Xiaomi Mi Max. Silver. Gold is about 8 quid more. Been posted before, I know, but it's a little cheaper now. No band 20, unfortunately, for those who use O2 etc.
Top comments
Infiltrator to Proveright
5 Jan 173#31
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.
Latest comments (65)
Pateo
15 Mar 17#65
Has anyone had a auto firmware update today or in last few days? mine did update today and now its been auto factory reset what a pain in the butt, it stated just before or during update that everything would be backed up to google cloud or something but im unsure if that actually happened as i was out n about with no strong internet/data at the time of update!! anyone know if there is a way to recover what i had b4 update, as everything has been wiped now!!!
adamdroitwich
24 Feb 17#64
Mine is on order... Fingers crossed
Ger73
17 Feb 17#63
@badboyofrock can you message me about this deal please
sarabifran
30 Jan 17#61
Arrived today - it is beautiful. Now to try and make it work. My first chinese phone!
badboyofrock to sarabifran
30 Jan 17#62
Glad it's arrived. Enjoy.
sarabifran
29 Jan 17#60
It took a while for tracking to work. I contacted them via customer service and asked for an update, they responded quickly and then tracking started to work. Phone was shipped three days afterwards. It has according to tracking arrived in gb. So crossing fingers!
karlok1
29 Jan 17#59
Does your tracking work? I ordered mine more than two weeks ago and the tracking they gave me for singapore post doesn't work. Emails get ignored. I ordered other stuffs from other vendors on same day (ebay sellers / Ali express etc) and they've all been tracked no problem and received...
sarabifran
21 Jan 17#57
Gold version has shipped.
Infiltrator to sarabifran
22 Jan 17#58
This seems to be how geekbuying treat their customers, they let you order even though they have no stock, give you no updates and tell lies to cover it up.
When did you originally order?
That said, at least now is on its way, and you'll be impressed with the phone when it arrives.
sarabifran
18 Jan 17#56
I emailed them yesterday as it was still 'processing' and had a response within 24 hours that they do not have the gold in stock and would I mind a silver phone instead. I have no issues on colour as I use a phone case. So now waiting hopefully to see if anything arrives!
sarabifran
13 Jan 17#55
badboyofrock
Thank you - will retain hope and post when and if /if not it arrives!
Proveright
13 Jan 17#54
My mistake I was wrong about band 20, the extra money is for an MI band, band 20 is not included.
Many thanks for the comments on here, I have now ordered a 64gb version via a seller on Aliexpress , gold version and it has actually been shipped.
Unlike Geekbuying, whom I will never ever be ordering anything from again.
sarabifran
13 Jan 17#52
Oh dear I ordered. Then read the reviews on geekbuying. Just have to hope it arrives.
badboyofrock to sarabifran
13 Jan 17#53
I've ordered from them loads of times. You'll be fine.
Proveright
8 Jan 17#50
If you look on aliexpress some of the stores selling the Mi Max under the options when you buy you can now choose to add band 20 , but it is extra money ..
dreadzone101 to Proveright
8 Jan 171#51
Are you sure it's not the Mi Band 2 (fitness wristband) as an optional extra that you're seeing?
splat250
7 Jan 17#48
+1 for aliexpress, I ordered a mi max from the 'official xiaomi' store on there on the 9th december, recieved my phone on the 29th of december, pretty quick imo considering christmas.
Loving the phone so far.
badboyofrock to splat250
7 Jan 17#49
I've never used aliexpress, tbh. I don't use credit cards, so I like to use PayPal, and aliexpress don't take it. But, there is no official Xiaomi store on there anyway, just someone using the name.
schmoog
6 Jan 17#47
you probably won't be able to unlock band 20. People have tried with the Redmi Note 3 Pro and found its just not possible. I may be wrong though. Similar guides exist for the RN3P but they unlock B20 on a software level by using the modem configs from the sister model 'Kate' (special edition), I.e. it's configured but it doesn't actually work.
The internals on the Mi Max are likely to be different though so there could well be baked in locked-off support.
tan159
6 Jan 171#44
It would be really helpful if someone posted or linked to how to unlock band 20 so that we don't get post after post on "no band 20"
andypa1 to tan159
6 Jan 17#46
the only guide I've found is poorly written
andypa1
6 Jan 17#45
Vodafone uses both band 20 and another band, so 4g won't work so well in some regions
andypa1
6 Jan 17#38
So difficult knowing whether to get this.
The same phone is £200 from uk seller on ebay, am I definitely going to be paying VAT and duty on the import if I order on aliexpress?
