Right, this is not a suggestion, this is my experience, I made the mistake of offering my experience on the previous geekbuying deal for this phone and I hit a nerve with another poster.

Aliexpress are not a retailer, they're a marketplace for connecting buyers and sellers, bit like eBay with business sellers.
On ordering my Mi Max (via their app) their buyer protection kicked in and the seller had 5 days to dispatch the phone or the order was cancelled and my money refunded.
Aliexpress hold your payment from the seller until you've received and confirmed you're happy with the phone on its arrival - so clearly it's in the sellers interest to proceed as quickly as they possibly can. As a buyer you can override this dispatch limit should you wish.
The aliexpress app has a good tracking feature, my phone was dispatched 3 days after ordering and I was able to track it at each stage until it arrived in the U.K. where it wa delivered by Royal Mail sign on delivery. My phone took 19 days from ordering to delivery, and was in the U.K. for 4-5 days before it appeared in the far reaches of rural Scotland.
Aliexpress app then asked me to confirm I'd received the phone and was happy with the phone, I responded later in the day once I'd checked it out.
Aliexpress have an 'official' xiaomi store, whether it's genuinely official I don't know, but it gave me some confidence that the sellers had good access to stocks.

I'm sure there are lots of aliexpress horror stories, but I'm quite impressed at the process they now have in place.

It's clear from my previous experience that the usual retailers don't hold a lot of stock of popular phones and this is never made clear when ordering. Preorders are a real lottery, gearbest let me (and many other) down with the p7000 launch - yet my 2nd preorder from aliexpress was dispatched a couple of days after launch, gearbest got stock about 3 weeks later.

Just got mine. Global ROM screen protector and leather cover for £149 from aliexpress. Hot deal .

Can you post your link thanks

Is there a reason most Chinese manufactures don't include nfc

Surely 6.44" is a tablet? :smiley:

​Will keep waiting for similar size screen with nfc :disappointed:

Only £20 more for the 64GB with snapdragon 652 (though it's not international so will need flashed).

Mine was £134 delivered from aliexpress - and potentially cheaper if the 9.9% quidco gets paid,
$10 discount for new account, removed the U.K. warranty charge, standard delivery (19 days).
Absolute bargain, excellent phone.

great phone, the battery life is immense and yes i get slated for carrying a "tablet" but who cares?