English Menu In Phones From Chinese Distribution

[Paolo84]

Hi,

I'm going to China in 2 weeks and will be looking to purchase a Redmi 3, but have some concerns:
- is the any stationary shop I could buy it in Guangzhou?
- if online is the only way, can I buy it without a Chinese credit card/ method of payment?
- does it have an English menu by default, or is it only Chinese?
- if there is no English, when usually custom versions of ROM are being published after intial sale?

Anything else I should know, consider before buying and using back in Europe?

any help would be appreciated...

 

[cesarvaporpan]

Hi, I live in Guangzhou. Just a couple of things. You can find Xiaomi phones everywhere but retailers will charge you from 100 to 300 Yuan more for any device. Xiaomi just sells on the internet so since not everybody knows how to get one retailers take advantage of it. Buying online a Xiaomi is a pain if you are not chinese. If you're willing to open a bank account go for it, I won't recommend it. Xiaomi phones come with English, by default, no problem. In a phone shop they can help you to change the language if needed. Remember when you buy a Xiaomi to ask for 联通 (Liantong)if you want 3g or 4g to work in a European country. Hongmi 2 for example has 2 band versions, the above mentioned and 移动 (yidong) dont buy this last one. New phones such as hongmi 3 already include all the band versions needed. The official global for Hongmi Note 3 should be expected in a couple of months.

Sent from my HM 2A using Tapatalk

 

[celalalt]

I see online retailers are selling it for 130-140 euro, which is already 30-40% more expensive than in China and considering that the lower end Redmi Note 3 is 150-160 euro, I would not see this as a good price.

 

[Paolo84]

Hello again,

@celalalt : Redmi NOTE 3 is too big for me...
@cesarvaporpan : first of all thanks to for suggestions and swift reply! priceless.

I will try and go with buying online. I hope I can get help from a friend in HK to pay with a Chinese card and to get the parcel delivered to the office. I don't know how much time will I have to go around the city looking for a good place to by the phone - so I have to settle for the online. I don;t want to buy with other online retailers. For Redmi 3 they don't even have the handsets yet, as the official launch is on Sunday, so they're simulating pre-sale to get people tempted. Also the availibility won't be better than at Xiaomi.
I have also checked the bands with my local providers (in Poland) and it seems that the Redmi 3 will lack one band on 3G and one on 4G, so I guess it might not work on some of the networks or using some of the sim cards, but as a general rule will be UNLOCKED and COMPATIBLE, isn't it?
Xiaomi says this on the website:

 

[cesarvaporpan]

Unlocked and free as a bird. When you get your phone you just switch it to English and download GAPPS from xiaomi store. If you want to root the phone use kingroot and voila. BTW I'm not sure xiaomi will deliver to HK. Good Luck!

Sent from my HM 2A using Tapatalk

 

[Paolo84]

@cesarvaporpan exceeding expectations as always
just to be double sure, that diffferentation is only about the no of available of bands and I should take the second one (full netcom as translated by google) -image below.

PS. My friend will be ordering from HK, but delivering into GZ office. Hope that will work.
Got so excited about buying Xioami (that one or my wife actually), that I started considering buyng the Mi 4i for myself (that one in HK, as in CHina there is only Mi 4c version available). I dream so much about having a dual-sim phone and note having to bring everywhere my private and company handset..., but even Mi 4i/c would be downgrade from Samsung Galaxy Alpha that I have now.

 

[Paolo84]

One more thing. I should be probably asking that questions in the Redmi Note 3 thread, but you guys were so helpful. I'm now just considering the Note version and...
1) it seems to be available on the market for some time already, although when I go into the Mi app on android it shows this (screenshot attached). So it seems like the sale will be on only from Sunday 10 AM, as per the Redmi 3.
2) also, there seems to be no choice between two versions band versions and the price is at list 100 RMB higher than on the Xiaomi website (http://item.mi.com/buyphone/note3)...
I cannot go further, as I don't know what these two buttons mean:

 

[cesarvaporpan]

There's a new version of the redmi note 3 which includes a slighty better camera 16 instead of 13 mpx, a snapdragon processor that claims better band compatibility and a 4100 instead of 4000 mah battery.

On the other hand, Xiaomi sells every week a determined number of phones so you have to be ready when they start the online sells. Usually new phones are all sold out within 7 minutes. Then, in short time they will announce again when is the next time you can go for buying online. Some Chinese people go to local retailers and pay higher prices cause they don't manage to buy the phones online. The good thing is that Xiaomi can cut up costs and phones can get even cheaper in short time.

Sent from my HM 2A using Tapatalk

 

[cesarvaporpan]

By the way, yesterday I tried to root a xiaomi note 3 with the king root method and I wasn't successful. In the app they say in the near future... No problem rooting a hongmi 2a though.

Sent from my HM 2A using Tapatalk

 

[Paolo84]

All this is getting more and more complicated. No root is fine. My wife wouldn't use it anyway. But I don't think I can get my friend to get on a 7 minutes standby tomorrow. Can you recommend a place in GZ, preferably near Tianhe,when I can buy genuine Xiaomi phone in a store? No paying twice its price?

 

[the_maker]

It has a LOCKED Bootloader, so NO root, NO Custom Recovery, NO Xiaomi.eu ROM..

Read on bit more before...