[HN Gopher] Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for firs...
___________________________________________________________________
Xiaomi becomes number two smartphone vendor for first time ever in
Q2 2021
Author : thunderbong
Score : 132 points
Date : 2021-07-18 07:48 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.canalys.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.canalys.com)
| dmos62 wrote:
| My mom got a budget Xiaomi (Redmi 9A), but she's having problems
| with connectivity during calls in places where other phones work
| fine, like her apartment. Also, currently she's abroad and call
| connectivity is horrible for first 15-30 seconds, then the call
| drops and after redialing it works fine. Really weird. Probably
| should exchange it for a new one.
| klelatti wrote:
| The big surprise for me is how Samsung maintains its market share
| with selling prices 40% higher than the Android competition. Is
| it just brand or promotional spend or is there something else?
| Bombthecat wrote:
| Brand
| nabla9 wrote:
| This is a list of brand market shares, incorrectly labeled as
| vendor market shares.
|
| The largest smartphone vendor is BBK Electronics. They
| manufacture multiple brands like Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Realme,
| iQOO. Their brands have over 40% market share in China, India,
| over 50% in Southeast Asia, and are generally the largest vendor
| all over the developing world.
|
| The real list is 1. 24% BBK Electronics
| (10% Oppo, 10% Vivo, 4% Realme) 2. 19% Samsung 3.
| 17% Xiaomi 4. 14% Apple 5. 4% Huawei
|
| Chinese have ~45% of the market.
| richardwhiuk wrote:
| Shouldn't Apple be under Foxconn by that logic?
| fomine3 wrote:
| 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/news/7877.html
|
| (read via translate!)
| baybal2 wrote:
| Both are (in part) owned by Duan, and are manufactured in
| same facilities.
| fomine3 wrote:
| Manufacturer facility is no longer a matter since every
| brand uses ODM at least for some lineups.
| Wronnay wrote:
| After the linked Article, Oppo is owned by Yan Dong Ou Jia
| Kong Gu You Xian Gong Si Gong Hui Wei Yuan Hui which CEO
| is Ceng Yuan Qing (Zeng Yuanqing)
| sudosysgen wrote:
| That seems unlikely considering the hardware similarities
| between OPPO, Vivo and OnePlus phones.
| fomine3 wrote:
| There are no doubt about similarity of OPPO, OnePlus, and
| realme since they are under OPPO. Just curious how vivo
| similar?
| Wronnay wrote:
| It's really confusing because so many Wikipedia and Media
| Articles write that Oppo is a Subsidiary of BBK...
| fomine3 wrote:
| I wish English writer investigate about this topic
| ksec wrote:
| They are not, in the straight sense of Subsidiary.
|
| >A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is
| a company owned or controlled by another company,
|
| Hence that is why using BBK as one would have been wrong.
| BBK does not own majority of shares, nor de jure voting
| power. But in a complex power relationship BBK do have
| much higher leverage or with other investor de facto
| voting power. Think if Foxconn decided to invest into 5
| different Phone making companies, ( Like the current
| Nokia Smartphone ) and Foxconn is a shareholder and
| provide technical and manufacturing consultancy, you
| would not list them all under Foxconn right?
|
| I wont blame the English main stream media most of them
| are so late to anything from Japan and China it is
| borderline comical.
|
| I mean when I first mentioned BBK in 2015 no one had a
| clue what I was talking about. My earliest comment on BBK
| on HN was from Jan 2018 [1]. Barely anyone knew BBK then.
| As a matter of fact even right now not that many have
| heard of BBK.
|
| [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16265008
| Wronnay wrote:
| But BBK Electronics is a private company while Xiaomi is a
| public traded company - so this news article is in favor of
| speculators / shareholders of Xiaomi.
|
| You can always try to display the statistics in your favor...
|
| It should also be noted that Canalys lists Xiaomi as one of
| their clients - so, one could argue that Canalys has a conflict
| of interest.
| nabla9 wrote:
| It does not matter. Shareholders must take into account
| private competitors.
|
| This article was labeled wrong and missed the biggest
| company.
| Wronnay wrote:
| I just wanted to describe that Canalys might know that BBK
| Electronics is bigger but wanted to display another picture
| to the world because of their own interest.
|
| Xiaomi pays the bills of their employees, BBK doesn't.
| baybal2 wrote:
| Surprise, Xiaomi even contracted engineering, and
| manufacturing to BBK at some point.
|
| In addition to their brand (of which few more are not counted
| above,) BBK still manufactures unbranded white box OEM goods
| throwaway4good wrote:
| Will probably take over Samsung for the no. 1 spot in next
| quarter or the quarter thereafter.
| atum47 wrote:
| 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.
| tedk-42 wrote:
| "did not have time to root the phone and fix the ads.."
|
| ...proceeds to buy linux phone.
|
| Introspection might help here - I recommend Apple if you want
| something that lasts and just works.
| atum47 wrote:
| Do you remember Samsung Galaxy 2? It was the perfect phone.
| It all went down hill for Samsung after that. I had a Xiaomi
| mia1 that was great also. Those companies are capable of
| launching great products, and after they get the user they
| try to shove any kind of crap down their throats. When that
| happens I just leave. It does not mean that I could not give
| other companies a try.
| Aulig wrote:
| Cant really beat Xiaomi on a price/value standpoint. Personally,
| Id never use MIUI though. So much bloatware. I replaced it with
| LineageOS and it's a delight.
|
| Unfortunate that we must assume that the devices are manufactured
| under awful working conditions though.
