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Xiaomi Products (including Xiaomi Mi 9 phone)

Saul Goodman said:
So, with all due respect, you have absolutely zero reason to discredit my previous post which you appeared to discredit without foundation?
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I didn't discredit you or your post, I gave an opinion. tbh if you don't like reading other people's opinions I have to wonder why you're here.
Just because an app asks for permissions is no reason to discredit the ROM.
Click to expand...

You what? I take a photo on a bit of hardware that belongs to me and some integral viewing software wants me to sign up to a privacy policy? Without signing up I could not view. Why would it do that unless it was interfering with my photo or my privacy in some way? I didn't look into it in massive detail, but that alone sets huge alarm bells ringing.

There's plenty of stuff all over the web criticising Xiaomi data harvesting policies. The policy I've just looked at (don't know if it's exactly the same as the one the phone showed) says "In order to provide our services to you, we will ask you to provide personal information that is necessary to provide those services to you." Now exactly what is a photo viewer doing that requires that sort of disclaimer?? Until proven otherwise I'll assume it's not just a viewer, there is also a phone-home component. You may be comfortable with that, I'm not.

In my experience, all MIUI ROMs from the xiaomi.eu forum have been 100% legit, and way, way better than the pre-installed ROM.
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What do you mean by legit and how do you measure 100%? Are you able to pinpoint exactly what data of yours is being harvested within the terms of the rather wide ranging privacy statements you've agreed to? tbh I don't really care about your answer, you run whatever OS and apps you want, and I'll stick to my somewhat unfashionable view that I'll give away as little data/privacy as possible to the cloud and only then in exchange for something I actively want. There is nothing I want in a gallery app that invades my privacy.

I'll gladly listen to valid reasons as to why you believe the ROMs from the .eu site shouldn't be installed, but you don't seem to have provided a valid reason as to why a "cyanogenmod" ROM is better than a MIUI ROM,
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:rolleyes: I've no idea why you're aggressively trying to validate your choice of ROM.
and bearing in mind that cyanogenmod ROMs are dead in the water, and have been replaced by LineageOS ROMs, then if you're still running a cyanogenmod ROM, it's most likely an extremely outdated ROM, and if it hasn't been superseded by a LineageOS ROM, there's probably a good reason.
Click to expand...
good reason like it's a 2 year old phone and the developers have moved on? I already told you that.

In a nutshell... If the source hasn't been released for your phone's kernel, then unless you're running an official ROM, the best you can hope for (assuming you're running a non-stock ROM), is a ROM that's full of bugs.
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I'm sure you know best, despite me already telling you that the only significant bug I'm aware of doesn't bother me.

Basically, if there isn't a LineageOS ROM for your phone, it's for a reason, and the reason is that the kernel source hasn't been released, so nobody can make a working ROM that isn't just a mish-mash of bits that may or may not work with your phone.

Without the source for the kernel, you can't make a properly working ROM, and the best you will get is the manufacturer's own ROM.
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again, I already told you that. e2a oops, didn't notice the last sentence: 'best' is a matter of opinion.
 
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newbie said:
I didn't discredit you or your post, I gave an opinion. tbh if you don't like reading other people's opinions I have to wonder why you're here.


You what? I take a photo on a bit of hardware that belongs to me and some integral viewing software wants me to sign up to a privacy policy? Without signing up I could not view. Why would it do that unless it was interfering with my photo or my privacy in some way? I didn't look into it in massive detail, but that alone sets huge alarm bells ringing.

There's plenty of stuff all over the web criticising Xiaomi data harvesting policies. The policy I've just looked at (don't know if it's exactly the same as the one the phone showed) says "In order to provide our services to you, we will ask you to provide personal information that is necessary to provide those services to you." Now exactly what is a photo viewer doing that requires that sort of disclaimer?? Until proven otherwise I'll assume it's not just a viewer, there is also a phone-home component. You may be comfortable with that, I'm not.


