Frustrated With Miui V8? Try Miui V7!

[Stefan Mandache]

Just sharing an experience, maybe helpful for other newer Mi5 users like myself.

Got my Mi5 in January this year so I had ROMs based on MIUI V8 from day one. Because I could not seem to get more than 3 axis OIS to work (tried the OIS calibrator too), I decided to give V7 a try. I am now on xiaomi.eu V7.5.7.0 and what a revelation!
- Always-on fingerprint scanner works (not out-of-the box, but an easy hack)
- Swiping to dismiss notifications in the bar works 100% of the time. On MIUI V8 I often had to try 3-4 times to get it to recognize a horizontal swipe.
- Battery life seems much better (got only 1% drain overnight, never achieved that on V8 or LOS).
- The OIS seems to work on all 4 axis (if I am to believe that test we've all probably seen on YouTube).

So far I couldn't find anything from V8 that I miss enough to make me want to go back.

 

[Stefan Mandache]

Are you really thinking what you say? I'm on 7.3.30 last Miui 8 global dev build and it is very bad so I'm thinking about Lineage OS or Slimdragons and hope Miui 9 would do the great jump...

Sent from my Mi 5

I actually mean it, but I hadn't tried V7 until now, so for me it is a new discovery V8 is more polished, but it also has more serious issues, even on the stable MM 8.1.6.0 I was using (hoping MIUI9 will be better). For me, LOS is great, but the camera issues prevent me from using it too often.

 

[Laurencito]

I'm a Marshmallow man myself. It all started going wrong after Nougat. I'm on 6.11.10 and its a fine Rom. Fast and snappy, the last Marshmallow before the Nougat rubbish. The only feature I miss from Nougat is the long screenshot capture.
I keep with Miui because I like the Dual App feature, Also the ability to block apps from using data and wifi.
The fixes I have over the nougat roms are widgets work properly, Dark themes work properly (in Nougat some fonts come out black on a black background.) and Smart Keyboard Pro works properly in Expenses Manager. Small things but things I use everyday. The camera API2 fix works too.
There are no extra features in Nougat that make anydifference to me and since my phones rooted its not that secure so having the latest updates does not make that much difference.

 

[Stefan Mandache]

I'm a Marshmallow man myself. It all started going wrong after Nougat. I'm on 6.11.10 and its a fine Rom. Fast and snappy, the last Marshmallow before the Nougat rubbish. The only feature I miss from Nougat is the long screenshot capture.
I keep with Miui because I like the Dual App feature, Also the ability to block apps from using data and wifi.
The fixes I have over the nougat roms are widgets work properly, Dark themes work properly (in Nougat some fonts come out black on a black background.) and Smart Keyboard Pro works properly in Expenses Manager. Small things but things I use everyday. The camera API2 fix works too.
There are no extra features in Nougat that make anydifference to me and since my phones rooted its not that secure so having the latest updates does not make that much difference.

I only tried stable V8 releases, 8.1.6.0 being the last one on MM. Any major differences between that and 6.11.10? I suppose most issues are common, like the screen sensitivity that makes it hard to swipe notifications for example.

 

[Laurencito]

I think swipe to the left is a little tricky here. The only problem I have is it keeps forgetting Google search for the search app. A small price to pay (though I don't remember the official version of 6.11.10 doing this. )

Sent from my MI 5 using Tapatalk

 

[acn]

I got my Mi5 with global stable 8 ROM, upgraded via OTA to 8.1.2 and it stopped there for now.
I'd like to try MIUI 7 ROM, don't care about nougat. I liked MIUI 7 on my Redmi 3.
Just to be sure, are these the last versions of MIUI 7 for Mi5?
xiaomi.eu stable: 7.5.7
xiaomi.eu dev: 6.5.26
global stable: 7.5.2
global dev: 6.5.30
Any important differences between 7.5.2 gobal and 7.5.7 EU?

