Battle of the cheap Chinese Androids

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#1458811 30-Dec-2015 00:12

Interesting "feature" on the redmi note 2 - I was out of space for music so took the 32 gig cheapie card out and put in a 128 gig.

Anyway, power on and the phone said something about not a supported file system and an option to format it.

Chose that.

Phone rebooted briefly showed a recovery thing and then froze.

Pulled the sd card and rebooted, and its basically done a factory reset on the thing. Yay.

Richard rich.ms

540trickzter

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#1459753 1-Jan-2016 10:32

My Redmi Note 3 finally arrived yesterday. It had a vendor installed rom, so I immediately got rid of it to get rid of the bloatware and potential malware and flashed the latest stable official stock MIUI v7.0.19.0 and manually installed Google apps. All working fine so far.

P1n3apqlExpr3ss

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#1459805 1-Jan-2016 13:44

Holy smokes the Xiaomi.eu 5.12.24 is so much better than 5.10.22 for any Redmi Note 2 users out there who haven't been bothered to update. Dropbox is uploading photos in the background for the first time ever and it seems OTA updates have been turned on (something that was previously restricted to the offical en.miui.com roms)

rmt38

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#1459941 1-Jan-2016 18:57

P1n3apqlExpr3ss: Holy smokes the Xiaomi.eu 5.12.24 is so much better than 5.10.22 for any Redmi Note 2 users out there who haven't been bothered to update. Dropbox is uploading photos in the background for the first time ever and it seems OTA updates have been turned on (something that was previously restricted to the offical en.miui.com roms)

What was your update process? Mine is still on the purchase rom and researching it today I see it's something like install TWRP, put update rom from xiaomu.eu on SD card, reboot into TWRP and click install. Is that pretty much what you went through?

Also, have you created a mi account? Every other time I go to some feature it bothers me about using the cloud, it'd be nice to turn this off, but I suspect that one just has to register for a mi cloud account and then use whatever disable features that then allows access to. Like I believe disabling mi messaging.

jonathan18

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#1459981 1-Jan-2016 20:54

rmt38:
P1n3apqlExpr3ss: Holy smokes the Xiaomi.eu 5.12.24 is so much better than 5.10.22 for any Redmi Note 2 users out there who haven't been bothered to update. Dropbox is uploading photos in the background for the first time ever and it seems OTA updates have been turned on (something that was previously restricted to the offical en.miui.com roms)

What was your update process? Mine is still on the purchase rom and researching it today I see it's something like install TWRP, put update rom from xiaomu.eu on SD card, reboot into TWRP and click install. Is that pretty much what you went through?

Also, have you created a mi account? Every other time I go to some feature it bothers me about using the cloud, it'd be nice to turn this off, but I suspect that one just has to register for a mi cloud account and then use whatever disable features that then allows access to. Like I believe disabling mi messaging.

Yeah, I'd also really appreciate some advice on this as well (I think I posted on the same thing a couple of weeks back).

I've updated the phone to an international version of MIUI from a link provided by Goldthingy, but I've had no luck trying to upgrade it to a more recent release. I've read the stuff about TWRP, which I've tried to install but it fails. The benefit of OTA updates would be great as it'll mean no more fluffing around...

Could you please help out with a description of exactly what to do? I'm in a tricky situation of giving my wife a phone for her birthday tomorrow that I'm unable to update! Would really appreciate it.

P1n3apqlExpr3ss

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#1459985 1-Jan-2016 21:06

I hate to be a disappointment but moving the ROM to the phone and flashing it from the updater app worked for me. It's wanting to download the latest OTA 5.12.31 ROM but there's not much feedback around yet if it breaks anything so will hold off verifying that it works okay

There's a guide here to install TWRP on it: http://en.miui.com/thread-146299-1-1.html

Also I do have a Mi account from when I had their fitness band but I've never really come across it all that much

old3eyes

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#1460067 2-Jan-2016 09:46

540trickzter: My Redmi Note 3 finally arrived yesterday. It had a vendor installed rom, so I immediately got rid of it to get rid of the bloatware and potential malware and flashed the latest stable official stock MIUI v7.0.19.0 and manually installed Google apps. All working fine so far.

I'd be interested in your opinion of the Note 3. I have a Mi4i with MIUI 7.0.1 and it seems fine. looking at a large screen phone for the wife and as the so called flag ships are so darned expensive in this country and based on my Mi4i experience this would be good for her. If it was for me I'd be a little concerned with a new phone the lack of LTE band 28 (700 Meg) though it hasn't worried be too much with the Mi4i..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

rmt38

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#1460209 2-Jan-2016 14:52

Ok, I updated my note 2, and it was a really unreliable messy process, where despite following a set of instructions that came with all the prebundled files required (except rom which was separate download), nothing seemed to work right.

First I had to install USB drivers, so the fastboot tool could access the device. I used the ones provided and widely available as 'xiaomi_usb_driver.rar' and these DID NOT WORK. So after some more Googling, I found references to installing Mi PC Suite also installing USB drivers. Installing this did do the trick and 'fastboot devices' listed my device.

Secondly, I installed TWRP via fastboot. I restarted and after some difficulty, it came up. It was a really odd experience. The device just seemed to reboot repeatedly when I held the two buttons down. I was surprised to see TWRP come up when I released them and waited a while, and have no idea what went on.

Thirdly installing the rom and the SU program via TWRP, the tutorial said click on the reboot button, and it would take a while. So I clicked on the reboot button and everything went black. I assumed it was taking a while. So eventually, probably half an hour later, I just pressed the power button and it booted up into the rom.

It appears to have worked. But given how flakey the whole process was, I'm surprised the device even boots.

