[Update bricking devices] Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite running Android 10 appears on Geekbench, but don't get too much excited

This story is being continuously updated…. New updates are being added at the bottom…..

Original story (from Jan 31) follows:

Android One phones are theoretically the closest neighbors of Google Pixel lineup in terms of software updates. As a matter of fact, the situation is quite different in the real life. Take the example of the recent controversy around the Android 10 update for Mi A2 Lite.

This budget conscious version of Mi A2 arrived in 2018, although there are some notable differences between the two phones. The SoC under-the-hood in Mi A2 Lite is Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, which was used while designing 2017’s Mi A1 as well.

The phone is nothing but a rebranded edition of Redmi 6 Pro, which also defines the existence of microUSB port instead of USB Type-C. First-forward to 2020, and the regular Mi A2 already received stable Android 10 update, but the same can’t be confirmed yet for the Lite variant.

Right after the comment came into light, hundreds of frustrated Mi A2 Lite owners started a petition against Xiaomi demanding the update. Call it a direct effect, a subsequent conversation with the official support gave us a slightly better proposition.

Amidst this convoluted situation, people have spotted a number of entries in the Geekbench database showing Mi A2 Lite with Android 10. Is this a concrete evidence? Unfortunately the answer is no.

In case of Mi A2, Xiaomi published the Android 10 compatible kernel source code days before the rollout. A similar codebase for Mi A3 was shared by the Chinese OEM as well. On the contrary, there is no such commit in the Xiaomi’s GitHub repo for Mi A2 Lite till date.

Talking about the legitimacy of the listing, one can easily run any Android 10 based custom rom on their phones and produce a similar result. Heck, people can even modify some of the prop values to fool Geekbench. Take the following example of Mi A1 running Android 10.

TBH, unless we can spot a proper commit from Xiaomi engineers in their kernel source code repo or have a beta/pre-release/stable build in our hands, it is virtually impossible to deduce the fate of Mi A2 Lite.

PiunikaWeb is devoted to bring proper information in this regard, so stay tuned!

The kernel code is now live, does that mean Android 10 is near? Complete story here.

The Android 10 update for Mi A2 Lite devices is finally out. Complete coverage here.

The Android 10 update is bricking many Mi A2 Lite units. The potential workaround has been mentioned in the coverage here.

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