Android 10 shows signs of life on the Xiaomi Pocophone F1

The topsy-turvy story of the Pocophone F1 and its journey to Android 10 continues. At the end of last year, the publication of its Android 10 kernel source code suggested that it would not be long before the device received Android 10 builds of MIUI 11. Indeed, Xiaomi has moved all of its other Snapdragon 845-powered handsets onto Android 10 since that kernel source code release. The Pocophone F1 has not received a stable update since November, either.

More recently, a Xiaomi representative stated that the device might receive Android 10 by February, which we thought would bring an end to the matter for the time being. However, XDA Developers has now been informed that an Android 10 build has now appeared online.

Confusingly, while XDA Developers claims that it is a beta update, the screenshot that we have included below lists it as a stable build. Also, the build number, V11.0.4.0, is lower than the last stable update for device, which was V11.0.5.0. Moreover, we can only find one reference to it on Mi.com, which is unusual. Additionally, we can find no mention of the build on Xiaomi Firmware Updater, a community-run repository that automatically pulls new builds from all MIUI channels every six hours.

We do not have a Pocophone F1 to hand to test the build either, so we would treat it with caution for the time being. If you want to install it, then you must flash it with an unlocked bootloader using TWRP. You can download the build, V11.0.4.0.QEJMIXM, from Xiaomi's servers.