| machiaweliczny wrote:
| I think that shitty camera and audio justify price difference
| (I have Xiaomi)
| adflux wrote:
| I stopped buying Chinese products as much as I can, when I
| learned about the CCP meddling around the world and what they are
| doing to the Uighurs. I really don't understand people who would
| support this regime by buying its products.
| pacifer007 wrote:
| By that logic, you should stop buying American products first.
| They been meddling in world affairs, since, forever.
|
| And you can see what they did to Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan
| (create taliban, use them against Soviets, demolish
| Afghanistan, blame Taliban on someone else.)
|
| What's your point.
| totalZero wrote:
| You created an account to say this?
| adflux wrote:
| Feels like Chinese astroturfing to me
| as1mov wrote:
| Most of the people buying Chinese phones live in the developing
| countries barely earning $300-$400 a month.
|
| They could stick it to the man by buying the latest
| iPhone/Pixel that protects their privacy and at the same time
| takes a strong political stance against a shitty regime, but
| they have other more pressing and immediate issues to deal
| with.
| mm983 wrote:
| 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 have
| ads. The browser, which additionally has a bunch of bloaty games
| integrated for whatever reason, can't be uninstalled. Not going
| to get one again, my mate's pixel seems like a delight in
| comparison
| hughrr wrote:
| I'd rather have a 5 year old iPhone with suspect parts in it
| than deal with that sort of shit.
| martimarkov wrote:
| If you are to downvote a comment which addresses privacy issues
| and puts the devices in a negative light, please also downvote
| all the ones that are saying they are great.
| dsego wrote:
| Compared to my previous Samsung device the bloat on my new
| Redmi is bearable.
| timonoko wrote:
| I just bought 69EUR Xiaomi Redmi 9A and accidentally discovered
| it has full-fledged USB-OTG. This was not mentioned in specs and
| cheapest OTG-phone seems to be around 300EUR.
|
| What is going on, maybe NFC and other expensive goodies are just
| disabled by software? And maybe this OTG just stops working at
| next update?
| zamadatix wrote:
| OTG isn't rare in low end hardware these days it's just really
| low on the list of things most low end phones think the users
| will care about. I wouldn't be surprised if it was simply
| forgotten about and not listed more often than the
| hardware+software weren't set up to do it.
|
| E.g. the Pi Zero is $5 and comes with an OTG port, it's really
| not a matter of cost rather focus.
| orloffm wrote:
| I have Mi 10T Lite, it's wonderful and liberating after an
| iPhone, and costs half of iPhone 11 price, and (!) comes with a
| case and a glass film.
|
| But the camera is just awful. It takes 5 seconds to start, video
| recording is jittery, sometimes as if it was recording at 10 FPS.
| I just don't have good pictures of my kids anymore.
| sumanthvepa wrote:
| I loved my Mi A1 A2 and A3. All fantastic phones with stock
| Android and fabulous value for money. Sadly however they have
| stopped shipping stock Android. The MiUI is a terrible terrible
| experience in developing countries like India. See this review by
| GeekyRanjit. https://youtu.be/jbnxMuBUw0E
| pier25 wrote:
| Still rocking a Mi A1.
|
| Not the best performance or camera, but for what I paid it's an
| amazing product. Battery still lasts a couple of days.
|
| It's a real shame Xiaomi got out of Android One. I'm probably
| going to get a Nokia when the A1 dies.
| berdario wrote:
| I opened the video, hoping to see examples of this
| AdWare/NagWare problem, but GeekyRanjit does not show any phone
| UI during the video :/
| yawaworht1978 wrote:
| I have always thought many android based phones are fantastic. I
| have a dirt cheap Nokia(don't even know the model)and apart from
| initial startup time and availability of integrated, so to say
| native apps, it blows the iphone 11 out of the water in camera,
| speed, responsiveness.
|
| Also had a xiaomi phone as business phone, and it was performing
| better than the currently available iphone.
|
| I think iphones have stopped looking nice a while ago anyway.
|
| I like the design and finish of Mac laptops, but even there, you
| can get better from brands with windows os, but that will cost a
| ridiculous amount of money.
|
| May I ask, apart from look, why do so many people in the US chose
| to use an iphone? Genuine curiosity.
| jhloa2 wrote:
| My experience with android has been the opposite. I've never
| had an android phone that lasted more than 2 years without
| becoming frustratingly slow whereas my iPhone 8 still runs as
| well as the day I got it. All anecdotal but I stick with what
| works for me
| rjzzleep wrote:
| All my androids have lasted quite a while actually, but I had
| to replace various parts of them. headphone jack, display
| assembly, sdcard slot. I have an Xperia XZ2 that has/had a
| really annoying touchscreen issue where the cursor will jump
| around(soon after I bought it). Apparently it's just an issue
| with the phone. I bought a second hand iPhone 8 a year later
| and have been using it since.
|
| I guess I don't care as much about how the phone looks and
| more about the fact that the iPhone 8 is still on latest iOS
| whereas XZ2 and basically all sony phones will hardly get any
| updates and you get to choose between keeping your camera or
| updating your phone and keeping it fast with a custom
| rom(yes, you keep your phones camera active nowadays even
| after unlocking, but there is no updated camera HAL on the
| latest custom rom, you'll always have a subpar camera
| experience). Sony even announced that the Xperia 1 III will
| only receive one major update recently. Although everyone is
| still hoping that that was a mistake but the europeans.
|
| I would say Xiaomi deserves it though. They're cheap devices
| with good performance(and inofficial GCAM), and usually some
| (not great) open source drivers that allow for fast custom
| rom development(although that too has taken a turn for worse
| recently).
| f6v wrote:
| Apple makes small phones that have flagship power. I can't
| imagine buying a 6.7 inch smartphone.
