How to check and evaluate the real performance of the Xiaomi smartphone

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices often face the challenge of assessing the technical state of their gadget, which may be required when buying a used device, after a failed upgrade, or just out of curiosity to understand what the processor is capable of. Standard interface animations do not always reflect the real state of affairs, so it is important to know where to look for reliable data.

There are many ways to look under the hood of an Android operating system with a MIUI or HyperOS shell. Some methods do not require additional software, others provide in-depth analysis of the hardware. We will look at all the options available, from built-in engineering menus to professional utilities that will show the exact frame rate and temperature of the components.

Understanding how your smartphone works will help extend its lifespan, and if you notice an abnormal drop in performance, it can signal the need to optimize or even replace the thermal paste, and we will discuss each diagnostic method in detail.

Use of the built-in Security application

The easiest and most affordable way to get the initial status information is through the regular Security app, which is pre-installed on all the brand devices and contains a basic set of monitoring tools. Launch the app and look at the Cleanup section, which shows the percentage of RAM and storage usage.

For more detailed analysis, go to the application settings, and you can find information about the shell version and current system boot, and while this tool won't show detailed graphs of CPU cores, it's great for quick checks of free space and running background processes that can slow down.

⚠️ Warning: Don’t rely solely on the built-in memory cleaner. Forced closure of all applications can have the opposite effect – the system will have to restart processes, which will increase battery consumption.

If you want to see which apps are consuming the most resources right now, use the built-in Task Manager, which will show you a list of active programs, but will not give you real-time temperature or clock speed information.

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For quick cleaning of RAM on the locked screen, swipe your finger up - a clean button will appear if this function is enabled in the theme settings.

Engineering menu and hidden CIT tests

Xiaomi’s firmware has a special diagnostic mode known as CIT (Customer Integration Test) that is designed for factory testing of components, but is also available to ordinary users. To get there, open the Phone app and type the combination ##6484##. If the code does not work, try ##4636## to access the testing menu.

The menu that opens has lots of points to check for individual modules: screen, speakers, vibration, sensor and communication modules. To evaluate performance, the Version or Top item is important, where you can see CPU load as a percentage, and it's live data that is updated every second.

• 📱 Touchpanel: Checking the sensor’s response to touch and the presence of “dead zones».
• 🔋 Battery: detailed information about charging cycles, voltage and battery temperature.
• 📡 Wireless: Testing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS module.
• 📸 Camera: check the focus and shutter operation of the main and front cameras.

It is safe to use the engineering menu if you do not change the settings of the radio modules, but if you accidentally change the network settings, you can return them by default by resetting the network settings in the main menu of the smartphone.

Third-party benchmarks for deep analysis

To get objective numbers that can be compared to other users, specialized applications are needed, and AnTuTu Benchmark remains the leader in this field, conducting a comprehensive test of GPU, CPU, memory and UX experience, the result is given as an overall score that is easily compared in the global rankings.

Another powerful tool is Geekbench, which focuses on processor performance by separating tests into single-core and multi-core, and is especially useful for understanding how a phone will perform in heavy tasks like rendering video or running heavy-duty games. 3DMark is ideal for checking the graphics component.

When installing benchmarks, pay attention to the download source. download apps only from the official Google Play store or GetApps to avoid malicious code that can distort test results.

It is important to understand that test results can vary depending on the temperature of the device and background load. To get the most honest results before starting the test, it is recommended to close all unnecessary applications and let the phone cool down.

Monitoring of resources in real time

If benchmarks give a one-off estimate, monitoring applications allow you to monitor the state of the system dynamically. A great solution is the Throttling Test CPU or DevCheck. These utilities show the current frequency of each processor core, temperature and level of trottling (forced frequency reduction for cooling).

The Trottling parameter is worth paying special attention: If the processor frequency drops sharply during a game or heavy load, and the temperature rises, then the cooling system does not cope, this is a common problem of Xiaomi compact models with powerful hardware.

RAM monitoring is also useful. In Android, full memory is normal, but if free memory becomes critically scarce (less than 200-300 MB), the system begins aggressively killing background processes, which leads to rebooting applications.

Using this data, you can pinpoint the narrow neck of your device's performance, and it often turns out that the problem isn't with a weak processor, but with overheating or slow memory.

Verification through the developer settings

Android has a powerful tool for advanced users, the developer menu, which you can activate 7 times to quickly click on the build number in the About Phone section, and then you will see a new Developers item on the menu.

Here we are interested in sections related to displaying statistics: turn on the option to Display refresh rate (if available) or Show CPU load. The screen will appear overlay, which in real time will show what percentage of CPU resources are used right now.

You can also find memory graphs here, and the Memory section will show how long it's been since the last cleanup, and how much memory is occupied by the system services, which helps to identify "memory leaks" when the application does not release resources after closing.

Don’t keep all debugging functions on all the time. They consume extra battery power and can slightly reduce overall interface performance due to the constant rendering of overlays.

Optimization and problem-solving

If the checks reveal poor performance, don't rush to bring the phone to the service. Often the problem can be solved by software methods. First of all, check for system updates in the About Phone section. Xiaomi engineers regularly release patches that correct optimization errors.

The second step is to analyze the installed applications, remove the programs you don't use, especially those that work in the background (cleaners, antiviruses, questionable optimizers), which often create more problems than they solve.

If nothing works, you can reset to factory settings.This action will completely delete all your data, so be sure to back up your photos and contacts to the Mi Cloud or Google Drive cloud before you start.

• 🧹 Cache Clearing: Clear the cache of messengers (Telegram, WhatsApp) as they can take up gigabytes of space.
• 🚀 Memory Expansion: New HyperOS models can enable RAM expansion by internal storage.
• 🎨 Animations: Reduce the scale of animation in the developer menu to 0.5x visually speed up work.

Compliance with these simple rules will help keep your Xiaomi in great shape throughout its life. Performance is not only about the power of the processor, but also competent management of system resources.