Well put it this way I had a s6 edge 32gb and the iPhone 6 Plus and I'm not going to purchase another contract phone again as you are just pis*ing money up against a wall as the phones coming out of China just now are amazing, I have the R7 and it destroys both the edge and plus on every possible thing even the camera don't be fooled it is a 21mp camera with a Sony lens, it's capped with the phones firmware to 13mp for better image stibility and they say they will up it using a firmware upgrade to re enable the full 21mp when they iron out the bugs in the firmware but the phone performs like a built, I can truthfully say I haven't held a better phone in my hand, it's processors, ram and rom make it one of the fastest if not fastest phone out there yes I know there is a few phones with 6gb but what's the point unless your going to use that and even Windows doesn't use 6gb of ram, it's dual sim and microsd only one or the other I'm afraid, the camera is superb and I have also had the Sony Z3 in the past but the camera is defo on par with the Z3 , it's also waterproof and it's non of this Sony crap that says the flaps have to be shut to make it waterproof, it has the highest dpi of any phone on the market it even beats the iPhone 6 Plus display for colours and clarity, who cares about battery life when it's got fast charge, all the usual lot of specs like nfc Bluetooth 4.0 , gorilla glass and a nice 5.5" screen with full 2k spec , to sum it of its unbeatable at present and for £129 delivered , God buy two in case you smash one lol I hope this helps people as I was humming and hoeing about for weeks trying to decide on the letv 6" pro max 2 I think it was but more than double the price for .5" more screen and it's not waterproof phone before choosing this one and I'm glad I did

Do you have a source where it says that it's waterproof? Or that it's a 2K screen? Or any information that matches what you have said? As I am very eager to get this phone for my friend, but I'd like to confirm what you've stated is true. So far, my research has stated otherwise - it is not waterproof nor is it a 2K screen (1080p).

Thanks for the help!

Received 3s yesterday and very impressed. The only thing I have a problem with is the volume up button. Anyone else had this problem?

Due to reading similar experiences from Gearbest I went with Banggood.

Mine turned up within 10 days, I think it was about 7 working days but saying 10 just in case.

I was very happy with the service and it cost be around £119 at the time.

Thanks, from talking to their customer support today he said anyone with it still marked as 'Processing' won't get it sent out until 8th August at earliest

Edited: Just to add, people are selling exact same phone on Ebay for £135. I know it's more but I couldn't be asked with **** about with Gearbest yet again. Last phones I ordered from them I ended up waiting 2 months then cancelling after they got swamped by orders on here

Thats is incorrect - In UK we have 800, 1800 and 2600 bands of LTE
I work for Nokia and we are deploying LTE for EE network so I know very well which bands EE is using

I know from experience that Gearbest can sometimes take weeks to actually send out phones unfortunately. They tend to get them to order from their own suppliers when they receive customer orders and then test and drop ship them. Their promises/scheduled dates aren't really worth the time that it takes to read them either.

Just out of interest what order date was this roughly? Bought mine on 12th July and it's not even been shipped yet (well at least according to the status)

Flashed with Miflash Flash but had to use the 2015 version as the newer 2016 version was giving me an error.

Flashed:
http://en.miui.com/thread-284309-1-1.html

ManhIT multilanguage 6.5.12 v 7-5.1 Global for locked user

Wanted to avoid the Muiu 8 as at the moment the battery doesn't last so long on that version.

Continues to be stable and still on 63% battery despite using the torch for the last hour.

hukdchris - what did you flash it with?

Bought this phone after much consideration

Been using it for the first time today after flashing it.

I'm not the type to want the latest phone, evidenced by upgrading from a HTC one X which has served me very well for years.

Im delighted with this phone, despite the minor hassle of having to flash it to remove the Chinese and ensure there was no malware. But that went smoothly enough.

Have an impressive nillkin 9h extreme hardness anti burst screen on it and a nice nillkin case that makes it less slippery in the hand.

Everything works smoothly and after a day of use the battery is still on 74%

Apparently the camera is not so great, but I haven't tried it and don't take lots of pictures so can't comment.

For the money and if you don't mind a bit of extra effort to get it up and running this is an absolute steal.

My girlfriend who using a HTC m8 is equally impressed with the look, feel and performance of this phone.

Hope that helps.

No import charges. Royal mail just put it through the letter box. I selected free delivery via belgium post and they put a value of 16USD on the customs sticker.

Also came with a small UK mains plug. Will use it tonight.

