Xiaomi unveils its fastest-ever operating system

Chinese tech giant Xiaomi rolled out its fastest-ever operating system on Wednesday to offer a smoother user experience.

The smartphone maker unveiled MIUI 9, the latest update of its MIUI series operating system, which might be the fastest Android-based operating system by far, according to Hong Feng, Xiaomi's co-founder.

Lei Jun,chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, speaks at a promotion event in Beijing, July 26, 2017. [Photo: hiapk.com]

The MIUI 9 operating system boasts outstandingly fast speeds in launching mobile apps, surfing the Internet, playing games and searching notes and pictures.

MIUI 9 also introduces a "Smart Assistant" feature that makes it easier for users to access often-needed information and frequently-used functions by simply sliding the screen to the left without opening an app, including access to favorite items, expenditures, courier information, and day-to-day schedules.

MIUI is Xiaomi's first operating system and has gained over 280 million users in about 142 countries and regions since its launch in 2010.

MIUI 9 will be available in China on August 11, as a public beta for Mi 6, Mi 5X, and Redmi Note 4X. Support for other models will be rolled out gradually starting August 25.

The Mi 5X models.[Photo: huanqiu.com]

Xiaomi unveiled its latest smartphone with a dual camera setup, Mi 5X, which will be priced at 1,499 yuan (about 222 U.S. dollars) and available from August 1 via Mi.com and Mi Home stores, as well as a number of other partner sites and retail channels.

Meanwhile, the tech firm also rolled out an artificial intelligence (AI) product Mi AI Speaker, a high-quality speaker system that comes with an array of six microphones to detect voice commands from all directions, and that serves as a control hub for the company's smart home products.

Xiaomi posted record-high quarterly smartphone sales in the second quarter of this year and aims to ship 100 million smartphones in 2018. The company has started including AI technology into its consumer products.