| the_dune_13 wrote:
| > it blows the iphone 11 out of the water in camera, speed,
| responsiveness
|
| I have not seen iphone being outclassed by another phone.
| izacus wrote:
| Then you haven't been looking very far. Doesn't anyone on HN
| understand the concept of observer bias? -_-
| adventured wrote:
| > Then you haven't been looking very far.
|
| And you didn't name any phones that outclass the iPhone.
|
| That's because there are none. I say that as not a
| particular fan of Apple products or their ecosystem. I only
| buy Android phones as I prefer that ecosystem and
| interface. Every generation - for the past ~13 years - I
| research all the phones on the market, those worth
| bothering with, and it's still exceptionally clear Apple is
| making the best smartphones. Ecosystem, performance, audio,
| video, photos, gaming, all aspects remain at elite levels
| among smartphones. They're the only smartphone maker that
| has consistently stayed at or close to the top for so long,
| generation after generation.
| 14 wrote:
| I got an iPhone 8 after rocking an iPhone 4s for about 8 years.
| And this point, all the phones are pretty damn fast and smart
| be it an android or iPhone ecosystem. I would be happy with
| either. What finalized my purchase was the fact that Costco was
| offering 300$ store credit plus a couple other things on a
| Black Friday sale. Seemed like a good deal at the time.
| katmannthree wrote:
| As someone who has both a mid-range nokia released this year
| and an A13 iPhone I would love to see a side by side comparison
| video between your two devices showing camera and speed tests.
| From my experience it's the opposite, the nokia stutters and
| lags during normal usage while the iPhone loads apps almost
| instantly and doesn't drop frames.
| whateveracct wrote:
| > May I ask, apart from look, why do so many people in the US
| chose to use an iphone? Genuine curiosity.
|
| iOS
| Ayesh wrote:
| Good for them! I've been using Redmi (a sub-brand of Xiaomi,
| using same MIUI Android variant) Note 2,4,6,8, now 10, and I will
| buy 12 when it arrives too. I also use their power banks, fitness
| trackers, and even toothbrushes from Mijia sub-brand.
|
| Their prices are very difficult to beat. Their software is not as
| polished as say, Pixel devices or Apple devices, but for a third
| of the cost, that's an acceptable compromise for me.
|
| They are very aggressive at rolling out new phones, though. There
| is a Redmi Note device every 6-8 months, and a comparable Mi Lite
| device released a month or two later too. They are pretty similar
| with Poco specs as well.
|
| Their strategy is to release more and more phones and make the
| users think their device hit the sweet-spot. For example, my
| Redmi Note 10 has an IR blaster and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
| Another line of devices might reuse the same SoC and physical
| aspects, but not include an IR blaster and a 3.5mm jack. Redmi
| Note series also has a bunch of variants, some with NFC, some
| without, and some with 5G.
| majkinetor wrote:
| Many people here say that software not being polished is kind of
| a problem but that is irrelevant - you can always install
| alternative app and you should. I would be most happy if all
| those default garbage "apps" are left out on ANY phone (i.e.
| minimal install) - just give me OS and let me be, I can install
| stuff I use on my own. You should never use apps tied to vendor
| as portability of your tools is most important.
|
| Not only Xiaomi phones are cheaper, but technology is IMO way
| better then that of Samsung and friends:
|
| - Face recognition NEVER FAILS. It fails on MS Surface (and in
| kinda embarrassing way really), Samsung, Huwei etc. but never on
| Xiaomi - it can rain, snow, you can change haircuts... its
| irrelevant, it only scan eyes.
|
| - MAUI is way less bloated IMO then alternatives
|
| - Glass is awesome on my Redmi - I recently dropped it on asphalt
| (which is very sharp) from 1.5 meter height and then I hit it
| with my foot while walking so it slide on asphalt on the glass
| side, traveling around 5 meters. I thought it will go to trash
| can after that, but I picked it up and there was just a small
| scratch ! Amazing
|
| I am not judging only using phone xperience - all other gadgets I
| got from the company are great and 3 times cheaper then
| alternative - air cleaner, roborock etc.
|
| Good job Xiaomi.
| vbezhenar wrote:
| > - Face recognition NEVER FAILS. It fails on MS Surface (and
| in kinda embarrassing way really), Samsung, Huwei etc. but
| never on Xiaomi - it can rain, snow, you can change haircuts...
| its irrelevant, it only scan eyes.
|
| What about false positive rate? It's there for security after
| all, not for convenience. Actually that's what makes me worry
| about biometrics. I was able to find out Apple claims about
| security characteristics of their fingerprint recognition and
| face recognition features. But I was not able to find this
| information for Android vendors, it's like nobody cares.
| majkinetor wrote:
| I did not witness it. I tried on 10+ people, and it didn't
| unlock the phone. I would certainly love to know more, sounds
| to me too good to be true, but then I remembered that iris is
| like fingerprint so it makes sense.
| krisoft wrote:
| > Face recognition NEVER FAILS
|
| Are we talking about the false negative or the false positive
| rate here?
| publicola1990 wrote:
| After using RealMe phones, I am finding them superior to Xiaomi
| at similar price points. I don't know why they aren't more
| popular.
| senko wrote:
| 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 Samsung
| or Apple phone at 3x the price. 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.
| jatins wrote:
| Their software wasn't always this bad.
|
| I had an Mi3 and I thought the UI was better that what stock
| Android was offering at that time. But overtime they kept
| adding more and more crapware.
| nsonha wrote:
| try unlocking the bootloader (annoying that you have to wait
| like other have noted) and use the MIUI EU distro. It's pretty
| much standard Android (might not even include gapps, I don't
| remember), plus the core MIUI and their international version
| of the apps (ones that don't link to Chinese online services).
