Xiaomi's MIUI 9 Android skin will reportedly launch in November

Since Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi unveiled MIUI 9 back in July, the company has been good about releasing closed and public beta versions for a handful of supported devices. With over two months of beta releases, however, the question has become when the stable ROM for MIUI 9 will become available, with rumors pinning a November release for Xiaomi’s popular Android skin.

The rumors come via FoneArena, which received word from its sources that the MIUI 9 Global Stable ROM will hit devices as early as the first week of November. Xiaomi is expected to publicly roll out MIUI 9 to supported devices throughout the month of November, though there are no specifics about which devices will get the update first.

Somewhat backing this up is Xiaomi having suspended MIUI 9’s closed and public beta releases for this week:

In the direction to better concentrate on parameters like stability and system optimization of MIUI, we need to suspend this week’s update.

Even so, MIUI 9 is expected to be a solid, if unremarkable, software release for Xiaomi. You can check out our write-up of everything that is new with MIUI 9, but in short, the update promises faster app launch speeds and a split-screen mode, the latter of which is one of Android Nougat’s marquee features.

MIUI 9 introduces other nifty features, such as the ability to filter photos by keywords, Xiaomi’s Smart Assistant that aims to take on the likes of Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa, and the ability to launch specific apps based on what is shown on the screen. Unfortunately, these three features are exclusive to China for the time being, probably due to their reliance on language recognition.

As for which devices will get the MIUI 9 Global Stable ROM, odds are this is what the list will look like, with potential for it to be even larger:

• Mi Mix
• Mi Mix 2
• Mi 5/4/4i/3
• Mi Max 2
• Mi Max/Prime
• Redmi Note 4/3/Prime
• Redmi 4/4A
• Redmi 3S/Prime/Plus
• Redmi 2/Prime

As a quick note, it’s impressive to see devices like the Redmi 2, which was released in 2015. It’s even more impressive to see the Mi 3 in that list, since the phone was released way back in 2013. The only other company that can say it has supported a device from 2013 is Apple, so kudos to Xiaomi for bringing the latest to older devices, even if the underlying Android version might not be up to snuff.

Now, about Xiaomi’s availability in the US…