I updated to the latest 5.12.31 just because. What clinched the update process for me, was a mention about how doing a wipe and a full install this way would get rid of any vendor spyware.

NZtimbo

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#1460506 3-Jan-2016 09:49

@rmt38
Was this your first experience rooting and installing a rom on a phone?

A few posts back I noted the basic steps for my Mi4c. While the process may have felt flaky is the process, maybe you were expecting something slightly different.

Tim

TeaLeaf

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#1461744 5-Jan-2016 15:21

Wouldnt the Meizu Note 2 for $250 local at PB be a good buy?

My only concern is flyme and how to get rid of all the chinese stuff. Is it possible to install a vanilla android OS with no manufacturer UI? Or will that brick the phone?

540trickzter

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#1461886 5-Jan-2016 19:37

old3eyes:
540trickzter: My Redmi Note 3 finally arrived yesterday. It had a vendor installed rom, so I immediately got rid of it to get rid of the bloatware and potential malware and flashed the latest stable official stock MIUI v7.0.19.0 and manually installed Google apps. All working fine so far.

I'd be interested in your opinion of the Note 3. I have a Mi4i with MIUI 7.0.1 and it seems fine. looking at a large screen phone for the wife and as the so called flag ships are so darned expensive in this country and based on my Mi4i experience this would be good for her. If it was for me I'd be a little concerned with a new phone the lack of LTE band 28 (700 Meg) though it hasn't worried be too much with the Mi4i..

My opinion is based on coming from a Moto G 4G to the Redmi Note 3, and I have to say that it's a big improvement. The larger screen is great (going back to my Moto G is difficult as the screen seems so small now), fingerprint scanner works well, performance seems fine so far as I'm not getting the lag I was getting on the Moto G. Lack of Band 28 doesn't concern me. Only issue so far is push notifications aren't working properly, my gmail emails aren't getting pushed instantly like I was getting on my Moto G, not sure if it's a MIUI issue or what.

This is the best all round bang for buck phone currently on the market IMO. If you aren't in a hurry then you could wait as Xiaomi is apparently releasing a Snapdragon 808 version of the Redmi Note 3 soon.

If you do purchase this, I would recommend to get a tempered glass screen protector as the Redmi Note 3 doesn't have Gorilla Glass.

Anyway, this phone is only going to be my daily driver until the next Nexus devices get released. I was originally looking forward to the Nexus 6P until the specs and design was released which disappointment me. So hopefully this years Nexus' live up to my expectations.

P1n3apqlExpr3ss

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#1461889 5-Jan-2016 19:48

540trickzter:
old3eyes:
540trickzter: My Redmi Note 3 finally arrived yesterday. It had a vendor installed rom, so I immediately got rid of it to get rid of the bloatware and potential malware and flashed the latest stable official stock MIUI v7.0.19.0 and manually installed Google apps. All working fine so far.

I'd be interested in your opinion of the Note 3. I have a Mi4i with MIUI 7.0.1 and it seems fine. looking at a large screen phone for the wife and as the so called flag ships are so darned expensive in this country and based on my Mi4i experience this would be good for her. If it was for me I'd be a little concerned with a new phone the lack of LTE band 28 (700 Meg) though it hasn't worried be too much with the Mi4i..

My opinion is based on coming from a Moto G 4G to the Redmi Note 3, and I have to say that it's a big improvement. The larger screen is great (going back to my Moto G is difficult as the screen seems so small now), fingerprint scanner works well, performance seems fine so far as I'm not getting the lag I was getting on the Moto G. Lack of Band 28 doesn't concern me. Only issue so far is push notifications aren't working properly, my gmail emails aren't getting pushed instantly like I was getting on my Moto G, not sure if it's a MIUI issue or what.

This is the best all round bang for buck phone currently on the market IMO. If you aren't in a hurry then you could wait as Xiaomi is apparently releasing a Snapdragon 808 version of the Redmi Note 3 soon.

If you do purchase this, I would recommend to get a tempered glass screen protector as the Redmi Note 3 doesn't have Gorilla Glass.

Anyway, this phone is only going to be my daily driver until the next Nexus devices get released. I was originally looking forward to the Nexus 6P until the specs and design was released which disappointment me. So hopefully this years Nexus' live up to my expectations.

I had this issue on an older ROM on my Redmi Note 2. Apart from ensuring you have one of the latest ROMs, make sure gmail is able to autostart; the option for which can be found in the security app. I've had no issues since doing the above

jonathan18

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#1465854 8-Jan-2016 12:49

Are there any Redmi Note 2 owners out there who also own a UE Megaboom (or even Boom)? If so, could someone please advise me whether you're able to successfully connect the speaker to the phone?

I've just not been able to connect my wife's phone to either of our Megabooms - the phone simply just doesn't 'see' the speaker, yet other devices like my own phone can see them at the same time the Redmi doesn't, plus I've been able to connect the Redmi to other Bluetooth devices such as my car. Currently the only hassle we're having with day-to-day use of the phone (separate to the MIUI upgrade, of course!).

@rmt38 - thanks for recounting your experience in upgrading your Note 2; while it was clearly a hassle at least you succeeded! In all the mucking about I've done I'm still no closer to getting it done, so I may PM you for more direct advice later if that's ok?

Thanks.

TeaLeaf

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#1465870 8-Jan-2016 13:04

seems redmi is more popular than the meizu, but the meizu has better specs. is there something im missing?

something i dont like about the meizu is flyme, i presume there is an international version.

richms

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#1466121 8-Jan-2016 18:00

Ive had problems connecting my redmi note 2 to other bluetooth speakers, sometimes had to stick the speaker in pairing mode a second time while the phone was searching and then it found it after a while.

Richard rich.ms

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