the Mi 9T. As noted by XDA’s Mishaal Rahman, there is a high chance that Xiaomi/Redmi will re-brand the Redmi K20 in different regional markets.

M1903F10G_nbtc_pw
Mi 9T NBTC certification

But what about the K20 Pro? Judging from it’s configuration, the phone is the perfect candidate as a successor to the hugely popular Pocophone F1.

Given the recent interactions of executives from Mi India, Poco India and Pocophone Global, fans are counting days for the arrival of the Poco F2. Truth to be told, we are excited as well!

redmi_k20_pro_front_back_colors
Redmi K20 Pro (or the Poco F2?)

Nevertheless, Redmi CEO Lu Weibing indicated that the Redmi K20 series would be eligible for the beta testing of Android Q – like Mi 9 and Mi MIX 3 5G. At that time, we speculated that both K20 and K20 Pro should be Snapdragon 855 powered devices.

redmi_k_android_q_beta_weibing_weibo

After the official release, we stand corrected. However, Xiaomi has silently pushed the Android Q beta build (part of developer preview program) for the Snapdragon 855 powered Redmi K20 Pro.

redmi_k20_pro_android_q_miui_china_forum

Xiaomi’s unified Android Q beta testing portal has been updated as well, although Google’s eligible device list has not been revised yet. The current build for Redmi K20 contains the following bugs/limitations:

1. Does not support fingerprint module.

2. “Settings” app crashes after user selects “App & Notifications” and shows a notification that says “Settings keeps stopping”

3. Unable to switch between multiple users.

4. There might be instances where videos downloaded from the Google Drive does not show length of video in the photo gallery.

5. Bluetooth search might not work for some specific keyboards. A known failed case is Logitech’s k380 keyboard.

Interested users can download the Android Q beta update package for Redmi K20 from this link. Remember that it is a fastboot flashable package, and requires an unlocked bootloader to be flashed via Mi Flash.

miflash
MiFlash (Click/Tap to zoom)

Unfortunately there is no official way to rollback to stable MIUI once you flash the Android Q beta, as Xiaomi/Redmi has not updated their download portal for regular users.

No need to worry though, as we are able to get locate them. Entire credit goes to yshalsager and the Xiaomi Firmware Updater project for tracking the OTA update URLs.

  • Device: Redmi K20 Pro
  • Codename: raphael
  • Channel: China Stable
  • Version: V10.3.6.0.PFKCNXM
  • Android: 9.0
    • Type: Fastboot
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: ed862b81821115f3c867978bd6809d68

Besides the Pro variant, the firmware files for the regular Redmi K20 also become live in Xiaomi OTA servers.

redmi_k20_front_back_colors
Redmi K20
  • Device: Redmi K20
  • Codename: davinci
  • Channel: China Stable
  • Version: V10.3.6.0.PFJCNXM
  • Android: 9.0
    • Type: Recovery
      • Download: Link
      • MD5:
    • Type: Fastboot
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: 84dc48df10fb7dc42ef27c4c0e630ca1

Are you excited about the Redmi K20 series? Comment below.

Update (May 30)

Download the set of 21 wallpapers from the MIUI firmware for Redmi K20 Pro from here.

redmi_k20_pro_default_wallpaper
The default wallpaper of Redmi K20 Pro

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.

Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

Next article View Article

[Updated] Instagram crashing on all Android phones, but there are workarounds

Here's the crux of the article in video form: New updates are being added at the bottom of this story……. Original story from (June 5, 2018) follows: We're...
Jul 10, 2023 6 Min Read