Also anyone know about the band 20? I'm on Vodafone 4g, so I'm happy to mess with the phone to get it working but need to know that it's an option!!
badboyofrock to andypa1
6 Jan 17#41
Generally, if you choose the free shipping option, you'll be fine because they are usually marked as a gift at $20. If you choose DHL or similar, they'll sting you. Also, be aware of ebay sellers who claim by be in the UK but goods arrive from China. It's happened to me a couple of times.
Infiltrator to andypa1
6 Jan 17#43
I thought only O2 (tesco giffgaff etc) used band 20? I've seen a table on some deals which shows which operators use which frequencies, worth having a search on Google.
greatnameuk
6 Jan 17#39
Will i regret purchase...
Whats warranty like?
And some revuews said this was hard on eyes, how does screen compare to say the moto g4, how much bigger is aNother one inch really?
Infiltrator to greatnameuk
6 Jan 17#42
Why would you regret the purchase? Even if you decide you don't like the phone you'll easily sell it for more than you paid.
As for warranty, no idea, but you can opt for the UK warranty that AliExpress offer , there's a small cost, but it means any issues should be sorted in the UK without you having to send the phone back to China.
As for the screen being hard on the eyes, it's the only phone I've owned that offers a 'reading mode' so this should help with screen glare.
As for the size, yes it's large, but after using it for a couple of days you really get used to it. Doesn't have big bezels and is very slim so not as unweildly as you might think it would be.
I've used HK Goldway on AliExpress previously. No issues with them.
muttyhc
5 Jan 17#34
anyone got a recommendation for this on aliexpress then?
Infiltrator to muttyhc
5 Jan 17#35
Looking at my order it was from the Xiaomi online store (seem to think it was fulfilled by mc-mart or something like that), the 32gb model has 3800 orders and is $175.99. It was $185.99 when I ordered but I got a $10 discount for a new account. I chose not to take the U.K. Warranty as it has a cost - but others might think it's worthwhile.
Infiltrator
5 Jan 17#33
Fair point, also worth pointing out that sellers have feedback and reviews, so worth spending time researching if you're buying something which isn't a mainstream item - wouldn't help if the item is damaged, but everything I've had is well packed, and you can always refuse delivery if it looks like it's been damaged in transit.
nige182
5 Jan 17#32
I have had no major problems myself with AliExpress, a few items not turning up but full refunds. The thing to watch out for there is items arriving damaged or not as described or even completely different items, the standard AliExpress policy there is to return at your expense for a refund or to get a part refund at a fixed percentage, which often means you are still over paying for the crap you received but did not want.
Proveright
5 Jan 171#27
Do not use Geekbuying, horrible company.
I ordered gold version in November. They sat on the money . Then they said they did not know when the factory could supply me a gold one and wanted to change to silver.
I said I would wait for gold. They then claimed they had chased the factory and could not supply gold version. I pointed out contract law and that they are advertising the gold version on their website as available.
They refunded my money without asking, when I didn,t want the money , I want the phone. Have not raised a complaint with PayPal yet, but if they are like this to deal with before you get the phone, I hate to think what they are like afterwards.
Would appreciate suggestion who best to buy this phone from and there was supposed to be some problem on video stopping another app from working?
Infiltrator to Proveright
5 Jan 173#31
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.
Sandy1012
5 Jan 171#30
Got this last month from Ali express, excellent phone very happy for under £150
brendanb581
5 Jan 17#29
Uuggh too many of these deals floating around. Keep waiting in hope for a good value pay monthly Pixel
Infiltrator
5 Jan 17#28
Change your destination to US, then put the phone in your basket, and order as normal - I paid in us dollars.
Infiltrator
5 Jan 171#10
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.
am777 to Infiltrator
5 Jan 17#26
How do you get rid of the warranty charge?
captain_cab
5 Jan 17#25
good phone, heat! similar spec to iphone 7 without expense
honest_geezer
5 Jan 17#24
Just seen some of the reviews and will give it a miss. Some show light flexing where the whole phone creaks and you can see the gap at the side into the intervals clearly.
tranceazure
5 Jan 17#23
still not got mine yet . ordered beg November. says arrived in UK on 23rd Nov but royal mail not deliverd it.so got PayPal refund eventually
weedavemac
5 Jan 17#22
I call mine a Slablet. It is a very good phone for the price. I have no regrets having owned one for about 3 months now.
eliHd452
5 Jan 17#21
Asians like to pay everything cash in hand
Pspvita
5 Jan 17#20
Got Lineage 14.1 Android 7.1 on mine its awesome.
