Super confused over all the versions note/pro , china/India/global, is it actually released?
I want the best camera in the range, 64GB minimum & wireless charging
if anyone could shed some light on what version to buy and where from it would be greatly appreciated
Thanks so much clears it up. What would you recommend is a good deal with a great camera at the moment. Unfortunately my budget doesn't reach Pixel 2 & S9.
It's pretty hard to say. Looking from the midrange and budget phone polls, i'd say maybe LG V20 is good (although they do have a big bootloop concern going on right now), or Xiaomi Mi 6 (and possibly the Mi Max 2s coming out soon, although both of these phones don't have a headphone jack, so be prepared to be disappointed).
But most of these phones lack 1 or more essential stuff. So if you're pursuing a good camera, be prepared to get used to having no headphone jack, bootloop issues and the list goes on. Most manufacturers are trying so hard to be apple these days, they go only for the looks, not the features.
I can live without a headphone jack, boot loop caught me on the Nexus 5x but I really dig the clean Android. I like the look of the camera on the mi max 2s but how far away is that.
Sorry, earlier on i was actually talking about Mi Mix 2s, not the Mi Max. It's pretty expensive so i'm pretty sure you won't buy it.
But what i do recommend is either Mi 6 or Mi Mix 2. Both are about $300-400, great specs (it's got Snapdragon 835 which isn't even that old), good camera specs, Mi Mix 2 is almost bezeless (more so than Mi 6) but both are great phones at half the price of a samsung galaxy s9 plus.
I'll root for Mi 6, just because i got its predecessor, Mi 5s Plus, because Mi 6 removed the headphone jack to be more apple. It's got just about everything (except FM Radio if you desperately need it): NFC, IR, 6 GB RAM/128 GB storage, Bluetooth 5.0, and slightly better camera specs than Mi Mix 2. Also cost is pretty low since it was released last april. You'll be the perfect customer for this kind of phone since you can live without the headphone jack. Also you can unlock the bootloader (but beware, it'll take a long time so prepare to make a Mi account before it arrives so at least your account is used a bit).
Alright, so the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 (also called Redmi 5 Plus) is actually the successor to the Redmi Note 4x that was (and still is) one of the most popular budget phones out there right now. Not much of a difference between the two, except a bigger screen and some minor tweakings here and there that you'll hardly notice (i think the camera has been improved a bit too). That's available now especially on gearbest (i think so, but if it's not there do have a look in banggood or lightinthebox).
Redmi Note 5 Pro is a modified version of Redmi Note 5 with a better processor (Snapdragon 625 in Redmi Note 5 vs Snapdragon 635 in Redmi Note 5 Pro), and with a significantly better camera. It's released in India and China, but no official sales yet, except from AliExpress (but tbh, they are a bit overpriced, and i would wait right now if i were you, because the prices will drop before the end of this year). Most people are waiting for gearbest, lightinthebox, banggood or shopmonk to officially start selling it. It was also recently went official in India and China, so it'll take time for other retailers to get big shipment orders to sell them.
Regarding the features you want, well i'm not sure what you meant by best camera in the range. If you're looking for best camera overall, i think that goes to either the Pixel 2 XL or Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. Wireless charging isn't given by Xiaomi for any budget phones, but the upcoming Mi Max 2s might have it (iirc). 64 GB is probably everyone's minimum considering today's data intensive work (this includes taking those awesome selfies in the morning) that makes 32 GB storage filled phones pretty useless. But getting a 64 GB for a budget phone is probably useless considering they could be obsolete in a year or two in my opinion.