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

Soldato
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Hey all. My Oneplus 3 had an LCD leak that has taken over the whole screen and after a few days I decided to go for the Xiaomi Poco F3 because by raw specs it looks fantastic -- but I'm starting to feel a bit of regret because of the reports of bloatware and spyware and reduced software support. Should I expect a much less refined experience compared to OxygenOS? Is it tough to remove the bloat/spyware? Wondering if I should cancel or return the order and get something else...
 
Soldato
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Xiaomi are doing some stonking deals at the moment. Can get the Poco X3 Pro for £154! Very tempted but I had my eyes on the Redmi Note 10 Pro...
 
Soldato
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My Poco F3 has a slightly dodgy touch screen responsiveness in the bottom-left corner (portrait) when playing TFT. Is it a general problem across games?


EDIT: The phone has some "game optimisation" bloat that reduces sensitivity in the corners of the touchscreen when gaming (Probably useful for some kinds of games?) So I went ahead and disabled that... I hope I can find a more stock android feel for this phone, else I may return it. Only complaint is the excess of software and OS features I don't need - a very personal complaint. Phone is really nice otherwise, for the money.
 
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Associate
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What screen protectors/cases are people using on their X3 Pro's?

Had to replace my Poco F1 that I dropped last week and the screen smashed a bit. ugh. Shame as it was mint, and well looked after from new. Guess it was time for an upgrade.
 
Caporegime
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First excellent day of battery on my F3. Left for work at 7.30 and had 43% battery left by 11.30pm that night. Assumed my SoT would be mediocre, but it was on 3hrs 42mins. Much better :cool:
 
Soldato
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Does anyone know if you can return opened products to the mi UK store? I know you get 14 days to return but it doesn't say anything about opened products.

I've been hearing a lot of stories about panel lottery's when it comes to Xiaomi. The mi 11 lite 5g seems badly affected and I've read the X3 pro is also to a lesser extent. I would like to check my X3 pro and if the panel is poor have to option to send it back.
 
Soldato
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Does anyone know if you can return opened products to the mi UK store? I know you get 14 days to return but it doesn't say anything about opened products.

I've been hearing a lot of stories about panel lottery's when it comes to Xiaomi. The mi 11 lite 5g seems badly affected and I've read the X3 pro is also to a lesser extent. I would like to check my X3 pro and if the panel is poor have to option to send it back.
Pretty sure it would be illegal to not allow a return if you're unhappy with the product and it is in an as new state. I'm thinking of doing the same after a week with my Poco F3...
 
Soldato
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Pretty sure it would be illegal to not allow a return if you're unhappy with the product and it is in an as new state. I'm thinking of doing the same after a week with my Poco F3...

Hi.

Someone on Hotukdeals said its fine to send it back and like you said if someone changes their mind about a product and they have bought it online then it's fine to return as long as it's in a new state.

TBH the panel on the X3 pro is pretty good for an IPS and the phone is nice overall but I just prefer smaller phones and MIUI is not to my liking. I'm going to go back to my Pixel 2 and when the price drops below £200 pickup a Pixel 4a. TBH the Pixel 2 with a Snapdragon 835 feels faster than the X3 Pro rocking a Snapdragon 860 - It must be MIUI slowing it down.

Out of interest what don't you like about your F3?
 
Soldato
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Hi.

Someone on Hotukdeals said its fine to send it back and like you said if someone changes their mind about a product and they have bought it online then it's fine to return as long as it's in a new state.

TBH the panel on the X3 pro is pretty good for an IPS and the phone is nice overall but I just prefer smaller phones and MIUI is not to my liking. I'm going to go back to my Pixel 2 and when the price drops below £200 pickup a Pixel 4a. TBH the Pixel 2 with a Snapdragon 835 feels faster than the X3 Pro rocking a Snapdragon 860 - It must be MIUI slowing it down.

Out of interest what don't you like about your F3?

Thanks for the heads up.

The Poco F3 is brilliant in terms of the hardware, feel and screen.

The camera is "okay" in comparison.

And using MIUI/PocoLauncher is like rubbing my brain against a cheese grater.

Even after removing much of the bloat, there are bits here and there that probably still need tinkering in the UI and with how the touch screen responds, as well as accessibility to certain settings etc. I know a custom ROM would solve much of this however I think I've decided that I'm at a stage of my life where phones are something I don't want to tinker with any more. Going to cough up the extra cash for a OnePlus 8 variant - I'm already accustomed to OxygenOS.



EDIT: I just wanted to update to say that Xiaomi's return process is relatively simple after sending a follow up email. They specifically say there is a 14-day no reason return and a 30-day defect return, if the service center deems there is no defect.
 
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Soldato
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Anyone on miui 12 that can help? I was previously getting a notification when a network was available to connect to. I disabled this initially but for for the life of me cannot work out how to enable it again. Looked in notifications and also in WiFi settings...
 
Caporegime
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^no idea unfortunately.

Another weird bug on my F3 :p, though I haven't done this on a phone before. I was just simply going through my liked songs on Spotify and adding a bunch of them to 4 different playlists. After a few minutes the phone becomes slower, eventually crashing Spotify. It's very repeatable.
 
Associate
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After 4 years of use, my trusty Galaxy Note 8 slipped out my pocket and broke :(

Looking at the Redmi Note 10 Pro, I can live without IP68 and wireless charging but not sure if I'll be worse off overall - Have 2021 'mid range' generally caught up with 2017 'flagships'? Also half tempted by the ~£600 Mi 11 but I'm not sure dropping that kinda cash on a Chinese company that chucks so many phones out a year is worth it.
 
Associate
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After 4 years of use, my trusty Galaxy Note 8 slipped out my pocket and broke :(

Looking at the Redmi Note 10 Pro, I can live without IP68 and wireless charging but not sure if I'll be worse off overall - Have 2021 'mid range' generally caught up with 2017 'flagships'? Also half tempted by the ~£600 Mi 11 but I'm not sure dropping that kinda cash on a Chinese company that chucks so many phones out a year is worth it.
Less than half that on the Poco F3 looks a better bet.

3 months in, I`m very happy with mine.
 
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