Any import charges? Initial impressions?

Got mine today!

So you got an R7, a totally different model and much more expensive but because you are happy with it you somehow think it's ok to recommend "phones coming from China" in general and to everyone??

You do realize everybody buying this will have no warranty what so ever, and will have to tinker with the phone to install Google Play and other similar activities that not everybody is confortable with.
The camera on this is also not very good.
No LTE 800mhz also.
No quick charge

There is a public for this, but let's not go to the extreme of saying mainstream phones have nothing to offer compared.

I've had a similar experience, although after failing at getting play updated I ended up just downloading apks fr the web or the xiaomi store until the global ROMs are out.

It's released in Malaysia in August apparently, so hopefully about then.

I wish cyanogen mod worked for it I'd try that.

Worst thing about it is not being able to swap to Nova launcher yet :disappointed:

Basically regret not jsut getting the 3 Pro.

if this phone is imported from abroad it could arrive along with a bill from Custom and Excise.

jomay - your reply is really appreciated. I have spent a good number of hours looking into this but the above has probably saved innumerous more.

I reckon/hope a global ROM will be out shortly based on a few snippets that I've read on the xiaomi forum.

Hey hutcha, my Redmi 3s from Goldway arrived with MIUI working fine (albeit with some Chinese apps), but a broken Google Play installation.

To fix the Google Play installation it should be sufficient to follow the steps in this thread:
http://en.miui.com/thread-265496-1-1.html
After you have installed Google Play using that installer you will have to update first Playservices and then Playstore (see comment #242 on page 24 of that thread):
http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-services/
(pick the file 9.2.56 (440-124593566) for arm64, android 6.0, no dpi)
http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-store/
(just pick the most recent file here)

The relevant thread for MIUI Roms is here: http://en.miui.com/forum-90-1.html, however they list ROMs for the Redmi 3s and the 3 pro - both are totally different and 3 pro ROMs won't work on the 3s.

I have unlocked the bootloader and tried to install TWRP from https://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/6-7-7-11.32639/ (Redmi 3s codename is "land" and the file is the HM3SHM3X). Whilst I managed to get into TWRP once the bootloader hung after a reboot and I had to reflash MIUI using fastboot.

Right now I'm too lazy to work on it again. Maybe I'll do that if there is a global ROM or Cyanogenmod eventually.

I ordered a 32gb redmi 3s from gold way earlier this week. Jomay - would really appreciate hearing what you've done. it was advertised as custom ROM with Google play installed.

I've got a Redmi 3s (from Aliexpress Goldway). It's a really nice phone and build quality. Redmi 3s vs Redmi 3 Pro are pretty much the same, and I don't think Xiaomi considers one superiour to the other. It is really quite confusing.

A word of caution:
1) Google Playstore is not part of MIUI. Check here how to install it. Make sure you read later comments, as the installer provided is outdated and needs an update for playstore and playservices.

2) There are no global roms for Redmi 3s and I believe also for Redmi 3 pro (yet?, if ever?). English is supported, though, so the main downside are some pre-installed chinese apps.

I do like the phone, but it required some tinkering before it works with Playstore etc.

Unless that's some weird Royal Mail policy, there is no law against sending batteries to China. There are heavy customs restrictions on sending batteries to Hong Kong but not China.

In that case it might be worth waiting for further price falls.


It's pot luck I'm afraid. I've had a few things come though just fine but then I've also been stung on occasion too.

And as for cost, if customs check it then it's VAT (+£23.59) + Royalmail's standard rodgering fee (+£8 last time I checked). And if you're lucky they'll 'miscalculate' the phone's value and possibly add duty as well. And if you're really, really lucky they'll pretend you paid extra for postage and charge you VAT on that as well (I know this from experience, unfortunately).


Lack of Cyanogenmod support kills this for me. At least with CM you get regular security updates, updates to the latest version of Android and best of all you don't have to rely on the phone's vendor to support a discontinued model.

And yes I'm using a Galaxy S2:smile:


I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure you have no section 75 rights when buying from outside the EU. Of course you could try issuing a Visa/Mastercard chargeback but whether that'll work is another thing.


Good phone with a reportedly excellent if not outstanding screen and exceptional CPU. And unofficial Cyanogenmod support too. Just a shame about the lack of expandable storage (no SD card port), lack of removable battery and the fact that it tends to overheat, badly.

you mean in terms of import tax? well mine they shipped with a value of $20 and it did not get picked up.