| Best of both words.
|
| For example I use their Music app for playing Youtube in the
| background without ads, I didn't even install the Youtube app.
| Nux wrote:
| Just got my hands in the 10T Lite 5G, it's a pretty good phone,
| must admit. Toying with the xiaomi.eu rom until it's properly
| supported by Lineageos. The UI is growing on me, no adware that
| I can see and I have frozen most of the google apps.
|
| The camera is mediocre, I am hoping for a gcam port.
| jackbrookes wrote:
| >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/
| senko wrote:
| Thanks! I didn't know about that one.
|
| Sadly Firefox Focus on Android doesn't seem to support
| extensions or manually loading block lists, but as I do
| mainly browse from private mode on desktop as well, the
| extension will help there.
| ekianjo wrote:
| Is it possible to easily install LineageOS and still have
| everything working ?
| alpaca128 wrote:
| Xiaomi sells a few phones with the "Android One" label,
| meaning it's mostly standard Android and mine let me
| uninstall basically all the typical useless apps. Only the
| Play Store and one or two others can't be removed.
|
| Not perfect and LineageOS would still be a bit better, but
| close enough for me. I don't enjoy using smartphones either
| way.
| vbezhenar wrote:
| AFAIK Android One is barely supported at this point and
| phones are old. I used to be a supporter of Android One and
| bought two phones myself, but I wouldn't recommend it now.
| Google failed this program like it failed numerous programs
| before. The only reliable way to get standard android
| without unlocking and tinkering seems to be buying Google
| Pixel nowadays.
| limeblack wrote:
| Nokia is close to stock to the Pixel
| https://dontkillmyapp.com/
| robocat wrote:
| I bought a Nokia 3.4 released late last year. Cheap and
| Android One. Really great phone for the price point. I
| absolutely _hate_ any manufacturer version of Android.
| Pixel is great, but only occasionally is a cheaper model
| available. I break and lose phones so I buy functional
| but cheaper (buying second hand is risky).
| https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_3_4-10404.php
|
| I previously had a different Android One Nokia Phone
| which was great and well supported.
| climb_stealth wrote:
| AFAIK you won't get proper camera support. For example my
| Poco F1 has two cameras on the back, but with LineageOS only
| one is used.
|
| Whether everything works ends up depending a bit on how you
| use your phone.
| zekica wrote:
| I'm running LineageOS on Mi 10T Pro and everything works
| fine, but it wasn't the case until a couple of weeks ago.
| as1mov wrote:
| 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.
| kenmacd wrote:
| I don't suppose any of them allow setting a custom root of
| trust though, right?
|
| I haven't managed to find anything other than the Pixels that
| have it.
| commoner wrote:
| The Xiaomi Mi A2 supports relocking the bootloader with a
| custom key, but only on older versions of the bootloader
| (MIUI 9 / Android 8.1, or earlier):
|
| https://gitlab.com/CalyxOS/calyxos/-/issues/88
|
| https://review.calyxos.org/c/CalyxOS/calyxos.org/+/2904/4/p
| a...
|
| Not sure about other Xiaomi phones.
| kenmacd wrote:
| Interesting. Thank you, I'll check it out.
| commoner wrote:
| Another manufacturer that supports relocking the
| bootloader with a custom key is OnePlus:
|
| https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-re-locking-the-
| boot...
|
| None of the operating systems that are designed to be
| used with a relocked bootloader (e.g. CalyxOS,
| GrapheneOS, RattlesnakeOS) support OnePlus phones at the
| moment, so you'll need to build LineageOS, AOSP, or some
| other Android variant manually to use it on a OnePlus
| phone with a relocked bootloader.
|
| There might be more device models with this kind of
| support. Search for "avb_custom_key" with the model name
| to see whether anyone has commented on this.
| aneutron wrote:
| The downside is that you lose DRM-enabled content. For
| example, it's a hassle to use Netflix at 720p/1080p, and
| what's more important to my use case for example, is Spotify.
| It's _possible_ in theory, but it's extremely hacky.
|
| I personally went the Google route w/ a Pixel 4a, so I get a
| simple, zero non-sense UI, with no forced ads or anything,
| just a smooth experience, at a slight premium (not that much
| to be completely fair ...)
| savant2 wrote:
| I have LineageOS on my Xiaomi phone and the only hassle is
| contactless payment. Spotify works fine and I did not try
| Netflix.
| sildur wrote:
| Try it, it works. Parent probably tried a very old
| version of LineageOS.
| aneutron wrote:
| That is true. Can you please point me to a guide to get
| it working ? Thanks in advance !
| sildur wrote:
| Well, I installed it in a Samsung S10, but here is a
| guide for your phone:
|
| https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/sunfish/
| Bombthecat wrote:
| And camera isn't that great anymore.. You can't use the drm
| drivers anymore.
| WastingMyTime89 wrote:
| I was happy with my Pixel 4A until I left it in my jacket
| pocket during heavy rain. The resulting humidity was enough
| to definitely kill it. I get that it has no IP rating at
| all so it's entirely my fault but still it's the first time
| this has ever happened to me in fifteen years of owning a
| mobile phone. The 4A is just extremely not waterproof.
|
| After that, I'm never buying another cheap Pixel again.
| unicornporn wrote:
| > it has no IP rating at all
|
| Just wtf. I had a $130 phone with Lineage die on me the
| same way recently. No IP on that machine, but if you pay
| for a Pixel you should definitely have it.