What do you mean by legit and how do you measure 100%? Are you able to pinpoint exactly what data of yours is being harvested within the terms of the rather wide ranging privacy statements you've agreed to? tbh I don't really care about your answer, you run whatever OS and apps you want, and I'll stick to my somewhat unfashionable view that I'll give away as little data/privacy as possible to the cloud and only then in exchange for something I actively want. There is nothing I want in a gallery app that invades my privacy.


:rolleyes: I've no idea why you're aggressively trying to validate your choice of ROM.

good reason like it's a 2 year old phone and the developers have moved on? I already told you that.


I'm sure you know best, despite me already telling you that the only significant bug I'm aware of doesn't bother me.


again, I already told you that. e2a oops, didn't notice the last sentence: 'best' is a matter of opinion.
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I'm not trying to pressure you into installing any ROM. I'm merely pointing out facts.

I just get a bit frustrated when people say a ROM is awful, without giving reasons why, because it's usually people who know absolutely nothing about phones who do it.

I apologise if I upset you. Please feel free to use whichever ROM you desire.
 
Saul Goodman said:
So, with all due respect, you have absolutely zero reason to discredit my previous post which you appeared to discredit without foundation?
Just because an app asks for permissions is no reason to discredit the ROM. In my experience, all MIUI ROMs from the xiaomi.eu forum have been 100% legit, and way, way better than the pre-installed ROM.
I'll gladly listen to valid reasons as to why you believe the ROMs from the .eu site shouldn't be installed, but you don't seem to have provided a valid reason as to why a "cyanogenmod" ROM is better than a MIUI ROM, and bearing in mind that cyanogenmod ROMs are dead in the water, and have been replaced by LineageOS ROMs, then if you're still running a cyanogenmod ROM, it's most likely an extremely outdated ROM, and if it hasn't been superseded by a LineageOS ROM, there's probably a good reason.

In a nutshell... If the source hasn't been released for your phone's kernel, then unless you're running an official ROM, the best you can hope for (assuming you're running a non-stock ROM), is a ROM that's full of bugs.

Basically, if there isn't a LineageOS ROM for your phone, it's for a reason, and the reason is that the kernel source hasn't been released, so nobody can make a working ROM that isn't just a mish-mash of bits that may or may not work with your phone.

Without the source for the kernel, you can't make a properly working ROM, and the best you will get is the manufacturer's own ROM.
Click to expand...

im ready to take the plunge on one of these phones but all this has now put doubt in my mind as i dont understand any of it.
What is a ROM? Is that different to an Operating system?
 
ska invita said:
im ready to take the plunge on one of these phones but all this has now put doubt in my mind as i dont understand any of it.
What is a ROM? Is that different to an Operating system?
Click to expand...

I'm on my 3rd Xiaomi phone (currently a Mimax 2). I used to be reasonably techie but can't really be arsed now.

I've been really pleased with all of them and I actually like miui (it's a bit of an apple os rip off but has some good features and lots of updates).

If you can't be arsed faffing with roms and the like then:
Get a phone with a global rom
Get the international version of the model phone (international versions have better range of Western friendly bands but they cost more).

Edited to add, if your not a techie don't be tempted to get the cheapest model of the phone. It wont be the international version (so Internet reception will be worse as some bands won't work) and it may have the Chinese rom

Edited to clarify :
International edition (which will come with the global rom) £££ but painless and will have the best 'performance' in terms of bands supported.

Global edition ££ painless but some of the bands that the International edition supports won't work.

Non IE/GE £ need to faff about!

When buying and comparing prices make sure you are comparing the same things!
 
