Database Users

Is the Redmi 2 still worth it?

Hey all,
This is my first post in quite a while on XDA, since I was basically forced to move to IOS (my Ascend Mate 7 was stolen a few months ago ).
I really, really miss Android, and wish to return to the ecosystem that I love most by buying a "cheap and cheerful" Android device out of contract. Xiaomi devices have started popping up in my local stores, thus I was wondering if you guys can offer any insight on whether moving to the Redmi 2 would garner a satisfactory experience (coming from an iPhone 5s)? I wouldn't label myself as a power user anymore, though I am a huge fan of tweaking and ricing my phones, thus I do not need a octa-core gazillion GB RAM powerhouse (yet). Just enough to do all the usual phone stuff and perhaps play Downwell / Pocket Morties every once in a while. Does the Redmi stand up to these needs?
Also if I do pick one up I will absolutely stick a Cyanogenmod (or equivalent) ROM on the phone, thus can anyone comment on performance gain / loss after flashing a custom ROM? Are there any ROM suggestions for daily use (I probably won't flash a different ROM every week, but rather settle on the most stable and closest-to-stock ROM I can find)?
Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers! :good:

I think Redmi 2 Pro/Prime is still worth it, but not sure about 2/2A. Even miui 8 for redmi 2 is based on kitkat while pro/prime seems to be based on lollipop. Features like second space and other new things that miui 8 brings are absent from kitkat version.
Now, CM13 is getting pretty stable, and premaca and nick are working on Nougat and CM14, and not only this, it boots. Thee are not a lot of phones running Nougatand Redmi 2 is one of those few add to this the price and could sound ad a no-brainer.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro

My brother wants to buy me a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro and I want some advice from you if is worth to buy this phone or not.
I think that for a cheap phone comes with some features that you can get with a high priced phone and here I'm talking about the fingerprind reader and the gyro wich I don't see it in many cheap phones and I realy want to try the VR thing wtih this.
What are the pro and cons for this phone? I see that this thread is for Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and I want to ask if the bootloader for Pro is also unlocked and if the custom ROMs like CM13/14.1 will work for the Pro version.
Cheers!
 @vraciu'

I have two of them. Wouldn't buy them today anymore. Not because of the hardware, because of the ROMs. CM13 (for Kenzo) is unfinished and stopped because of developers are focusing on CM14, and because of that some features are missing. CM14, on the other hand, is weeks / months far from being stable.
If you will buy, buy the Pro. It's Snapdragon based, the other, Kate, is Mediatek based. But I don't know if you will find the 3, now, that 4 is out.

I got my Note 3 Pro just last week. I'm extremely happy with it. It's an amazing phone at the price.
The bootloader comes locked, but Xiaomi will unlock it (with ~50% success rate it seems), or there are unofficial ways to unlock the bootloader.
I'm running CM14.1 on my phone right now. So far, it seems very stable, no issues that I've noticed so far.

paul_damian said:
I have two of them. Wouldn't buy them today anymore. Not because of the hardware, because of the ROMs. CM13 (for Kenzo) is unfinished and stopped because of developers are focusing on CM14, and because of that some features are missing. CM14, on the other hand, is weeks / months far from being stable.
If you will buy, buy the Pro. It's Snapdragon based, the other, Kate, is Mediatek based. But I don't know if you will find the 3, now, that 4 is out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kate is not MediaTek based, Kate is just the Kenzo with additional 2mm height, and additional LTE bands.
The Hennessy is the MTK based.
Kenzo is probably the better one to get, assuming it has the LTE coverage you need. There are more cases and screen protectors designed for it.
Bootloader is locked, you can request an unlock from Xiaomi.
The camera is not good on this, that's probably the biggest negative.

Why no activity!

I hope I'm not being disrespectful to anyone but how come no Dev love here!
I mean this is a wonderful device, made for Global market and a marvel in build
quality and design, IMHO.

Actually they are not source available for the Note 2
So we can't put LineageOS on it. Another problem, the Mi Mix. Everyone prefer the Mix to the Mi Note 2. So, a lot of dev will go to the Mix.
If Xiaomi put the kernel source of the Mi Note 2, I will try to dev LineageOS (not sure).

Thank you for replying back.
I was afraid you'd say "mi mix"! Also your comments do give me a little hope but
I'm in a position of being able to sell my device for almost no lost and to be honest I'm leaning toward that decision !

I actually like the preinstalled ROM. It's not Android 7, but one of the best Android 7 ROM's I've seen.

I'm also disappointed with the lack of interest in this phone. I thought it was supposed to be a flagship.

