Xiaomi is planning to enter the Africa market this September

[ShloshMalosh]

I am personally looking forward to the Redmi 3 mentioned on gsmarena but no word of it on the official Xiaomi site.

But I agree, the importers are really loading the prices to the point that they are no longer competitively priced to take on the established brands over here

EDIT: aliexpress has a sale starting 29 March and some of their Xiaomi products are pretty well priced with a big chunk knocked off them, FWIW... (http://sale.aliexpress.com/__pc/329_xiaomi.htm?spm=a2g01.7946317.0.30.SKsv0n#u4869b8)

The Redmi 3 looks like it will blow the budget segment to pieces... +/- $110 and best of all a monster of a battery. Can see this device doing serious damage here in SA. I'd get one for the Missus in a heartbeat.

I really fancy that Mi 4s though... expandable memory is a big deal for me and the Mi 5 doesn't have that.

Have you bought from aliexpress/alibaba ? whats the experience like? I'm super scared of these things

 

[PhireSide]

I personally haven't bought anything from Aliexpress yet, but I have a basket full of goodies I would like to purchase. A family friend has bought from there before and besides the long wait times if you choose the free shipping option he hasn't had any complaints.

Returns could be problematic so maybe check with the seller first. I did see a flash sale on the Redmi 3 for $19.99 not so long ago so in a case like that I would say it is worth it. If it breaks, just buy another one

 

[Neoprod]

The ARS review of the Mi5 is up -

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/03/xiaomi-mi-5-review-its-hard-to-argue-with-305-for-a-snapdragon-820/

The Good
A Snapdragon 820 for an amazing $305.
Build quality worthy of a much more expensive phone.
Fast, accurate fingerprint reader.
USB Type-C.
The camera isn't up to the level of a $700 camera, but for $305, it's pretty good.

The Bad
Broken permissions system allows some apps to slip through without user consent.
Unlabeled "back" and "recent" buttons can be confusing.
No "always on" voice support.
It's a China-only phone, so the LTE bands won't work in most countries.
Glass back is fragile.

The Ugly
MIUI's stagnant interface has made it a feature-killing disaster on Marshmallow.

The LTE bands are fine for SA - the baseband supports LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 7(2600), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500) according to GSMArena.

On the software side, the Mi3 and Mi4 are supported by Cyanogen (my Meizu isn't with its locked bootloader ).

 

[ShloshMalosh]

The ARS review of the Mi5 is up -

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/03/xiaomi-mi-5-review-its-hard-to-argue-with-305-for-a-snapdragon-820/



The LTE bands are fine for SA - the baseband supports LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 7(2600), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500) according to GSMArena.

On the software side, the Mi3 and Mi4 are supported by Cyanogen (my Meizu isn't with its locked bootloader ).

The more hands it gets into the more development will take place.

Lets hope.

AOSP/Cyanogenmod on this hardware should run at a beastly pace

 

[chickenbeef]

Those crazy AliExpress sales are nearly impossible to grab. The items are sold out as soon as it goes live

 

[Hamish McPanji]

They released 4 million Mi5's , sold out within minutes.

 

[Adoxographist]

Where did you get the 4 million figure?

 

[PhireSide]

Hmmmm, anyone care to script a bot to purchase the devices the minute they go on sale?

 

[Hamish McPanji]

Where did you get the 4 million figure?

http://m.gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/n...sale-sees-4-million-units-sold-reports-809768

http://m.ibtimes.co.in/xiaomi-mi-5-flash-sale-1-0-company-sold-4-million-units-within-minutes-669367

 

[ShloshMalosh]

http://m.gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/n...sale-sees-4-million-units-sold-reports-809768

http://m.ibtimes.co.in/xiaomi-mi-5-flash-sale-1-0-company-sold-4-million-units-within-minutes-669367

that was at launch... and then there was another flash sale on 8 march...

this is the 3rd... and still no international sales.

Xiaomi is seriously missing a trick here.

 

[Hamish McPanji]

that was at launch... and then there was another flash sale on 8 march...

this is the 3rd... and still no international sales.

Xiaomi is seriously missing a trick here.

The only worst thing that a company can do is spread themselves too thin. Their core markets are China and India. Then maybe Brazil to follow. SA doesn't feature yet with any level of priority

 

[Neoprod]

^^^, not really - they're selling as many as they can make in their core market. It's only Apple and to a lesser extent, Samsung that can source components and labour at the scale needed to do mega-million sales in multiple territories.

They'll go international soon - looks like India is up next in April.

stupid Imran...how dare you post while I'm posting?

 

[Hamish McPanji]

Great minds and all of that. Am just a bit ahead of you, so am waiting for you to switch to Liverpool shortly

 

[ShloshMalosh]

Win your home games 1st you say... legitimate strategy

 

[Adoxographist]

From what I read, Xiaomi is trying to enter US market but waiting to build up patents portfolio. They also tried to launch in South Korea but got shut down through legal channels.

 

[Hamish McPanji]

From what I read, Xiaomi is trying to enter US market but waiting to build up patents portfolio. They also tried to launch in South Korea but got shut down through legal channels.

They also release different variants of Redmi Note 3 in India because of patent related issues

 

[PhireSide]

I mailed Takealot regarding the Xiaomi devices yesterday:

Hi there

I have noticed your store keeps stock of a few Xiaomi cellular devices. Have you got any plans to expand the range to include the Xiaomi Redmi 3 and Xiaomi Mi 5 in the near future?

Regards

Phillip

I got this back later on:

Hi Phillip

Thank you for your mail!

No info on the Xiaomi Redmi 3 and Xiaomi Mi 5 has been communicated to us as of yet. If one of our suppliers decide to sell it on our site, the best option is to check the newsletter as new releases often get advertised via email and on our main page.

Kind regards,

Sloan Solomons

Nothing solid, so I sent a mail to Mobile In Africa asking whether they would import them as I suspect they are Takealot's suppliers. I'll post back here when/if I get a response.

 

[Adoxographist]

MIA is the only supplier here in Africa.

Also playing around with xiaomi mi4 right now. Its nice but very slippery. The whole thing, metal band included feels like a slippery wet tile. The metal band gets really hot, I think it acts as a secondary heatsink for the phone.
Miui is dragging the phone down. I installed cyangenmod and the phone's battery life is much better than before.

 

[Adoxographist]

MIA is the only supplier here in Africa.

Also playing around with xiaomi mi4 right now. Its nice but very slippery. The whole thing, metal band included feels like a slippery wet tile. The metal band gets really hot, I think it acts as a secondary heatsink for the phone.
Miui is dragging the phone down. I installed cyangenmod and the phone's battery life is much better than before.

 

[PhireSide]

I've heard nothing back from MIA as of today, and now I am really unsure whether I should jump and get the Redmi 2 Pro now or wait and hope the Redmi 3 is released here soon...