Seems like a good price for this Mi5, even better considering its a relatively reputable Chinese store and shipped with fast DHL (not on the slow boat…)
Edit:
Just looked through the account settings and saw they had a referral thingy. Here is mine if anyone feels like it, thanks.
I thought Mi UI is their core advantage to their competitors like Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony, Huawei etc according to Chinese tech media. lol.
Xiaomi originally gained huge fan base in China just because of their community of Mi UI development.
Hah. I can see why. The Chinese love worship Apple's design UX and so MIUI was created as a middle-class answer to that — they started ripping off IOS design cues with MIUI v6.
But as for me, i still prefer the look and feel of Material. And any Android skin that messes with the layout of the Settings menu == just bad design, unneccesary and pretentious. Keep it as it is, Xiaomi!
Agreed. Love the phones, love the price, can't use the software.
Even Samsung aren't so bad now with the SGS7. Never thought I would say that…
Give me a base ASAP build any day of the week. The funny thing is this is the code they start with before they ruin everything.
Whats he advantage of CM over MIUI, there are a few bugs with MIUI on my MI5, there is a new update for MIUI which apparently improves performance and battery life, just applied for my phone to be unlocked, I'll get back to you.
For that price i would go for xiaomi max, similar spec wise, about $100 cheaper and beastly battery 4850mah
Not exactly comparable as it is a ~6.5" phablet…
Yeah but if your a normal person, and don't like your phone to have a 6.44 inch screen.
The Mi5 is a lot better option.
Oops, well i am a phablet guy so forgot about that, dang…
Very good phone for this price. But I would pay a little extra for S7 (water proof, better camera, better screen). S7 is too outstanding and beat pretty much all android phones.
Sure samsung always have the best hardware but the shame thing is their flagships are always the slowest android top end compare to competitors released in the same period thanks to touchwiz. S7 falls into the same pattern… Lags here and there, better than the s6 but still.. You have to always wait for the phone to response in real time operation.
paid around aud700 for S7 at Kogan. extra aud 250
Yeah, it really is a "little" extra.
I would pay a little extra for S7 (water proof, better camera, better screen).
Not a bit extra, but willing to pay twice as much for a Samsung/Sony/LG brand phone.
And you get band 28 and channel aggregation on 4g with the Samsung
I'd buy this for having both sim slots 3g/4g at the same time. But the low light camera performance seems to be lacking which combined with having to flash another ROM and also potential warranty issues puts me off.
I've been following this phone for a while and it's cheaper on Aliexpress here. With DHL shipping it comes to Total Price: US $336.60, and you can read buyer's feedbacks for this phone. The seller has average of 99.5% positive feedback. I'm just waiting for some sort of coupon to pull the trigger on this
Wouldn't you prefer having PayPal protection in case something goes wrong? Personally I don't think its worth saving an extra ~$10 AUD if it means you can't pay with PayPal (for these Chinese stores).
No, I've never heard of ibuygou before today, but I've made hundreds of purchases on AliExpress with AliPay. In any case, PayPal isn't exactly what you'd call 'reputable', I don't feel particularly safe using them.
I've made hundreds of purchases on Aliexpress with AliPay and never had any issues as long as you stick to the reputable sellers. If you do your research, read up on all the comments/feedback of other buyers around the world, it really doesn't matter whether you are paying via PayPal or AliPay.
I might think about it if it was $150~ to try out a Chinese brand phone.
That's a kinda silly approach. Xiaomi are the third biggest selling phone maker in the world (after Samsung and Apple) and they don't even sell to most of the world! Their phones are at least as good as (and possibly better than) the mainstream 'western' brands like Apple, Samsung, LG et al. Try one, you will not regret it!
Xiaomi is pretty good based on feedback and price but i would call it the 3rd, thats the place of Huawei though
I'm going back to my LG G4. The Xiaomi Mi5 is nowhere near flagship.
I'm going back to my Nokia 3220. The LG G4 is nowhere near flagship.
@OnlinePred: i have both phones. One of them works with Google. The other works with the Chinese government. Unless a ROM can improve the sub standard non flagship camera they installed, it will never be flagship. Don't kid yourself. The G4 has a much better camera and actually works. The Nokia doesn't have a better camera. But arguably still works. Knock yourself out fanboy.
@Risto: Fanboy? Fanboy of what? Of phones? The G4 is yester-years tech for almost this years tech price. All you get is a plastic phone with a decent camera. Forget about things like ram, cpu, fingerprint reader, build, appearance because the G4 loses in those categories. I bought my old man a G4 a few months back when it was $360. I wouldn't pay a dollar more for it. It's a good phone, but flagship of 2016 it isn't.
