6 reasons to hate Xiaomi smartphones

Xiaomi is always “top for its money”. The devices of the Chinese company have excellent hardware, excellent cameras, they are well assembled and at the same time are cheap, therefore they are deservedly popular.

But with all this, Xiaomi devices have one frankly weak point - this is the MIUI shell. Doubtful design, software overload and endless advertising banners negate all the advantages of hardware for many buyers. Here are 6 main complaints about MIUI and Xiaomi smartphones in general.

1. Advertising everywhere

Xiaomi smartphones are just overflowing advertising. It's in the Music and Video apps, Downloads and Security, even in system settings and folders on your desktop. This is incredibly annoying.

The ad was even pushed into the system installer. While the new program is being installed, you will almost certainly want to download another taxi app, right?

Xiaomi delicately calls these endless banners “recommendations”. And they add neither beauty nor convenience to the system. It would be worth getting rid of them first.

A simple solution: using our leadership, disable ads in all system programs that allow you to do this. Banners will still remain in the browser and third-party programs. To get rid of them with varying degrees of success, programs like DNS66 or Adguard. Sometimes blocked ads are left with ugly white spots that spoil the application interface.

Effective solution: you will need to get root rights for your smartphone. After that you will be able to install the program AdAwaywhich will completely rid you of Xiaomi's built-in ads.

2. Annoying notifications

You are sitting, not bothering anyone, and then the phone plays a notification sound and displays it on the screen. Do you think there is something useful in there? No matter how it is.

MIUI constantly bombards you with pop-up messages with offers to buy something, open something or download something. All the time you are promised some surprises and gifts, they send you emoticons and other dubious things.

When you explain to your wife where these “three unread messages from your lover” come from, you will probably have the thought that you should have bought an iPhone.

Decision: learn to tune mobile notifications and turn off anything you don't need. When you receive another "letter of happiness" from Xiaomi, do not swipe it to the right, as usual. Swipe left and turn off the Show notifications toggle so that the app doesn't annoy you in the future.

3. Excessive preinstalled programs

MIUI is a veritable dump of Bloatware applications. "Notes", a cloud from Xiaomi, antivirus, games, a Xiaomi software store, which is only needed in China, a Xiaomi forum, a cleaner that is constantly trying to "optimize" something. You need to get rid of all this good, otherwise you can just get confused.

A simple solution: unnecessary applications can be disabled in the program settings. Open Settings → All Apps, select a program and click Disable. After that, the program will disappear from the desktop and stop running. But it will still take up space and can easily turn back on with the next update.

More complex but effective solution: use our instructionto permanently remove unnecessary applications. You don't need root rights, but you need a computer and a USB cable to connect your smartphone to it.

The most efficient solution: get root rights and uninstall unnecessary programs using some Root Uninstaller or Titanium Backup.

4. Uselessness of available applications

The built-in Xiaomi player, video player and explorer are very mediocre: there are few functions and settings in them, there are many ads, and the interface, as they say, is not for everybody. You just don't need MIUI antivirus. Cleaners and optimizers in the system are useless. "Notes" are also not very good in a world where there is SimpleNote and Google Keep.

In general, all these gizmos that Xiaomi carefully supplies to the user are either completely useless, or are of some benefit only to the residents of China.

Decision: uninstall or disable all mentioned programs and install something decent instead - PlayerPro instead of "Music", VLC or MX Player instead of "Video", Google Drive instead of Mi Cloud, MiXplorer instead of "Explorer", Google Keep instead of "Notes" and so on Further. All these analogs have more features and a more convenient interface, and there are no ads.

5. Inconvenient desktop

Xiaomi smartphones have a pretty nice interface with useful gestures and a practical shutter. But there is nothing to praise the built-in launcher for.

There is no application menu in it, so all programs are dumped on the desktop in a bunch, and this jumbled looks very chaotic. It is very difficult to understand the icons as they are presented by default: you will have to spend a lot of time sorting them into folders.

Decision: install any third-party launcher.

6. Difficulties with unlocking and flashing

Let's say you decide to deal with all of the above problems in one fell swoop. You want to get root rights to remove all the garbage from the system, or you are going to install a more convenient firmware on your smartphone. But, in addition to losing the warranty, you will face some more difficulties.

To get full access to your smartphone, you need to unlock its bootloader. On Samsung, OnePlus or Meizu devices, this is done in a few minutes - you would have straight hands, a computer and a USB cable. With Xiaomi smartphones, everything is more complicated.

First you need to open engineering menu, activate the unlock option there, connect the smartphone to the computer, install the program Mi Unlock and go to your Mi-account, click on the Unlock button... and wait.

You will have to wait several days or even weeks. Only then will Xiaomi with a scratch allow you to reflash your smartphone. The company will go to great lengths to complicate the process and make you give up the thought of changing the firmware - so that you can continue to enjoy great "Recommendations".

Decision: is absent. Will have to wait. But when you unlock the bootloader and install yourself a third-party firmware like LineageOSthen forget about MIUI problems forever. Only after that you can finally enjoy using a Xiaomi smartphone.

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Do you have any complaints about Xiaomi devices? Let us know in the comments.