Xiaomi Mi4 LTE: my Windows 10 experience

angelotroina

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First of all, I wish to thank Microsoft and Xiaomi for this very original project! Installing Windows 10 on an Android phone is a great opportunity for the ones who are in love with Windows mobile layout and features (In my experience W10 mobile is the plainest and simplest OS for cell phones, and with a better look).

My experience of W10 on the Mi4 has been quite positive, but the ROM is still not perfect, and uncomfortable. Here the main problems I faced with the Mi4 LTE running W10 for a few weeks:

1) Display slightly stutters when scrolling: It's a slight stutter but it's awkward (I did not experience this issue with a less performing Lumia 435). It appears this problem is related to the CPU frequency governor: the stuttering issue DISAPPEARS when the phone is connected to the plug charger or, if disconnected, when executing heavy tasks on the background (see also http://forums.windowscentral.com/xi...le-screen-stutter-when-unplugged-charger.html)

2) Camera focusing is very slow, and fails most of the times: For indoor or close range pictures you need to (slowly) refocus several times to get a good shot!
+++ 2.1) Taking videos, auto-focus alternates focused and unfocused scenes.
+++ 2.2) Volume on speaker is a bit weak: resulting in unpleasant clattering, in extreme cases

3) Native language support is quite limited: While you can download keyboards, speech and regional formats for any language/country W10 supports, your "phone language" can be set just to English or Chinese. Also, in the call history log, for calls received from unknown numbers (not in your contact list), some Chinese text is displayed instead of its (missing) English translation.

4) Calendar tile showing the wrong date: while the date is correctly set (and appears correctly on the lock screen and other system apps/functions), sometimes the number appearing on the calendar tile of the home screen shows the next day number (today's day number +1).

5) Invisible freezes: Sometimes the phone got stuck (could not send/receive calls, sms, or data) even while apparently looking in normal state. Need to reboot the phone to solve the issue.

6) Not all phone capabilities are exploited: There's no support for led notifications, barometer, 4k video recording and infrared blaster.
+++ 6.1) Home Button's lights are not well managed: Sometimes they don't get to light up completely, resulting in an unpleasant fading blur of light!

+++ 7) Device heavily heats up quickly: even if used for 'light activities' such as chatting, taking pictures, browsing, etc. (heating is experienced also with Xiaomi's MIUI, but a lot less than with W10).

I'm really an enthusiast supporter of this project, but this first attempt Microsoft has undertaken is not in a definitive state! I believe the issues above should be addressed to make the W10 experience on the Xiaomi Mi4 really preferable to the native OS.

I hope Microsoft developers will spend some more efforts on this device, and make it a first great example of a dual OS phone! Cause the actual truth is:

If you have experienced the Mi4 functioning with its official Miui, you will feel the Xiaomi Mi4 running W10 as a quite defective device
 
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Chintan Gohel

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issue 2: can you manually focus using the focus slider in the camera app?
issue 4: check your timezone and date, maybe it's pm instead of am?
issue 5: which OS version are you on?
issue 6: no windows mobile device have them so it would not be part of the programming for windows 10 mobile or at least not a priority
 

Vincentius Dalton

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I also have this phone and I'm happy with the overall performance of the wonderful device. Right now I am in Build 14393.5. Regarding your issues:
- Issue 1: That's weird; I don't experience that.
- Issue 2: I also have the same issue. Sometimes the camera even fails to focus altogether and captures blurry photos. To overcome this, I have to manually tap the screen to focus. Also, when taking videos, the autofocus sometimes is really aggressive, resulting in very rapid change of focused and unfocused videos.
- Issue 3: I second that :( As a result, I cannot utilize the Korean-to-English image translation feature in Modern Translator app.
- Issue 4: I have this issue whenever the phone is hard reset. After a few days the Calendar tile will revert back to normal.
- Issue 5: When the phone hangs like that, I usually perform soft reset.
- Issue 6: That's too bad. I also wish we had Hey Cortana feature considering the processor. Should we contact Xiaomi or so to provide a new firmware to enable those capabilities?

