Xiaomi Mi4
- Thread starter pugwash
- Start date
As with the Xiaomi Mi 3, the first batch of Mi 4's will be for Chinese market and only support TDD LTE (4G). You will have to wait for FDD LTE version, for UK, Europe and North America.
When buying Chinese phones always check that the phone has FDD, and then check what bands or spectrum it supports. Some phones will have both FDD and TDD, but the FDD range may be limited to two or three bands such as 800/1800/2600, or 800/2600. In the UK we have spectrum's in 4G ranging from 800mhz to 2600mhz. These spectrum are also referred to as Bands.
Band 3 = 1800mhz Band 7 = 2600mhz Band 20 = 800mhz
Mobile phone providers will have different 'chunks' of the spectrum. Some providers will focus on one Band more than the other. The difficulty arises in knowing what 4G masts are in your local area. You want to avoid a situation where the phone you have bought does not have a band that corresponds to your provider, or if it does, your local mast only offers one band.
Offcom's mobile phone mast sitefinder http://sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/ is no longer acurate, as regulations no longer require providers to keep the data base up to date. You now have to rely upon coverage maps, which are not always accurate, and also do not follow the same methodology. For example some maps will refer to coverage outside of homes, not inside, or 2G AND NOT 3G or 4G. Having said this, HDSPA coverage and data speed in my local area is better than 4G.
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Tauren, it will come down to your own particular circumstances. For example my wife has a sim only deal with three mobile and where we live in Cardiff the H+ has a better data speed than 4G which is available in other parts of Cardiff.
If your sim provider has very good HDPSA in your area and the 4G is poor, then I don't see it as a reason not to buy. However, if your HDPSA is poor and 4G is decent then you are going to have to rely upon your WiFi more than your sim.
For example, Vodafone is rubbish in Cardiff and across Wales. I stayed with Vodafone because they offered me a 4G sim only deal (unlimited texts, unlimited calls, 3 month unlimited data, then 9 months of 5Gb data), plus Spotify for £15 per month. The Spotify deal was too good to decline. At home I always use my WiFi, at work, signal strength is poor across all providers. Therefore I wasn't in any way put off by not having 4G. It might be that next year I don't get a decent retention offer from Vodafone, and will then have to look for a provider with decent 4G coverage in the 1800/2600 spectrum, which would be EE or possibly three mobile.
If your sim provider has very good HDPSA in your area and the 4G is poor, then I don't see it as a reason not to buy. However, if your HDPSA is poor and 4G is decent then you are going to have to rely upon your WiFi more than your sim.
For example, Vodafone is rubbish in Cardiff and across Wales. I stayed with Vodafone because they offered me a 4G sim only deal (unlimited texts, unlimited calls, 3 month unlimited data, then 9 months of 5Gb data), plus Spotify for £15 per month. The Spotify deal was too good to decline. At home I always use my WiFi, at work, signal strength is poor across all providers. Therefore I wasn't in any way put off by not having 4G. It might be that next year I don't get a decent retention offer from Vodafone, and will then have to look for a provider with decent 4G coverage in the 1800/2600 spectrum, which would be EE or possibly three mobile.
Android is installed, but because of an issue between Chinese Gmnt and Google, playstore has to be manually installed. Not a difficult task as the installation file is on the Xiaomi app store. Plenty of guides online.
Indeed. Near Perfect bezels...drool
I thought you might like the phone considering your love for near zero bezels
On another note will hold of buying the Xiaomi until a 4G friendly black version is released and might not even get it then depending on what Moto and Google release in. the coming months.
I'm looking to upgrade my phone i had to buy a cheap phone as i broke my S3 early on in the contract which has left me with a sour taste regarding chinese phones i own a cubot one and when i was doing research it seemed to get good reviews but i have nothing but bad things about the phone.
These look interesting but was wondering if anyone has compared it to a one plus one and which phone seems more future proof?
These look interesting but was wondering if anyone has compared it to a one plus one and which phone seems more future proof?
I've just found out about the IUNI U3. http://www.gizchina.com/2014/08/26/iuni-u3-officially-launched/
This maybe my next phone.
This maybe my next phone.