Hello dear XDA Experts
Which Xiaomi phone shall I buy (in Europe) that will be the most popular Xiaomi device for a long time (people will talk about it and buy it for a long time), have the longest support and have many and many custom roms made even after pulling it off the market and most of all custom rom Devs will love it?
Any answer is welcome to help!
BTW Do these devices met the above criteria? (Redmi Note 5 (Pro or non Pro, remember Europe), Pocophone F1, Redmi Note 6 (if it is available in Europe))
Go for Redmi Note 5 AI
SkuLL. said:
Go for Redmi Note 5 AI
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Thanks for replying. Which model do You mean by adding "AI"? Is it's codname "whyred"?
androidbadboy said:
Thanks for replying. Which model do You mean by adding "AI"? Is it's codname "whyred"?
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Correct.
SkuLL. said:
Correct.
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Thanks again.
How about POCO or M2 Lite ( which has the same specs as whyred)?
PLEASE tell me what YOU think of these two phones?
androidbadboy said:
Thanks again.
How about POCO or M2 Lite ( which has the same specs as whyred)?
PLEASE tell me what YOU think of these two phones?
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POCO SD845
Note 5 AI (whyred) SD636
MI A2 Lite SD625
The best phone is POCO by far because of the processor, but im not sure about the rom development and stuff. Whyred has alot of custom and miui based roms to play with.
If you prefer pure stock android MI A2 or lite is the phone for you.
SkuLL. said:
POCO SD845
Note 5 AI (whyred) SD636
MI A2 Lite SD625
The best phone is POCO by far because of the processor, but im not sure about the rom development and stuff. Whyred has alot of custom and miui based roms to play with.
If you prefer pure stock android MI A2 or lite is the phone for you.
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Click to collapse
I love MIUI but If any kind of Xiaomi phone with pure Android would have best dev support, best roms, much mor roms than I want to get that phone.
I forgot to mention that I hunt for from low to mid budget phones. POCO can be bought by me i it turns out that he wins my criterua,
I bought Redmi Note 5 Pro due to the FLASHING brochure showing 6gb ram on 275USD ! however after i bought i found following problems and I am actually 70% regreting my purchase!
1. MIUI has keyboard switch key coming in notification panel so every time if i have to switch Gboard to Swiftkey i must pull down notification panel and make the switch (where all other phones in market has that keyboard switch key on navbar (far right)
2. OVERALL very low speaker and call quality! , even after mending mixerpath file! i could not enjoy the music! it becamse only 25% louder , no matter what values I play with ..
3. the CAMERA, the secondary dual camera is more of a cosmetic effect! i didnt find any options in camera app to take 3d fotos or optical zoom etc
furthermore
4. due to my daily aggresive social media usage and typing! i had try custom roms! ( xiaomi shipping unlocked phones to middle east) so i simple flashed various custom roms ( PE, RR6.2, crdroid, lineage, Omni, ArrowOs) and in all the ROMS, whatsapp acts funny when calling or hearing audio notes! and overall volume still low! , only in ArrowOS i could find my self accepting the volume quality (android p ) , but whatsapp keep making android P reboot...
now the GENERAL TRICKY PART which btw made me think i would never buy Xiomi phone again! even Pocophone on $300 or even if it drops to $100 !
A, if your device get BRICKED in flashing custom roms, there is NO WAY to connect it in EDL mode for you to FLASH THE ORIGINAL ROM VIA miFLASHER
B, you must remove back panel! remove battery wire and short two points to make RN5p goto EDL mode! and
C, on top of that YOU MUST HAVE AUTHORIZED MI ACCOUNT TO FLASH otherwise it will fail....
D, if you wana save your bricked RN5P, take it to service center even for flashing and spend money! and for me, Dubai is the only place service centre of MI , so i have to send my device to UAE in order to get flashed!
so that made me think that xiaomi in 2018 is ONE TIME BUY and THROW device
the question is not WHICH MI phone should u be buying?
the bigger question is , are you aware of the complications comes with all 2018 xiaomi phones ?
YasuHamed said:
I bought Redmi Note 5 Pro due to the FLASHING brochure showing 6gb ram on 275USD ! however after i bought i found following problems and I am actually 70% regreting my purchase!
1. MIUI has keyboard switch key coming in notification panel so every time if i have to switch Gboard to Swiftkey i must pull down notification panel and make the switch (where all other phones in market has that keyboard switch key on navbar (far right)
2. OVERALL very low speaker and call quality! , even after mending mixerpath file! i could not enjoy the music! it becamse only 25% louder , no matter what values I play with ..
