Android Pie global open beta for Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S and Mi 8 now available

You might remember that the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S was one of the first third-party phones to sample Android P — now Android 9.0 Pie — during the developer preview stage. Now, both Xiaomi’s ceramic flagship and the Mi 8 have both taken a step closer to a final, stable Pie build with the release of MIUI 10 Open Beta firmware based on the latest Android update.

Download links for both ROMs can be found at the bottom of this post, but before you dive in you should be aware that these are far from final builds and due to anti-rollback protection you will not be able to flash your device back to Oreo if things go awry.

Both ROMs add a bunch of new Pie features such as gesture navigation, app actions, adaptive battery and brightness, and more.

As these are the global variants, the updates also include all the necessary Google Play services which would be missing from the Chinese firmware.

While the Mi Mix 2S beta can be flashed using recovery or fastboot methods, the Mi 8 firmware (via XDA-Developers) is currently only available via recovery so you’ll need to unlock your phone’s bootloader to install it using TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project).

You should, of course, back up all of your data before attempting any of this, especially when unlocking the bootloader as this will wipe your phone’s memory.

For those prepared to wait a little longer, it seems likely that both the Mi 8 and Mi Mix 2S will be the first Xiaomi phones to receive the official Pie-based MIUI 10 update in the coming weeks and months. Be sure to keep an eye on our Pie tracker here for all the details.