**** The Official Chinese Phones Thread ****

Soldato
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I will add that I chose the second delivery option with Wonda. My phone was dispatched on Thursday and should have arrived Monday (but I had to rearrange due to being at work Monday) so I'd say 4 days for delivery is pretty quick.

Will you be hit by customs/import tax at all? Its been a long time since I imported something.
 
Soldato
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Like the sound of that :D

I'm looking forward to Xiaomi 14 Ultra news!

If you thinking the Chinese version they probably exclude band 20 like they have with recent releases and with Xiaomi if you flashing ROM you need to keep bootloader unlocked so need to do extra work getting bank apps , Google pay working and stay on top of it but xiaomi.eu ROM does have pre fixes for that
 
Soldato
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I'm happily running xiaomi.eu currently thanks to your advice earlier. And everything just works pretty sweet on my CN 11 ultra.

I'd love to take a punt on the 14 Ultra (unless it's pants), my only concern is the hoops the current 14 series owners have to jump through to unlock the bootloader. It seems unattainable for most people, having to be a level 5 Xiaomi community member, and actually take some sort of Chinese test! If I understand it correctly... wtf.
 
Soldato
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I'm happily running xiaomi.eu currently thanks to your advice earlier. And everything just works pretty sweet on my CN 11 ultra.

I'd love to take a punt on the 14 Ultra (unless it's pants), my only concern is the hoops the current 14 series owners have to jump through to unlock the bootloader. It seems unattainable for most people, having to be a level 5 Xiaomi community member, and actually take some sort of Chinese test! If I understand it correctly... wtf.

tradingshenzhen.com is another seller just as good for support no customs , they are usually bit more but can get it pre flashed with xiaomi.eu
 
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Soldato
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Purchased the Nubia Z60 Ultra from their U.K site, although it seems to ship from HK. Been a while since I've had a ZTE device, I think the last was the Axon 7 which was really good and prior to that their Mozilla collab for the Firefox phone which wasn't so good. Anyway, pleasantly surprised at how good the Z60 Ultra is, I liked looked the look of the square slab design but not so much the rear camera array. With all the different shapes on the top rear it looked a bit of a mess but in the flesh it's actually a really nice looking device all round. Would have preferred the Silver but it wasn't available.

It's a Gen3 soc so the UI is buttery smooth, audio is decent and the cameras seem more than capable although the front facing camera is **** , it's an under display camera and every shot makes you look like you have Jaundice.

If you don't mind a larger phone it's really good valve for money.
 
Soldato
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Got myself an Honor Magic V2 via the Three trade-in deal (£1,248 for the phone + a £500 bonus on trade-in value).

Hardware-wise it is incredible. Really thin. Decent screens. Great camera. Feels solidly built without being heavy. The only grumble I have with the hardware is that the hinge snaps open. It seems pretty clear that Honor intended for the phone to be used either open or closed, not partially open.

Software... meh. I'm back to faffing around with launchers and icon packs to try and get the phone looking good. I don't like the stock Honor apps. Gesture navigation is hit and miss, particularly when unfolded. And I've got a bug where the Microsoft Authenticator overlay simply doesn't work, so I keep having to grab my old phone for authentication. I miss the Pixel software experience already.
 
Soldato
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Got myself an Honor Magic V2 via the Three trade-in deal (£1,248 for the phone + a £500 bonus on trade-in value).

Hardware-wise it is incredible. Really thin. Decent screens. Great camera. Feels solidly built without being heavy. The only grumble I have with the hardware is that the hinge snaps open. It seems pretty clear that Honor intended for the phone to be used either open or closed, not partially open.

Software... meh. I'm back to faffing around with launchers and icon packs to try and get the phone looking good. I don't like the stock Honor apps. Gesture navigation is hit and miss, particularly when unfolded. And I've got a bug where the Microsoft Authenticator overlay simply doesn't work, so I keep having to grab my old phone for authentication. I miss the Pixel software experience already.

I think MagicOS 8 introduces 'swipe down for notifications' which has always been lacking for Honour/Huawei device and the worst aspect of their UI for me personally. Baffling why it's taken them so long.
 
Soldato
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Received my Oneplus 12 from Wonda today. Set it all up fine. No region lock and everything is working.

nice one - tempted to updated - My S21 Ultra is showing it's age a bit and I can still get around £220 trade in for it so upgrade would be around £400/450.
 
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Associate
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Anyone looking at the Xiaomi 14 ultra , appears to be quite a good pre order with free camera grip /attachment with extra 1500ohm battery .

Free Tablet, looks like a decent phone also and the OS appears to have matured with HyperOS
 
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Soldato
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Anyone looking at the Xiaomi 14 ultra , appears to be quite a good pre order with free camera grip /attachment with extra 1500ohm battery .

Free Tablet, looks like a decent phone also and the OS appears to have matured with HyperOS

As much as it would be nice to have the 14 Ultra, I think it's not worth it compared to getting a 13 Ultra. :(

The Global variants are always steeply priced over this side of the pond, and you don't get the trade in offers that say Samsung throw at you. Buying the China model is no cheap thing either at the moment, and it looks like unlocking the boot loader on the 14 series is verging on impossible for us westerners. So you'd be stuck with the CN software, which means no Android Auto, no smart watch compatibility, amongst other things and quite a bit of CN apps baked into the software that you cannot get around.

I've found this out recently from owning a mi 11 ultra CN version (fantastic phone) and trying to muddle along with the stock CN rom, and it's been quite a challenge to say the least. But being able to unlock the bootloader and install xiaomi.eu has been a godsend. It's totally transformed the phone.

So, I've ordered the 13 Ultra (16/512GB) from trading shenzhen, it's £700, unlocked with xiaomi.eu pre installed. I'm sure the Gen 2 will be fast enough (it was in my old S23 ultra) and it still had a main 1" sensor, and if I want to upgrade to HyperOS it's already available as an option . Will see when it turns up in a couple of weeks :D
 
Associate
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As much as it would be nice to have the 14 Ultra, I think it's not worth it compared to getting a 13 Ultra. :(

The Global variants are always steeply priced over this side of the pond, and you don't get the trade in offers that say Samsung throw at you. Buying the China model is no cheap thing either at the moment, and it looks like unlocking the boot loader on the 14 series is verging on impossible for us westerners. So you'd be stuck with the CN software, which means no Android Auto, no smart watch compatibility, amongst other things and quite a bit of CN apps baked into the software that you cannot get around.

I've found this out recently from owning a mi 11 ultra CN version (fantastic phone) and trying to muddle along with the stock CN rom, and it's been quite a challenge to say the least. But being able to unlock the bootloader and install xiaomi.eu has been a godsend. It's totally transformed the phone.

So, I've ordered the 13 Ultra (16/512GB) from trading shenzhen, it's £700, unlocked with xiaomi.eu pre installed. I'm sure the Gen 2 will be fast enough (it was in my old S23 ultra) and it still had a main 1" sensor, and if I want to upgrade to HyperOS it's already available as an option . Will see when it turns up in a couple of weeks :D
Good advice, I do like the grip option. Got to do someone research on the cameras
 
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