3. the CAMERA, the secondary dual camera is more of a cosmetic effect! i didnt find any options in camera app to take 3d fotos or optical zoom etc
furthermore
4. due to my daily aggresive social media usage and typing! i had try custom roms! ( xiaomi shipping unlocked phones to middle east) so i simple flashed various custom roms ( PE, RR6.2, crdroid, lineage, Omni, ArrowOs) and in all the ROMS, whatsapp acts funny when calling or hearing audio notes! and overall volume still low! , only in ArrowOS i could find my self accepting the volume quality (android p ) , but whatsapp keep making android P reboot...
now the GENERAL TRICKY PART which btw made me think i would never buy Xiomi phone again! even Pocophone on $300 or even if it drops to $100 !
A, if your device get BRICKED in flashing custom roms, there is NO WAY to connect it in EDL mode for you to FLASH THE ORIGINAL ROM VIA miFLASHER
B, you must remove back panel! remove battery wire and short two points to make RN5p goto EDL mode! and
C, on top of that YOU MUST HAVE AUTHORIZED MI ACCOUNT TO FLASH otherwise it will fail....
D, if you wana save your bricked RN5P, take it to service center even for flashing and spend money! and for me, Dubai is the only place service centre of MI , so i have to send my device to UAE in order to get flashed!
so that made me think that xiaomi in 2018 is ONE TIME BUY and THROW device
the question is not WHICH MI phone should u be buying?
the bigger question is , are you aware of the complications comes with all 2018 xiaomi phones ?
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Click to collapse
1. Keyboard: many others are the same
2. No call problem so far
3. No 3D, optical zoom for cheap phone
4. You will get bricked only when you go from ARB4 to ARB3 Rom. Of course I also don't like this Xiaomi policy
The end: show me a better choice, quite good phone with very good battery life
Zanr Zij said:
1. Keyboard: many others are the same
2. No call problem so far
3. No 3D, optical zoom for cheap phone
4. You will get bricked only when you go from ARB4 to ARB3 Rom. Of course I also don't like this Xiaomi policy
The end: show me a better choice, quite good phone with very good battery life
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Click to collapse
1. keyboard: i tried 8 custom roms and everyone has AOSP navbar handler
2. whatsapp: i was talking about custom roms. i have used whatsapp on Sony on Omnirom. it never gives bugs but whatsapp on Omnirom on RN5p acts funny
3. Camera: as i said the secondary camera is more of an cosmetic affect
4. my REDMI3s got bricked when i was simply flashing MIUI7.5 via twrp. TWRP hung and the device never booted! so there is strong chance that twrp may fail to flash properly! . Irrespective of whatever made your device bricked (anti rollback policy or bad flash) the point is, I dont have control in my hands
since the OP hasn't asked anything about battery life and mainly he wanted to have device within xaiomi having many custom roms experiment with SO my answer was based on his question---however since you've asked a decent device with good battery life then for you NOKIA 8 would be the best in budgeted midrange devices! ! its almost same price range! SN845/4000mah battery/ dual cameras/ 64/4 with usb-c and LOUD speaker! Frankly i would have bought Nokia8 but the company don't officially allow unlocking BL so there arent much roms available!
YasuHamed said:
1. keyboard: i tried 8 custom roms and everyone has AOSP navbar handler
2. whatsapp: i was talking about custom roms. i have used whatsapp on Sony on Omnirom. it never gives bugs but whatsapp on Omnirom on RN5p acts funny
3. Camera: as i said the secondary camera is more of an cosmetic affect
4. my REDMI3s got bricked when i was simply flashing MIUI7.5 via twrp. TWRP hung and the device never booted! so there is strong chance that twrp may fail to flash properly! . Irrespective of whatever made your device bricked (anti rollback policy or bad flash) the point is, I dont have control in my hands
since the OP hasn't asked anything about battery life and mainly he wanted to have device within xaiomi having many custom roms experiment with SO my answer was based on his question---however since you've asked a decent device with good battery life then for you NOKIA 8 would be the best in budgeted midrange devices! ! its almost same price range! SN845/4000mah battery/ dual cameras/ 64/4 with usb-c and LOUD speaker! Frankly i would have bought Nokia8 but the company don't officially allow unlocking BL so there arent much roms available!
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Click to collapse
1. Keyboard: if you like to switch keyboard, just choose what you like: 1 more action with Miui or AOSP/PE Rom which many available for you.
