I’ve been needing to buy a new phone and while I’m here in china I’ve seen some really intriguing options only available here.
obviously the telemetry is extremely problematic, more so than non chinese phones, is it feasible to try remove with adb or the universal debloater? since there is custom rom support at all? or should I just forget about it?
Xiaomi phones usually get their source code published. From there, you may want to choose a Qualcomm device, for some reason developers prefer these to build device trees for custom ROMs. If you don’t mind having an older phone, you may want to check the list of officially supported phones for reputed custom ROMs like Lineage OS or Pixel OS and buy one of those. I’m guessing that phones in China are cheap and options are numerous.
hella
They’re bad as the other close source android companies.
If you can unlock the bootloader and change roms, they aren’t bad at all.
Otherwise, they’re a hard pass for me. Mind you, it isn’t like they’re any worse than phones made elsewhere as regards invasive practices. But if I’m going to be mined for data I would actually prefer it be for profit than whatever a government wants. Since the governments that are acting invasively other than china aren’t doing so as extremely, if I had to use a locked down device, it wouldn’t be chinese.
Besides the privacy concerns that have already been addressed, you probably need to be able to repair the phone yourself when it breaks. No after sale service when you take that phone back home. So that means you need to be able to buy parts from AliExpress or whatever.
shit, thats a really good point actually. I think I’ll stick to buying a refurb samsung or pixel then.
Removing by ADB is fine if you are able to identify which packages should be removed or if they’re already covered by Universal Debloater. You should also use Invizible Pro to control what connections are made and block trackers.
I’m not an expert but my instinct says you should never take any digital device over the chinese border. No matter in what direction.
its not inherently that bad. only when you start to use their apps (which is a necessity), which asks for a phone number and pastes your clipboard on start, then yes.
I’ve been buying OnePlus for years and they’re as good as anything, even factory. Relatively easy to install custom firmware on.
I’ve got a OnePlus, but it’s the worst phone I’ve had and I’m looking forward to it breaking. Could be my model, but I’m permanently done with the company
Which model is it / what’s wrong with it? Might be something for me to be aware of.
The Nord N10, I bought it because everyone in the store recommended it at the same time. After my experience, I’m pretty sure they were paid to say that
My impression has been that the Nords are not very good, I’ve never gotten one though.
I would worry more about the rights of the workers, in tech, companies uses a lot of slavery work and get resources from places in a bad way, forcing more slavery in very bad conditions which is basically stealing resources from other countries. If you want something ethic, you could go to Fairphone which is more expensive than others for less capacity/power, but it is ethical.
Apart from that, any android have the ability to install a new ROM, just search for the support for it, as more support it has less difficult it will be to install custom and clean ROM, so doesn’t really matter where it comes from. Just check the support for custom ROMs and if you are really worried about equality go to Fairphone.
I would love to buy a fairphone and considered it heavily, but I live in australia and it costs almost $2,000 on amazon.
Absolutely LOVE my Xiaomi 13 Ultra w/ xiaomi.eu ROM. Best phone I’ve had since my Nexus 5, easy.
You are posting in a privacy community
Pretty good once you get a custom rom on it.
Look at taobao, look for Google pixel phones. They’re amazingly available, and slightly cheaper than outside of China. I think the discount is reflective of what a pain in the ass it is to use a Google phone in China.
For all the people saying they would never buy a phone from China, you realize most phones are built in China already right?
I’ve had a Huawei for years and I love it. The only telemetry I’ve noticed is from Google services and other third party apps I’ve installed. I use a firewall to block network access to apps that don’t need it.
I had a Xiaomi as my previous phone, a POCO F2 Pro. I ran it with the stock firmware after disabling all possible tracking options in settings, and after debloating with a script easily found on xda. As much as I would have loved to install a custom ROM and root it, I didn’t want to forgo Google Pay and access to banking apps.
It was quite good and very powerful for the price. Bested flagship devices from Samsung and others when it was new and for up to a year after that. Dare I say, it was one of the best phones I ever owned.
Then after 2 years it stopped charging. I had to crack it open and replug a connector between the mainboard and the USB-C port. Worked flawlessly after that.
I switched to a Pixel 7 since. A friend is still using the Xiaomi and loves it.
I would consider them but the Pixels are very good for the price as well.
