@Marty When the U22 with the "New FW" gets shipped out, how would, lets say Amazon, or eBay seller establish which FW they would be sending me! May be a designated scew number for Amazon, or even better, directly thru Minix "Shopping Cart"!
I can see this firmware thing has really got you befuddled, I will try my best to explain it to you and hopefully put your mind at rest.
First up, "firmware" is a version of stock Android
(AOSP) that has been customized by a vendor like Minix and then flashed onto a device before leaving the factory. Thus the U22-XJ will be shipped with a firmware installed ranging from anything between FW002 to the current FW006a (doubt it though as that is quite new). I would say you are more than likely going to receive a unit now with FW004 installed.
Now, the beauty of Minix products is that they generally receive updated firmware to address certain bugs or issues that have been reported by users on the forum. We are currently on FW006a but still have a few bugs and issues to address so I have no doubt more firmware versions will follow.
Regarding your need for root. Another good thing about Minix is that they provide links for the various versions of firmware that have been released and most recently they have been releasing two versions of a particular firmware release, one that is rooted and one that is not, the one that is not rooted will come to the U22-XJ as a download, known as
FOTA (firmware over the air) while the one with a root switch to allow root if so desired requires a manual flash of the firmware via USB Burning Tool. So in a sense the power is in your hands to decide what firmware you want on your U22-XJ, hey if you wanted to know how bad the initial release firmware was then you can flash FW002 onto your unit (not recommended, just an example).
TDLR: long story short, you will receive a U22-XJ, you then decide what firmware you want on it, if you do not require root then you are going to have a straight up plug and play experience which will include the updates via FOTA, if you need root then the extra step of flashing the rooted version of firmware will be required, but understand that if this is the route you take then updates will also require manual flashing as they will not appear via automatic download (FOTA).