Whats the consensus on Xiaomi HongMi ?
Do most people flash it with a different ROM or use as is?
I'd like to get one and found them available for $1199;
Is it still full of China bloatware that needs cleaning? Easy to install GoogleStore ?
Should I flash it with cyanogenmod?
to clarify...
on the forums, people generally call the China version HongMi and the overseas versions RedMi
I have a RedMi (just upgraded to OnePlus One) - the RedMi will go to my Dad.
Pro's
* Cheap (I paid $999 HKD from Xiaomi) - check their website, the 1S is becoming easier to buy
* Decent specifications, it's fast enough for most things
* Good size
* Replaceable battery
* accepts SD cards
* dual SIM
* adequate camera, just not good in low light
* Surprisingly, MIUI is good (and getting better)
Con's
* aesthetically, not the most classy device
* 8GB internal storage is not enough if you install lots of apps
** NO - you cannot reliably use the SD card for apps any more **
* 3G only - no 4G/LTE
* cannot play demanding games
* some apps won't work with MIUI - in reality, I only found one app that didn't work for me and that was StudioKuma Call Filter, of course one of my favourite apps
If you buy the RedMi (International version), it comes with the Play Store pre-installed.
You can see the variations of software here MIUI Downloads - MIUI Official Community
In short, if you're not a power user, this is a great device and for the price of $999 HKD it can't be beat.
You may want to look at the XiaoMi Note if you want a slightly larger screen
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.
The Pro's are great and the Con's are very tolerable - and if I dont have to flash it, even better.
Is there a lot of bloat on the latest versions? Is the bloat easy to get rid of ? This would be for kiddie use and I would want to strip the phone of all the crap and leave it with essentials.
another disadvantages is that if there is an upgrade in firmware, probably best NOT to upgrade as china phones ( some brands) may omit essential apps such as google play ( there was a person on geoexpat with recently purchased Lenovo ( official stock as well) who had this issue, HK CS didn't assist her with it either)
Its better to flash the ROM from the EU website here rather than the official Xiaomi rom:
Unofficial International MIUI / Xiaomi Phone Support
The official ROM does have English and chinese, but still no play store and full of chinese crap. The unofficial that I linked to above has about 20 extra languages, removes all the chinese crap, adds google play and other essential google stuff, and automatically updates every Friday night or Saturday morning. There is an OTA release every week and just tap on update and you don't lose any off your data or apps etc when you update.
I will add that to update to the unofficial custom rom is a piece of cake, Download it (on phone directly or use PC and then plug phone into PC via USB and copy it across), then turn phone off, then hold volume down key whule turn it back on, there is a secret menu where you can flash the custom rom. Its literally a 5 minute job and does not require rooting, unlocking bootloader, or any of that kind of shit.