Anyway I was mocking you because your personal opinion is that the Xiaomi is nowhere near a flagship. But factually it is. Literally you can look at the specs and say this phone is flagship. So perhaps you want to rephrase your comment? Something a long the lines of, "I don't like the phone for some reason, it might be because I like the photos from my G4." Perhaps also state which model MI5 you bought.
@OnlinePred: flagship that can't take decent pictures? Flagship that simply does not function with Google apps? It's a Hyundai stuffed with a big block Chevy…. with a dodgy gearbox.
@Risto: that's holden you are talking about. Again Hyundai are makers of great cars so not sure of your point. Did you flash international ROM?
@OnlinePred: I'll sell you mine for $200. You can feel the experience. I'd love to flash the international ROM, but need unlocking permission. I got it, bit it doesn't work. Perhaps you can give me a phone number at Xiaomi to resolve the matter. Perhaps you can't. It's why I prefer to buy phones made for the Australian market in the future.
@OnlinePred: On this very page I stated which model (64gb) I bought and what didn't work well. The most fundamental is the fact that Google Services stop working DAILY. (Would you pay AUD$470 for this kind of luxury?) The camera is sub standard (non flagship variety) and the back button stops working when it overwhelms itself. Slipper as hell. Terrible speaker. Further, the Xiaomi app store wants to overwrite the Google apps I have installed. When I let that happen, the app ceases to work. It is rubbish. It might be better in China without the Google stuff, but it is terrible here. Nothing will fix the camera in low light, but perhaps some other ROMs might help some of the other issues. But installing them will be difficult given the unlock authorisation I was given by Xiaomi does not work. Just because it uses a good processor does not mean this is a flagship phone. It is not.
You can see where they "cheap out" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2jav7UdQtE
@Risto: ^buys cheap Chinese phone without researching, then complains about cheapness and consequences due to lack of research. Not sure what you want. You said it is not a flagship, but perhaps you don't understand what it means. It is Xiaomi's flagship. Fact. That's it. Stop trying to argue. I think it's amazing they got that much tech into a device for that price.
@OnlinePred: Pays about AUD$500 based on quoted performance and specifications and gets a dysfunctional phone. It might be Xiaomi's flagship, but it's at the end of the fleet behind all the other ships with working flags. Which was my point. Get one and speak with authority on the matter before you talk about the tech they fit into the phone. I have one. I know. You should get one and see.
@OnlinePred: It is quite a nice experience when you first start it up and have a play. I think using it for a while shows up its problems. My bluetooth doesn't ever want to link with my Sony wireless headphones and it even stopped working in my car today. Buy at your peril. There are more than a few whines on the MIUI forums.
Risto, do you want to sell your mi5? I would like to take it if it is a genuine xiaomi mi5 and no failure on any component.
Please let me know if you are interested. Thanks.
I want to get rid of my samsung s6 edge simply because I always find myself waiting for the phone to response to my operations thanks to touchwiz.
Not the third anymore. Huawei took the place and Oppo and Vivo came in the forth and fifth place. Xiaomi is at no 6 now.
There are plenty of china phones for $150.
My Meizu Note 2 was that price with 2Gb/16gb and it performs very well.
You might be surprised.
Typing on my Mi5 64gb. The camera is rubbish in low light. Google play does not sit well and keeps dropping out of functionality. The back button forgets to work. The rear glass is so slippery it falls off everything. Battery life is terrible. Brilliant infra red remote but am expensive universal remote. I'm totally turned off the Chinese stuff now though.
The Chinese prefer Huawei over Xiaomi. They think it's a cheap brand that takes short cuts with their phones. I tend to agree.
Xiaomi is just as good as Huawei. There aren't any major quality issues for all these Chinese brands. They are all good phone for their price. But I would say oz incomes are pretty high, so most people don't really care about the price differences.
I got the Mi5 3gb/32gb white, came with customised rom with adware and malware… really pissed. I hope this seller doesn't tinker with the phone.
Im waiting for a good deal on the global ROM version
Hey guys! I'm Daniel from Ibuygou and came here to provide you the best bargains :)
We have new promotion for that model Mi5 3/32 WHITE, you can use our international coupon to lower the price for 29$ !
This is a discount code MI532WHPL
Enjoy! :)
anyone running a stable CM rom on this? Not too keen on using Xiaomi's piece of crap distro they call MIUI