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JimW said:
I used mine with a GiffGaff sim (dual sim) when I was last in the UK and got 4G fine too.
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from what I can tell this xiaomi phone is the only one that has the right frequencies for GifGaf
Xiaomi Redmi 4X Global Edition 5.0 inch 3GB RAM 32GB ROM Snapdragon 435 Octa-core 4G Smartphone

£100 down from £160 seems good. it ships from HK. Do you know if you have to pay a tax on top of that price?
Are the specs good enough? I dont need much from a phone really. My current phone has 1gbRam and crashes/ struggles with certain web pages
this has 3gb ram
hard drive space is plenty for me

thanks all.
 
ska invita said:
from what I can tell this xiaomi phone is the only one that has the right frequencies for GifGaf
Xiaomi Redmi 4X Global Edition 5.0 inch 3GB RAM 32GB ROM Snapdragon 435 Octa-core 4G Smartphone

£100 down from £160 seems good. it ships from HK. Do you know if you have to pay a tax on top of that price?
Are the specs good enough? I dont need much from a phone really. My current phone has 1gbRam and crashes/ struggles with certain web pages
this has 3gb ram
hard drive space is plenty for me

thanks all.
Click to expand...
Just bought mine in China without thinking about frequencies and it worked. Think it has more memory than that too but cost a bit less. Not got it by me at the moment but will check - might be worth just getting one from China.
 
This is the site generally used by my colleagues if it's any help. GearBest: Online Shopping - Best Gear at Best Prices it's probably the same shop as you've already linked too with a different skin!

Edit: It's a few pence cheaper and ships from China

Xiaomi Redmi 4X 4G Smartphone INTERNATIONAL VERSION 3GB RAM 32GB ROM-$139.99 Online Shopping| GearBest.com (double check it's the same first, this one is defo the intl version Unlocked for Worldwide use. Please ensure local area network is compatible. click here for Network Frequency of your country. Please check with your carrier/provider before purchasing this item.
The ROM on this Phone supports OTA and is multi language.)
 
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cybershot said:
This is the site generally used by my colleagues if it's any help. GearBest: Online Shopping - Best Gear at Best Prices it's probably the same shop as you've already linked too with a different skin!

Edit: It's a few pence cheaper and ships from China

Xiaomi Redmi 4X 4G Smartphone INTERNATIONAL VERSION 3GB RAM 32GB ROM-$139.99 Online Shopping| GearBest.com (double check it's the same first, this one is defo the intl version Unlocked for Worldwide use. Please ensure local area network is compatible. click here for Network Frequency of your country. Please check with your carrier/provider before purchasing this item.
The ROM on this Phone supports OTA and is multi language.)
Click to expand...
Thanks!
i read you need GLOBAL version rather than INTERNATIONAL. This is to do with 4g access i think.
This seem helpful though. WillMyPhoneWork.net - Check if your phone works on a network
though it only has International option, not Global, to check
Im really not sure about the GLOBAL v INTERNATIONAL thing

(increasingly sure that Global one i posted is the only one that works 4g with gifgaf)
 
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ska invita said:
Thanks!
i read you need GLOBAL version rather than INTERNATIONAL. This is to do with 4g access i think.
This seem helpful though. WillMyPhoneWork.net - Check if your phone works on a network
though it only has International option, not Global, to check
Im really not sure about the GLOBAL v INTERNATIONAL thing

(increasingly sure that Global one i posted is the only one that works 4g with gifgaf)
Click to expand...

My understanding (and I'm not an expert but did a fair bit of reading about it a while ago) was that 'Global' refers to the ROM and the 'International' refers to the different varieties of handset (which support different bands).

I agree, it's very confusing though and really puts people off!
 
Gifgaf 4g frequencies - i think ive got it.
800somethigns and Band 20, which I guess is abbreviated to B20? if so then yeah that one phone i posted is the only one that does that band. im going for it. £100 and im sure the specs are more than enough for me
thanks all
hopefully this will be of use to someone else
 
Josep_Benlliure_Gil43.jpg
 
I have loads of Xiaomi stuff, most of it bought from banggood.

