Shells from manufacturers often greatly change the appearance of Android itself. Xiaomi’s MIUI and Samsung’s One UI demonstrate this most clearly. The Xiaomi portal compared the designs of MIUI 13 and One UI 4, comparing the key elements of the firmware, the material is designed to clearly show the differences, and not to determine the best shell.
Animation
Xiaomi uses fast animations – they may seem a bit twitchy, but the effects themselves are played instantly. This is typical for any smartphone, regardless of price or branding: what on the budget model Redmi, that on the flagship Mi animations work approximately the same.
In turn, in One UI, smoothness is a stumbling block, since many reviewers note the lag of the interface even on premium models. In the case of lower-price devices, this problem is exacerbated even more.
Home Screen
MIUI differs from most firmware in that it does not have an application box by default – shortcuts to all installed games and programs are stored on the home screen. However, the usual menu can still be activated in the settings to display only the necessary shortcuts on the desktop and keep the rest hidden.
The launcher in One UI implies the use of the application box initially. The home screen itself can be customized in detail, but if you use the standard design, the desktop looks very restrained and not overloaded.
Open Applications Menu
By default, MIUI uses a vertical panel to control open applications, and this has become the hallmark of the firmware – applications scroll down and up, and swipe right or left. But here, as in many other corners of the system, Xiaomi allows you to choose a more familiar horizontal menu in the style of pure Android.
In One UI, there is only one kind of menu for open applications – horizontal. In terms of functionality, it is not inferior to others, you can close all processes with one button, fix the necessary games and programs or perform a search.
Quick settings
Designing this section, Xiaomi was inspired by the implementation in iOS – this is visible both in design and in the division of quick settings and notifications into different curtains (caused by swiping from different corners of the screen). But if you want, you can return the usual pure Android look, when notifications are displayed under the collapsed panel of quick settings.
One UI uses the standard menu. It was not deprived of customization – you can change the location of the icons. This is extremely useful, because by default the quick settings menu is collapsed, and without additional actions, only the top row is displayed – it can be filled with the most frequently used elements.
Lock screen
MIUI offers many design options, differing in the location of the clock and date widget. Otherwise, this is the usual Android menu with buttons for the quick launch of selected applications.
One UI also has a fairly standard lock screen, but there is a feature that allows you to display only the icons of the apps that sent the notification on it. This can help a lot if you don’t want to constantly dive into your smartphone.
Settings
MIUI is a multifaceted firmware, many elements of which can be adjusted. Because of this, there are a lot of settings, and often they are far from obvious places. The main points are easy to find but to find specific settings you will have to go much deeper. However, you can use the search – you just need to know the name of the desired item.
Samsung’s firmware has always stood out as one of the most harmonious settings menus, and nothing has changed in One UI 4. However, now in all shells, it is quite well designed, so any obvious differences can not be distinguished.