stringsonfire
5 Jan 17#18
32GB Rom?
rev6 to stringsonfire
5 Jan 17#19
32GB Internal Storage.
rev6
5 Jan 17#17
Developer support is good for this too. If you're not too fond of stock MIUI.
martin1372
5 Jan 171#16
I bought the last time this was posted from Geekbuying for £2 more. Arrived in 2weeks with no import charges. It is huge. Screen and battery life good. Using it on 3 with no problems.
honest_geezer
5 Jan 17#15
Shame it's not band 20 again
willb2010
5 Jan 17#14
I bought one from eBay and love it. escape the import charges as well
wayners
5 Jan 17#13
I read you can get band 20 going on this phone if you root and mess with rom. If that's true its a shame they never got it going in the first place. Heat from me though.
anthony212
5 Jan 17#12
bought mine £160 eBay, delivered in 3 working days
northerncrank
5 Jan 17#11
great phone, the battery life is immense and yes i get slated for carrying a "tablet" but who cares?
damadgeruk
5 Jan 17#9
Only £20 more for the 64GB with snapdragon 652 (though it's not international so will need flashed).
simont_space
5 Jan 171#5
Surely 6.44" is a tablet? :smiley:
damadgeruk to simont_space
5 Jan 17#8
Or a phablet? :smiley: I refer to mine as a phone.
Alik
5 Jan 17#7
Will keep waiting for similar size screen with nfc :disappointed:
danny1975
5 Jan 17#2
Can you post your link thanks
mistermoneysaver to danny1975
5 Jan 17#6
Hi. here and it looks like its gone up to £155. :sunglasses::wink:
Alik
5 Jan 17#3
Is there a reason most Chinese manufactures don't include nfc
simont_space to Alik
5 Jan 17#4
Little use in China yet? The phones are targeted at the home market not outside, hence few have Band 20.
mistermoneysaver
5 Jan 17#1
Just got mine. Global ROM screen protector and leather cover for £149 from aliexpress. Hot deal .
![Fresh Breakfast Meat Box (Using code) @ Campbells Meat [Haggis / Lorne Sausage / Bacon / Black Pudding & More]](/images/topics/208684_1.jpg)
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Opening post
Top comments
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.
Latest comments (65)
When did you originally order?
That said, at least now is on its way, and you'll be impressed with the phone when it arrives.
Thank you - will retain hope and post when and if /if not it arrives!
Many thanks for the comments on here, I have now ordered a 64gb version via a seller on Aliexpress , gold version and it has actually been shipped.
Unlike Geekbuying, whom I will never ever be ordering anything from again.
Loving the phone so far.
The internals on the Mi Max are likely to be different though so there could well be baked in locked-off support.
The same phone is £200 from uk seller on ebay, am I definitely going to be paying VAT and duty on the import if I order on aliexpress?
Also anyone know about the band 20? I'm on Vodafone 4g, so I'm happy to mess with the phone to get it working but need to know that it's an option!!
Whats warranty like?
And some revuews said this was hard on eyes, how does screen compare to say the moto g4, how much bigger is aNother one inch really?
As for warranty, no idea, but you can opt for the UK warranty that AliExpress offer , there's a small cost, but it means any issues should be sorted in the UK without you having to send the phone back to China.
As for the screen being hard on the eyes, it's the only phone I've owned that offers a 'reading mode' so this should help with screen glare.
As for the size, yes it's large, but after using it for a couple of days you really get used to it. Doesn't have big bezels and is very slim so not as unweildly as you might think it would be.
http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Xiaomi-Max-6-44-Inch-FHD-3GB-64GB-MIUI-V8-Smartphone-64bit-Qualcomm-Snapdragon-652-Octa-Core-5-0MP-16-0MP-TOUCH-ID-4850mAh-Battery-IR-Remote-Control---Silver-366863.html
I ordered gold version in November. They sat on the money . Then they said they did not know when the factory could supply me a gold one and wanted to change to silver.
I said I would wait for gold. They then claimed they had chased the factory and could not supply gold version. I pointed out contract law and that they are advertising the gold version on their website as available.
They refunded my money without asking, when I didn,t want the money , I want the phone. Have not raised a complaint with PayPal yet, but if they are like this to deal with before you get the phone, I hate to think what they are like afterwards.
Would appreciate suggestion who best to buy this phone from and there was supposed to be some problem on video stopping another app from working?
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.
$10 discount for new account, removed the U.K. warranty charge, standard delivery (19 days).
Absolute bargain, excellent phone.