About two years ago, I reported that the Mi Box 3, available since 2016, had just received an Oreo update. Two years on again, and it looks like there's always hope, with Android Pie coming soon.
The two-year upgrade calvary
The story is particularly interesting because for two years the device ran Android 6.0, the system it was released on.
Android 7.0 was available in beta, but there were a lot of bugs and it was not released in stable version.
We might have thought that that was it, Marshmallow would stay, since it's been a long time since its release, but it hasn't. At MWC 2018, in the spring, a Mi Box was unveiled running Android 8. Time passed, and then Android Oreo arrived in the summer.
Of course, the joy was that the system change was not perfect, which is why Xiaomishop did not recommend the Oreo update. To mention one of the biggest drawbacks: you can't connect a flash drive or external HDD to it after the update.
A surprising twist - Act Two
The very fact that the Mi Box community is still being engaged after all this time is, in my opinion, an absolute positive. Especially in capitalism, where you get a good year or two of support, and then a security update in the third year, and then a custom ROM or one of the dozens of alternatives that have been added to the range since then.
This gesture is particularly surprising, as back in 2018, the Mi Box S was released, which was called the Chromecast killer, and although it didn't bring much new - it was meant to replace the Mi Box 3. Performance-wise, there have been some hardware changes, but they're more under the hood. That's one of the reasons why I didn't upgrade.
Then time passed, the Mi Box 3 is almost completely out of stock, it's 2020, yet it looks like the Pie is coming. Exactly when is not yet known, as it is currently only available as a beta. My guess is that 1-2 months and everyone will be able to enjoy the July (or later) security pack, and of course the new features of Android TV 9.
