Real iOS 16 now boots on a Redmi Note 12 4G, and tinkerers can try it

Android phones that "run iOS" are usually fakes. You get a launcher, a theme, maybe an emulator with flattering screenshots. This one is different. A developer has booted real iOS 16 on a Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 4G, and the code is open for anyone to try.

The project is called ios-topaz. It pairs Apple's open-source XNU kernel, the xnu-8796 release from the iOS 16 era, with untouched system software pulled from iPhone X firmware. That means the real launchd, the system daemons and SpringBoard, which is the iPhone home screen. The write-up on OneJailbreak says the phone boots to the home screen in about three minutes. That is slow, but this is a first boot on a patched kernel.

A post on X sums it up well: a real Apple logo and a real lock screen. IT Home credits a netizen called Makr and reports that the settings page shows iOS 16.7.16 and lists the device as an iPhone X. The touchscreen and the volume keys work. OneJailbreak calls the Redmi the newest phone to boot a real iOS userland all the way into the interface.

The Redmi Note 12 4G runs a Snapdragon 685, so the kernel needed heavy patching. One workaround is a bit brutal. Four of the chip's slower cores are switched off, because they cannot handle the 16K memory pages that iOS 16 expects. The same developer has also run Windows 11 on ARM on this exact phone, with graphics, touch, Wi-Fi and audio working.

Yes, if you enjoy a weekend of fastboot commands. You need an unlocked Redmi Note 12 4G (codenames topaz or tapas) and a Linux PC. The project is open source, and the kernel builds on GitHub's macOS servers, since it needs the old Xcode 15 tools.

This is a flex, not a product. Only touch and the volume keys have been confirmed, and I have seen nothing on calls, mobile data or the camera. Please don't flash your only phone.

I also doubt Apple will smile at this. The kernel is open source, but the iPhone X system files come from Apple's own firmware. A Telegram post on xiaomiui claims a similar port runs on the OnePlus Ace 6T, but I could not confirm that. Still, the Windows 11 port and this one show how much a patient developer can squeeze out of a cheap Snapdragon chip. I would love to see how far the project gets.