Owners of Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones often face a situation where the colors on the screen seem unnatural, too cold or too saturated. Standard factory settings of the matrix do not always take into account the individual preferences of the user or the peculiarities of perception of a particular person, which is why competent calibration of the display becomes a key step in setting up a new device or improving an existing one.
The screen calibration on Xiaomi’s Android devices is the process of adjusting the color profile, gamut and white balance to achieve maximum color reproduction. Unlike computer monitors, which use hardware, we are limited to software methods and system utilities MIUI or HyperOS. However, even standard tools can achieve impressive results.
A properly tuned display not only makes you happy, but also reduces your eye strain over long periods of time. In this article, we'll look at all the methods available, from simple menu settings to advanced engineering codes, learn how to remove yellowness, adjust color temperature, and choose the optimal display mode for your tasks.
Basic Color Profile Setting in MIUI
The first step is to always work with standard operating system tools. The MIUI shell provides a flexible setting for most users, allowing them to change their color profile without installing third-party software. Start with the menu of basic settings, where the main levers of image control are hidden.
Go to the Settings section → Screen. → Colors and saturation. Here you'll see a few preset modes, each of which interprets the color gamut differently. Standard Mode usually offers the most neutral picture, but it may seem faded to those who are used to "screaming" AMOLED-screen.
⚠️ Warning: Vivid artificially upgrades the red and green channels, making the picture bright but physically incorrect. Use it only if you care about the wow effect than the accuracy of the colors.
To fine tune it, select Custom mode. This menu features hues sliders. You can move them to the warm (yellow) or cold (blue) side, and you can use a reference gradient image or a natural light photo to visually evaluate the result.
- 🎨 Standard: Basic profile with minimal post-processing, suitable for reading.
- 🌈 Vivid: High saturation, ideal for watching videos and games.
- 🎨 Advanced: Manual setting of gamma and temperature for pros.
- 👁️ Reading Mode: A separate filter that simulates electronic paper.
Remember that the settings apply to the entire interface at once. If you work with graphics or photos often, you will need a mode with minimal processing. For normal content consumption, it is better to leave a little saturation, since a completely sterile screen can look boring.
Using an engineering menu for accurate calibration
If you don't have enough standard sliders, you can access the hidden features of the system through an engineering menu, which allows you to access the deep settings of the display, which are usually hidden from the end user. Be careful: changing unknown parameters can lead to incorrect display of the interface.
To enter the diagnostic menu, open the Phone app and enter the universal code ##6484##. This will trigger the CIT (Customer Interaction Test) menu. Find the item associated with Display or Color. Some firmware versions may have different paths, but the logic remains the same: search for screen tests.
Is it safe to use the engineering menu?
Inside the test menu, you can often find Color Temperature, where you can set specific values for Red, Green and Blue channels, which is much more accurate than moving sliders in a regular menu. Write down the initial values before making changes so you can roll back if you fail.
There is also code ##3646633## that opens the full MediaTek engineering menu (on some models). Here, in the Device → Display → Color Enhancement section, you can completely disable the color enhancement software by getting a raw image from the matrix, which is the best option for photographers who need honest color reproduction.
- 🔧 Enter ##6484## to access the test.
- 📉 Disabling Image Improvers for Professional Work.
- 🎚️ Fine tuning RGB-channel-by-channel.
- 🔄 Ability to reset all parameters to factory.
☑️ Pre-calibration check
Eliminating yellowness and white color problems
One of the most common problems with the budget and mid-range Redmi models is the noticeable yellowness of the white background, especially at low brightness. LCD cheap OLED-panels where subpixels have degraded or are originally degraded, and you can programmatically correct this by shifting the balance.
On the color profile menu, shift the temperature slider to the "Cool" side, which will add blue and remove the yellow hue. But don't overdo it: Excess blue will make whites (white) unnaturally blue and will tire your eyes in the dark.