Any idea on the damage if this doesn't come through the EU warehouse?

i have a different phone from gearbest which arrived broken

after some haggling they agreed to send another phone out, i had to pay some cash, but no where near the original purchase cost and i do not send the broken phone back (because turns out it is a pita to send items with batteries to china)

the replacment has not arrived yet .

not i am not saying this means GB support is good (or bad) but just that perhaps you can minimise your losses.

The problem is finding the parts, especially if its a new model. They tend to use surplus bits and pieces from Samsung, LG, Huawei, Apple etc factories and just cobble the phones together so it takes several people to strip down the phone completely before you can know which replacement parts will and will not work.

Chinese branded phones are cheap but its a lottery whether they work flawlessly for 2 years.

Nevertheless I'm on my 3rd China phone now & won't buy anything else even though every phone developed some fault which was fixable relatively cheaply. Don't bother sending the phone back to China, it will be quicker & maybe even cheaper if you order the faulty part (mic/speaker etc) on Aliexpress and get a local repair shop to fit the the part.

I have one and instantly deleted the preinstalled firmware and replaced with xiaomi global, no problems atall since I don't this

I have a problem too, a lot of people on here talk about xiaomi's reliability so I bought them as my first chinaphone, waited about 3 weeks for delivery and boom, a faulty speaker thats always crackling. Also been waiting 5 days for the vendor to get back to me about a refund.

I bought it recently from AliExpress for £170 and I'm happy. Steal for this price

Yes and no. They'll give you 12 months but if my last jaunt into this thing is anything to go by then they'll expect you to send it back to China for repair.

I'm slightly tempted by this phone however the last phone I got from China was an Elephone P7000 last year and it was dreadful. Unfortunately it has made my slightly weary of them now.

I do have a China phone of sorts atm (Huawei Honor 5x) but it can sometimes be a bit slow for my liking.

Is this phone compatible with an MHL adapter?

Does it come with warranty?

I thought the mi4c battery meant it needed regular charges?

yes, go for it!

Does it support 4G on O2 network?

Now the 3s is £123 (banggood), would the 3s be a better option? Xiaomi Redmi 3s 5 Inch Fingerprint 3GB RAM 32GB ROM Snapdragon 430 Octa-core 4G Smartphone

http://www.banggood.com/Xiaomi-Redmi-3s-5-Inch-Fingerprint-3GB-RAM-32GB-ROM-Snapdragon-430-Octa-core-4G-Smartphone-p-1061752.html?admitad_uid=c72fc6a84aa41b8443cd93fd99f2dc59

Try it with earphones that have a built in mic.

So sounds like your recommending the XIAOMI Mi4C 4G is that cpu allot better?

Storage is really a subjective matter anything less than 16GB is just not enough for a long run, with 16 gb and autoupload of pictures to the google photos you can get by with 16GB of storage, 2GB vs 3GB is really how much apps you can have open at the same time and 2GB imo is enough the CPU makes the biggest difference and overall performance should be almost twice faster than redmi 3 pro
if in doubt go to kimovil.com and compare them, ANTUTU benchmark will tell give you an answer which is faster and by how much

Is the XiaoMi Redmi 3 Pro not better because of the 32GB ROM and 3GB ram compared with the XIAOMI Mi4C 4G which has 2GB ram and 16GB ROM. Or is it the graphics card that make it better? thanks Mark

​I've bought 2 phones from here and a friend ordered one. No import duty on any. Not sure if we just got lucky though

​I have had his phone for about 4 months I think now. The handset it virtually flawless. For the money it is a hell of a buy......but the camera is naff. It will occasionally take some good snaps in good light so the hardware is definitely capable. But all too often the focus just fails miserably and I get a blurred mess where a photo should've been.

Here's a good guide on how to unlock the bootloader

http://xiaomitips.com/guide/unlock-redmi-note-3-bootloader/

Not got it yet. Its on the way over via belgium post.

Am thinking of the Vernee Apollo Lite, besides no NFC everything else seems great for the price of about £166 and a few preorder offers going on at the moment to bring it down slightly.

finally voice of reason, mi4c with snapdragon 808 is much better choice

Someone let me know when they release a version that supports band 20 4g...i hear its on its way..

May I ask whats the version of your software there ? V7.5.1.0.LAICNDE (MIUI7) ?

