Xiaomi’s global HyperOS 4 rollout is underway, and the company’s own roadmap puts 82 devices — 67 phones and 15 tablets across Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO — on the update list, with the full deployment targeted to finish before the end of 2026. The catch: every flagship and mid-ranger below a hard cutoff is excluded. Xiaomi 12-series and older, Redmi Note 13 and below, POCO F5 and below all stay on HyperOS 3, and Mundo Xiaomi reported the full exclusion list alongside the rollout news.
The contrast is stark. At the same time, that roadmap quietly draws a line under three product generations, and the phones on the wrong side of it will keep working fine — until they stop getting security patches.
Three waves, eight gigabytes, one deadline
The deployment is organized in three waves, according to the global calendar Xiaomi published. A second wave lands in mid-November 2026 with the Xiaomi 15 series, Redmi Note 17 and POCO F9 and F7 devices.
Xiaomi itself cautions that the dates are estimates and can shift by model, region and carrier, and that the order of the published list doesn’t indicate rollout order. There is also a practical warning: update packages coming from HyperOS 3 exceed 8 GB, so storage space matters before tapping install. Cinco Días, which reviewed the same calendar, notes that the published dates are start dates only — no exact per-device firmware days exist yet.
The cutoff list: who keeps HyperOS 3
The exclusion boundaries are generation-based, not performance-based. Per Mundo Xiaomi’s report of the roadmap:
- Xiaomi: the Xiaomi 12 series and below, plus the Xiaomi 12T series and below, stay on HyperOS 3.
- Redmi: the Redmi 14 series and below, and the Redmi Note 13 series and below, are excluded.
- POCO: the F5 series and below, the X6 series and below (though the POCO X6 Pro does get HyperOS 4), and the M6 series and below are out.
One wrinkle worth noting: the POCO X6 Pro is the exception that proves the rule. Its Dimensity-based chipset apparently kept it eligible while the standard X6 did not, which suggests the cutoff tracks silicon support as much as marketing tiers.
The Xiaomi HyperOS 4 official version starts rolling out! 🎉 Eligible users will receive the OTA update in phases from today! Enjoy exploring the new features, and don't forget to share your feedback with us through the Services & Feedback app. We'd love to hear what you think!… pic.twitter.com/HgENQlgrtv
Two outlets, two device counts
The sources don’t fully agree on the size of the rollout. Mundo Xiaomi’s figures say 82 devices and 67 phones. Foro3D’s report puts it at “at least 80 devices: 65 smartphones and 15 tablets,” and frames the deployment as extending “until the end of 2026” rather than wrapping in two months. Cinco Días says “more than 80 models” without breaking down the split.
The discrepancy is probably a matter of counting — regional variants, the Leitz Phone powered by Xiaomi, and tablets versus phones — but Xiaomi hasn’t published a reconciliation. What all four outlets share is the same calendar structure and the same three-wave timing, so the substance of the rollout isn’t in dispute. The exact roster is.
What HyperOS 4 actually changes
The visible redesign is what Xiaomi calls “soft light glass”: translucent panels that adapt to content, with light effects that respond to touch, per smartGSM’s rundown. There are also stacked notifications, new lock screen styles, resizable home screen folders and stackable widgets, though some of these are limited to certain models.
On performance, Xiaomi’s own numbers are modest. In the company’s testing with the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, opening 30 apps after nine hours of use took 36.8 seconds on HyperOS 4 against 40.3 seconds on HyperOS 3 — an 8.7 percent improvement. AI features including auto-organized voice notes, meeting transcription with summaries, conversation translation and gallery search are on board, gated by model, region and language.
The deeper detail comes from Cinco Días: HyperOS 4 is based on Android 17, and the update deepens integration with Apple’s ecosystem, making it easier to share photos, files, contacts and web links with iPhones. smartGSM adds a caveat — the update may be based on Android 16 or Android 17 depending on the device, so this round is more a visual and feature layer shift than a base-OS jump for everyone.
Stuck on HyperOS 3: safe for now, with one condition
Functionally, nothing breaks. A phone left on HyperOS 3 keeps working as-is, including Xiaomi’s own features and app updates from WhatsApp, Google and the rest, Mundo Xiaomi reports. The thing to watch is the monthly security patch.
That’s the real deadline. The moment those patches stop arriving, the device has landed on Xiaomi’s obsolete list and loses official support of any kind. A phone can still be used after that, but the source flags it as more dangerous — fully exposed to new malware and exploits — unless the user runs a third-party antivirus such as ESET or Avast to keep the terminal protected.
So the practical answer to “should I keep using it?” is conditional. While monthly security patches flow, a HyperOS 3 device remains a supported phone, just without the new interface or AI features. When the patches end, the risk profile changes, and the hardware’s age — not the software — becomes the reason to replace it.