| Anarch157a wrote:
| An hour to spare _after_ waiting a week for Xiaomi to
| authorize unlocking of the bootloader. I bought a Poco X3 Pro
| yesterday, the phone is awesome for it 's asking price (R$
| 1800), but I'll keep using my current one (Redmi Note 4)
| until next week. Im not sure if I'm going to wipe it and
| install another ROM or just install root and use Titanium
| Backup to freeze most of Google and Xiaomi's stuff.
| chronogram wrote:
| 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?
| [deleted]
| the_third_wave wrote:
| I'm using a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 ('whyred') from 2019. The
| first thing I did was get that unlock code (it took ~3
| days) and unlock it. For the latter I used MiUnlockTool
| [1], a Java program which ran OK on Linux - no Windows
| needed. The tools seems to work on more recent models from
| what I gather at the related XDA thread [2].
|
| [1] https://xiaomitool.com/MiUnlockTool
|
| [2] https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/tool-win-lin-mac-
| miunlock...
| mkup wrote:
| Windows application is still required, but loader unlock
| was granted instantly after creation of a new Xiaomi
| account last time I tried it (last Friday for Xiaomi
| Pocophone F1).
| as1mov wrote:
| The waiting is kinda random really. I didn't have to wait
| at all, as the unlock code was available instantly.
| Regarding the account, I just used a spare throwaway SIM
| and a Windows VM for that. -\\_(tsu)_/-
|
| Though most of the brands (except Nokia and Samsung) seem
| to have pretty reasonable terms for unlocking the
| bootloader and aren't as ass-backwards as Xiaomi's.
| zozbot234 wrote:
| That's not required on A series phones, which ship with a
| mostly stock Android as opposed to the custom MIUI.
| berdario wrote:
| The last one they released is the Mi A3 in July 2019.
| They discontinued the line and never released the A4
| Pyramus wrote:
| A tragedy.
|
| Xiaomi once conducted a poll on Twitter which OS users
| prefer - MIUI or Stock. 80 % or so voted for Stock
| Android hence Xiaomi deleted the poll.
| f00zz wrote:
| Wow, unlocking a Xperia is super easy.
| dmos62 wrote:
| Wow, we've had very different experiences with LineageOS.
| snemvalts wrote:
| I don't think that's lineageOS, it's for unlocking the
| bootloader on Xiaomi phones
| [deleted]
| publicola1990 wrote:
| Xiaomi makes a whole gamut of electronic products from robot
| vacuums to smart rice cookers, and perhaps offers some sort of
| integration between all their product lines. May be it is one of
| the reason for their popularity.
| ignoramous wrote:
| They also make pretty good phones for the price. Software is
| supported by ads, an indicator of how successful ad-supported
| businesses really are.
| roenxi wrote:
| The first thought that leaps to my mind, on reviewing this, is
| that Apple is currently facing a court case in Australia accusing
| it of being a monopolist. And is facing various hostile inquires,
| in conjunction with Google [0] as people worry about the power of
| US tech giants.
|
| It is interesting to me to try and square the software with the
| obviously (1) competitive and (2) East Asian reality of the
| hardware. The hardware makers must be in a great position to pull
| another Apple if they think the market is actually uncompetitive.
|
| [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26920869
| makeitdouble wrote:
| I have a hard time squaring that optimism with the ban of
| Huawei and the ban requests made by the US administration for
| Xiaomi as well.
| grishka wrote:
| 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.
| agumonkey wrote:
| so no account > no adb > no root, right ?
| grishka wrote:
| You also need an account to unlock the bootloader.
| pier25 wrote:
| Even with Android One phones?
| the_third_wave wrote:
| > 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_p
| rovider_preferences.xml_ in an editor and add _< boolean
| name="security_adb_install_enable" value="true" />_ before the
| closing _< /map>_ 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?
| grishka wrote:
| If you have root, you could as well remount /system read-
| write and delete that "security center" crap altogether.
| oriolid wrote:
| It doesn't help if you're an app developer. All you can do is
| to keep hacking around Xiaomi's bugs because the users sure
| won't install LineageOS. The part about preventing adb is
| just icing on the cake. The nice part is that unlike with
| Samsung, the users know that they're buying crap and often
| don't really expect apps to work.
| grishka wrote:
| In my experience they do expect them to work and complain
| the loudest. And then there's Meizu. No idea what it's like
| now, but ~5 years ago they meddled with the system
| framework enough to make my app crash. We had to buy one of
| those phones and I then decompiled their POS ROM to work
| around this madness. I had to ask myself "how on earth did
| this pass Google's CTS" multiple times, and the answer
| apparently was "it never did".
| oriolid wrote:
| I hadn't even heard about Meizu before. Just the ad copy
| "Better Android Experience" sounds like it's going to be
| non-standard in everything it does.
| Proven wrote:
| Their sourcing and labor practices possibly save a dollar or
| two
|
| https://knowthechain.org/wp-content/uploads/2020_KTC_ICT_Sco...
| viztor wrote:
| I'm honestly confused why you linked a data sheet that
| practically has no data.
| berdario wrote:
| That seems to be an empty report.
|
| "engaged with knowthechain: No"
|
| So, basically they got no data, and had to assume the worst.
|
| I'm sympathetic with Knowthechain: they don't have an easy
| job, they have to be able to reach out to any company in the
| world and get an answer...
|
| But I also think that this doesn't mean much.
| buybackoff wrote:
| For me the greatest value is 2+ days battery and the fact that
| I'm not afraid to loose/break EUR200 phone vs EUR600, 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, even from apps that have nothing to do with FB).
| But that's is an EU country, I've read that Xiomi at least tries
| not to annoy regulators too much there with privacy issues, going
| for market share.
