Owners of modern smartphones Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco often face a paradox: a huge screen diagonal of 6.7 inches holds surprisingly little useful information. Large icons, giant headlines and wide indentations are the result of aggressive optimization of the shell MIUI or HyperOS for the mass user. However, for advanced users, this approach creates discomfort, forcing constantly scrolling tape and reducing the usable area for multi-tasking.
Fortunately, Android has flexible tools to change the visual experience of the interface. You can reduce the size of all elements by making the interface denser and more informative, much like on a tablet or compact flagship. Screen size is a key parameter that is responsible for proportionally changing all objects on the display without losing their readability.
In this article, we will take a closer look at how to make a small screen on Xiaomi using the standard settings and hidden capabilities for developers. We will touch on the intricacies of DPI customization, changing the font size and using third-party launchers to achieve the perfect balance between ergonomics and information saturation.
Standard display settings in MIUI and HyperOS
Before you get to the tricky side of the game, you should explore the basics of the system. Xiaomi shells provide a convenient, though limited, toolkit for controlling element size. To access them, you need to go to the Settings menu → Screen → Text size. Here, the slider allows you to choose from five preset levels, from "Small" to "Huge".
Changing this parameter affects mainly the system font in the menu, messages and application headers, but the icons on the desktop and in the application menu can remain the same size, which creates a visual imbalance, while the screen resolution remains unchanged, only the scaling ratio of the font headsets changes.
Newer versions of HyperOS have introduced the Element Size feature, which works in conjunction with text size, which allows you to adjust the interface a little, but often this is not enough for those who want to see the maximum data on the screen. Standard methods are good for people with reduced vision, but not for those who want to be compact.
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Before making any changes to your screen settings, take a screenshot of your current configuration, which will help you quickly get things back to normal if the new scale is uncomfortable.
It’s important to understand that standard settings don’t change pixel density (DPIs); they only stretch or compress vector interface elements; and that more powerful tools available on the developer menu will be needed to redesign the visual style more deeply.
Activation of the menu for developers
To access professional zoom tools, you need to unlock the hidden partition, a process that is standard for all Android devices, including Xiaomi smartphones. You will need to find the MIUI version or OS version in the About Phone menu.
Quickly click 7-10 on the build number, and the system will count the number of clicks left, and then the notification "You've become a developer" will appear, and then a new item for developers will appear in the main settings menu, in the "Additional" section, and this is where the keys to managing pixel density lie.
Inside this menu, there are a lot of technical parameters that affect the processor, USB debugging and animation. Be careful, changing the incomprehensible settings can lead to unstable system operation. We are only interested in the setting associated with the minimum screen width.
☑️ Activation of the developer mode
Some users may notice that once the system is updated, the developer item is automatically hidden, in which case the tap activation procedure must be repeated, which is the normal behavior of Xiaomi's security system.
Minimum width (DPI) settings through the engineering menu
The most effective way to make the screen smaller is to change the Smallest width setting, measured in dp (density-independent pixels) and directly affects how much content is placed on the screen in width. The standard value for modern Xiaomi smartphones is usually 392 dp or 411 dp.
Find the "Minimum Width" or "Smallest Width" line in the developer menu. Change the value gradually. Reducing the dp makes interface elements smaller, allowing you to fit more information. For example, reducing the value to 360 dp or 320 dp will visually "remove" the picture, making the font and icons more compact.
There is a critical threshold below which it is not recommended to drop. If you set a value too small (for example, below 300 dp for a FullHD screen), the interface may become unreadable, and some control buttons may go beyond the visible area, in the worst case, this will lead to a "boot" (cyclic reboot) of the graphics shell.
⚠️ Warning: Write down the initial minimum width before changing! If the interface becomes unreadable, it will be impossible to return the settings back through the sensor, you will have to use computer debugging. ADB.
To fine-tune the data, use the following algorithm: reduce the value by 20-30 units, check the result, and then continue. The optimal value for most users who want to increase the density of information is the range of 320-350 dp.
What if the screen is black or unreadable?
Using third-party launchers for compactness
If MIUI system constraints don’t work, third-party shells come to the rescue, and launchers like Nova Launcher, Smart Launcher, or Microsoft Launcher allow you to flexibly configure your desktop grid, icon size, and fonts regardless of your system settings.
With this launcher, you can create a grid of, say, 6x8 or even 7x9 icons on a single screen, whereas the standard shell offers a maximum of 5x6. This radically changes the ergonomics of the device, turning it into a powerful tool for working with information.
However, third-party launchers consume more RAM resources and can use more battery power in the background. In addition, the deep integration of Xiaomi system functions (such as gestures or widgets) in third-party shells may not work properly.
| Parameter | Standard launcher | Third-party (Nova) | Engineering Menu (DPI) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grid flexibility | Low. | Tall. | Medium |
| Impact on the battery | Minimum | Average. | Absent. |
| Risk of system failure | No. | No. | High-pitched |
| Readability of text | Standard. | Customizable | Depends on the DPI. |
The choice of method depends on your goals. If you just want to compactly place the icons, put a launcher. If you want to reduce the font throughout the phone, including the browser and settings, change the DPI.
Problems of compatibility and readability of the text
Screen size reduction has its side effects: Some applications, especially banking or social media, may not display content properly at non-standard DPI values. Text can hit buttons and images can be cropped.
Readability is the main enemy of miniaturization. On low-resolution (HD+) screens, a big zoom reduction will make the pixel grid visible and the text become an unreadable mess. On AMOLED matrices with high PPI (pixel density), the effect will be less noticeable.
And also, if you're planning to sell a device or hand it over to your elderly family, you can bring it back to factory values, because the overly small interface puts a strain on your vision and requires high precision when you press it, which is not always easy to move.
In cases where the application becomes unusable due to scale, you can use the App Font Size feature (if available in your Android version) or temporarily return the standard DPI.
Resetting and restoring parameters
If you've had scale experiments that made it impossible to use your phone, don't rush to bring it into service. In most cases, you can solve the problem software-basedly. The easiest way is to log in to Recovery Mode and reset your settings, but that will delete all the data.
A more gentle method is to use the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) command line from your computer, which requires connecting your smartphone via USB, enabling USB debugging (which is activated along with the developer menu), and executing a density reset command.
adb shell wm density reset
adb shell wm size resetThis command will force the DPI and resolution value back to the factory standards set by the manufacturer for the Xiaomi model. Once the command is executed, the screen will blink and the interface will return to its original state.
⚠️ Attention: For work ADB-The device drivers must be installed correctly on the PC. Without this, the computer will not see the phone in debugging mode.
Regularly backing up your settings through a Google or Xiaomi Cloud account can help you quickly restore your configuration after a reset, although they usually don’t keep DPI settings.
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The golden rule of DPI modification is to change the value no more than 15-20% of the factory value in one step to maintain a balance between compactness and usability.