I have:
Roidmi 1,2 and 3 bluetooth car FM transmitter - apart from the bing bong noise at startup are great and solve the problem of no aux in or bluetooth very nicely.
Bluetooth Speaker - very basic speaker with no line in or volume controls, but the sound is good and it lasts for ages.
Yeelight smartlight - these are great, don't need a hub are cheap and connect to google home
Mii band - had one for the last few years, is basic, but works well, syncing is annoying when it occasionally fails, great battery life
Wifi router - this is much better than the crap virgin try to foist on you, but it's not perfect, you can get an open source firmware for it which I intend to try soon.
Pen - it's a ball point pen, nice writing action, feels nice in the hand
headphones, think they were the pistons 3's - really, really bassy, pretty good sound but they don't stay in my ears, got some better ones with my phone and so don't use them much,
Powerbank - 9000mah I think, it charges my phone sufficiently.

All of which have done the job they were designed for and are well built and good value. I would buy the Xiaomi version of most things happily
 
I have the Redmi Note 4x that I got from a UK based seller on eBay about 6 months ago. Very happy with it, does everything I was t it to with excellent battery life and at a very reasonable price.

Saul Goodman mine came pre-installed with the global rom by the seller. Is there a better rom I can use? Would it mean having to wipe everything from my phone?
 
binka said:
I have the Redmi Note 4x that I got from a UK based seller on eBay about 6 months ago. Very happy with it, does everything I was t it to with excellent battery life and at a very reasonable price.

Saul Goodman mine came pre-installed with the global rom by the seller. Is there a better rom I can use? Would it mean having to wipe everything from my phone?
Click to expand...
The global ROM is different to the one on xiaomi.eu.
Unless the bootloader is already unlocked (I doubt it will be), then you'll have to unlock it, and I think that involves a factory reset.
You apply for the unlock here: Apply for unlocking Mi devices
 
binka said:
I have the Redmi Note 4x that I got from a UK based seller on eBay about 6 months ago. Very happy with it, does everything I was t it to with excellent battery life and at a very reasonable price.

Saul Goodman mine came pre-installed with the global rom by the seller. Is there a better rom I can use? Would it mean having to wipe everything from my phone?
Click to expand...

Wiping everything from an Android phone isn't a massive ball ache, when you sign back into your google account it should just redownload everything.
 
binka said:
Thanks. Would you recommend doing it?
Click to expand...
I've done it with all of my Xiaomi phones. I've just treated myself to an Mi6 for xmas, and I'll be doing the same with that. The ROM from xiaomi.eu has a lot of unnecessary crap removed, and you can do OTA updates.

UnderAnOpenSky said:
Wiping everything from an Android phone isn't a massive ball ache, when you sign back into your google account it should just redownload everything.
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Xiaomi also have their own cloud backup, so it should be impossible to lose anything.
 
I treated myself to a Xiaomi Mi6 for Christmas.They only had the China version available when I ordered it, so I had to wait three days for the unlock before I could delete all the crap and install the EU ROM.
I'm well impressed with it. It's a pretty serious bit of kit.

27807406209_c5cc79f016_z.jpg
 
dervish said:
Wifi router - this is much better than the crap virgin try to foist on you, but it's not perfect, you can get an open source firmware for it which I intend to try soon.
Click to expand...

In case anyone's interested, I did update the router software to Padavan and it's massively improved almost every aspect of it. I now have a much faster connection which drops out far less and the software is really very, very good, I have just set up the vpn client so I can connect from my phone and use my pi-hole as my dns server to block adverts.
 
cybershot said:
No mention of UK/Europe but one would assume it would follow suit:

Xiaomi phones could finally go on sale in the US before the end of this year
Click to expand...


They are definitely on sale in Europe already, either officially or unofficially. Lots of them in Spain (and sold in a few shops) but not sure if just Chinese imports. They seem to come with 2 year guarantees etc though and at decent prices, although not as good as buying online and waiting a few weeks.

Quite tempted to give em a go, tbh.
 
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