|
| Also most bloatware (even their browser) could be uninstalled in
| 10 minutes, just google "Xiaomi debloat", or go directly to
| https://github.com/Szaki/XiaomiADBFastbootTools
| reader_mode wrote:
| 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 200EUR and 600EUR phone.
| Even the iPhone 12max my wife has can justify the price with
| the insane photo/video quality for a phone.
| buybackoff wrote:
| Well, I said "better in many aspects", not overall better.
| For me, the camera is not that much important. It's good
| enough on Xiaomi, but obviously it's better on iPhone.
|
| It's personal preferences, for me the aspects of long battery
| life and turning the device into disposable cattle, not a
| pet, are much more important. The display on Xiaomi is
| decent, and that plus fast responsive apps the display shows
| is all I need from a phone.
| meibo wrote:
| 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.
| Iolaum wrote:
| Considering their data collection capabilities, I d say they
| are sustainable...
| _huayra_ wrote:
| Exactly. Considering how Samsung is coming out with cheaper
| phones these days due to competition, I don't think it's
| worth completely yeeting one's privacy out the window, even
| if the Xiaomi models have better specs. I know Android phones
| are still big Google spying devices, but given the state of
| the tech world, I'd prefer to have Google spy on me than a
| shadowy Chinese company.
|
| Does it really matter if it has 4x the cameras of a cheap
| Samsung if it sends all the photos to some server in China on
| the sneak?
| yorwba wrote:
| Just install LineageOS on it and have nobody spy on you:
| https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#xiaomi
| jcynix wrote:
| How does LineageOS stop the "little black box" which
| handles GSM/UTMS/etc traffic from spying on you? Or your
| telecom provider from tracking you?
|
| Don't get me wrong, I like these free OS versions, but
| while I could teach my wife, my mother in law etc to
| manage Netguard, I couldn't teach them to handle Lineage,
| f-Droid all by themselves.
| lmm wrote:
| > How does LineageOS stop the "little black box" which
| handles GSM/UTMS/etc traffic from spying on you?
|
| Is that part even made by Xiaomi?
| swiley wrote:
| Usually its made by Qualcomm.
| gadf wrote:
| Just install ANOM
|
| or Telegram
|
| Or Signal
|
| And _have nobody spy on you_
|
| "Trust me, I'm Italian."
| stelonix wrote:
| It's interesting, because coming from a country that's been
| targeted by US interventionism in the past, I'm pretty ok
| with Xiaomi spying on me, not so much when it comes to
| Google.
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| I'm not too happy about anyone spying on me, and I'm also
| unhappy about corporations vetoing software I want to
| install.
|
| Besides, one person's "targeted by interventionism" is
| another person's "liberated by democratic forces".
| sdoering wrote:
| > Besides, one person's "targeted by interventionism" is
| another person's "liberated by democratic forces".
|
| Does newspeaking it make it better?
|
| And if one would look at the examples of "liberation by
| democratic forces" over the last decades I feel that it
| is somewhat difficult to find an instance that wasn't a
| prime example of securing natural ressources or ensuring
| of keeping the global power structure intact.
|
| I might be naive (or even contrarian to the US policy)
| bbut wwere aare tthe purely humanistic examples of Uncle
| Sam mingling in foreign affairs?
|
| Imho the US should keep their fingers out of others'
| proverbial cookie jars.
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| _> Does newspeaking it make it better?_
|
| The difference in language is often just political
| rhetoric. The difference in substance became very clear
| to me talking to my grandfather who was liberated by
| democratic forces and would have been insulted by having
| that called "targeted by US interventionism".
|
| There are good reasons for both sentiments based on
| actual, sometimes painful, experience. We should respect
| that.
|
| It's a very complex and off-topic subject. That's why I'm
| not going into the details of the various conflicts in
| recent decades.
| sdoering wrote:
| I am not denying that there are examples of democratic
| liberation. Especially from history. Take the Yugoslavia
| conflict. Intervention by an international force there
| was at the time probably the lesser evil. It stopped
| genocide (a great plus in my book) while at the same time
| generating hatred that created terrorism (a big minus).
|
| There are no easy answers.
|
| But most current interventions as well as many historic
| ones were not motivated by ulterior motives but by
| economic ones and questions of power.
|
| Coming from Germany and having studied history I must ask
| myself when did liberation turn to intervention because
| of political or economical gains? While keeping the
| rhetoric more or less the same.
|
| There is imho a difference between WW II or Yugoslavia
| and Kuwait. Or Irak. Or even Afghanistan. Or Serbia. Or
| different South American states were intervention is
| often less militaristic.
|
| I feel we need to have a way to differentiate and look
| closer to be able to discuss without falling back to
| ideology or "party lines".
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| I agree completely. My intention wasn't to toe any party
| line. On the contrary, I think the history of many
| conflicts is so ugly and complex that people can
| legitimately feel very differently about the same event.
|
| I can't even begin to imagine how various groups of
| people (ethnic groups, women, young men, ...) or
| individuals in Afghanistan may feel about the various
| interventions during the past half century.
| stelonix wrote:
| Sure we were liberated by having a military junta take
| power for 21 years. Civil liberties vanished and people
| were secretly disappeared. Great democratic liberation!
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| I certainly don't claim that every intervention is
| liberation. My point is precisely that it's not that
| simple. It can be either or both at the same time for
| different people in different conflicts.
| stelonix wrote:
| My point is that there's no such a thing as "liberation",
| since interventions are known to be used as a pretext to
| project power. Calling it "liberation" is an euphemism
| for what it really is. No nation should meddle in other's
| internal affairs.
