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Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

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Re: Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

#91
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the Xiaomi phones are supported by LineageOS. If you have an hour to spare, you can easily unlock the bootloader and install it to get a stock Android experience (even skip out Google Services if you want). I have the Poco F1, cost me about $230 for SD845 + 8GB RAM + 4000mAh + 256GB storage. It's a pretty good deal after installing LineageOS on it.

Back when I last looked you had to register an account, use a Windows application and wait a few weeks before being allowed to unlock the phone. Has that been changed then?

Wow, unlocking a Xperia is super easy.

Re: Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

#92
post #35

Xiaomi is able to make their phones so cheap by making their software as crappy as possible. They collect a lot of data (yes, their calculator app has a privacy policy) and sometimes show ads. You need a Xiaomi account to enable debugging (adb). Though they're still immensely popular here in Russia.

> You need a Xiaomi account to enable debugging (adb).

Just unlock and root the thing as soon as you get it and Xiaomi will not get any data - either put LineageOS on it or de-fang MIUI by removing the nasty bits. Don't use the phone with a logged-in Mi account, the only valid reason for using the Mi account is to get the unlock code. Once unlocked and rooted you can remove nearly all the Mi-account-related parts from the phone as well as the ad-related APKs. If you happen to disable debugging over USB (adb) you can re-enable it without using a Mi account (in a terminal, use root):

   setprop persist.security.adbinput 1
   setprop persist.security.adbinstall 1
 
Open /data/data/com.miui.securitycenter/shared_prefs/remote_provider_preferences.xml in an editor and add before the closing tag. Reboot the device and voila, adb works again.

...or just install LineageOS and be done with it, you'll probably end up doing this anyway so why wait?

Re: Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

#93
post #74
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read mobile industry mania's blogpost written in Japanese, it argues that OPPO was delivered from BBK but there are no capital relationship between BBK Communication Technology and OPPO(Guangdong Oujia Holdings). It also refers Nikkei's article confirmed that. http://blogofmobile.com/article/121143 I searched and it seems true. https://www.qichamao.com/orgcompany/searchitemdtl/e6f25044f9... https://www.aitouyan.com…

Both are (in part) owned by Duan, and are manufactured in same facilities.

After the linked Article, Oppo is owned by 广东欧加控股有限公司工会委员会 which CEO is 曾元清 (Zeng Yuanqing)

Re: Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

#94
I have a POCO X3, I had my dad buying for me cause I could not leave the house and my old phone died. It was a surprise. Good phone all around, great camera. After some hours I've noted there's ADs everywhere. Uninstallable apps. Now, after a year is passed, the camera freezes in the middle of the recording of a long video. I honestly did not have time to root the phone and fix the ads and apps issue and I'm just now learning about this GitHub repo with the debloat tools. I was a Samsung Galaxy user and now I'm a Xiaomi user, but after this phone I'll look somewhere else. I've been trying to put my hands on a Linux phone, which I'll probably do in the next few months.

Re: Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

#95
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never mind "older people", some Xiaomi devices have the same performance as flagships costing twice as much. I have a Xiaomi Mi 9 SE (had it almost 2 years now), and it's the best phone I've ever owned. Previously I'd owned flagship Samsungs and an iPhone 6. It's powerful, the display is excellent, the battery lasts 2 days even with plenty use (unusual these days!), the cameras are excellent, and the device itself lo…

How can it really be that much better than a flagship iPhone? This kind of reads like your a person who hates the price of iPhones? Either that or I read like an Apple fan boy; However, I'm a pretty keen Linux / PC user and I don't think I'm that bias?

It is sort of like, Yes and No it depends.

There are reasons why things are little bit more expensive to make. And those add up quickly. The flexible OLED panel is more than double the BOM cost of rigid OLED even at the scale of Apple. For Apple that is ~$150+ of RSP increase form a single component. It is not only just being rigid, but they are also a higher quality panel. People often only look at "spec" on the surface without actually going it into details. Add up the cost of iOS ( $10 on accounting basis or $30 for RSP ), Face ID etc you are looking at $200 RSP extra already without going into any many other differences. Of course the main thing being Apple has a gross product margin of 60% compared to Xiaomi at ~10%. ( I think they raised this to 15%+ due to operating cost being higher outside China )

It is also worth remembering. Hardware is insanely cheap. Comparatively speaking. We talk about moore's law ending because of higher cost of making chips, at the same time we keep making dozen of billions from stupid social network and ads. The number by comparison are often comical. The cost of a product are now mostly driven by software when Apple are still giving iOS update to a phone first released 6 years ago.

