Android 8.1 Oreo finally available for the Xiaomi Mi A1 in Europe

Less than a year since the Xiaomi Mi A1 arrived with Android 7.1.1 Nougat onboard, the time has already come for it to receive a successor. However, before the Xiaomi Mi A2 launches alongside the Mi A2 Lite, the Xiaomi Mi A1 will finally get the long-awaited Android 8.1 Oreo update.

Those who missed last month's update — including myself — should know that Android 8.1 Oreo became available for the Xiaomi Mi A1 less than a month ago, but was quickly pulled out due to the discovery of an SMS bug. In my case — also true for other European users, as far as I've been able to discover — the update notification never came and we were all stuck with the security patch for May on top of Android 8.0 Oreo.

India apparently received the update earlier this month, but it also seems to have been a smaller package. In my case, moving from Android 8.0 with May's security patch to Android 8.1 Oreo involved a rather sizeable package (over 1,100 MB), but the entire process was quite smooth and it was complete in about 20 minutes.

Once the update is over, you might notice that the default theme has been changed to a dark one and that the default font size is smaller than before. While there is no switch for the theme color, if you don't like it dark, just put a lighter wallpaper and the theme will be changed automatically. The font size can be changed just as before, so there is nothing special to do about it — speaking for myself, I decided that the new font size looks pretty good so I ended up not changing it.

In addition to the above, the update should also bring a slightly better autonomy, Google Keep (a note-taking app that can be uninstalled without any problems), new Power and Volume menus, as well as many other tiny changes and adjustments. For a quick hands-on with the Android 8.1 Oreo update for the Xiaomi Mi A1, feel free to spend a few minutes watching the video below, but don't forget to share your thoughts with us in the comments as well.