Xiaomi is planning to enter the Africa market this September

[Lupus]

Or save your money and get a Meizu phone? Takealot are selling them and have screen protectors and cases in stock. The cases are much more premium than the ones we are getting for the Xiaomi phones.

Meizu is a bit more pricey and what's their update policy?

 

[Fox1]

I have no idea but you getting a full aluminium phone. Will have to do some research today on that.

 

[backstreetboy]

I have no idea but you getting a full aluminium phone. Will have to do some research today on that.

Same as the Note 3 then?

 

[WaxLyrical]

Or save your money and get a Meizu phone? Takealot are selling them and have screen protectors and cases in stock. The cases are much more premium than the ones we are getting for the Xiaomi phones.

And they have repair centres set up as well.

 

[Fox1]

And they have repair centres set up as well.

Who's handling their repairs and more importantly who is the distributor?

 

[WaxLyrical]

Who's handling their repairs and more importantly who is the distributor?

Check on their website.
Local Meizu agents have at least set up countrywide repair centres, an area where Xiaomi have failed.

 

[KleinBoontjie]

Check on their website.
Local Meizu agents have at least set up countrywide repair centres, an area where Xiaomi have failed.

I've checked on their site, doesn't look like they set up anything. They use ifix/wefix, I bet ifix can fix Xioami too.....(not that I'd trust them)

 

[shiverz]

For me the swing was custom rom support. Xiaomi is booming. Apart from that Meizu is more pricey and more premium.

 

[The_Mowgs]

Which xiaomi device would you choose to replace a Samsung A5 (old version)?

The redmi 4a or redmi 3s?

 

[shiverz]

Which xiaomi device would you choose to replace a Samsung A5 (old version)?

The redmi 4a or redmi 3s?

3s for me. Bigger battery. Very similarly spec'd. Probably be cheaper than 4a as well.

 

[Fox1]

Which xiaomi device would you choose to replace a Samsung A5 (old version)?

The redmi 4a or redmi 3s?

The 4a. It's cheap as chips.

 

[The_Mowgs]

Im looking at the Afrihost packages and its like R100 pm

 

[Fox1]

That's a bit steep to take the phone over 24 months.

 

[The_Mowgs]

That's a bit steep to take the phone over 24 months.

That includes 500mb pm also. That works out to R2400 which I dont think is too bad. Except for the fact that you are locked into a contract

 

[Chingha]

Any deals on the Note 2 out there?

 

[Gona_G]

Learn how to read, genius. I tried that with every farking rom that was available. It gave a "cannot verify update" error every time. How do you bypass that?

The eventual way of sorting this out:

1. Request unlock code from Xiaomi for unlocking bootloader
2. Wait for about a week for request to be approved
3. Follow instructions on website to unlock bootloader using unlock tool
4. Download miflash tool from website
5. Try unsuccessfully to flash the global ROM
6. Search some more , because the latest miflash tool doesn't always work. Find older version
7. Pray to God that you don't brick your phone permanently
8. Flash the global rom using unsupported flash tool
9. Hopefully success

Total cost from beginning to end 10 days, more than 10gb of bandwidth, owe god some more prayers.

Recently bought my MI5 from Gearbest and even though I thought I was getting a phone with a global ROM I was disappointed when no updates arrived and after some investigating I came to the realisation that I had a phone with a fake ROM.

But thanks to the detailed step by step you provided I successfully flashed this week and am proud to say that I am now enjoying my MI5 with all its official bells and whistles!

Just wanted to say Thanks

 

[Hamish McPanji]

Recently bought my MI5 from Gearbest and even though I thought I was getting a phone with a global ROM I was disappointed when no updates arrived and after some investigating I came to the realisation that I had a phone with a fake ROM.

But thanks to the detailed step by step you provided I successfully flashed this week and am proud to say that I am now enjoying my MI5 with all its official bells and whistles!

Just wanted to say Thanks

No worries. Did the new flash tool work for you,nor did you have to use an old one?

 

[Fox1]

Any deals on the Note 2 out there?

Check MIA Africa website.

 

[AlphaJohn]

Bought 2 phones from Gearbest (Mi5 - Hong Kong) & (Note 4 - China)

Noticed that The Mi5 got an update that the Note 4 did not so I did some investigating after reading this thread about "Fake" ROMs. The Mi5 had a Beta "Dev Rom" and the Note 4 the Official Global rom. Proceeded to MIUI to get the Global ROM for my Mi5, but decided to update my findings here oso other don't have to go searching.

Oh an easy way to spot if you have proper is build number:

First, official MIUI Stable ROM always has 4 digits number at its version and the Developer ROM always has 3 digits. Having that in mind, launch up Settings and go to About phone section.

Official Stable ROM will never have 7.3.4.0.0 when it’s displayed as Stable ROM.

Official Developer ROM will also never have 6.5.30 but never have 6.5.3.0 or 6.5.30.0.

You can check what’s the latest version of MIUI from its official download page. Alternatively, Googling may come in handy for this task.

Secondly, check the whole version code of the MIUI ROM. Every China stable build should have “CN” in the version code. In example above, it has silly combination of the word “Stable” and the version code “MAACNDD.” Stable ROM doesn’t have the CN part in its version code.

Source: Xiaomi tips

Edit: Oh and to update The Mi5 was on Official Global Developer rom. So no funny business but still good to know.

Edit2: Updated with Official Dev Rom downloaded on PC and copied to Downloaded_rom. Happy to report that my Mi5 is no sporting Android 7

 

[Chingha]

Incredible Connect has a sale on the Xiaomi phones at the moment