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| I strongly disagree with that. In my opinion, the
| sovereignty of nation states does not have priority over
| all other concerns under all circumstances. But this is
| certainly a very complex issue.
| AniseAbyss wrote:
| And that's why countries have armies. Sovereignty is not
| a right that is granted by the UN Security council it's
| taken and held by military force.
| AniseAbyss wrote:
| Just slap Blokada on it. Personally I don't give a shit
| about privacy since I never see any advertising.
|
| What use is it if a company knows everything about me when
| they can't use that information to sell me things?
| jcynix wrote:
| I'm running Netguard (app) as a firewall on them, set to
| block all traffic and then allow traffic only for solid apps
| where I need/want traffic to happen. Works like a charm, can
| even log in pcap format to analyze traffic.
| RamRodification wrote:
| Wouldn't the hardware vendor of the device be able to
| bypass that?
| gnfargbl wrote:
| From a quick look, yes they would and the NetGuard FAQ on
| GitHub explicitly acknowledges that:
| https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/blob/master/FAQ.md#user-
| con...
|
| That doesn't mean this is a worthless thing to run.
| Unless you are being specifically targeted, security
| measures that simply put you outside the main herd can
| still be effective.
| jcynix wrote:
| Both the hardware vendor and the vendor of the mobile
| phone's "black box" talking to your telecom could, of
| course. Potentially some chips inside could do nasty
| things, even if you'd install LineageOS for example.
| matsemann wrote:
| Why are the Nexus phones so expensive then?
|
| Edit: Pixels
| grishka wrote:
| Uh, the last Nexus phone came out in 2015? If you mean
| Pixels, they're targeting other market with them, they're
| competing with Apple. There's a cheaper "A" line (4a, 3a).
| [deleted]
| Krasnol wrote:
| Why shouldn't it be sustainable?
|
| The market for cheap phones is much bigger than for the
| expensive ones and as you see from the Apple numbers: the
| expensive market is pretty much covered. Also covered in an
| separate environment form where those users are reluctant to
| switch because it's hard to learn again.
|
| imho I think that fighting for the low budget Android market
| makes much more sense than for the high price Apple audience as
| "Apple" has become the "I can afford it"-message of prestige
| this group is looking for and therefore won't be replaced by
| anything else. Even if you buy the most expensive Samsung,
| you'd have to explain how expensive it was first to your
| audience. There is no need with Apple. Everybody knows you've
| spend a lot of money on it.
| NicoJuicy wrote:
| That's not the case with refurbished ones though.
| Krasnol wrote:
| Or fake ones but that's not the point.
| arcturus17 wrote:
| If you want a sub $200 Apple product you can go down the refurb
| route. I'm having an outstanding experience with a refurb
| iPhone 8.
| bitcoinmoney wrote:
| Where to get it somewhere with good reputation?
| arcturus17 wrote:
| Amazon has a one-year guarantee reseller program, at least
| here in Europe. It consists of third-party sellers and you
| can further drill down to check _their_ reputation. I've
| been lucky thus far and would've probably persevered even
| if I had gotten a lemon - I would've simply returned it for
| a new one, maybe from a different seller.
| wenc wrote:
| I've had good experience with: (they're a French unicorn)
|
| https://www.backmarket.com/
|
| There are others:
|
| https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/12/not-
| all...
| gajjanag wrote:
| Seconded. I did this first with a first gen iPhone SE that I
| got for $100 on ebay from a seller with good reputation as a
| trial.
|
| Been happy enough, so I bought a like new second gen iPhone
| SE for $250.
| ksec wrote:
| >Makes me wonder if it's sustainable.
|
| While there are some suspicious of doggy accounting practice
| and also political investment, Xiaomi is actually a company
| listed in HKSE 1810.HK [1] with positive cash flow and
| operating income. Currently valued at around ~$90B USD.
|
| Their phone are at a very low gross margin but their other
| products, or they call it the Xiaomi ecosystem is quite
| profitable. ( Comparatively Speaking ). And of course they earn
| most of their profits from selling Data and Ads. Which to be
| fair is similar to Google. ( _Cough_ on the surface because we
| dont know how those Data are used _Cough_ )
|
| So to answer your question, it is sustainable. And they
| benefited most from the Huawei incident.
|
| [1]
| https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/1810.HK?p=1810.HK&.tsrc=fin-...
| the_third_wave wrote:
| > Especially for older people that don't need $500+ flagships,
| a $150 Xiaomi is more than sufficient
|
| Let me rephrase that for you: Especially for people _who
| realise they_ don 't need $500+ flagships, a $150 Xiaomi is
| more than sufficient.
|
| It has nothing whatsoever to do with age, my 16yo daughter is
| more than satisfied with her Redmi Note 5 - she wanted one when
| she saw mine. Good battery life, good screen, more than fast
| enough and plenty of memory, 3.5mm jack, can take an SD card.
| Show me the "flagship" phone which offers this combination.
|
| Phones have been fast enough for years now, screens, memory and
| storage have been big enough. Add LineageOS and you have a
| device which can easily last for 6 years, longer when you
| change the battery. I'm using a Samsung SIIIneo from 2014 with
| LineageOS 17.1 (Android 10) as a second device, it receives
| weekly OTA updates (which I generally do not install, but still
| - they're there). With a new battery it lasts for 2-3 days
| between charges when used for audio streaming through bluetooth
| or the speaker.
| reactspa wrote:
| I like that my Xiaomi Max 2 from 2017 has a 3.5mm jack, can
| take an SD card, AND has an infrared port (and so works as a
| remote for my TV and DVD player).
|
| Xiaomi, if you're listening, please continue to make at least
| one line of phone that has these features.