2. The way you use keyboard and whatsapp not the OP question so don't need to talk too much about it. Just your style.
3. Cam: you have option: change Miui Cam setting or using GCam which give you much better quality
4. No ARB for RedMi3s and most other Xiaomi phones so no disaster here. Any other phones can be bricked.
You wrong about dummy, stupid design, super thick bezels Nokia 8 for current phones gen. It also not S845 phone, small screen and failed product
Zanr Zij said:
1. Keyboard: if you like to switch keyboard, just choose what you like: 1 more action with Miui or AOSP/PE Rom which many available for you.
2. The way you use keyboard and whatsapp not the OP question so don't need to talk too much about it. Just your style.
3. Cam: you have option: change Miui Cam setting or using GCam which give you much better quality
4. No ARB for RedMi3s and most other Xiaomi phones so no disaster here. Any other phones can be bricked.
You wrong about dummy, stupid design, super thick bezels Nokia 8 for current phones gen. It also not S845 phone, small screen and failed product
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1. to give him fair picture I honestly thought its worth mentioning since i haven't found any other modern days rom having switch keyboard panel NOT part of navbar accept in MIUI
2. its covered in 1 only.
3. gcam on miui doesn't work fully only sept2016 version ran (and didnt crash)
4 again, if by any chance the phone is bricked, i cannot press both volume and power keys to enter in EDL mode (like in Redmi3s)
you asked for good phone with nice battery , so i mentioned Nokia 8, and yes sorry about sd845, its sd835 with 6gbram and 5.3"screen with hardkeys, so u are getting full 5.3" to work with. THe bezels aren't that much they way you have metioned
by the way @androidbadboy Redmi Note5Pro on 9.6.5 doesnt have 3d touch enabled by default and you have to find a workaround!
by the way @androidbadboy Redmi Note5Pro on 9.6.5 doesnt have 3d touch enabled by default and you have to find a workaround!
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Thank You @YasuHamed for replying and giving us important information!
Forgive me as I got confused with all these stuff that is new to me can You please explain like to a total noob what I will miss or gain by not having 3D Touch (what's that in Xiaomi BTW?) enabled by default.
How to find a workaround? Find ON/OFF function?
Please help!
androidbadboy said:
Thank You @YasuHamed for replying and giving us important information!
Forgive me as I got confused with all these stuff that is new to me can You please explain like to a total noob what I will miss or gain by not having 3D Touch (what's that in Xiaomi BTW?) enabled by default.
How to find a workaround? Find ON/OFF function?
Please help!
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Click to collapse
sir, 3d touch is, on home screen when you touch (lets say facebook) app icon and keep your finger on it for few mircoseconds , it opens submenu to various famous action (new post/video/app info / etc ). its a convenient if you want to change app properties (clear data/ fix notifications/ or uninstall ) all under on finger click. other wise to achieve all such you will have to goto traditional way under settings.
3d touch gives most used action by stats of that perticular app in submenu
workaround
the only workaround is to install another launcher , funny thing is, Xiaomi's launcher found on Googleplay has 3d touch! , Pocophone f1 launcher also has it.
YasuHamed said:
sir, 3d touch is, on home screen when you touch (lets say facebook) app icon and keep your finger on it for few mircoseconds , it opens submenu to various famous action (new post/video/app info / etc ). its a convenient if you want to change app properties (clear data/ fix notifications/ or uninstall ) all under on finger click. other wise to achieve all such you will have to goto traditional way under settings.
3d touch gives most used action by stats of that perticular app in submenu
workaround
the only workaround is to install another launcher , funny thing is, Xiaomi's launcher found on Googleplay has 3d touch! , Pocophone f1 launcher also has it.
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In Samsung S8 when I push my finger for a few seconds (with the same force BTW) I only get 2 options: remove icon or uninstall app.
Is this a properly working 3D touch?
If you had the budget I suggest you to buy Poco since the phone is a hype and many people are buying it now. I believe Poco community will be live as long as Redmi 3/3 pro, 3s/3x, note 3 forum because of that hype (it is on xda since late 2015 and still alive now). I remember back then people got hype over the phone and we knew some people still looking for it even after redmi 4a/4x.
Oh a piece of cake, for aesthetic reason you might be falling in love with MI 8 lite, it is so beautiful.
androidbadboy said:
In Samsung S8 when I push my finger for a few seconds (with the same force BTW) I only get 2 options: remove icon or uninstall app.
Is this a properly working 3D touch?
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yes , on sony/pixel etc you get many options
but on xiaomi redmi note 5 / pro there is no such thing (atleast till miui9.6.x) ( miui 10, i havent checked yet)
fadgry said:
If you had the budget I suggest you to buy Poco since the phone is a hype and many people are buying it now. I believe Poco community will be live as long as Redmi 3/3 pro, 3s/3x, note 3 forum because of that hype (it is on xda since late 2015 and still alive now). I remember back then people got hype over the phone and we knew some people still looking for it even after redmi 4a/4x.