Besides your issues, I have some issues on my own:
- Issue 7: The phone quickly heats up even if I only use it for 'light activities' such as chatting, taking pictures, etc.
- Issue 8: When I play a rather GPU-intensive games from Store, the FPS drops really bad. That's weird considering this phone has virtually the same specification as the Lumia 930.

I'm really looking forward for Microsoft and Xiaomi to work closely together to fix the issues above. I'm also waiting for Xiaomi Mi5 for Windows!
 

angelotroina

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Chintan:

Issue 2: I think so (didn't try...)
Issue 4: double checked everything, clock is fine, the issue is just on the calendar tile.
Issue 5: Always updated to the latest version of 10586 branch
Issue 6: Agreed
 

Chintan Gohel

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Chintan:

Issue 2: I think so (didn't try...)
Issue 4: double checked everything, clock is fine, the issue is just on the calendar tile.
Issue 5: Always updated to the latest version of 10586 branch
Issue 6: Agreed

well, the guy above gave some answers that I couldn't
Try the redstone branch?
 

angelotroina

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I also have this phone and I'm happy with the overall performance of the wonderful device. Right now I am in Build 14393.5. Regarding your issues:
- Issue 1: That's weird; I don't experience that.

It's slight, but you can feel it if you are used to the same OS with a smooth scrolling... Try to scroll several times from "home" to "applications", and back, feel how smooth it is (the first ones are smoother, continue do it, you might feel the stuttering at third/fourth cycle)... than attach the charger plug, do the same operation and let me know if you can sense the difference. (I didn't experience any stuttering with miui, so I believe it's a software problem)


- Issue 2: I also have the same issue. Sometimes the camera even fails to focus altogether and captures blurry photos. To overcome this, I have to manually tap the screen to focus. Also, when taking videos, the autofocus sometimes is really aggressive, resulting in very rapid change of focused and unfocused videos.
- Issue 3: I second that :( As a result, I cannot utilize the Korean-to-English image translation feature in Modern Translator app.

I think this could be a easy fix... Maybe the project was originally intended for China/USA users, but given W10's world wide distribution the firmware should be updated in this direction.

- Issue 4: I have this issue whenever the phone is hard reset. After a few days the Calendar tile will revert back to normal.


Sometimes it got back to normal just opening and closing the calendar, but than it randomly shows wrong date again... (but I did a lot of hard resets/updates in the weeks I tested the phone)


- Issue 5: When the phone hangs like that, I usually perform soft reset.

How often do you experience that? I could say with my phone happened once every two days...

- Issue 6: That's too bad. I also wish we had Hey Cortana feature considering the processor. Should we contact Xiaomi or so to provide a new firmware to enable those capabilities?

If they decide to cooperate, this features could maybe be added without too much effort

Besides your issues, I have some issues on my own:
- Issue 7: The phone quickly heats up even if I only use it for 'light activities' such as chatting, taking pictures, etc.

I experience the same with miui, can't tell, actually, if it heats more with W10 or MIUI8... (but maybe, if just considering light activity, I could say W10 was heating faster)

- Issue 8: When I play a rather GPU-intensive games from Store, the FPS drops really bad. That's weird considering this phone has virtually the same specification as the Lumia 930.

Maybe related to issue 1 and 7

I'm really looking forward for Microsoft and Xiaomi to work closely together to fix the issues above. I'm also waiting for Xiaomi Mi5 for Windows!
 
