Xiaomi’s Redmi unveiled the Redmi Note 8 series in the country back in October running MIUI 10.3 Global Stable on top of Android 9.0 (Pie) and later rolled out MIUI 11 update to both the smartphones. The Pro variant has been the talk of the town since it is superior to the vanilla Redmi Note 8 in every aspect, but Redmi Note 8 has better custom ROM and mods support compared to its Pro sibling, thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC.
Redmi Note 8 started receiving Android 10 in China last month but MIUI Global ROM is still based on Android 9, but you can always install a custom ROM to stay on the latest version of Android. We tried AOSiP DerpFest on our Redmi Note 8 unit and here is our post that may help you in deciding if you should flash it on your device.
Performance and Benchmarks:
Redmi Note 8 packs Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 under the hood which is a good mid-range processor. It obtained AnTuTu score of 172829 on DerpFest. It scored 1493 points in single-core test and 5515 points in multi-core test in Geekbench 4. In Geekbench 5 test, it managed to get a 312 points in single-core test and 1357 points in multi-core test.
DerpFest seems to be well optimised for day to day performance, it handled all the tasks with ease, neither we faced any issue while multitasking. We tested PUBG mobiles and Call of Duty as well, the games run on medium graphics by default and we didn’t encounter any major issue.
Software, UI, and Apps:
DerpFest offers a clean bloat-free experience and comes pre-installed only with a few essential apps.
DerpFest is based on Android 10 and runs on January 2020 Android security patch. Out of 64 GB internal storage, 13.2 GB is occupied by the system and users get around 50 GB of free storage. The maintainer pushes updates frequently and DerpFest supports OTA updates but it doesn’t support incremental OTA updates as I got about 1.2 GB update recently.
Android 10 offers various choices for navigation, users can choose between 3-button navigation, 2-button navigation (Pill based, similar to Android 9.0 Pie) and Gestures navigation. Users coming from MIUI will find the Android 10 gestures very familiar. Apart from navigation gestures, it also offers three-finger screenshot, double-tap anywhere to wake and double-tap on the status bar to sleep gestures.
Android 10 features system-wide Dark mode which can be found on DerpFest as well. Users can also customize Font size and Display size as per their preferences. DerpFest also features Adaptive brightness that Google had introduced back in 2018 with Android Pie.
DerpFest features various customization options under themes that Google introduced with Android 10 on Pixel devices. Users can customize Lock screen clock, Grid size, and Style including Font, Icons, Accent color and Shape as per their preferences.
DerpFest offers various customizations be it customizing Status bar, Quick Setting tiles, Navigation bar, Lock screen, Buttons, Power menu or Notifications. Check out the following screenshots to know what all customization options are available on this ROM,
Fingerprint Sensor:
The fingerprint works flawlessly on the DerpFest as you would expect, the fingerprint response is similar to stock MIUI ROM. Users can add up to five different fingerprints to unlock the phone, but face unlock isn’t available similar to other ROMs.
Connectivity:
DerpFest supports Dual VoLTE, calls were crisp and clear, neither we faced any call drop issue even once. It also supports VoWiFi, we tested calling over WiFi with Jio and Airtel. Jio calls over WiFi worked fine without any issue but doesn’t look like Airtel calls work over WiFi on DerpFest.
Camera:
The inbuilt camera app is very basic but you can install GCam apk mods to get better results along with portrait and night mode. A working GCam 7 version can be downloaded from the link given in the download section below.
I couldn’t find any working GCam 7 mod which has support for wide-angle and macro lens, so the camera performance will be limited to just the primary shooter. We hope that in future we will get GCam mods which will have support for the wide-angle lens as well, but if you are aware of any existing Redmi Note 8 compatible GCam mod with the wide-angle lens support, you can drop a link in the comments below.
Battery Life:
The battery life on the DerpFest is good, the device will easily last for more than a day with moderate usage. Even with heavy usage you won’t need to charge it before the day gets over. I got about 7 hours screen on time on a day with a 1 hour 30 minutes COD session.
It also offers Adaptive battery and Battery optimizations similar to what you get on any stock Android phone. The battery saver mode restricts background activities to save some power and should help when the phone is low on charge. It also shows charging info on the lock screen while charging.
So should you try DerpFest on your Redmi Note 8?
Absolutely! DerpFest offers clean bloat-free UI with plenty of customizations and decent battery life. It supports OTA and offers a stable experience without any major issues.
Pros
- Fluid day to day performance
- Customizations
- Bloat-free UI
- Decent battery life
- Dual VoLTE and VoWiFi support
- Support for OTA updates
- Banking apps work without any issue after flashing Magisk
Cons
- GCam mods available for the device do not have support for the wide-angle and macro lens.
Requirements:
- Redmi Note 8 with an unlocked bootloader – To unlock the bootloader of your device, apply here.
- TWRP recovery for Redmi Note 8 – Click here to download.
- Firmware – Click here to download.
- DerpFest – Click here to download.
- GApps – Included with ROM
- GCam Port – Click here to download.
- Magisk – Click here to download.
- ADB software (For Windows) / Android zip file (For Mac)
If you are on a Mac you need to
- Extract the Android zip and place the folder on your Desktop.
- Open Terminal
- Type cd Desktop/Android
- Enter ./ADB-Install-Mac.sh
Follow the procedure mentioned below to flash the ROM on the device,
- Switch off the phone and boot it into fastboot mode by long pressing Power and Volume down buttons simultaneously.
- Connect your phone to PC by a USB cable, open command prompt on your PC and navigate to the folder where you have saved TWRP img file.
- Type ‘fastboot devices’ in command prompt and check if the device is detected by the system.
- If the system detects the phone, type ‘fastboot flash recovery_filename.img’ and hit enter, the process will be completed in seconds.
- Now long-press the Volume up and Power Button to boot the phone in recovery mode.
- It will ask to allow modifications, slide towards the right to allow Modifications.
- Select ‘Wipe’, click on ‘Format Data’ and type ‘Yes’. Go to ‘Advanced Wipe’, select ‘Dalvik / ART Cache’, ‘System’. ‘Data’, ‘Cache’ and then swipe towards the right to Wipe.
- Go back and click on ‘Install’, navigate to the location where you have stored required zip files, it’s better to keep these zip files on SD Card or USB OTG drives. Select the Firmware zip, ROM zip, and Magisk (optional), then swipe towards the right to flash.
- Click on ‘Reboot’ and then ‘System’, within 10-15 minutes device will boot with DerpFest.
Credits: We would like to acknowledge the efforts of FatalPy towards porting DerpFest for the Redmi Note 8, Mauronofrio for the development of TWRP Recovery for Redmi Note 8, Y S Alsager for the MIUI Firmware, nikish21 for the development of GCam and all developers who contribute to the development of Magisk and Magisk Modules.
Warning Disclaimer: Bootloader unlocking and flashing ROM may void the warranty of Xiaomi devices, FoneArena is not responsible for any damage or loss caused to your device.