Oh a piece of cake, for aesthetic reason you might be falling in love with MI 8 lite, it is so beautiful.
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Thank You for all Your help.
I gotta say You kept me thinking.
Cause If You would just see how all electronics shops make huge deliveries and still can't supply well enough for the giant demand of RN5.
I asked around in my country (Europe) and all the people say since RN5 is such a sales hit than it will have an incredible amount of custom roms and support for 3 years minimum from the Devs. They don't thing POCO will beat it in roms cause it's mainly bought by gamers. Gamers however dont flash custom roms when they have a beast that will eat every game.
Maybe in Your country the situation is somewhat different but as You can see the mania of RN5 is running wild that's why I was reluctant to hear from You that POCO will win in my 1st topics requierments.
BTW My people are poor and the difference between POCO and RN5 is 150 USD and that is very huge cash for us.
I respect Your predictions and I thank You very very very much for them.
As You can see try to fill in my shoes and don't be surprised that I am reluctant about POCO beating RN5.
Therefor please comment this reply as widely as You can when You get some peace quiet time please.
YasuHamed said:
\
yes , on sony/pixel etc you get many options
but on xiaomi redmi note 5 / pro there is no such thing (atleast till miui9.6.x) ( miui 10, i havent checked yet)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes means that 3D touch in S8 gets me only 2 types of things (remove icon or uninstall)?
What happens if on Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 / pro I touch and hold an icon just like in S8 I wrote before?
androidbadboy said:
Thank You for all Your help.
I gotta say You kept me thinking.
Cause If You would just see how all electronics shops make huge deliveries and still can't supply well enough for the giant demand of RN5.
I asked around in my country (Europe) and all the people say since RN5 is such a sales hit than it will have an incredible amount of custom roms and support for 3 years minimum from the Devs. They don't thing POCO will beat it in roms cause it's mainly bought by gamers. Gamers however dont flash custom roms when they have a beast that will eat every game.
Maybe in Your country the situation is somewhat different but as You can see the mania of RN5 is running wild that's why I was reluctant to hear from You that POCO will win in my 1st topics requierments.
BTW My people are poor and the difference between POCO and RN5 is 150 USD and that is very huge cash for us.
I respect Your predictions and I thank You very very very much for them.
As You can see try to fill in my shoes and don't be surprised that I am reluctant about POCO beating RN5.
Therefor please comment this reply as widely as You can when You get some peace quiet time please.
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Click to collapse
I know it is a huge cash difference since I personally buy RN5 instead of Poco haha. But yeah people really looking for Poco here and they will pay another 150 USD for it.
What about RN5? After 2 weeks using it I don't face any problem. People said they got a or b or c problems, and I would confuse as I didn't get it. Since I'm a hard gamer too, it is crucial to look for performance and it is satisfying.
Both phone are good and has really active forums, it is your choice after all to buy the phone. Hope you get the best which suits your need.
hello .. i am really interested with this phone as its currently on sale for 375USD ~ 1399 SAR (including VAT 15% and fees) wherr i am right now ( Moto G 5G Plus 128GB 8GB ram ) and i have some questions regarding this phone :
as i have been using android since 2010 ( Samsung S2 - Samsung Note - Samsung Note 2 - Innjoo - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 - LG V20 - Poco F1 - Mi Max 3 - Mi Max 2 ) i would like to know about these particular points :
1. how does Motorola deliver software updates compared to Xiaomi, Samsung and LG for example ,,, Xiaomi for getting the most out of it with 3 to 4 security and bugs updates and a big android version change annually While LG might get the one or two update to security patches only with no android version update ????
This is still not answered, we received the September 2020 patch on android 10 for now RETMEA channel .... phone code name is nairo
2. Screen on time Expectations; and let me know if this is single or dual 5g / 4g standby mode .. this is important because it heavily affects the standby time ...
Can this phone use both sims and sd card with an adapter ? i would love to know if any of you have tried that
Answer : dual 4g standby and 4g+/5g on the active data sim when it supports it , hybrid adapter works and getting about a day and a half of life with this phone now ... Still on my second cycle and so far i am getting about 8 hrs sot
Update : battery usage is getting better ... 1.5 days of backup with 9 hrs SOT
3. is this phone easily rooted like requesting the unlock and then using a recovery from fastboot with magisk flash ? or its hard like doing LG v20 wizardry and dirty cow exploits with terminals and flashing ? ( i did both ways before on my older phones but i am just getting the sense of this phone
Answer : its not easily rooted due to lack of developers support and rooting will void all warranty which is absurd, plus you get an intrusive badge on your phone once you unlocked boot loader ... Xiaomi is far better in that case because you can re-lock it and the unlocked sign is not like a nuclear disaster sign .. this remind me of samsung and LG which is not appropriate
Rooted by patching the boot.img file with magisk app inside the phone then flashing it from fast boot, its a manual thing and the TWRP recovery is not working well on this Variant so far so you cannot rely on it (cannot access internal storage or sd card while it request codes or passwords)
4. how does this phone compare to the poco x3 nfc ? in terms of daily usage and smoothness ? is the internal memory fast like UFS ?
