Last year Xiaomi released its first Android One phone, the Mi A1. Even though it was just a rebranded Mi 5X with stock Android instead of MIUI, the phone was well received. Right up to this moment, the Mi A1 is one of the best phones in the $200 segment.
Now that the Mi 5X has gotten a successor in form of the Mi 6X, fans of the brand are looking forward to when it will be announced as the Mi A2 – Xiaomi’s second Android One phone.
However, while there is still no confirmation the Mi 6X will be launched as the Mi A2 outside China, the guys at XDA say there is confirmation that the Mi A1 will indeed have a successor but it won’t be the only Android One phone from Xiaomi this year.
First, let’s have a look at the details of the Mi A1’s successor.
The Xiaomi Mi A1 is codenamed “tissot_sprout”. “Sprout” is actually a name unique to first-gen Android One devices. In new firmware files, the name “jasmine_sprout” was found.
The firmware files were gotten by @FunkyHuawei, a name which should be familiar to those who have heard of FunkyHuaweiClub, a service for updating, rebranding (changing the region), and unbricking Huawei and Honor devices.
He was kind enough to share them with XDA Developers, although they couldn’t get the full dump of the firmware but were able to view key files from a partial dump and find out key info about the phone.
Not only did they find the “sprout” suffix, there are also no MIUI system apps in the build. The Android framework, SystemUI, and other system apps are stock Android-based.
There is also a file with the name “com.google.android.feature.ANDROID_ONE_EXPERIENCE.xml” under system permissions. It is said that this special permission can be read by apps to guard whether or not the app should have access to the device. A similar file is said to be found in Google Pixel phones to guard apps like the Google Camera. Lastly, the device has A/B partitions for seamless updates.
The firmware makes no mention of the device’s official name but there are some other hardware details. First, the device is powered by a Snapdragon 660 as revealed by the build.prop file and the mmi.xml file that contains hardware testing parameters.
There are also multiple camera-based parameters that are similar to that of the Xiaomi Mi 6X such as the EXIF model and the front camera. As seen below, the name “WAYNE” which is the codename for the Mi 6X is present in the firmware so also is (Sony) IMX376 which is the camera sensor found on the front of the Mi 6X.
These list of evidence point at jasmine_sprout being similar to the Mi 6X. When it does launch, it will come with Android 8.1 Oreo and support Project Treble.
Now that we are done with the Mi A1’s successor, let’s dive into the details of the second Android One device from Xiaomi.
While the first Xiaomi Android One device for the year will be from the Mi family, the second is likely from the Redmi family. The CEO, Lei Jun, actually made a statement (below) related to it last week.
XDA Developers have found details of the device including its codename which is “daisy_sprout”. They say the device is powered by a msm8953 a.k.a. Snapdragon 625 processor just like the Mi A1 but will likely have a cheaper price tag.
Xiaomi already released a Snapdragon 625 Redmi phone recently and that is the Redmi 5 Plus but it also has another one on the way which is the Redmi S2.
Going by the CEO’s statement above and seeing as the Redmi 5 Plus is already available in India as the Redmi Note 5, it doesn’t make sense that it will release an Android One version of the same phone. This leaves us with the Redmi S2 as the Android One Redmi device.
There is no info as to when both devices will launch but we believe they will arrive together.
(Source)