End of OS upgrades and maybe security updates support for Mi A1

This is not as question, but as discussion about our phone official support. And yes Mi A1 won't get Android Q:crying: According to Google answer Pixel/Android One phone receive at least 18 month for OS upgrade support. And as today (March 2019) it's already passed. It's about OS upgrades. Now about security updates. According to Google in past the Android One should have at least 3 years security updates support. But on October 2018 Google gave an official mandate about taking 2 years of security updates for popular Android phones (later in December 2018 Google change rules for Android One as well to 2 years). But since Xiaomi doesn't really care about Mi A1, it shows that the end of support is near (maybe 1 or 2 months).
Links:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/724ij3/android_one_update_period_18_vs_24_months_and_who/
https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18019356/android-security-update-mandate-google-contract
https://www.indiatoday.in/technolog...e-is-deleted-from-its-site-1418261-2018-12-27

Time to move to a custom ROM

At least, means it will get no less than 18 months new OS releases.
On the other side, i think it will sure get the new ''whatever-iteration-may-have'' Q version of android because there will be no major difference in OS and will be easy enough for developers to adapt.

punktnet said:
At least, means it will get no less than 18 months new OS releases.
On the other side, i think it will sure get the new ''whatever-iteration-may-have'' Q version of android because there will be no major difference in OS and will be easy enough for developers to adapt.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure for it. 18 months has passed just now. I don't have any hopes for xiaomi to make new update, just because they already showed how much quality they put in upgrate of phone (Android pie for exp.) Making android Q doesn't makes them any profit. And in their interest to get customers buy new devices.

Skoll91 said:
Time to move to a custom ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. It is. There are already new march security update out. Customs get it almost instantly. While official there's no any guarantee to even get any further updates at all.

I'm already on LOS. 9.0 push me to LOS 15.1 and I'm sure I will never come back to stock.

Never_Sm1le said:
I'm already on LOS. 9.0 push me to LOS 15.1 and I'm sure I will never come back to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am on stock. No root. No nothing. And I really love my Mi A1. But every time I see people talking about loving custom ROMs I wonder what am I missing?

Does anyone have a solid official confirmation from Xiaomi that they won't be continuing to support the Mi A1 in terms of major OS updates? I'm thinking about moving to a custom ROM but I want to ensure that there won't be any major official updates coming anymore.

caolan said:
I am on stock. No root. No nothing. And I really love my Mi A1. But every time I see people talking about loving custom ROMs I wonder what am I missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you miss a lot, but not need per se a custom rom, is enough root + all the goodies will come with root and customization.
force doze, custom kernel, magisk modules, google camera and so on.

caolan said:
I am on stock. No root. No nothing. And I really love my Mi A1. But every time I see people talking about loving custom ROMs I wonder what am I missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To others, there is a lot. But to me, there is only 1 thing: stock doesn't support Ex-fat sd cards, and the only kernel that offer true Ex-fat support is custom roms only. On stock 8.1 I can live with a Magisk module that support Exfat but 9.0 is the main reason I jumped ship.

The unofficial los 16 by flex is an amazing rom don't let the unofficial bit put you off, it's the perfect daily driver, more customisation than stock but not ott like some roms

I am happy to have gotten 2 major updates, previously at this price point we would have been lucky to get 1, so android 1 program has increased value with updates. I was hoping to get 3 years of security updates, so disappointed Google has changed the requirement, but perhaps Xiaomi will honour the expectations when the device was released.
Even at 2 years I would still have bought the phone, but annoyed if it's changed after purchase.
I currently use Stock unrooted Rom, the first phone I haven't at least rooted, but I am sure the community will keep the phone going for another couple of years at least.

I bough this phone on Nov 2017 (if note mistaken) and I'm quite satisfy with the update from Nougat to Pie. But if you buy the phone later than that you probably feel not enough update (because you only receive Oreo to Pie update) but I believe you have received price drop compare to the initial release.
I prefer stable rather than updated OS. This device is already more than 1 year and new android OS will optimize new hardware, smartphone hardware obsolete very fast compare to PC or other device. There's no other choice if you want to optimize your phone to the latest android OS except buying new phone. I like to stay to the stock rom (with Magisk of course) till the end just to get full experience of Android One. I'm not gonna denied that Android One is a bit mess up either from manufacture side and Google itself. I will probably buy Android One device again in the future (few years from now) and see how much Android One will improve.

Feriol said:
... I currently use Stock unrooted Rom, the first phone I haven't at least rooted, but I am sure the community will keep the phone going for another couple of years at least. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, first ever un-touched stock. I'm still satisfied with this mid-low budget phone and that the OS is (pretty) free from "customization".
It is (was) a good bang for the buck when bought in Nov. -17 and still does it's job.
Features like GCam and similar were never promised or supported so that wasn't an issue for me nor a reason to root...

Redmi 7A

Sir,
I am new user of Redmi 7A
When will the custom roms be released for 7A like pixel experience rom??
I need to use those roms..

I too would like to see Pixel Experience for this device.

same here got it today only.

How much usable space do you get after booting?

Hello,
waiting for my model currently
As to the question about when there will be custom roms - the phone was announced only months ago and we will need to wait until it spreads in usage to someone able to develop and maintain custom roms for it. Or some developer not in possession of the device does it, but these projects - in my experience - often lack quality and support.
However the device is globally available (afaik) and extremely attractive with its low price tag while overall good specs, so it's gotta be only a matter of (imo short) time until the userbase has grown so much that some people will put together something...
And yes, I also like to see some roms on it for data security reasons - surely not the only one .
P.S.: watch this if you want to know why it is so cheap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUOQpKNLsE