Xiaomi was the first OEM to kick off the second generation of Android One smartphones in 2017 with the Mi A1. This device was later followed by Mi A2, Mi A2 Lite, and Mi A3. The Chinese tech giant hasn’t released any further handset in the series for around two years now. Above all, there’s no official word on the lineup’s discontinuation as well. On the other hand, the company’s POCO brand has answered a question related to Android One in a recent interview.
Earlier today, Android Central published an exclusive interview with two executives of the POCO Global team. This story focussed on the brand’s upcoming smartphone – POCO M3 Pro 5G and its future plans.
When the interviewer asked about Android One, one of the brand representatives revealed that POCO has no plans for releasing Android One smartphones at the moment. Hence, don’t expect any POCO handset with beefier hardware and stock Android for an affordable price tag in near future.
Therefore, custom ROMs are the only way to experience stock Android on POCO smartphones. But this solution is only applicable for very few users.
Xiaomi was the only company to offer good hardware with stock Android via its Mi A series of Android One smartphones. Whereas, stock Android phones from brands like Motorola and HMD Global (Nokia) still offer lackluster hardware for the same amount of money.
Anyway, stock Android was also the Achilles’ heel of the Xiaomi Mi A series. The devices in the lineup suffered from various bugs and mostly never received updates on time.
Although Xiaomi has not confirmed it, we believe this is the reason why the company has not launched any new handset in the series and has discontinued the lineup without making an official announcement.
The only way to put this is that POCO is playing safe by sticking with MIUI for POCO instead of spending resources on a separate software that did not work for Xiaomi.
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