 

[Stefan Mandache]

I got my Mi5 with global stable 8 ROM, upgraded via OTA to 8.1.2 and it stopped there for now.
I'd like to try MIUI 7 ROM, don't care about nougat. I liked MIUI 7 on my Redmi 3.
Just to be sure, are these the last versions of MIUI 7 for Mi5?
xiaomi.eu stable: 7.5.7
xiaomi.eu dev: 6.5.26
global stable: 7.5.2
global dev: 6.5.30
Any important differences between 7.5.2 gobal and 7.5.7 EU?

I only tried xiaomi.eu 7.5.7, which seems to be the latest stable V7 release.

 

[kkk73]

Hi Stefan you made me corious to downgrade from 8.1.6 to 7.5.7. If I want to do that I'm gonna lose my data on the phone? How do you suggest to proceed? Thanks a lot.

Mauro

 

[Jazzhoo]

Are you really thinking what you say? I'm on 7.3.30 last Miui 8 global dev build and it is very bad so I'm thinking about Lineage OS or Slimdragons and hope Miui 9 would do the great jump...

Sent from my Mi 5

Hi,
I've tried RR and Slimdragons, and my small conclusion about using LOS like roms at the moment is:

Pros:
- i love the way how notifications look like!
- no problem with rubbish "black font on black background" with music control on swipe down/ notification panel. I get that a lot with for example Spotify or different players
- fast
- the max volume on headphones is like x2 comparing to MIUI...
- you can easily switch off "full lockscreen cd cover" while listening to music - i hate that

btw. is there a way to do it on MIUI8? or is it theme dependent?

Cons:
- forget about Quick Charge 3 for now - i can't live without it
- problems with VoLTE although i've never used it

try it yourself and see

 

[Jazzhoo]

I'm a Marshmallow man myself. It all started going wrong after Nougat. I'm on 6.11.10 and its a fine Rom. Fast and snappy, the last Marshmallow before the Nougat rubbish. The only feature I miss from Nougat is the long screenshot capture.
I keep with Miui because I like the Dual App feature, Also the ability to block apps from using data and wifi.
The fixes I have over the nougat roms are widgets work properly, Dark themes work properly (in Nougat some fonts come out black on a black background.) and Smart Keyboard Pro works properly in Expenses Manager. Small things but things I use everyday. The camera API2 fix works too.
There are no extra features in Nougat that make anydifference to me and since my phones rooted its not that secure so having the latest updates does not make that much difference.

Hi,
how come that your dark themes work ok? this problem is killing me.. i hate bright themes.

i'm also thinking about moving from 8.1.2.0 to stable 8.1.6.0 or 6.11.10.
Which one would you suggest to try?

btw. any nice dark themes that you'd suggest?
Thanks.

 

[Stefan Mandache]

Hi Stefan you made me corious to downgrade from 8.1.6 to 7.5.7. If I want to do that I'm gonna lose my data on the phone? How do you suggest to proceed? Thanks a lot.

Mauro

I am not sure. When I downgraded from 8.1.6 to 7.5.7, I backed up everything using Mi account / Titanium and did a clean install (wiped data). However, since then I decided to give MIUI V8 6.11.10 a try after seeing Laurencito's post in this thread, and I just dirty flashed it over 7.5.7 without any issues. It may work in the direction too, but I am not sure. And BTW, so far I like 6.11.10 better than 8.1.6.

 

[Jazzhoo]

And BTW, so far I am liking 6.11.10 a lot more than 8.1.6.

thanks for that, i think i'll give it a try once i do a titanium backup!

 

[Stefan Mandache]

Hi,
how come that your dark themes work ok? this problem is killing me.. i hate bright themes.

i'm also thinking about moving from 8.1.2.0 to stable 8.1.6.0 or 6.11.10.
Which one would you suggest to try?

btw. any nice dark themes that you'd suggest?
Thanks.

I for one use Eureka Pro and Dark Note V8 (depending on my mood ). I can't say I noticed any major black on black issues, but I do use XMIUI which has a few color-related customizations (like notification text color). XMIUI is one of the reasons I am reluctant to move to Nougat where xposed is not yet supported.

