HyperOS 4 update may skip more Xiaomi devices than we previously expected

HyperOS 4 will be a substantial upgrade for Xiaomi devices, offering a major visual upgrade, performance boost, and intelligent AI features. The beta program has been live for over a dozen phones in China, and the stable release should go live soon. Unfortunately, the list of eligible Xiaomi models may be smaller than we expected, as the company may skip the HyperOS 4 rollout to Android 16 devices.

Folks at Ximitime have found that, of the 112 devices expected to receive Android 17, 108 have entered HyperOS 4’s internal testing phases. Surprisingly, there’s not even a single Android 16 device on the list, which indicates Xiaomi isn’t preparing a HyperOS 4 build for an older OS.

Historically, Xiaomi has offered its latest HyperOS skin to a handful of devices stuck on an older OS. The last major upgrade, HyperOS 3, was also released to many Xiaomi devices running Android 15, although with a limited set of upgrades. That’s been true with most of the recent major HyperOS releases, and so, HyperOS 4 was also expected to follow the same pattern, but Xiaomi may have different plans.

Xiaomi may be rethinking its software rollout strategy

Unlike other brands, Xiaomi has long offered the latest HyperOS software to its devices running older Android OS versions. But things appear to be changing now. The latest information suggests that the brand will ship HyperOS 4 with Android 17 only, and that this trend may continue going further.

While there’s no official confirmation on this, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, considering recent efforts by other Chinese brands to reduce R&D costs. Xiaomi may also be looking to reduce costs and time, so this move makes sense for the brand.

We’ll keep updating you with the latest details in our HyperOS 4 section. You can visit the page regularly or join our Telegram channel to stay updated.