Opinions on Xiaomi phones and Miui operating system

Bootloader status & how to unlock

Be aware with non-official ROMs you will need to keep on top of Magisk, modules, deny list and other tools to keep banking, GPay and other apps requiring security working.

The days of installing a ROM and everything requiring Play integrity & Safety net attestation just working are long gone.

I'm not sure if POCO is a sister brand of Xiaomi, but I've had my POCO X3 for 3 years without any issues until now. The phone has started restarting itself, most of the time shockingly within 10 seconds of using TikTok. That said, I've just purchased the Xiaomi 14 Ultra because I was intrigued by its massive camera. Overall, I'm happy with it for now, but I still use my old phone - even though it gives me a hard time 😂 when watching TikToks (I'm waiting for my Xiaomi phone case to arrive because I tend to destroy phones within a week haha, and that camera, man, it's fecking huge).

Hi,thanks for the advice!

done a bit of Rom updates to previous phones ,just looking for something more up to date/ fresh than MIUI global 12.5.8.

maybe all i need is nova launcher and a new theme etc

What location permissions do you have set for the control apps? Always on, or only when using app? That combo of location services and battery permissions has caught me out before.
Have you tried to lock the app so its always running?
Open the app, check its running as you want, then press "overview" button, long press on the app tab, selection of options appear and select "padlock".
See how that goes for you

Lock doesn't seem to have worked. As far as I know I have given full permissions, to the point I'm wondering if I'm spiking battery drain rate with what I have allowed

I'll take a look through my own HA & Xiaomi settings and see if I have anything different in my settings and let you know.

I don't have any geofence automations set up so I may not be much help to you tho. Also try r/Poco or xiaomi.eu for better/specific help.

Just updated from MI 11 to the new Ultra 15 mostly for the camera.

I've used a Xiaomi 10T Pro a whole lot. Dislike the bloat I must get a new theme notification every other day. Camera 108 OIS can be better than the pixel on the right day. But the pixel camera is better almost every other time. The Xiaomi has a great feature great hardware. Pixel has less bloat but more daft Google restrictions that really annoy me.

My main issue with the Xiaomi is that it's unreliable with Android Auto, as is the pixel oddly enough. Whereas it's rock solid with a Nokia and Apple Car Play is also reliable.