 

[Jaime DLH]

Hi,
I've tried RR and Slimdragons, and my small conclusion about using LOS like roms at the moment is:

...

try it yourself and see

Hi Jazzhoo, thanks for that post. Out of the LOS ROMs you have tried, would you recommend one of them over the rest for a daily driver? I've been wanting to try SlimDragons, but I'd greatly appreciate the insight from someone who has actually used the ROMs.

Thanks in advance,

 

[Jazzhoo]

Hi Jazzhoo, thanks for that post. Out of the LOS ROMs you have tried, would you recommend one of them over the rest for a daily driver? I've been wanting to try SlimDragons, but I'd greatly appreciate the insight from someone who has actually used the ROMs.

Thanks in advance,

To be fully honest I think the Resurection Remix Rom is the closest one to be good daily driver.

But that is only my personal opinion.

All is up to you whether you like clean LOS like Rom or RR/SlimDragon like Rom that someone has tweaked a bit already.

Personally I'll stay with MIUI as QuickCharde3 is a must for me.

Cheers.

 

[Laurencito]

Hi,
how come that your dark themes work ok? this problem is killing me.. i hate bright themes.

i'm also thinking about moving from 8.1.2.0 to stable 8.1.6.0 or 6.11.10.
Which one would you suggest to try?

btw. any nice dark themes that you'd suggest?
Thanks.

Dark Note V8 works well for me. Its nice and clean (I just want dark not fancy) When you change the wallpaper its fine.
6.11.10 was the last dev rom before they moved to Nougat so I'm guessing its complete. Certainly better than 6.11.3. As I say the only problem I found is Google search not coming up on long press sometimes. You have to reset defaults and after this happens the phone freezes for a moment. Apart from that phone very happy. I like dev rom because I like root.
Makes me realise I would rather have a working phone than updates and silly xiaomi features

 

[Berty3009]

Is it possible with any twrp version to make a dirty flash Back to any Marshmallow version?

 

[Laurencito]

Is it possible with any twrp version to make a dirty flash Back to any Marshmallow version?

I used official TWRP to flash in the first place. As to going back to Marshmallow I would do a clean install. Who knows what happens between Nougat and Marshmallow

 

[Jazzhoo]

Is it possible with any twrp version to make a dirty flash Back to any Marshmallow version?

Is Nougat really that bad on Xiaomi?

 

[Jaime DLH]

Is Nougat really that bad on Xiaomi?

It's not that Nougat is bad on Xiaomi... But the best benefits of Nougat (enhanced notifications, etc.) aren't really visible on MIUI, so there's little point right now in having Nougat, as opposed to Marshmallow. Also, it didn't help that some of the first MIUI Nougat ROMs (like 8.2.1.0 on Mi5) were really buggy.

 

[Kibesco]

Also, in a Marshmallow based rom I can use Xposed, right?
I think I'm moving to 6.11.10.

 

[Laurencito]

Also, in a Marshmallow based rom I can use Xposed, right?
I think I'm moving to 6.11.10.

I had problems with Xposed. Tried release 87 and 85 and niether worked.. but apparently with will work if you try enough versions

 

[Kibesco]

I had problems with Xposed. Tried release 87 and 85 and niether worked.. but apparently with will work if you try enough versions

What kind of problems?
I'm thinking of Xposed because of MIUI tweaks module, I hope it works because it's the main reason I'm downgrading.

 

[Laurencito]

Sorry, the problems were it didn't work. had the message that it couldn't activate xPosed. from what I read an older version probabley would work but I gave up before finding it.

 

[Stefan Mandache]

What kind of problems?
I'm thinking of Xposed because of MIUI tweaks module, I hope it works because it's the main reason I'm downgrading.

I've been using Xposed v87 "MIUI-edition-by-SolarWarez" without any issues ever since I got the phone.