That the Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A are some of the best budget smartphones out there has never been in doubt.
Both devices, which started selling locally in the third and fourth quarters of 2018, were big hits, even in the limited quantities that were made available locally. It is no wonder that the local Xiaomi distributors have continued selling the two even as they introduce the successor, Redmi 7A.
A lot of the warm reception to the Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A has had to do with the near-perfect matching of excellent pricing and features. When pitted against the competition, they often come out on top when it comes to offering the best bang for anyone’s money.
On the software front, though, is where things threatened to break loose. This happened back in April when a post on Xiaomi’s official forums by one of the moderators from the Beijing-based device maker with a purported update roadmap showed that the two devices had been side-stepped from the company’s future update plans.
This, effectively, meant that it was the end of the road for the devices which launched running Android 8.1, Oreo, under the colourfulness of MIUI 9.1.
Even though the two had made the jump to MIUI 10, the company’s latest iteration of its heavily modified Android overlay, they got all the latest features Xiaomi was availing on newer devices except the ones that were exclusive to Android 9 Pie since they didn’t get the Pie upgrade.
There has been a glimmer of hope over the last few weeks as the company tested Android Pie for the two devices with a small section of users that signed up for the beta exercise.
Now, after a long wait, the update is seeding to Redmi 6 and Redmi 6A devices around the world so it is only a matter of time before the update hits your device over the air (OTA). However, if you are the impatient type, you can take matters into your own hands, quite literally, by downloading the update files and flashing them on your device (Redmi 6, Redmi 6A).
Besides the system-wide dark mode and the ability to now use facial biometrics to lock applications, not much has changed in Android Pie.