| siruncledrew wrote:
| Jio is doing the same gameplan in India, and that's already
| proven successful as far as I can tell.
|
| I think it's sustainable considering the vast majority of the
| world can't afford an iPhone or even a Samsung, so there's a
| large market. Also, once someone has a phone that can run a web
| browser, have a camera, and use messaging apps, then that's
| basically set for this target market.
| murukesh_s wrote:
| >Makes me wonder if it's sustainable.
|
| The pricing is now norm in Asia for last several years. In fact
| Xiaomi is not #1 in terms of quality or value for money. It's
| Oppo/Realme/OnePlus (all are same hardware). They do not have
| ads like Xiaomi and pretty much retail for the same price and
| ship millions of hardware. The quality is definitely higher
| with Oppo/Realme (budget options) having same quality as
| Oneplus (premium).
| machiaweliczny wrote:
| Doesn't Oneplus have better software? Oppo is not popular in
| EU.
| Hokusai wrote:
| > 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 had a bad
| experience as it was full of ad-ware and I was not able to
| install Google Play. The lack of official apps in the Xiaomi
| app store is not really their fault, but all the ad-ware is, I
| suspect, why the tablet was so extremely cheap. So, good enough
| hardware specifications, but somewhat disappointed at the
| software part.
| fomine3 wrote:
| 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!
| GordonS wrote:
| 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 looks great. Oh, and it
| cost PS340 at a time when flagship equivalents were around
| twice that - amazing value for money.
|
| Service is great too - the phone stopped charging at some
| point, but it was fixed within a few days of initial contact,
| with no quibbling.
|
| My only gripe is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack, but that's
| hardly a unique issue.
| bamboozled wrote:
| 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?
| GordonS wrote:
| I think perhaps you're reading something into my comment
| that I just don't believe is there.
|
| It's simply an anecdote from a random HN user who has a
| Xiaomi device, in a thread about Xiaomi; I figured they'd
| be relatively rare among HN users, and someone might
| appreciate a comment from an owner.
|
| I don't hate iPhones, or the Samsung I've owned. They all
| have different attributes and values: the iPhone 6 was
| _beautiful_ to look at, and the physical size was great;
| the last Galaxy I had was a great all-rounder; the Xiaomi I
| have now is a little larger than I 'd like (though that's
| the way everyone has gone now), but otherwise it's very
| good in almost any regard. Is it _better_ than an iPhone or
| the latest Galaxy? I 'm not saying that - what I'm saying
| is that it does everything I need and more, and was half
| the price of flagships at the time. Way I see it, that's
| incredible value for an extremely capable device.
| ksec wrote:
| 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.
| shuckles wrote:
| Apple's overall margins are around 35%. Where do you see
| that iPhone has 60% margins?
| ksec wrote:
| Apple over the years has an extremely consistent 60%
| margin on iPhone from BOM cost to RSP, that is excluding
| NRE, patents, Services, iOS, distribution and many other
| things. This distorted a bit once they introduce iPhone X
| in 2017 / 2018 along with their Services Revenue
| accounting changes.
| zibzab wrote:
| Xiaomi has in past shown extremely innovative solutions.
| Just look at the battery life they achieved with mi band (3
| months vs competitors 18 hours, are you kidding me??).
|
| So while their software is basically adware and like all
| Chinese companies they are probably controlled by CCP, we
| must acknowledge that they also have some really bright
| engineers.
| jules wrote:
| A big reason why people buy iPhones is the Apple ecosystem
| and status signalling. A $300 Xiaomi phone also isn't as
| good as a flagship iPhone, but it's ~90% as good for 1/3
| the price. For people who spend several hours per day on
| their phone, it isn't irrational to buy an iPhone.
| Americans spend on average 5.4 hours per day on their
| phone. Over two years, the savings from a Xiaomi phone come
| out to less than 20 cents per hour use. For these people it
| may well be worth the 20 cents for an hour of better phone
| experience. I think Samsung should be way more worried than
| Apple.
| Synaesthesia wrote:
| Note he compared it to an iPhone 6.
| baybal2 wrote:
| Not really, if you count _a vendor_ , and not _a brand_ , the
| whole of BBK group has long been the 1
| trm42 wrote:
| Out of curiosity: Is it possible that the US Government will do
| the same for Xiaomi that they did to Huawei? If so, how long will
| it take?
| Wronnay wrote:
| Xiaomi already was on a blacklist in the past:
| https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-12/xiaomi-u-...
| [deleted]
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| Huawei is perceived as a problem because they are big in
| infrastructure.
|
| Xiaomi does smartphones that run on Qualcomm chips and Android.
| Of course there are always games and tit-for-tat but on the
| face of it Xiaomi is rather innocuous and benefits US companies
| (and that's probably why it was removed from the US blacklist).
| throwaway4good wrote:
| Huawei designing their own chipsets seems to be the big
| thing.
|
| We will see what happens if Xiaomi starts using main chipsets
| from Unisoc or another Chinese designer.
| nobody0 wrote:
| Not likely, though Xiaomi is a bit bigger now, it is not really
| posing noticeable technical superiority that Huawei was
| regarded.
| timwaagh wrote:
| Xiaomi doesn't provide the kind of network infrastructure that
| Huawei does. So they don't have access to the kind of data that
| concerned us policymakers.
| patrickaljord wrote:
| If everyone start using their phones, they kind of will. I
| would guess it's easier to spy on people when you own the
| hardware and OS. Maybe the infrastructure would allow broader
| spying but owning a big part of the smartphone market allows
| for more in-depth spying for those with Xiaomi phones.
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