Changing the DPI on a Xiaomi Mi Max
I have owned the Xiaomi Mi Max for a month or so at this point and, while I have enjoyed its size and speed, I have been disappointed - as is usually the case with large screened devices - by its Display Density, or DPI setting.
Rather than displaying more information on the large screen, content just appears larger. Asides from the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3, just about all phones with screens >= 5.7" have the same DPI setting as smaller screened devices, which makes poor use of the screen real estate in my opinion.
When I first purchased the Mi Max, I installed the Xiaomi.eu firmware and subsequently rooted it, with the intention of changing the DPI setting in the build.prop. The standard line in build.prop to change the dpi is as follows:
ro.sf.lcd_density=<density>
On the Mi Max the density is set to 480, which is standard for 1080P displays on Android.
Changing this value apparently had no affect on the Mi Max, but as it was a secondary device I didnt investigate much further and lived with the default screen density.
Yesterday, however, I decided to look into this in a little more detail and found another Xiaomi (or rather MIUI) specific screen density line in build.prop.
Bingo! Modifying the value on this line resulted in the DPI change I was after.
persist.miui.density_v2=<density>
Modifying this to 325 resulted in a far more suitable screen density for a 6.44" screen - to my eyes at least!
persist.miui.density_v2=325
What pleased me was that the 325dpi setting changed the Google Now Launcher from displaying a 5-column icon grid to a tablet-style 7-column grid. With the seeming demise of the previously excellent XGELS Xposed module, this is a welcome improvement.
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