Xiaomi’s Mi A1 smartphone may be the company’s first Android One device. But it’s identical to the Mi 5X smartphone the company launched earlier this year: the only difference is the software.

So it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that someone’s figured out how to the the Mi A1 software and package it into a custom ROM that you can install on a Xiaomi Mi 5X smartphone.

In order to do that, you’ll need to unlock the bootloader on a Mi 5X, flash the TWRP custom recovery tool and then use it to flash the new ROM. But what you end up with is a phone that has nearly stock Android software instead of Xiaomi’s heavily-skinned version called MIUI.

It’s unclear if you’ll get all the benefits of an Android One device by installing a custom ROM. A key component of the Android One program is supposed to be prompt, regular security and feature updates delivered either by Google or a phone maker.

Typically when you install a custom ROM you end up relying on the developer of that ROM to release updates. But there’s at least one reason to think that a Mi 5X with the A1 firmware may just be treated like an A1 by Xiaomi and Google: the developer who posted the ROM uploaded a screenshot of the Phone Status screen that shows the phone’s model number as “Mi A1.”

Both the Mi 5X and Mi A1 feature 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel displays, Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, 3,080 mAh batteries, dual cameras, a fingerprint sensor, and a microSD card slot.

via GSM Arena

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