Xiaomi’s newest flagship, the Mi4, was launched just last month and ships with the latest stable build of MIUI 5. MIUI 6 is in the works and is able to be beta tested right now if you’re an owner of a Mi4, but what if you’re not really feeling Xiaomi’s very Apple-like skin over Android? Many people love stock Android, and Android 4.4.4 KitKat is not just the latest version of Google’s mobile OS, it’s also the best by far. Not only this but Google’s own visual style is unique and doesn’t look like Apple or Microsoft’s style, giving your phone a uniquely different look from the other Mi4 phones out there if you want to go stock.
So how do you do it? Right now over at XDA-Developers there’s an unofficial port of CyanogenMod 11S that works with the Xiaomi Mi4, and it only takes the custom ClockworkMod Recovery to get it installed. This is the same version of CyanogenMod found on the OnePlus One, which means that you’re getting awesome features like the CyanogenMod theme engine, brand new camera app, off-screen gestures and more. All the instructions are over at XDA so make sure to check them out and of course take caution as doing this could render your phone unusable if something goes awry.
Secondly at the official MIUI forums a user has ported stock Android 4.4.4 using the phone’s custom kernel for maximum compatibility, meaning you’re less likely to run into the weird bugs that can pop up when dealing with custom ROMs. The Mi4 is a closed source device so developing custom ROMs for it has been a little difficult, however when there’s a will there’s a way in the world of Android, and it looks like it only took about a month since the initial launch to get a stock Android ROM on the phone. Everything here is super base stock so there’s no theming or advanced camera features, but Google Camera has come a long way and delivers amazing results for the modes it supports. If you’re looking to get your stock Android fix look no further, and as always make a backup before you do any of this! If you don’t have your own Xiaomi Mi4 you can buy the16GB version here, and the 64GB version here!
