While Android 13 is in its early phases of public beta, many Android users are still waiting for Android 12, which has a market share of roughly 10%. The MIUI 13 upgrade (a worldwide and stable piece of code) is now reaching Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro handsets across Europe and other regions after a long wait. Users should expect a mix of new features and updates for both the Android 12 core and the MIUI 13 layer on top, as well as a slew of bugs and incompatibilities, as usual.

The MIUI 12.5.12 to MIUI 13.0.2 upgrade is 3.3 GB in size. I got the notification late yesterday night, and it only took me about 30 minutes to download and install it. The update is titled MIUI 13.0.2.0.SJDEUXM and the security patch is dated March 1, 2022, as expected. Xiaomi claims that MIUI 13 is the quickest Android skin ever tested with the Master Lu benchmark suite. Improved multitasking capabilities, as well as certain privacy-related enhancements, are said to be included in the update. On the other hand, the chunk of code that came up on my phone does not include all of the wallpapers that should be included in MIUI 13, and the MIUI 13 widgets that are available in China are also unavailable (however, the new Android 12 widgets are present, and this makes the update quite confusing).

Overall, the MIUI 13 upgrade that is currently being rolled out to customers outside of China feels like a trimmed-down version of what Xiaomi promised. What concerns me the most is how they were able to issue the update without making it compatible with POCO Launcher. After all, it’s been a few months since Android 12 was released, and no patch has yet been released.

Those who were previously satisfied with the default launcher will most likely appreciate the change. Apps can now be opened as floating windows directly from the sidebar, the Phone-Clock-Weather trio gets improved accessibility support, and mind map nodes (if anyone is creating mind maps on their Xiaomi phones, please leave a comment below and share your thoughts with the rest of us) are “more convenient and intuitive,” according to the official release notes.

Save Battery, Balanced, and Performance are now the three predefined options for battery optimization. When taking long movies (time-lapses, for example), the Camera app gains a few additional features and improvements, such as the ability to switch off the screen after 3 minutes of inactivity to preserve the battery.

In addition to the aforementioned incompatibility with the popular POCO Launcher app, MIUI 13.0.2 appears to have issues when trying to set Dark Mode for individual apps (in addition to Dark Mode not working on most apps by default, even if those apps have not been configured not to use it), some apps appear to load much slower than before, screenshot previews appear with a noticeable delay, and there may be others that I haven’t discovered yet).

Overall, I’m unhappy, and I’d gladly pay a modest sum (say, $20) to receive an official Xiaomi Android 12 (near-)stock ROM with only a few apps like Mi Remote and Mi Notes on top of Google’s suite, as was the case with Xiaomi’s Android One handsets. Is it just me who thinks this? Thankfully, there is a slew of ROMs for the Mi 10T and its Pro sister, and I’ll be leaving MIUI behind sooner or later.