Many Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphone owners face a situation where the interface seems too cumbersome, with controls taking up half the display and usable space for content remaining minimal, especially for models with a diagonal of less than 6 inches, where every pixel counts.
Fortunately, the Android operating system in the shell of MIUI or HyperOS provides flexible customization tools. You can zoom in, reduce font size, or even get into system settings through developer mode, which allows you to tailor your smartphone to your individual vision and ergonomics preferences.
In this article, we'll look at all the ways we can reduce interface elements, and we'll look at both the standard methods that are available to everyone, and the advanced DPI settings that change the density of pixels, and calibrating the screen correctly will make the device more productive and enjoyable.
Staff Scaling Settings in MIUI and HyperOS
The safest and easiest way to change the display of elements is to use the built-in functions of the system. Xiaomi developers have provided basic sliders that do not require deep technical knowledge.
You have to go to the settings menu first, and you have to find the look section, which can be called different things in different versions of the firmware, usually the Screen or the Display, and that's where the basic controls for the visual interface are.
- 📱 Open Settings and select Screen.
- 🔍 Find the text size option and move the slider to the left.
- 🖼️ Activate Reduced Mode (if available in your model).
- ✅ Check the result on the desktop and in the application menu.
It is important to note that the font reduction only affects text blocks. App icons and some system windows may remain the same size. For deeper integration of changes, you should pay attention to additional parameters hidden in the submenu.
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If standard font reduction is not enough, try increasing the screen resolution in the Image Quality section if your model supports multiple matrix modes.
Setting the font size and interface elements
Customizing typography in detail saves a lot of screen space, and in modern Android shells, you can adjust not only the height of the letters, but also their fat content, as well as the scale of the controls themselves, which is especially useful for people with good eyesight who do not need large buttons.
Go to Additional Settings -> Special Features -> Visual. This often hides more subtle settings than the main display menu. Some users prefer to use third-party themes, which have a more compact layout by default.
⚠️ Warning: Excessive font reduction can make text unreadable in bright sunlight.Consider the conditions in which you normally use a smartphone.
Also worth checking the settings of a particular launcher. If you use a standard Launcher from Xiaomi, press your finger on the free desktop space and select Settings. There may be an option to change the size of the application grid. Increasing the number of cells in the grid (for example, from 4x6 to 5x7) will visually reduce the icons.
Using Developer Mode to Change DPI
The most effective way to reduce the screen for real is to change the pixel density, known as Dots Per Inch (DPI), which causes the system to redraw the interface, believing that the screen has a different physical density, and as a result, all the elements become smaller and the workspace expands.
To access these settings, you need to activate the hidden menu. Click 7 times in a row on the build number in the About Phone section. After the message "You became a developer" appears, go back to the main settings menu and go to Additional -> For developers.
In the list of engineering options, find Minimum width (or Smallest width) and the default value varies from 360 to 420 dp depending on the model, reducing this number will lead to a decrease in all interface elements.
Recommended change: Reduce the DPI in a step of 20-30 units.Be careful: setting a value too low (like below 300 dp) can make the interface unusable and you’ll have to reset the settings via Recovery.
☑️ Safe change DPI
Comparison of scaling-change techniques
The choice of method depends on your goals and level of training. Staff settings are safe but limited; Developer mode gives you complete control, but requires caution; Third-party launchers are a compromise option.
Below is a table comparing the main characteristics of each method, which will help you decide which path to choose for your particular use case.
| Method | Security | Efficiency | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| font slider | Tall. | Low. | Minimum |
| Change of subject | Tall. | Medium | Low. |
| Change to DPI | Medium | Maximum | Tall. |
| Third-party launcher | Tall. | Tall. | Medium |
If you're a beginner, start by changing the theme or tweaking the font.Engineering methods leave in case standard tools don't meet your space customization needs.
Application of third-party launchers
The standard MIUI shell doesn't always allow you to flexibly configure your desktop grid. Installing an alternative launcher like Nova Launcher, Smart Launcher or Lawnchair solves this problem dramatically, and these applications allow you to set any number of rows and columns.
Once you install the launcher from Google Play, go to its settings. Find Desktop -> Grid. Here you can set values like 6x8 or even 7x9, which is physically impossible to do with Xiaomi's standard tools. The icons will automatically shrink and fit into the cells.
⚠️ Note: Some system widgets (such as “Stephomer” or “Weather” from Xiaomi) may not display correctly or work on third-party launchers.
Using a third-party launcher also allows you to resize the icons themselves, regardless of the grid, so you can make them tiny, leaving a lot of space, or you can make important applications big, so you can have maximum creative freedom.
How do you get back the standard launcher?
Possible problems and solutions
In the process of zooming, users may encounter artifacts, text may run into pictures, buttons become too small to reach a finger, or some applications will stop opening to the full screen, which is a normal reaction of software to non-standard resolution.
If the DPI changes and the screen goes out and nothing happens, don't panic. Try to force the reboot by pressing the power and volume button. In most cases, the system will reset critical settings or give access to the recovery menu.
Also, it is worth considering that some applications (especially banking or enterprise) may have security mechanisms that can block work if they detect altered system settings or debugging mode, in which case you will have to temporarily return the original values.
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Any changes to system parameters that affect the display are reversible, and the key is to know how to return the original DPI value or turn off the developer mode.