New Xiaomi Mi A1 Gets Dual 4G VoLTE Feature With Android 9 Pie Update

In a rather surprising move, Xiaomi has enabled Dual 4G functionality on its Mi A1 smartphone with the latest Android 9 Pie update. As we reported yesterday, Android 9 Pie stable update has been rolled out to Mi A1 in various countries following a beta update which was seeded to the users enrolled in the beta programme. The Mi A1 stable update has been rolled out in various countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and so on. Some Mi A1 users in India are also receiving the update, so clearly it’s a phased rollout by Xiaomi. The installed users are now reporting the phone supports Dual 4G functionality, which is rather surprising. We have personally tested the same and Xiaomi has indeed added Dual 4G feature. This essentially means that you can use two Jio 4G SIM cards on your Mi A1 now if you’re from India.

How to Enable Dual 4G on Xiaomi Mi A1?

First of all, Xiaomi rolling out Android 9 Pie update this early to the Mi A1 is surprising news. But that’s not all, the Mi A1 now supports Dual 4G, which is one of the quintessential features on a mobile phone in 2018. Even the entry-level Redmi 6A priced at Rs 6,499 supports Dual 4G. During the launch event of Redmi 6A and Redmi 6 in India, Xiaomi stated that it went with MediaTek chipsets only because of the fact that they support Dual 4G. That said, there are no chipsets from Qualcomm back then which offered Dual 4G. Now, we have the Snapdragon 439, but still, there’s nothing in the Snapdragon 420 series with Dual 4G functionality. The MediaTek Helio P22 and A22 both support Dual 4G feature.

Coming back to the Xiaomi Mi A1, it runs on Snapdragon 625 which is a chipset built on 14nm process and has Snapdragon X9 LTE modem. If you’re on a Mi A1 and received the latest Android 9 Pie update, head over to Settings>Network & Internet>Mobile Network>change the second SIM ‘Preferred Network Type’ to 4G. Follow this procedure and you can start using Dual 4G on your Mi A1.

Xiaomi Mi A1 is the Only Snapdragon 625 Smartphone With Dual 4G

In the last couple of years, we have seen an array of smartphones launching with the Snapdragon 625 SoC. In fact, Xiaomi itself launched the Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Y2 this year with the popular chipset and both of them did not feature Dual 4G functionality. Maybe, Xiaomi might enable the same for them in the future, but nothing is confirmed for now. The Mi A1 is the only Snapdragon 625 smartphone to offer Dual 4G support. As of now, we don’t have information on how Xiaomi managed to implement this without the chipset and modem having support.

Realme C1 and Realme 2 Also Support Dual 4G

Realme was the first smartphone brand to provide Dual 4G support on a Snapdragon 450 SoC-powered Realme 2. Later on, it was added to Realme C1 as well, which also runs on the same Snapdragon 450 Mobile Platform. For the unaware, the Snapdragon 625 and Snapdragon 450, both are similar chipsets, except for the fact that the latter is clocked at 1.8GHz, while the form runs at 2.0GHz. They both are manufactured on 14nm process, features Snapdragon X9 LTE modem and Adreno 506 GPU.