It might also be worth noting, the entry level iPhone, iPhone SE, has faster single thread performance ( Very important due to Amdahl's law ) than the best flagship Android Phone on the market. You have to price this in somewhere.

Re: Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

#96
post #74
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read mobile industry mania's blogpost written in Japanese, it argues that OPPO was delivered from BBK but there are no capital relationship between BBK Communication Technology and OPPO(Guangdong Oujia Holdings). It also refers Nikkei's article confirmed that. http://blogofmobile.com/article/121143 I searched and it seems true. https://www.qichamao.com/orgcompany/searchitemdtl/e6f25044f9... https://www.aitouyan.com…

Both are (in part) owned by Duan, and are manufactured in same facilities.

Manufacturer facility is no longer a matter since every brand uses ODM at least for some lineups.

Re: Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

#97
post #18

might be tempting to get one but hear me out: you can't imagine the amount of bloat and adware on miui. it depends on your region because they don't legally get away with the same intrusion everywhere. I configured it in a GDPR country (which disables some features) and when I checked the DNS requests, it made a tracking/ad request several times per minute. Also the pre installed apps like file manager and browser ha…

I'd rather have a 5 year old iPhone with suspect parts in it than deal with that sort of shit.

Re: Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

#98
post #40
post #4

They're flooding the market with good, very very cheap smartphones - it's no surprise. Especially for older people that don't need $500+ flagships, a $150 Xiaomi is more than sufficient. I see them a lot nowadays. Makes me wonder if it's sustainable.

> Especially for older people that don't need $500+ flagships I am not so old, and I also have enough with a cheap smartphone. I just use mail, instant messaging, maps and government and bank apps. None of these need advanced graphics or fast CPUs. Interestingly I need access to Google Play as many official apps from the government are not available in alternative stores. Said that, I got a Xiaomi cheap tablet and I…

I believe they won't sell device without Google outside China. Don't buy devices for Chinese market unless you're going to modify it!

Re: Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

#99

For me the greatest value is 2+ days battery and the fact that I'm not afraid to loose/break €200 phone vs €600, while Xiaomi is better in many aspects. Went to it 5 years ago after using flagship Samsung models also for c.5 years, could not stand for abysmal battery and their UI. Ad bloat could be disabled in settings, I did not see too many suspicious logs in Netguard (calls to Facebook APIs were much more frequent…

I would like this to be true (who doesn't want to pay less for the same experience) but it's very much not the case. Eg. two years ago I broke my one plus 6, I went to a local mall - they have a Xiaomi store there and a Samsung shop, I spent like 20 mins playing with the phones in each store and you could immediately see which was the premium brand between the two. I still pass by regularly to check things out and get the same impression.

When it comes to high end hardware the only phones that I've seen come close also cost in the same ballpark. Frankly you get what you pay for, diminishing returns are a thing but you can still see a clear difference between 200€ and 600€ phone. Even the iPhone 12max my wife has can justify the price with the insane photo/video quality for a phone.

Re: Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in Q2 2021

#100
post #30

I've got a Xiaomi phone (Mi 10 Lite) and am pretty happy with it. Hardware is great. Software (MIUI) is adware crap, which I knew when I was buying. I tweaked privacy settings as much was possible, and I use almost none of the builtin apps. Instead I use Firefox Focus+Mobile for browsing, Amaze for file management, Dropbox for file storage and PDF view, etc. Overall the entire experience is comparable (for me) to a S…

>The most annoying things are still Google and YouTube ToS accept dialogs I get all the time because I'm effectively using an incognito browser, and I'd get those on any phone.

You may be able to add a list to uBlock which blocks cookie popups.

https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/

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