14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft and Xiaomi announced back in March that they have teamed up to offer Mi4 owners the option to install Windows 10 Mobile Technical Preview.
Although the initial announcement wasn't so clear regarding the terms of the partnership, more details were shared by the Chinese company a few days later.
Under agreement, a small number of beta testers will be allowed to download and install a special Windows 10 Mobile ROM on their Xiaomi Mi4.
The Chinese handset maker recruited the beta testers from within Xiaomi's community, but they will “communicate directly with Microsoft Windows 10 development team of engineers.”
This “experimental” testing program is meant provide Microsoft with more feedback from the Chinese market. At the same time, it will be interesting for the Redmond-based company to receive feedback on Windows 10 Mobile from hardcore Android users.
The download is password protected
Chinese blog ITHome reports the size of the Windows 10 Mobile ROM for Xiaomi Mi4 is 700MB. Also, if you plan on heading to Xiaomi's support website to download the ROM, then you might want to know that it's password protected.
This means that only those picked by Xiaomi to be part of the testing program will be able to download the Windows 10 Mobile ROM on their Mi4 devices.
The good news is we will probably get some hands-on demos caught on camera, along with many screenshots and impressions on this Windows 10 Mobile build for Xiaomi Mi4.
Microsoft is expected to release Windows 10 Mobile after July 29, but an exact launch date has yet to be announced. For the time being, we only know that Windows 10 for other devices will be released after the PC version comes out.
This means that Microsoft still has at least a few months to test Windows 10 Mobile and iron out all the bugs reported by users.