Xiaomi will cease official software support for the Mi Max and Mi Max Prime in April

The Xiaomi Mi Max and Mi Max Prime may have helped kick the giant-screen trend off. (Source: Xiaomi)

Xiaomi released its first iterations of the Mi Max line in 2016, and they have received regular software updates ever since. However, the OEM has announced that the Mi Max and Mi Max Prime will see its final stable build in April 2019. It will be MIUI 10.3 based on Android Pie.

by Deirdre O Donnell, 2019/03/04

The Mi Max and Mi Max Prime may have foreshadowed the 6-inch-plus-screen trend back in 2016. These Xiaomi phones share the same 6.44-inch full-HD screen (albeit with a relatively massive chassis due to the lack of notch back then). However, the Mi Max Prime was graced with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 chipset, whereas the plain Mi Max made do with the slightly less powerful Snapdragon 650.

These extra-large 2016 phones received regular updates from their OEM, as it had stable and beta upgrade programs for the two first-generation Mi Maxes. Xiaomi has recently announced that those users in the latter update stream has received its last OS download. It was a MIUI 10.3 build, which is based on Android 9.0 (Pie) and made it up to version 9.2.28 for users in its beta program.

Therefore, development for the Mi Max and Mi Max Prime has effectively ended as of March 1, 2019 (the date on which the final beta was released). Xiaomi has also stated that these phones will also receive a final stable build, based on the 9.2.28 beta, in April 2019. However, it can be argued that the original Mi Max series has had a good run. Furthermore, its upcoming successors, the Mi Max 4 and 4 Pro, is rumored to have an even bigger 7.2 inch screen with a teardrop notch and the up-to-date Snapdragon 660 or 675 SoCs.