MIUI first thoughts...

[gonzo13]

So I rooted my Nexus One not too long ago and was pretty impressed with Cyanogen mod 6, the very 1st ROM I ended up using. The extra customization and enhanced features were what made me decide to take the plunge. Well, as was to be expected, I've since got the itch to try more of the many, many ROMs available out there and this post is to tell you about the one I've decided to stick with... for now. It's called MIUI ("My UI") and it's vastly different from the stock Froyo or Cyanogen mods I was used to using.

Now before I get into the thick of it let me just start by saying this is NOT going to explain the process of installing this on your phone. You can search these wonderful forums of ours if you want to give it a spin but you're doing so at your OWN risk. We are not responsible for any damage, permanent or otherwise, that is done to your phone if you decide to root and install this or any other ROM.

The first and most noticeable difference is the lack of any sort of launcher and/or app drawer. This particular ROM chooses to place all your applications, iPhone style, on your home screens. Now, seeing as my 1st smartphone was the iPhone 3G I've had plenty of time to get accustomed to this type of interface. That said, I do prefer the Android app drawer over this style but not enough to make me stop using this ROM. If I wanted to I could install ADW Launcher or something to that extent but, in my eyes, that would fragment the experience that the dev is trying to create here. I'll just suck it up and take the hit on this one.

For those of you with a million and one apps installed who were immediately turned off by the thought of 30 home screens worth of clutter let me reassure you that there are ways around that. What I've done is organized all the apps that I don't use frequently enough into folders. The folders display the icons of the first 4 apps contained within the them and the names of each folder can be edited to your liking.

Unlike the iPhone the widgets are abundant in this ROM and are obviously here to stay. Some of the new apps bundled with this ROM are a revamped analog clock which looks like it was designed by Issey Miyake himself and a favourite contacts widget (which takes up an entire home screen) that I've been getting quite a bit of use out of.

A long press on any home screen will drop a bar down from the top of the screen which will let you set a wallpaper (home screen or lock screen), delete apps/widgets or add widgets. You can scroll left and right through the available widgets. The indicator for which page you're on is located at the bottom of the widget drawer and is signified by a series of dots with the white dot indicating your current page. Simply drag and drop the widget from the drawer onto the appropriate home screen and you're ready to go.

The home screen editor is pretty standard. You can organize the order of your home screens by dragging them in different positions and the default home screen can be selected by tapping the house image on whichever screen you want to be your main one. To add a new home screen just click on the blank screen with a "+" on it.

Finally, the status bar and drop down menu has one of my favourite features of this new ROM. When you drag the bar down from the top not only does it reveal any new notifications you may have but it also has a scrollable bar at the bottom that gives you instant access to a plethora of commonly used features/toggles. In addition to the power control widget which lets you toggle wi-fi/bluetooth/gps/sync/brightness the status bar functions include toggles for data, ringer, screen rotation, cpu, airplane mode and reboot/shutdown icons.

Now this ROM does have its flaws, which is to be expected. Really, what I've noticed are just minor gripes that hardly affect the usability of the ROM itself.

This was designed with Chinese as the default language and some devs have been working at a furious pace to provide users with an all English version. There are some areas of the phone (certain apps, widgets, the dialer) that do still have Chinese characters instead of their English counterparts. I'm sure this will all be ironed out soon.

Some of the apps didn't work right off the bat. The calendar and camera apps had what I will call, for lack of a better term, "placeholder" icons. When you tapped on these you would get an error saying no app was installed. What I ended up doing was moving these apps to a folder which then revealed the real apps icons in their spot. After these had been moved the "placeholder" apps could then be deleted (and yes, the video camera supports 720p!).

The iPhone style app layout may not be for everyone but like I said earlier there's nothing stopping you from downloading a 3rd party launcher and using it with this ROM.

So if your interest has been piqued I hope that this may have swayed you to see what MIUI is all about. If you're fine with your stock OS then I guess all those purdy screen shots above will have to suffice. Well, it's time for me to try and 3-star all those Angry Birds levels again. *sigh* the perils of wiping your OS.

[nickshertzer]

Very nice review. Thanks for sharing. FYI, the RoDrIgUeZsTyLe´s MIUIMOD [V1] is a nicely themed MIUI with no need to install an English pack (when I installed 0.9.30, you still had to manually install the English pack later).

RoDrIgUeZsTyLe´s MIUIMOD [V1] Blazing Fast & The Most Stable

So many options, yet I keep going back to Sense, because you can use all stock widgets on Sense, but you can't use Sense widgets on Stock / CM6 / MIUI...

[gonzo13]

Never used Sense, not even on an actual HTC phone.
I love plain vanilla android but MIUI has me hooked!

[SliceBurgSlim]

Nice Review. This is Very Tempting to try!

[Admin]

Great review, pictures and plenty of info! Thanks man!

[rugmankc]

Nice screenshots gonzo.

Your info gives me a much better idea of what this rom is all about.

Ken

[gonzo13]

Thanks everyone. Just glad to help/contribute.

[AndroidIsTheTruth]

I definitely have slowly started to love this ROM. Especially the UI. I streamlined my apps into a folder much like the OP and it no longer looks so iPhonish with all the apps posted up front. It was already fast but with Set CPU this think is lightning. I may try Rodriguez version. As long as the UI has been touched to much.

[rugmankc]

ROD's MIUI version 1.1 should be out within 24hrs! I will try it.

[WERA689]

Great job, gonzo! Thanks, and congrats on the badge :-)