Xiaomi confirms a revamped dark mode is coming to MIUI 12 (Update)

Update: April 21, 2020 (6:00 PM ET): Xiaomi just confirmed a revamped dark mode is coming to MIUI 12. It’s called Dark Mode 2.0, and it will tout several new features. Read on for more details!

Original article: April 15, 2020 (2:24 PM ET): The release of Xiaomi’s latest Android Skin — MIUI 12 — is just around the corner. The company has confirmed an official announcement date and some of the upcoming features we can expect from it.

We aren’t aware of any Xiaomi devices running the full skin yet, but official information and recent leaks give us a decent idea of what we can expect. Here’s everything we know so far.

Xiaomi MIUI 12 design and features

Last year, Xiaomi accidentally released its latest Android skin — MIUI 11 — ahead of schedule. The company repeated history a bit this year after it released the MiSettings beta APK on the company’s own forums featuring what could be the new MIUI 12 design language.

XDA Developers first noticed the radical change in the app’s UI. Xiaomi has since removed the new settings pages in an APK update. Luckily, XDA managed to snag some screenshots before then. Check them out:

Here are the equivalent MIUI 11 settings pages for reference:

The new UI is a bit rough and inconsistent, but we can see changes to the refresh rate and screen time settings. This includes an overall cleaner design, a new focus mode tab, and a new weekly usage graph in the screen time settings, as well as a general design overhaul to the refresh rate settings.

Read also: Xiaomi in 2020: Up for the challenge

Xiaomi’s official MIUI Weibo page has also officially confirmed a revamped dark mode is coming to MIUI 12. The company first introduced a system-wide dark mode in MIUI 11, but the next iteration will introduce several usability improvements.

Xiaomi is calling this updated dark mode Dark Mode 2.0. The skin’s built-in dark mode capabilities will tout smart wallpaper dimming, automatic font weight adjustment, automatic contrast adjustment, and newly adaptive icons.

MIUI 12 will automatically darken bright wallpapers to better fit in when Dark Mode is enabled without diminishing wallpaper quality. It will also adjust text weight in dark mode to reduce glare and blur. This is a feature carried over from MIUI 11’s dynamic font functionality, which was the first time we’ve seen such a feature on a mobile device. MIUI 12 will build on the functionality, allowing fonts to adapt as users change between light and dark modes.

Dark Mode 2.0 will also allow Xiaomi device displays to automatically adjust contrast depending on the user’s environment. This will go a step further than existing device brightness auto adjustment functionality and should vastly improve dark mode legibility. Xiaomi also improved dark mode integration with several system and third-party apps, allowing them to naturally auto adapt and invert their colors when dark mode is enabled.

Release date and availability

Xiaomi officially announced on Weibo and its website that MIUI 12 will be revealed on April 27. This means we can expect even more information regarding visual changes and new features then. Xiaomi has not said when the update would be publically available yet, but we expect to hear these details when the company unveils MIUI 12 at the end of the month.

Interestingly, MIUI 12 isn’t the only announcement coming on April 27. As seen in the above poster, Xiaomi confirmed that it’ll also launch the Mi 10 Youth Edition 5G smartphone then.

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The poster shows a phone with a quad rear camera setup, but we also see 50X branding and what could be a periscope camera. We’re guessing that 50x zoom is purely digital, but a periscope should allow for better quality 5x to 10x zoom.

The “5G” designation in the phone’s name also confirms 5G capabilities, but hopefully, this comes at a reasonable cost. We expect this handset to be one of the first Xiaomi devices to tout the updated Android skin, but we won’t know for sure until MIUI 12’s official announcement.