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

Been looking for a phone and it came down to the Redmi note 5 (£150) or Mi a2 lite (£135).
Both now officially sold in the UK, so no import tax, no worries with warranty etc.

They seem to be almost identical, except the mi a2 lite is newer yet has an older processor 625 and is slightly smaller then the redmi note 5, but the redmi note 5 has a 636 processor. According to the internet its about 40%(?) Faster.

The only issue is the listings says its snapdragon 625 on the redmi note 5, when it should be 636.

From Googling its seems to be there are different versions of the same phone, how do I tell which is the version with snapdragon 636?
 
ForTheQuestions said:
Been looking for a phone and it came down to the Redmi note 5 (£150) or Mi a2 lite (£135).
Both now officially sold in the UK, so no import tax, no worries with warranty etc.

They seem to be almost identical, except the mi a2 lite is newer yet has an older processor 625 and is slightly smaller then the redmi note 5, but the redmi note 5 has a 636 processor. According to the internet its about 40%(?) Faster.

The only issue is the listings says its snapdragon 625 on the redmi note 5, when it should be 636.

From Googling its seems to be there are different versions of the same phone, how do I tell which is the version with snapdragon 636?
Click to expand...
The Redmi Note 5 with Snapdragon 636 CPU has dual rear camera like the iPhone X (top left corner).
 
Hi people. Looking for a device for a family member. Budget around £200 - £250, needs to be regular size 5.5" - 6"

Any recommendations?
 
The biggest difference between the Redmi and Mi A2 Lite is the fact the Redmi runs MIUI whereas the A2L runs Android One. I'm surprised you didbn't mention that, as a lot of people hate MIUI :confused: For that reason I plumped for the A2 Lite. And the fact that it is smaller and has a bigger battery.
 
Scam said:
The biggest difference between the Redmi and Mi A2 Lite is the fact the Redmi runs MIUI whereas the A2L runs Android One. I'm surprised you didbn't mention that, as a lot of people hate MIUI :confused: For that reason I plumped for the A2 Lite. And the fact that it is smaller and has a bigger battery.
Click to expand...

I'm not that bothered about it been pure android, as long as it gets security updates I'm fine with it.
Don't they both have a 4000mAh battery?
 
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Scam said:
Sorry I don't do Reddit. What exactly is the issue? :confused:
Click to expand...
On android platforms there exists various NAND storage interfaces just like you would on a PC (Sata, Pata, IDE etc). The android phone equivalents are the more recent and faster UFS standard, with the more slower eMMC standard that dates back many years. eMMC is a lot slower bandwidth wise and more dated than others. eMMC (embedded multimedia card) was used on the Galaxy Note 4 for instance and led to it being famous for its eMMC error, in which the nand just couldn't take more writes and turned the device into a brick. Apple use NVMe or something to that end, which is as fast as UFS.

TLDR: Users are reporting to Google (not sure why but I haven't fully looked into it either) that they are seeing widely varying read/write times on their A2 devices to the point where the phone chokes whilst doing smaller tasks. Is the phone using older eMMC or the newer UFS systems? We don't know - chinese manufacturers tend to not state the specifics and always go for big storage numbers but you don't tend to know what you're getting until you purchase one.

Example: My old Nexus 6P:
Everytime I did app updates via the play store, the phone would lag heavily and sometimes lock up. As a result I couldn't use the phone during this process. Doing a quick check just now on Anandtech (under NAND performance) leads to it having eMMC modules from Samsung.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/9820/the-google-nexus-6p-review/2
 
Hmn ok makes sense. A bit worrying then. Mine's arriving tomorrow and I still need to decide between that and the OP6! Might sound like an unfair comparison but I really wanted a smaller phone and don't need a big/nice screen etc. because I never watch anything on my phone... :o
 
Scam said:
Hmn ok makes sense. A bit worrying then. Mine's arriving tomorrow and I still need to decide between that and the OP6! Might sound like an unfair comparison but I really wanted a smaller phone and don't need a big/nice screen etc. because I never watch anything on my phone... :o
Click to expand...
Quite sure the OP6 will be using UFS. Hope the A2 ends up being good as I need a backup device to buy if my old 6P that my mum uses dies.
 
Kainz said:
On android platforms there exists various NAND storage interfaces just like you would on a PC (Sata, Pata, IDE etc). The android phone equivalents are the more recent and faster UFS standard, with the more slower eMMC standard that dates back many years. eMMC is a lot slower bandwidth wise and more dated than others. eMMC (embedded multimedia card) was used on the Galaxy Note 4 for instance and led to it being famous for its eMMC error, in which the nand just couldn't take more writes and turned the device into a brick. Apple use NVMe or something to that end, which is as fast as UFS.

TLDR: Users are reporting to Google (not sure why but I haven't fully looked into it either) that they are seeing widely varying read/write times on their A2 devices to the point where the phone chokes whilst doing smaller tasks. Is the phone using older eMMC or the newer UFS systems? We don't know - chinese manufacturers tend to not state the specifics and always go for big storage numbers but you don't tend to know what you're getting until you purchase one.

Example: My old Nexus 6P:
Everytime I did app updates via the play store, the phone would lag heavily and sometimes lock up. As a result I couldn't use the phone during this process. Doing a quick check just now on Anandtech (under NAND performance) leads to it having eMMC modules from Samsung.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/9820/the-google-nexus-6p-review/2
Click to expand...

No such issue with my A2 Lite thank god! I actually love this little phone, its a belter ;)
 
Scam said:
The biggest difference between the Redmi and Mi A2 Lite is the fact the Redmi runs MIUI whereas the A2L runs Android One. I'm surprised you didbn't mention that, as a lot of people hate MIUI :confused: For that reason I plumped for the A2 Lite. And the fact that it is smaller and has a bigger battery.
Click to expand...
They have the same capacity battery, both 4000mah.
 
Have read online the A2 lite doesn't display android auto correctly.

Could someone with the phone try it and let me know, I use my pixel in a cradle sitting upright and use android auto all the time so this would be a deal breaker for me?
 
Has anyone had issues with Xioami notifications? When i had my redmi note 3 i found them to be very inconsistent. For example it would sometimes tell me when i had emails and then it wouldnt and I'd find 5 emails. Is this still an issue on miui on xioami and pocofone? I assume this wouldnt be the case on the a2/lite as they are android one.
My brother still has my old phone and cant solve the issue. It is on miui9.
 
mdaw said:
Has anyone had issues with Xioami notifications? When i had my redmi note 3 i found them to be very inconsistent. For example it would sometimes tell me when i had emails and then it wouldnt and I'd find 5 emails. Is this still an issue on miui on xioami and pocofone? I assume this wouldnt be the case on the a2/lite as they are android one.
My brother still has my old phone and cant solve the issue. It is on miui9.
Click to expand...

I mainly found it was emails, then I had issues with my insurance app (NEOS) and then NEST.

I found some worked if you take off optimization and then individual app battery managment etc but every beta update changes something and I can't be bother chasing them, aslong as email works I've not bothered with the rest now.

It's definalty the worse aspect of Xiaomi MIUI, I guess I should go back to custom ROMs but found I was constantly meddling which I can't be bothered with now.
 
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