Xiaomi is now rolling out the Android 8.0 Oreo update for the Mi A1 phone in India. Launched in September with Android 7.1.2 Nougat, the Xiaomi Mi A1, was slated to receive Android 8.0 Oreo by the end of 2017. In line with the promise, Xiaomi began pushing out the update to users, from December 31, 2017. Because it’s a phased roll-out, not all Mi A1 phones will get the update at the same time, according to Xiaomi.

“Many of you should be able to progressively receive the update over-the-air (OTA) on your phones. Don’t worry if you haven’t got the update now, the rollout is pushed in batches, all of you shall get the update in the near future,” Xiaomi writes on its official blog. If you haven’t received the update and are impatient about it, Xiaomi has also taken to its official Mi forum to publish the complete stable Android Oreo ROM so you can also get it from there.

Xiaomi Mi A1 Android 8.0 Oreo update: A closer look

The Android 8.0 Oreo update for the Mi A1 adds the December 2017 security patch alongside bringing all Oreo nuggets to Xiaomi’s Android One phone. The update weighs in just over 1GB (1107.4MB) therefore it’s advisable you update via Wi-Fi. Also, in case, the update isn’t showing up on your phone, you can also head over to settings > software updates to manually check if the update is available for your phone.

“Please upgrade to 7.12.19 (Android N) first before you can upgrade to 7.12.29 (Android O),” Xiaomi notes on its forum.

The Oreo experience on the Mi A1 will be almost close (if not completely) to what you get on a certain Google Pixel. The Oreo update, it must be noted, brings little changes to the overall design over Android Nougat. That said, the new update aims to minimize clutter so everything falls into order. On the inside, however, there are many changes that help improve all-round experience.

Here are all the top features of Android 8.0 Oreo coming to the Xiaomi Mi A1:

— A condensed settings menu with fewer categories sans Nougat’s slide-out hamburger menu

— Improved notification management especially in the case of persistent notifications with the addition of selective snooze

— Adaptive icons and inclusion of Night Light feature that “tints your screen amber” for comfortable night-time reading

— Notification dots

— Picture-in-picture mode for apps like Google Maps

— Background execution limits

— Android Device Manager is now known as Find My Device

— Google Play Protect

— Android Instant Apps

— Android Easter Egg and emoji

— Also, India Today Tech can confirm, the Android 8.0 Oreo update brings support for fast charging technology, to the Mi A1. You can charge the Mi A1 from 0 to 100 per cent in a little over an hour now with a fast charger. Previously, it took almost two hours to do the same.

Xiaomi Mi A1: First phone under Rs 15,000 to get Android 8.0 Oreo in India

Unlike a certain Nokia 6, or a Moto G5S Plus, or a Lenovo K8 Plus — that all run a stock version of Android Nougat out-of-the-box — the Xiaomi Mi A1 is the closest it gets to pure unadulterated Google software. Both Lenovo and Moto phones ship with extra apps and features, in addition to a slightly tweaked (non-Pixel) launcher. Both Lenovo and Moto are expected to roll out Android Oreo for many of its key phones, but there’s no definite time-line for the same. The same is true about the Nokia 6 (the Nokia 5 and the Nokia 3) as well. The Mi A1 Android One-based phone, meanwhile, is pretty well sorted in this regard.

Having said that, although the Xiaomi Mi A1 runs a near 100 per cent version of stock Android, the phone also ships with the company’s Mi Feedback and Mi Remote apps. While the purpose of the Mi Feedback app is to let users report issues with the phone, the Mi Remote app allows users to use the Mi A1’s IR-blaster. While the Mi Remote app can be uninstalled, the Mi Feedback app can’t. Also, the camera app in the case of the Mi A1 is again hallmark Xiaomi. This is because the stock Google camera app can’t do dual camera gimmickry like taking portrait shots at this point of time, according to Xiaomi.

Thankfully, the Android 8.0 Oreo update, doesn’t add any more Xiaomi apps into the mix which means that the Mi A1 still remains to be the closest it gets to a certain Google Pixel as far as vanilla Android experience is concerned.

Xiaomi is also going as far as saying that the Mi A1 will also be getting Android P — or whatever Google decides to call the Android O successor — when it launches later in 2018.

Android One phones of yore were promised timely updates but failed to live up to that promise. With phones like the Mi A1, Google is looking to breathe fresh life into the platform. There’s a slight change in strategy – this time — in that Android One caters to a slightly more premium (mid-level) hardware now. But the promise of quick software updates stays put, and considering that the Mi A1 is off to a great start, chances are Google and its OEM partners may just be a little more serious about Android One this time round than they probably were during the initial run.