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Chintan Gohel

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I also have this phone and I'm happy with the overall performance of the wonderful device. Right now I am in Build 14393.5. Regarding your issues:
- Issue 1: That's weird; I don't experience that.
- Issue 2: I also have the same issue. Sometimes the camera even fails to focus altogether and captures blurry photos. To overcome this, I have to manually tap the screen to focus. Also, when taking videos, the autofocus sometimes is really aggressive, resulting in very rapid change of focused and unfocused videos.
- Issue 3: I second that :( As a result, I cannot utilize the Korean-to-English image translation feature in Modern Translator app.
- Issue 4: I have this issue whenever the phone is hard reset. After a few days the Calendar tile will revert back to normal.
- Issue 5: When the phone hangs like that, I usually perform soft reset.
- Issue 6: That's too bad. I also wish we had Hey Cortana feature considering the processor. Should we contact Xiaomi or so to provide a new firmware to enable those capabilities?

Besides your issues, I have some issues on my own:
- Issue 7: The phone quickly heats up even if I only use it for 'light activities' such as chatting, taking pictures, etc.
- Issue 8: When I play a rather GPU-intensive games from Store, the FPS drops really bad. That's weird considering this phone has virtually the same specification as the Lumia 930.

I'm really looking forward for Microsoft and Xiaomi to work closely together to fix the issues above. I'm also waiting for Xiaomi Mi5 for Windows!

issues 6, 7, 8 -related to firmware or hardware - firmware can be updated. But for hey cortana, I think that is on hardware
 

Vincentius Dalton

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Wow, how do you quote and add more comments? Anyway:
- Issue 1: After trying your suggestion, I see some slight stutters. Those stutters cannot be unseen anymore hahaha.
- Issue 5: Yup it's about the same with me. When I do some heavier tasks, however, it can happen more frequently, sometimes up to two times a day.
- Issue 7: Relieved to hear that the heat does not happen in W10M only, and that I'm not the only one who experience this issue.

Yes I think those issues happen because of the firmware. I have posted those issues in the Feedback Hub (feedback-hub:?contextid=79&feedbackid=06186e9d-d63b-45d4-93dd-2fd9aae9ac54&form=1&src=2).

I hope Microsoft and Xiaomi see this and start working on their updated firmware :)
 

Zoomelliott

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I've been extremely satisfied with Mi4 on windows 10.
Now on 14393.10.0

1) Display slightly stutters when scrolling
I don't experience any of this problem, it is all smooth

2) Camera focusing is very slow
Camera works fine, autofocus is quick and right 99%

3) Native language support is quite limited
Still manage to have french working just fine, cortana, language and keyboards

4) Calendar tile showing the wrong date
Experienced that issue, but was the case on my lumia 735 as well

5) Invisible freezes
No freeze

6) Not all phone capabilities are exploited
Missing barometer, infrared, led and 4k recording

The battery life has been good, no use loosing 5% over the night (8 hours).
Screen is great.
Volume on speaker is a bit weak.
 

angelotroina

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Wow, how do you quote and add more comments? Anyway:

Ohu, just write inside the QUOTE tags...

- Issue 1: After trying your suggestion, I see some slight stutters. Those stutters cannot be unseen anymore hahaha.

Yep, sorry for that...

- Issue 5: Yup it's about the same with me. When I do some heavier tasks, however, it can happen more frequently, sometimes up to two times a day.
- Issue 7: Relieved to hear that the heat does not happen in W10M only, and that I'm not the only one who experience this issue.

Yes I think those issues happen because of the firmware. I have posted those issues in the Feedback Hub (feedback-hub:?contextid=79&feedbackid=06186e9d-d63b-45d4-93dd-2fd9aae9ac54&form=1&src=2).

Thanks

I hope Microsoft and Xiaomi see this and start working on their updated firmware :)

Me too! If not together, since W10 software is not public, I hope Microsoft will resolve those issues
 

angelotroina

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I've been extremely satisfied with Mi4 on windows 10.
Now on 14393.10.0

1) Display slightly stutters when scrolling
I don't experience any of this problem, it is all smooth

Did you try the following experiment?
Stuttering is slight, but you can feel it if you are used to the same OS with a smooth scrolling... Try to scroll several times from "home" to "applications", and back, feel how smooth it is (the first ones are smoother, continue do it, you might feel the stuttering at third/fourth cycle)... than attach the charger plug, do the same operation and let me know if you can sense the difference.