Answer : it is faster than poco x3 ... 276k poco vs 309k Antutu v8.4.3 ... Ufs 2.1 as gsm arena mentioned
5. does this phone support USB on the go function ? Are the ringer and notification volumes separable in the software ?
Answer : usb otg and charging other devices is supported, ringer and notification volumes cannot be separated (big bummer)? in settings but i am trying Volume Butler for now and so far i can say it sometimes work and sometimes not due to the fact i am using "island" which has applied a personal and a work profile inside the phone
6. does the phone speaker sound pack some bass like the lg v20 for example ? or its tinny like the poco F1 ?
Answer : closer to poco f1 less bass mono speaker, but its loud enough for media consumption for me atleast
7. will motorola support this phone even further with newer features like stereo speakers like what happened for the mi max 2 as an example ? or we will probably rely on other developers for a magisk module ?
Answer not clear yet
8. best cases for this phone ( links on amazon or aliexpress are appreciated if mods approve )
i bought lots of them from aliexpress and i am trying them now ... so far i like this one
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001600406047.html
for stickers i went installing the Hydrogel one yesterday and with the cover the whole phone experience went from ( a very slim phone that i am afraid to crush and break ) to ( this is a good phone that can deal with my daily usage )
9. the device has no notification LED and instead you get a pesky feature called ( display peek ) that keeps the phone turning the screen on for each move and vibration , plus the notifications cannot be seen if you have the hide notification mode on .... simply a bummer for a person who just wants to double tap to wake and unlock only as this called feature consume lots of battery for nothing ! ... motorola if you can see this please fix it
these are some of the detailed issues that i would like keep exploring solutions for as i am very eager to see your answer
Update : added some answers from my experience as i got the phone on 26-10-2020
No notification led light and the phone keeps lighting up the screen if you use moto gestures which is a pain .. already disabled
Google assistant button is useless
No double tap to wake
Nord VPN app notworking properly cannot login or use the vpn (Updated app now works fine)... Other vpn provider ultrasurf worked fine
No full screen recorder
21:9 screen is very long and only well suited for portrait use
Phone got security patch update September 2020
moto g 5g plus varient specs and antutu score
Some screen shots showing the current device specs and antutu score
I have had it for 2 weeks now, feels quite sluggish especially when switching apps but this is the 4gb ram version. Is the 8gb ram one any better?
This is an android one device which Google says should receive os updates for 2 years (android 11 and 12) and security updates for 3 but no word on the moto g 5g plus specifically
ludio22 said:
I have had it for 2 weeks now, feels quite sluggish especially when switching apps but this is the 4gb ram version. Is the 8gb ram one any better?
This is an android one device which Google says should receive os updates for 2 years (android 11 and 12) and security updates for 3 but no word on the moto g 5g plus specifically
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Click to collapse
Glad to hear that it will be supported for 2 more years
Ram usage here is higher than 4gb everyday so yeah its smooth and working well so far ... Can you do the antutu on your varient and check the score to compare ?
Ps : dont forget to turn on adaptive performance it really makes it smoother after a couple of days depending on your usage
thanks
thanks for the advice about adaptive performance, i have turned that on and the difference is significant. i do have my reservations about downloading antutu, just because of all the stuff cheetah mobile has been accused of, but i have done some geekbench tests which I screenshotted but I don't knkow how to upload them here,
so the multi core scores averaged at 1838 and
the single threaded at 592 after running 3 tests
ludio22 said:
thanks
thanks for the advice about adaptive performance, i have turned that on and the difference is significant. i do have my reservations about downloading antutu, just because of all the stuff cheetah mobile has been accused of, but i have done some geekbench tests which I screenshotted but I don't knkow how to upload them here,
so the multi core scores averaged at 1838 and
the single threaded at 592 after running 3 tests
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Click to collapse
Hi ludio22,
I'm going to buy the 4gb version too. How is it going after these two months? Is 4gb really a limit for everyday use?
The phone can be rooted very easily, with the standard Magisk procedure.