Samsung S2 still going strong since 2011 :smile:

Thanks for your input lucas. By the looks of it there are no plans for an official os update so will be stuck on lollipop. From what I've read its clean, free of any nasty malware and not bloated with crap. The fingerprint sensor appears to work well too which is a bonus. Im used to the speed/ reliability of my iphone 6s - im not expecting it to be as good.

For under a £120 its a bargain! No idea how good/ bad gearbeast after sales are like, hopefully wont need to find out. Purchased on credit card just in case though.

Great phone but mine has an intermittent fault when speaking, people can't hear me when talking and it happens alot, it's not worth posting back so over £100 down the pan.

these phones are amazing for the price. if I'd paid 3 times as much I'd have still been amazed at the quality and speed of the phone. heat added.

I bought XiaoMi Redmi Note 3 from GearBest (they lost tracking of the parcel which supposed to come to me from London - so I got case form China week earlier then phone form London). GearBest has high quality customer service exchanging emails with boot is really funny. Got phone with unofficial soft of some Chinese vendor. So all updates were blocked.
You can find solution there. But to be honest I'm fighting over a week to unlock bootloader on my phone. I bricked phone over 10 times and still cant unlock bootloader.
http://en.miui.com/

Do you get hammered with import duties ordering from this company?

Ordered this a couple of days ago.

Any advise on how to update to latest version of android? I tried to find out but not clear if its possible? Thanks

Is much of an upgrade from the Oneplus One?

​
Where are you getting these specs from? It's not got nfc, the mediatek processor is mid range according to them, it's a 1080p screen, Samsung camera. Cannot see a mention of it being waterproof either.

nice deal, heat added

Because he's talking out of his backside. Must work for the company or something.

mi4c is better deal

Unlocked for Worldwide use. Please ensure local area network is compatible. click here for Network Frequency of your country. Please check with your carrier/provider before purchasing this item.
Notice:
This Android/Windows device is designed to function specifically with the current Android/Windows OS installed on it. Any alterations such as upgrades, modding with custom ROMs, rooting or flashing the Android device with other firmware will automatically void the device's warranty.
XiaoMi Redmi 3 Pro 5.0 inch Android 5.1 4G Smartphone Snapdragon 616 64bit Octa Core 3GB RAM 32GB ROM Fingerprint 13.0MP Main Camera
Main Features:
Display: 5.0 inch 1280 x 720 HD Screen
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 Octa Core 4 x 1.5GHz + 4 x 1.2GHz
GPU: Adreno 405
System: Android 5.1
RAM + ROM: 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM
Camera: 5.0MP front camera + 13.0MP rear camera with auto focus and flashlight
Sensor: Light sensor, G-sensor, Proximity sensor, E-compass
Feature: GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Fingerprint sensor
Bluetooth: 4.1
SIM Card: Dual SIM dual standby. One is Micro SIM card slot, the other is Nano card slot, which can also be used as a TF card slot.
Note: Nano SIM card and TF card cannot be used together, because they share the same space of card slot.
Network:
2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
3G: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz
4G: FDD-LTE 1800/2100/2600MHz
Note: Note: This product uses Xiaomi Redmi 3 package, but the product is updated version of Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro

Not as good as the Blackview R7 which is £130 from aliexpess note that the phone is waterproof as well and very high specs

bought one a few weeks ago and delighted with it. unplug it at 8am and it'll still be working at 8pm the following day, following heavy use

Forget curved as I smashed my edge and they are charging £150 or there a outs to replace glass and lcd so I would stay clear

Oh most important thing as a lot of people are getting this wrong and I can only speak for the Blackview R7 do your research 100% into your network carriers 4G setting as not all phones are 4g here in the uk when bought from China however the blackview r7 is 100% EE 4G compatible, don't just assume it will be for your carrier check it out and make sure as a lot of people are moaning that phones aren't working but they haven't checked there carrier settings against the phone, oh I got mine from Aliexpess.com say goodbye to pricey contracts for good

Xiaomi have at least 2 or 3 new handsets due in the next month or two.
An updated version of this, an updated version of the their Note model with a 5.7 (or maybe 6') screen which also 'maybe' curved like the Samsung Edge.

Blackview? Worth a look?

3S been out for a couple of months now for about the same price.

is this the same as the other deal on here for the redmi pro? or has the price dropped?

I'm sure the 3000mAh battery will be fine......unless you intend to jumpstart your car with it.

Oh forgot to say just look at the pixel count for the screen as well

has good reviews, but also seems a bit dated (2014) ... is it still 'up there' as a decent phone for the price?

Whats the camera like? Do i need to install anything extra?