2) Camera focusing is very slow
Camera works fine, autofocus is quick and right 99%

Even in close range and videos?

3) Native language support is quite limited
Still manage to have french working just fine, cortana, language and keyboards

4) Calendar tile showing the wrong date
Experienced that issue, but was the case on my lumia 735 as well

5) Invisible freezes
No freeze

6) Not all phone capabilities are exploited
Missing barometer, infrared, led and 4k recording

The battery life has been good, no use loosing 5% over the night (8 hours).
Screen is great.
Volume on speaker is a bit weak.

I found the first two issues particularly boring (Xiaomi Mi4 LTE, 2GB ram, 16GB rom), if they are somehow solved in you phone that's great news. What telephone model do you have?
 

Zoomelliott

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I have the same as you Mi4 LTE 2gb, firmware 3115.1.0.0 hardware revision 4.00

What I find with the camera to avoid focus problems, is to not tap the screen to focus but just shoot straight. The tap to focus should only be used when doing very close up.
 

angelotroina

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Thanks for sharing, I was kinda hoping it was going to work like any other windows phone :(

Yep... Summing up, I would say the experiment went well: As for today, they still support the phone with W10 distributions' updates, so can still hope they are going to adjust the XIAOMITEST Windows firmware one day or another, and make a further step from what has been just an experiment to something more effective...
 

anthonyng

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Yep... Summing up, I would say the experiment went well: As for today, they still support the phone with W10 distributions' updates, so can still hope they are going to adjust the XIAOMITEST Windows firmware one day or another, and make a further step from what has been just an experiment to something more effective...

They talked about it seemingly so long ago I thought it was further ahead.... ok for daily driver?

The thing about needing firmware updates is not that great I think... means phone manufacturers still have to do work to ensure good experience on Windows phone... it's not that ideal if we can one day load windows on any phone? I was hoping, load up the rom and voila...
 

angelotroina

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They talked about it seemingly so long ago I thought it was further ahead.... ok for daily driver?

The thing about needing firmware updates is not that great I think... means phone manufacturers still have to do work to ensure good experience on Windows phone... it's not that ideal if we can one day load windows on any phone? I was hoping, load up the rom and voila...

If you are not bothered by the issues above you could use it as a daily driver. Keep in mind, however, that if you do not have any particular reason to run with W10, the device does overall run better with the native OS!!!

I don't know the agreements Microsoft and Xiaomi made around this project, but I got the idea that the development is all in Microsoft's hands...
 

pietroroman

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Hi guys I just received my second MI4 to play with as a test device but I have not started yet to fiddle with the roms again.

I remember there was a second rom coming to the Xiaomi forum which was meant to solve the camera problem with other hardware related issues. Are you guys on that version?

Secondly for what I remember my biggest problem was the inability if the MI4 to play DRM protected content (so no Netflix, no Spotify, no purchased music, etc...). It find strange nobody mentions that - has this been solved?

Thanks
Pietro
 

angelotroina

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Whatever rom you flash you'll get all the updates OTA (included the XIAOMITEST firmware update).

I did not experience the problem related to DRM protected content (but I didn't test it either).
 

badelhas

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I've been extremely satisfied with Mi4 on windows 10.
Now on 14393.10.0

1) Display slightly stutters when scrolling
I don't experience any of this problem, it is all smooth

2) Camera focusing is very slow
Camera works fine, autofocus is quick and right 99%

3) Native language support is quite limited
Still manage to have french working just fine, cortana, language and keyboards

4) Calendar tile showing the wrong date
Experienced that issue, but was the case on my lumia 735 as well

5) Invisible freezes
No freeze

6) Not all phone capabilities are exploited
Missing barometer, infrared, led and 4k recording

The battery life has been good, no use loosing 5% over the night (8 hours).
Screen is great.
Volume on speaker is a bit weak.
These are great news. Maybe a reset will solve his issues
 

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