Asus released specs for their ZF 5 models. The mid range model has similar specs to the RN5 pro with the Snapdragon 636, OIS but it seems to be alot lighter at 155g vs 180g

https://www.gsmarena.com/asus_zenfone_5_ze620kl-9061.php

This post has been edited by imbibug: Mar 2 2018, 10:30 AM

Any particular reason? For me a decent option for custom roms is a plus and both brands seem to have similar level of community support.

You probably have more than your share of bad luck with Xiaomi products. To me they are decent to good quality and deliver more than comparably priced products from what I've seen in their budget and mid price range.

Agreed about the late release of source code but the MiA1 source code was released over a month ago which isn't too bad.

Just what sort of problems did you actually face by device model?

The yellowish screen is a known qc issue for some Xiaomi phones but I don't think Xiaomi is above the industry average for wifi/power ic failures. There are many teardown reviews for Xiaomi products and they consistently show quite good quality/design for the selling price without cutting too many corners and defintely not on components that impact consumer safety.

Some of the problems on Xiaomi phones may be due to an unstable power grid which is common in India or using poor quality chargers. Or custom roms that overclocks the cpu and kills the phone by overheating. And theres the issue of Xiaomi fakes.

delete

This post has been edited by imbibug: Mar 9 2018, 09:32 AM

No its not. It has more Chinese crapware and adware. Theres ads even in stock apps.
And I wouldn't consider any China rom secure from a security perspective.

No. The global rom is much much better. Theres no Chinese crapware or scrolling ads in stocks apps like the file explorer, browser, dialer. Normally the ads app shouldn't not be running in the global version. Some people claim that they are running the global rom and still see ads but they probably have the 'hacked' or distributor rom.

I normally freeze the analytics and ads apps but I think they can be safely deleted as long as the the mi apps are not used.

msa (systemadsolution.apk) is one of the ads apk I mentioned. I'm quite sure everything still works properly if they are uninstalled because I did it before.

Ok so there are ads in global rom but it should be alot less than the Chinese rom, and its easy to remove them in the settings.I don't know if its possible to remove all ads in the China rom using the settings and there are at least 6 places where Xiaomi chose to hide the settings to disable ads.

To say that Chinese rom is "the best" and it gives "less errors and issues" is nonsense since there is alot of bloatware and adware on top of what you get in the global rom.

Actually lots of people do care that miui ads are sucking up expensive mobile data bandwidth. No idea what you trying to say "wanna cheap and fast grab it on hand, for sure you had expected what you're having it", it sounds like something out of a online translator.

And its not only about ads. Chinese roms probably have some form of backdoor access built in to allow the Chinese govt to spy on its citizens. That is one additional security weakness which most people would prefer not to have.

This post has been edited by imbibug: Apr 3 2018, 04:31 PM

Again??? Why do you keep replying when you clearly know that you've said something incorrect?
Chinese rom is not "the best" for several reasons.

And you posted some strange things in the other Redmi 5 thread as well - saying that the Redmi5+ is better than the Samsung flagship S8 for selfies (#242)
"My office kolik she just tried mine, even better than her Samsung S8... Very pretty for selfied."
And saying that the Redmi Note5 (pro) is not going to be significantly better than the 5+ when it has a newer better cpu and dual camera modules.

This post has been edited by imbibug: Apr 4 2018, 10:48 AM

Replying again? How will waiting for the official (Malaysian) version help the bloated Chinese rom which sucks up more bandwidth due to ads for at least 6 stock apps and a security backdoor risk? Just admit that you are wrong and move on.

Its strange that your office is so poorly lit that a flagship phone can't even do a proper selfie.


Edit- For those who aren't following what Benefon is saying - read his post #546 "U welcome, anyway Chinese ROM is the best.. less error n issue.". He can't admit he is wrong and keeps replying just to have the last word in.

This post has been edited by imbibug: Apr 4 2018, 02:23 PM

Drama is all from one side. He doesn't sound balanced and is too fanboyish. He also said previously that the 5+ is on par with the Note5 previously as well, along with other nonsense. I didn't call him out on the nonsense then.

The Chinese rom sucks more. There are more stock apps with ads, 6 of them at least. One person even complained in the miui forum with a screenshot showing his phone eating up 500Mb of data per day because of ads. Really crazy. But the drama queen insists that the ads from the Chinese rom is just fine. And thats not even talking about the security risks of having a govt mandated backdoor.

The Global rom only needs 1 single setting to remove ads - the advertising id under privacy whereas the China rom has about 7 places hidden all over in the settings and thats probably not all of them.

I ran wireshark after disabling msa, analytics on the global rom (and freezing a bunch of mi apps like cloud etc) and did not find any other strange processes sending data onto the internet.

This post has been edited by imbibug: Apr 4 2018, 02:45 PM

Its not that the OS works 'better' without sdcard support. The problem is that manufacturers for premium models don't want their users to use sdcards since sdcards more likely to fail or sometimes experience slow speed and it would make their phones look bad through no fault of their own especially if poor quality sdcards are used. Samsung reverted back to hybrid slots after the S6 but disallowed adoptable storage as a compromise between user feedback and reliability.

The Mi 6x is slim phone and has less space than the Redmi for an sdcards and I think the Mi phones hasn't some with dedicated sdcard slot for the reason I mentioned above.

The larger screen sizes and resulting larger overall phone sizes in current designs made it easier to accomodate dedicated sdcard slots but most of the major manufacturers still only use hybrid sdcard slot for their high end or flag ship phones. Sdcards are not ideal for use as internal storage because of performance/reliability reasons so thats why Samsung/Sony don't support adoptable storage for their phones and Oneplus/Pixels don't support sdcards. Battery life is another reason but thats not the most important reason.

Samsung only has hybrid slots for the S* and Note series after the S5/Note5 which could not use sdcards. Xperia's XZ series only have hybrid slots compared to the older Z series which had dedicated slots. No stock adoptable storage support for flagship Samsungs and Xperias. Nokia 6/7/8/sirrocco has hybrid slots, the cheaper Nokia 3/5 has dedicated slots. Huawei p20/pro does not support sdcard, p10/lite/p20 lite uses hybrid. Moto/Lenovo are better about using dedicated slots compared to the others. See the trend here? Expensive flagship phones - no sdcard or hybrid slots only.

Could be the Mi 8.

From the reviews, it looks like the RN5 is a good bit better in the camera dept.
Phones around your budget - Redmi S2, RN5, Mi A1, Asus M1. Mi A2 might be around 1k if you can wait. All those phones have better cameras than the Redmi 5+.

The Mi product line is step above the Redmi in price and its always been lighter, sleeker with better specs.

The RN5 has better cameras and a faster cpu if you're only concerned about specs.

The Mi A1 is lighter and slimmer and has a better headphone amp that can support high impedance headphones. The cameras are quite good in daylight and there are a few stable gcam ports for night photography which give better results in low light. Never had a problem with GPS with the stock rom, haven't used custom roms yet because the stock rom seems to be relatively problem free with good battery life. Its better for people who like to experiment/learn since there are much more stable custom roms and mods.

The Redmi 5+ is known as Note 5 in India. But the Redmi Note 5 with the 636 cpu sold globally is known as the RN5 pro in India.
The RN5 AI is the same as the Indian RN5pro/RN5 but it has better camera modules, front and back. In short, get the RN5 AI instead of the RN5. Skip the RN5+ since there are better choices like the S2 or Mi A1 unless you need the bigger 4000mAh battery.