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

Hello, this has probably been asked 1000 times but between the below what would you recommend all are around the £280 mark.

Poco F5
Poco X5 Pro
Redmi Note 13 Pro from China - Unsure if this will be fully supported here in the UK?

Note really wanting second hand but have seen some good deals on a Samsung Note 20 Ultra for around the same price, used.
 
Steven Rimmington said:
Hello, this has probably been asked 1000 times but between the below what would you recommend all are around the £280 mark.

Poco F5
Poco X5 Pro
Redmi Note 13 Pro from China - Unsure if this will be fully supported here in the UK?

Note really wanting second hand but have seen some good deals on a Samsung Note 20 Ultra for around the same price, used.
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the Redmi Note 13 Pro will have band 20 missing which I think all networks use for 4G so you could come unstuck at some point
 
mrk said:
I got the Redmagic 9 Pro in today for review, the specs are quite hilarious :cry:

Snapdragon 8 gen 3
16GB RAM
512GB storage
6500mAh battery
80W fast charger (no wireless)
520Hz AMOLED (120Hz in normal mode)
RGB cooling fan
Dual 50MP rear sensors
Under-screen front camera

It actually looks and feels very very premium, bit of a chonk though as you'd expect. The shape is very old skool Xperia/iPhone in the sharp angles. I like it, just a shame there's no wireless charging or IPX rating given the price.

w1Y1mmA.gif


Will be comparing it against my Galaxy S23 Ultra.
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Is this phone worth buying? after a few weeks with it?
 
As a gaming phone sure but I think the OS itself lacks the overall features that we are accustomed to with say Samsung/OnePlus etc! The camera is not great (still). I haven't done my full review yet!

But it can be used as a phone too and get great battery life it seems, just don't expect amazing camera performance or wealth of features/updates.
 
Dialup said:
Does anyone know where I can buy a Xiaomi 13? I don't want the 13T as it doesn't have a Snapdragon.
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Good luck. It seems that we in the UK don't get the option to buy the majority of new phones over here. Well, not unless you want to import them, get raped by customs and get stuck with a crappy 2-pin charger (which is illegal IIRC). Hell, even the ones on Amazon.co.uk say they're imported from the EU and have £100 added to the price to cover customs.
 
Malevolence said:
Good luck. It seems that we in the UK don't get the option to buy the majority of new phones over here. Well, not unless you want to import them, get raped by customs and get stuck with a crappy 2-pin charger (which is illegal IIRC). Hell, even the ones on Amazon.co.uk say they're imported from the EU and have £100 added to the price to cover customs.
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I know of 2 sellers you wont get charged customs, but xiaomi started to leave out network bands on the cn version such as band 20 also flashing global / eu stock roms will leave you with google pay and some bank apps not working, xiaomi.eu do custom roms with fixes in place and are quick to release them

I'll likely be getting the Oneplus 12 cn version has all the bands and should be able to flash the stock oxygen so basically act as if bought from here just waiting to see how much I can save
 
Dialup said:
Does anyone know where I can buy a Xiaomi 13? I don't want the 13T as it doesn't have a Snapdragon.
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it should be out at some point but imo it will be overpriced , I see CN version being sold for £455.62 thats quite some difference the Xiaomi 14 - 8GB/256GB £542.08 and wont be hit with custom charges but missing bands and dealing with flashing roms unless you wanna stick with the chinese rom does have english but you still will see chinese stuff
www.mi.com

Xiaomi 13 - Xiaomi UK

The Xiaomi Mi 13 masterpiece incorporates iconic features such as the 75mm Leica telephoto lens, shaping the classic Leica style and aesthetics.
www.mi.com www.mi.com

I usually buy the CN version for much cheaper and flash xiaomi.eu rom but they started leaving out band 20 maybe more in the CN versions so will be giving it a miss this time think its to stop people importing them in for much cheaper, I'll probably go with the Oneplus 12 this time
 
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I'd love to have a top end Xiaomi phone again, there's something I just really like about the hardware and UI. But I definitely need band 20, and at the price point in question having some usable warranty would be nice also.

I've got a mint UK spec 11T Pro as a spare phone, which is stunningly fast, flat screen, side fingerprint reader that's flawless etc, but it's a shame the camera setup cannot compete in today's market otherwise it would be near perfect. Oh and wireless charging would be nice also :D

I'm currently using a Pixel 8 Pro, which is nice. But if this was a Xiaomi phone it would be a lot better imo :p
 
broona said:
Anyone else on here using the Honor Magic 5 Pro? Had mine for a few months now, and love it, doesn't seem to be a popular choice though?
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Lovely phone, but It's not a populous choice for the same reason that car manufacturers such as Skoda and Lexus have struggled with - it's a brand issue, nothing to do with the performance or specs. All about the name and the reason why we've got the omnipresent Range Rover or iPhones.

Also as already mentioned flagship specs like that cost money and when you factor in the European distribution costs and taxes it ends up either priced similarly or above your Google Pixels or Samsung Ultras . Your average consumer has never heard of Honor, let alone associate it with Huawei, so yeah it's a gamble at that price and of course not with the 'in-crowd' .

Semi-conductor wars crippled Huawei, China apparently stealing chip designs etc and infringing patents.
 
Earth[Tera].bin said:
Lovely phone, but It's not a populous choice for the same reason that car manufacturers such as Skoda and Lexus have struggled with - it's a brand issue, nothing to do with the performance or specs. All about the name and the reason why we've got the omnipresent Range Rover or iPhones.

Also as already mentioned flagship specs like that cost money and when you factor in the European distribution costs and taxes it ends up either priced similarly or above your Google Pixels or Samsung Ultras . Your average consumer has never heard of Honor, let alone associate it with Huawei, so yeah it's a gamble at that price and of course not with the 'in-crowd' .

Semi-conductor wars crippled Huawei, China apparently stealing chip designs etc and infringing patents.
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Funnily enough, I drive a Skoda Octavia, as I know it's 90% VW/Audi, without the price tag associated with those brands!

I'm the same with most things now, too old to care about the label, and happy to pay a sensible price for something decent without the big brand VAT added on. :D

Plus, sometimes it's just nice to be a little bit different.
 
OnePlus 12 and 12r have caught my eye , I see the 16gb / 512gb CN version OnePlus 12 going for £627. I'll wait till global is released so hopefully the CN version will be able to be flashed with global rom , OnePlus support is 4 years android and 5 years security
 
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