The Official Xiaomi Thread

naughty001 said:
i was seriously looking at Xiaomi despite all the doom and gloom comments you encounter here in this forum, but during Black Friday i got a good deal on the S24FE and that's way better than the note 13 pro+ 5g i was considering and it was also around R6k/R7k cheaper than the 14T pro that was just released at the same time plus the Sammie came with a set of buds 3 bundled with it - so it seriously seems like the only way Xiaomi retains the value aspect is if you self import
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I got a S24FE on black friday, 256gb version with samsung buds 3 for 10.5k at amazon, can't beat that so i'm a happy chappy
 
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Zuner said:
I got a S24FE on black friday, 256gb version with samsung buds 3 for 10.5k at amazon, can't beat that so i'm a happy chappy
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Really good price, paid that for the S23FE back in 23
 
Groggyme said:
As much as I rag (rightfully) on Xiaomi for some of their decisions, you do see that NFC support is very spotty on the budget and even mid-range phones across the board. I have been looking at Samsung A35, A54, and A55 and NFC support is a toss up depending on which shop you buy from. Some places (sellers on Takealot) seem to be importing cheaper phones from Malaysia and Saudi to sell here which have no NFC support in South Africa on Samsung Pay (Google Pay may or may not work as well depending on the coutnry). Incredible Connection seem to have Samsung A35 which have NFC which work in South Africa for R5999 if you are still interested.
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Yeah got to make sure you get the SA version. But takealot don't care what their third parties do
 
Zuner said:
I got a S24FE on black friday, 256gb version with samsung buds 3 for 10.5k at amazon, can't beat that so i'm a happy chappy
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definitely can't beat that - i paid a lot more for the same deal ..... in fact R4k more and also on Black Friday
 
fanusj said:
But when I tried to setup my Google Wallet, to my disappointed it did not support NFC.
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Also ditched Xiaomi for Samsung over NFC, I was tired of missing out :ROFL:

Samsung was every so slightly cheaper, and had NFC in an entry level phone. Samsung guaranteeing 4 years of updates also isn't bad for a basic phone.
 
Groggyme said:
As much as I rag (rightfully) on Xiaomi for some of their decisions, you do see that NFC support is very spotty on the budget and even mid-range phones across the board. I have been looking at Samsung A35, A54, and A55 and NFC support is a toss up depending on which shop you buy from. Some places (sellers on Takealot) seem to be importing cheaper phones from Malaysia and Saudi to sell here which have no NFC support in South Africa on Samsung Pay (Google Pay may or may not work as well depending on the coutnry). Incredible Connection seem to have Samsung A35 which have NFC which work in South Africa for R5999 if you are still interested.
Click to expand...

i need to test and see if Samsung Wallet or even Google Pay works on my S24FE which i bought from a third party via takealot

its not a huge trainsmash if they don't work but its a nice to have feature - and it will help to stop having to carry so many cards in the physical wallet in my pocket
 
naughty001 said:
i need to test and see if Samsung Wallet or even Google Pay works on my S24FE which i bought from a third party via takealot

its not a huge trainsmash if they don't work but its a nice to have feature - and it will help to stop having to carry so many cards in the physical wallet in my pocket
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My wallet lives in my car now. I hate walking around with bulky pockets. I don't think you'll go back to carrying your wallet to the shops.

Even if you don't use an app to pay, you should still put all your reward cards in an app so that you don't have to carry a million cards with you. NFC isn't used for reward cards.
 
Do you guys think that its worth it to upgrade from the Redmi Note 10 Pro to the Redmi Note 14 Pro? Im seeing 120w charging on 14 pro.

I dont play games on my phone (because thats sacrilege) so dont really care about the cpu and gpu difference. Every now and again do take photos/videos. I noticed from running the Note 10 Pro at 120hz that it drains the battery quite quickly, wonder if it will also happen with the Note 14 Pro.

Edit: Note 14 Pro+ has 120w charging, Note 14 Pro has 45w.
 
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Ah, fair enough. For my money the 10 Pro -> 14 Pro upgrade isn't significant, I'd keep using the phone until the software gets so old that apps stop updating because of it. But then again I jumped off the gadget lust train years ago, my last flagship was an HTC One X, and it's been budget/lower-mid phones ever since.
 
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Xiaomi warning... with HyperOS instead of Miui as the new operating system, they now have a ridiculously complicated system to unlock the bootloader. And since HyperOS generally has poor battery life, changing the ROM has become necessary, for which you must unlock the bootloader. Having bought about 6 Xiaomi phones for various members of my family, this will be my last.
 
Aravose said:
Xiaomi warning... with HyperOS instead of Miui as the new operating system, they now have a ridiculously complicated system to unlock the bootloader. And since HyperOS generally has poor battery life, changing the ROM has become necessary, for which you must unlock the bootloader. Having bought about 6 Xiaomi phones for various members of my family, this will be my last.
Click to expand...

yeah, they've lost the plot...used to be cheaper, more mod-able devices that you didn't mind risking fiddling with. Now they're annoying AF to work with.
 
I don't know why people find fast charging to be a spec that means anything, my sammy has 25w fast charge and thats fast enough for me, in fact i switch off fast charging, and only turn it on if I actually need it.

CPU is a huge factor, it determines your experience on the phone.
 
There's still value in some of their phones, but you're basically reduced to importing them to get it. I got a Poco X7 Pro from Amazon for R8k all in and it's got some impressive hardware. They addressed the battery problem with brute force by including a 6000mAh battery. I know I'm on my own in terms of any support, though.
 
Considering deals like these, Pixel 8 for 9k - I just don't see the appeal anymore for going Xiaomi :(


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Unlocking the bootloader and flashing GrapheneOS took me 5 clicks and less than 10 minutes (the only thing that took a little time was the GrapheneOS Image downloading). Same thing with the Pixel Tablet.

What a pleasure compared to the 2 week waiting period I had with all my Xiaomi's, then having to scour XDA forums and Telegram to see which is the best / most secure ROM that actually gets timeous updates, doesn't have serious bugs, etc etc.

Still have a few Xiaomi's in the mix with family which I maintain the OS updates for, but after they expire it'll be Pixel all round.
Pixel 8 will officially be supported at minimum to 2030 by GrapheneOS according to their support page.

Xiaomi's updates have been pretty bad and having to rely on custom rom developers who often go AWOL after a while gets rather tedious as one has to look for a new ROM, backup all, then flash and start from scratch.
 
+1 for the pixels. I was already on the fence when I got my Poco F5 but its running quite well on lineageOS.

Xioami has slowly lost their value and usability over time.
 
I purchased a Pixel 8a recently, replaced a my Redmi Note 10 Pro. I'm happy with it so far and have no issues with it. The only thing i miss is the fast charging, but battery life is good and lasts around 2 days. I was worried it only had one SIM but got around that by converting my primary MTN number to an E-SIM and use the sim slot for my Afrihost SIM.
 
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