this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
41 points (100.0% liked)
technology
23436 readers
433 users here now
On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.
Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020
- Ways to run Microsoft/Adobe and more on Linux
- The Ultimate FOSS Guide For Android
- Great libre software on Windows
- Hey you, the lib still using Chrome. Read this post!
Rules:
- 1. Obviously abide by the sitewide code of conduct. Bigotry will be met with an immediate ban
- 2. This community is about technology. Offtopic is permitted as long as it is kept in the comment sections
- 3. Although this is not /c/libre, FOSS related posting is tolerated, and even welcome in the case of effort posts
- 4. We believe technology should be liberating. As such, avoid promoting proprietary and/or bourgeois technology
- 5. Explanatory posts to correct the potential mistakes a comrade made in a post of their own are allowed, as long as they remain respectful
- 6. No crypto (Bitcoin, NFT, etc.) speculation, unless it is purely informative and not too cringe
- 7. Absolutely no tech bro shit. If you have a good opinion of Silicon Valley billionaires please manifest yourself so we can ban you.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If you're looking at Xiaomi anyway, look at getting a OnePlus. The 13 just came out, but the 12 and 12r are very good phones.
The 12 has all the US WiFi bands, I'm not sure about the rest. Its the best phone I've ever owned. The 12r has significantly more custom ROM support.
They sell them direct to US markets through their website.
But thats the main issue with importing a Chinese version of those phones or importing a Xiaomi is that your signal will be terrible when everyone else is fine. Then some carriers may have trouble activating the phone for you.
I really don't recommend buying a phone without US carrier support or WiFi bands to save yourself a lot of trouble.
The main problem with Google is their phones are objectively worse hardware wise to just about every other brand at the same price, whereas their cameras are really good and they lean hard into AI software and are very custom ROM friendly.
Samsung doesnt explode anymore but has frequent camera issues (look for Banana gate) and is very locked down. They have excellent hardware and their expensive phones lean into the stylus.
I was with you at first when you mentioned OnePlus until you started recommending against Chinese phones in general for some reason
I have a OnePlus 11 5G and my signal is fine. Admittedly, I had to email my MVNO carrier directly to find out what APN to enter in order for data to work properly, but that is specific to the MVNO, not my phone.
It sounds like you've bad a bad experience. Carriers that require you to activate your phone are unnecessarily giving you extra hurtles, and this issue is generally limited to big carriers whose users don't know about MVNOs/don't know any better. Any respectable carrier will let you just insert your SIM card, maybe input an APN, and call it a day without having to activate anything.
My OnePlus 11 5G reception and Wi-Fi support are excellent, and I really don't recommend counting out all Chinese phones because you, personally, weren't able to get them working
Agreed, Google's hardware is subpar, but that is a Google-specific problem. Several users have found (1, 2, 3) that their OnePlus cameras are better than iPhone cameras.
I wasn't recommending against Chinese phones at all. And I made the mistake of assuming OP/anyone reading was in the US, when they might be from Europe or elsewhere where the phones work fine.
But you can find a lot of other people experiencing poor reception issues with imported phones. It isn't just me.
I said I have a OnePlus 12 and its great. But it has full band support because OnePlus makes domestic versions of phones in other markets.
Last I looked on GSM Arena, there's like 1 Xiaomi device that has this, and many other Chinese brands are also lacking the specific bands.
yeah this is very true, although not universal. It's just worth at least researching ahead of time, or being prepared to try it out and return it if it doesn't work (which might involve significant shipping costs). Or just going with a US market device if that all seems like too much of a pain.
I bought a primarily chinese-market aimed device (low end and kinda old, so not directly comparable to a relatively new smartphone but still), and it does not have the correct LTE bands to get T-mobile or the VoLTE profiles for Verizon, so its definitely not an ideal experience though I have gotten some use out of it still. I haven't tried ATT but I don't think it will be better (and ofc MVNOs all piggyback off of the above)