Actuality deeply fixated on the UI and graphics, the act is very good as well with the ROM being nearly bug free and very smooth and slick in operation on the officially braced phones. So, the constant upgrades on a weekly basis are frequently evolving the ROM to be better and better day by day. The newest is the MIUI 1.9.16 ROM based on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. Paired with the Samsung Galaxy S I9000, so, we’ll walk you over the latest version starting with the key highlight features of the ROM.

The walkthrough will be split into the below concerned topics:

• User Interface
• Themes
• Music & Camera
• Native Apps
• Misc. Settings

User Interface

We can say that if you had never find MIUI before, the user interface will look very intense and very different in contrast to any other ROM you may be acquainted with. The main notable object is the very grand lockscreen, and when past that, the lack of a dedicated app drawer within MIUI’s native Launcher. All apps have icons that are displayed on the main screen, pretty much like apps in the iOS, where you scroll around the screens where the icons are placed. Well we got till 11 screens which mean 9×11 icons, so there was still room for more till we gave up.

Not like most Android launchers where eliminating an app from the main screen only wipes up the screen as the icon was a shortcut, removing icons from the MIUI’s main screen will totally delete the app from the ROM. Talking about Widgets, this is where you’ll see where the ROM borrowed from the new TouchWiz 4 UI. Have the screen pressed and you will enter the Edit mode with access to widgets that can be scrolled left or right in the bottom row and the screens too so you can securely place the widget on whichever screen you wish.

Though the Notification menu may not be much different to any other ROMs the toggles panel most certainly is. Unlike CM7 where the toggles are start in the notification panel at the top, MIUI has the option of a dedicated page for the toggles you can say. Yet, by default the toggles come scrollable listed at the bottom of the notification panel. You can add or remove the toggles you want to be listed in the panel. To choose the compact or page layout, navigate to Settings > Toggle Settings and choose what you like.

Themes

MIUI boasts the most feature rich theming engine we have come across till date in any ROM. You have customizable lockscreens, status bars, icons, homescreens, fonts, dialer style, text style, boot animations and so much more! Obviously if you don’t want to go at each option one by own, you have a world of options in the form of theme packages that you can get straight of the internet, or from the online collection.

As mentioned earlier, the themes can either be applied as a whole, or the best parts can be chosen from numerous themes to create your very own theme. When you’re done setting up your theme, you can also make a backup of it, for you never know when you may need to use it o’er.

For look into what the theming engine has to offer you should see our post on 10 grand MIUI themes aimed at Android. Additionally, since MIUI ventured into the lockscreen business, you might also like our post on 20 amazing MIUI Lockscreens for Android.

Music Player & Camera

Music Player

The payer even went around as a standalone app as well, such is its popularity. With its aptitude to download lyrics and album art straight from the internet, built in equalizer, ability to integrate with the lockscreen and a full way of sorting out your music, the MIUI music player boasts no flashy looks but is designed to be easily usable by any novice user.

The player settings do not disappoint at all with options such as Shake to skip, Display Lyrics, a nifty looking Spectrogram. One of the most useful option is the ability to filter out audio files of a minimum size, thereby removing the chances of hearing one your ringtones out of the blues.

Camera

Ok, so the camera app could have done better as far as options and features are concerned. No the picture or video quality for that matter is totally fine as it should be, but compared to the TouchWiz UI camera app or the HTC Sense camera app, the MIUI camera app does not have much to offer here, but mostly basic functions and features. When run on our Desire HD, the camera app gave us the Tap to focus feature and it worked like it does for that device on Sense based ROMs. But, when run on the Galaxy S – a device which originally came out with a Tap to Focus feature – the device did focus when the screen was tapped, but not anywhere on the screen, but the center only.

The Wish HD and the Galaxy S both show the ability to record up 720p, and that’s about all the settings you get as far as video recording is concerned.

Native Apps

File Explorer

By MIUI file explorer, you may not feel the need for any other file explorer, except for when you want to access system files. MIUI’s file explorer does not let give you access to root level files, so you might famine to look for unusual if that’s your concern.

So, the app lets your browse the files via some pre-defined categories, such as music, videos, pictures, APK files etc, all while a colored bar neatly sits at the bottom displaying the space occupied by the different files and the space that remains available. You can reform the folder or files via Name, Date, Size and Type alongside having the ability to view hidden folders or to add new folders.

Picking a file or folder, brings up a few mostly wanted functions such as cut, copy, paste and delete. The highlight as said earlier is easily the FTP server where entirely you need to get it up and running is to tap the Start Service button and then enter the FTP address in your explorer on the PC.

Internet Browser

The native MIUI internet browser is not so hot inasmuch as features are worried, chiefly if you start comparing it with the Dolphin internet browser. Yet, the browser claims a very friendly UI for even the most novice user with its tabbed browsing and the speed dial function letting you to access your favorite sites quickly at the tap of a button when the browser is launched.

This app has its own brightness settings for when you feel you can’t see things right. You are able to view the websites in panorama mode as well and kick into full-screen while at it.

Monitor

Found in the tools folder, this app will keep forms on your mobile internet and Wi-Fi traffic along with the number of calls and texts to and from your device. The app also allows you to configure it to inform you when you’re about to a hit a certain data limit on your mobile, which is 50MB by default but can be adjusted by the user.

This app also contains a built in Firewall letting you to control whether an app is to be allowable access to the internet at all, or to restrict it to your mobile internet or Wi-Fi only. Very useful for refusing an app that continually asks for the internet. E.g. some apps that display advertisements and annoy you can be refused access to the internet, thereby eliminating those pesky Ads.

MiTalk

We can say that MIUI’s own take on apps like Whatsapp, this social app really boasts a range of features that simply amazed us. Fairly we’re not sure if a lot of MIUI users are even to use this app, but if they aren’t they should definitely give this app a shot.

MiTalk also brings in the concept of a wall where you can share your thoughts, add some audio clip, draw or even upload a picture straight from your phone.

You can also share a picture or your location as well alongside having the option to spice up your messages a bit with some good old emoticons and pictures you want to doodle up.

Firewall

The Firewall app is where you are able to filter out the calls you want and don’t want to obtain. In simpler terms, this is the place where you can block calls and messages originating from a convinced number.

Misc. Settings

Most of those are options that only advanced users would use, though MIUI goals to reach out to all kinds of users, advanced or novice and small little tweaks or setting as discussed below, offer a very nice addition to an already brilliant ROM.

To allow batter percentage you are able to navigate to Settings > System > Battery Settings and choose the battery indication style you want. Enabling Monitor Power Usage will permit you to keep an eye on your battery consumption.

The Automatic Backlight feature reminded us of the CM7 ROM, where you had similar options to tweak how the automatic backlight settings kick in.

So, if you want to lock down your apps to prevent anyone other than you from using it, you can navigate toSettings > Personal > Access Control and enable the Enable Password option. When done, enter a password or pattern of your choice and proceed to selecting an app. When you select an app, you would be given options as seen in the screenshot below on the left. So go ahead, you can choose to hide the app or just protect it with a password.

If the font in MIUI is little too small for you and straining your eyes, you can always go to Settings > Personal > Font Settings and choose a font size of your liking and not focus your eyes out with the small font anymore.

This concludes the walkthrough of the latest MIUI ROM out there. If this guide helped you out in anyway, do let us know, and feel free to let us know if we’ve missed out any important aspect of this ROM.

For more info and updates regarding the MIUI ROM, head over to the official site. Otherwise you can also visit MIUI-Android or MIUI.US as well.

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