Xiaomi Mi A1 users report battery, fingerprint sensor issues after Oreo update

Xiaomi’s rollout of Android 8.0 Oreo for the Mi A1 has got off to a fairly dire start. The upgrade has already been pulled twice due to software bugs following a short-lived beta, which suggests Xiaomi perhaps wasn’t as rigorous as it should have been during the testing period.

To make matters worse, a vast number of users that have installed the latest update are now discovering that their devices are being plagued by a pair of bugs. The two main issues that have been cited relate to instances of battery drain and fingerprint sensor lag.

Reports of excessive battery drain have been popping up on Reddit, XDA, and Xiaomi’s official support forums for the past few weeks, with some users suggesting the problem is so bad that they have to charge their phone twice a day after minimal usage.

The fingerprint sensor problem, meanwhile, appears to be causing a short, but annoying delay when attempting to unlock the phone. A bug report on Xiaomi’s help forum notes that the delay is approximately one second.

On its own, the fingerprint issue doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when combined with the constant rollout hiccups and the battery problems, it’s easy to see why Mi A1 owners are frustrated.

In what should be good news for disgruntled users, Xiaomi has confirmed that it is looking into both issues. According to an MIUI Bug Hunter representative (via PiunikaWeb), a fix for the battery drain bug is already in the works, while the fingerprint sensor issue has been forwarded “to the concerned team” and will be “rectified soon”.

While it might be worth holding off on the OS upgrade, at least for the time being, Android Oreo brings a handful of new features to Xiaomi’s budget phone, including picture-in-picture mode, bundled notifications, plenty of UI tweaks, and fast charging support.