If the temperature slider isn't enough, use Reading Mode in the advanced settings, where you can adjust the "Paper" or "Classic" color scheme, which also affects the overall tone of the screen. Sometimes turning on Dark Mode masks the problem, as the background turns black or dark gray.
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To fine-tune white, use the White Screen app or simply open the full-screen white image. Compare the image on your smartphone to a sheet of blank paper in daylight.
It is worth considering that on OLED-The yellowness can be uneven in screens, especially around the edges of the display, a physical defect of the panel that is software-intensive to fix completely, and in such cases, only reducing the brightness or using dark themes of the design to minimize the visibility of the defect helps.
Setting brightness and refresh rate
Calibration of the display is not only colors, but also comfortable brightness. Xiaomi implemented a feature DC Dimming (or Anti-flicker), which reduces the flicker of the screen at low brightness, is located in the Settings menu. → Screen. → Protection against flickering, which is critical for people with sensitive vision.
Also pay attention to refresh rate. If your Redmi supports 90Hz or 120Hz, make sure that the Settings menu → Screen → Update frequency is selected as "Default" or "120Hz." High hertz makes the interface smoother, but can affect color perception due to energy saving algorithms that dynamically change brightness.
| Parameter | Recommended value | Impact on calibration |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness | Auto + manual correction | Affects the perception of saturation |
| Temperature. | Standard or Warm | Determines white balance |
| Frequency | Maximum | Affects smoothness and PWM |
| DC Dimming | On (for OLED) | Reduces eye strain |
The automatic brightness in MIUI sometimes works incorrectly, too darkening the screen in the room. It is recommended to manually adjust the slider once in different lights to "train" the light sensor to behave correctly, which will help to preserve the intended color reproduction in different conditions.
Third-party applications for screen calibration
When system tools are scarce, Google Play apps come to the rescue. One of the most popular and effective tools is Screen Balance, which requires a connection via ADB (Android Debug Bridge) to get the rights needed, but the result is worth it.
Once you install and grant permissions through your computer (adb shell pm grant...), you get access to the finest adjustments to each color channel, and you can reduce the saturation of red if the screen goes to raspberry, or add green if the picture appears to be purple.
⚠️ Attention: Apps like Screen Balance create a transparent layer over the interface, which can slightly increase battery consumption and theoretically affect the operation of some anti-cheat games.
Another useful application is TestUFO or Screen Test, which does not calibrate the screen directly, but allows you to detect broken pixels, uneven backlights and touchscreen problems. Before you start deep calibrating, be sure to check the physical state of the matrix with them.
- 📱 Screen Balance: The Most Powerful Tool for the World RGB-correction.
- 🧪 TestUFO: Checking for artifacts and plumes.
- 🎨 Color Calibration: Simple Presets for Quick Customization.
- 🔍 Dead Pixel Test: Finding defective points on the matrix.
To work with ADB, you will need to turn on Developer Mode. Click 7 times on MIUI Version in the About Phone menu, then activate Debugging over USB. Connect your phone to your PC and execute the command for granting permissions:
adb shell pm grant com.nikolay.chromalance colorThe influence of the developer mode on the display
The developer menu (Settings → About Phone → 7 times on MIUI → Advanced Settings → Developer) has hidden parameters that affect graphic rendering. Although they don’t change colors directly, they affect how quickly and efficiently an image appears on the screen.
Smallest Width changes the pixel density (DPI), which makes interface elements smaller but sharper, and smaller, larger, and affects the perception of detail, but not the physical color reproduction of the matrix.
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Changing the DPI in developer mode is the best way to make fonts clearer without losing image quality, but don’t use extreme values to avoid breaking the layout of some apps.
Also, pay attention to the switch to disable HW-It's layering. It makes the processor render the graphics programmatically, which can change the shades in some older applications, but it will put a lot of battery load. For color calibration, it's best not to touch this parameter, leaving hardware acceleration on.