Cell Phones

What's the best Chinese phone to use in Canada?

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  • Nov 14th, 2019 2:33 am
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Nov 30, 2003
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Nepean
anyone using Xiaomi 9t pro yet. it doesn’t have the 700 bands so wondering if it will be a problem.
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Dec 10, 2004
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Kanata
southnam wrote: anyone using Xiaomi 9t pro yet. it doesn’t have the 700 bands so wondering if it will be a problem.
Would be a problem if you went to areas that use it, and your provider as well. I have noticed that in Kanata, my phone sits on B12. I did have a Note 5 Pro before which did not have B12 so it stayed on B4. I drove with it to Nova Scotia and I had to set it to manually roam on Bell's network for the trip but it did have voice/data. FWIW, I did have to set the wife's phone as well to roam on Bell (Samsung A5 2017 model, which does have all the bands) or it didn't have data. Use an app to test what bands you are currently using.
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Dec 12, 2009
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I picked up the Umidigi A5 pro from Amazon a week ago on whim just to try out the brand. I am totally amazed by the quality and performance for such a budget phone. I was able to unlock the bootloader, obtain root and install AOSP android 10. I was thinking of maybe selling the phone after an initial trial run, but it has become my daily driver for now. Umidigi is way better than Xiaomi for LTE band support. Their phones include every band under the sun.
Public Mobile customer, $34/50GB CAN-US, $29/30GB, $24/4GB
Tangerine, EQ, Simplii, HSBC customer
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Dec 9, 2002
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Kitchener
will888 wrote: I picked up the Umidigi A5 pro from Amazon a week ago on whim just to try out the brand. I am totally amazed by the quality and performance for such a budget phone. I was able to unlock the bootloader, obtain root and install AOSP android 10. I was thinking of maybe selling the phone after an initial trial run, but it has become my daily driver for now. Umidigi is way better than Xiaomi for LTE band support. Their phones include every band under the sun.
Hi will888, how good/bad is the camera experience/quality?
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Feb 16, 2003
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X-Nemesis wrote: Hi will888, how good/bad is the camera experience/quality?
Nemesis you cant go that route. The A5 Pro has a decent camera but the software is lacking, but this is a sub $200.00 phone. For this price I would say the pictures are spectacular.
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X-Nemesis wrote: Hi will888, how good/bad is the camera experience/quality?
Let me start by saying this phone has front and back cameras and lucky it does given the $131 all in cost. If you are looking a great camera experience, look elsewhere. I unlocked the bootloader and run AOSP and for that, I lost the stock camera app FWIW. The vendor partition had to be doctored and that my be why the stock camera app will not install. Using open camera, I get descent pictures in nice lighting conditions like all cameras do.
Public Mobile customer, $34/50GB CAN-US, $29/30GB, $24/4GB
Tangerine, EQ, Simplii, HSBC customer
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Nov 22, 2003
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KimD13166 wrote: Long thread ... wow. I'm looking again, but not quite seriously yet. My experience so far with a Xiaomi Mi A2 on Rogers has been excellent. I bought the A2 on eBay for $368cad (same seller has them for $249cad now) and paid about 40cad shipping. So a bit over 400cad for 128GB storage, 6GB RAM, and superb speed (SnapDragon 660). Camera is very good. Rogers bands are all covered except one 4G LTE band, which I may have noticed once out in the country. In and around the city, there is no issue with speeds. I get decent wifi at home, I've seen a bit over 200Mbps but the average is around 150. There is one vulnerability, which is the camera. The lens on it cracked while using the case that comes with it, which I really like. But that case does not protect the camera at all, so dropping it on a table top cracks the lens. YMMV of course. I bought a thicker rugged case on Amazon for 10 bucks and no more problem. Android One is excellent, I was brought up to Android 9 (Pie) about 4 months after getting the phone. There is a lag because this is an international phone I believe, so you don't get the update speeds of a Google. You also pay 1/4 the cost, so the penalty seems somehow fair.

Bottom line, this phone is still relevant, despite having been replaced. It easily holds its own with anything on the market save the top few phones. And even then, that's mainly about software.
+1. I'm still using a Mi A1 as my daily driver and it does everything I need it to. I switched to Lineage OS about a year ago and it has been even better than stock on this phone. Every so often, I find myself lusting after some other phone but frankly, there's no good reason to move on to another phone...yet.

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