Have any of you guys owned a smartphone from Chinese brands such as Realme and Xiaomi?
I have read reviews so I know they are the best value for money in the £250 price range.
I am just after your personal experiences with their MIUI interface, phone reliability, customer service, and ease of use. Cheers.
I have a couple of friends that have a Xiaomi and have been really pleased with them.
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Personally I would stick with more reputable brands, Motorola and oneplus both have good phones in the 100-250 bracket.
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Can attest to the OnePlus being worth having. Had the original and the 3, both were decent.
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Always had Motorola, pretty much does what we want for around £160 the last time we bought one.
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I have 2 Xiaomi phones, one for work that gets knocked about a bit , and a best one , I swap the micro SIM over each weekend, I think they are great for the money and have no complaints, they take damn good photos as well , the screen is fine for YouTube vids and Netflix etc, particularity the bigger models with a bigger screen.
I don’t use it to its full potential but they’re certainly worth looking at.
It’s really worth picking a model your interested in and googling the reviews.
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After years of using Samsung I bought a Doogee X96Pro in August for £125.
Fast with good memory and does everything you would want in a normal phone.
The camera is perfectly good if not the best and it lacks the compass sensor which some apps use (like flight radar) but doesn’t affect satnav. Screen is 6.5".
For the price I am very happy with it and it doesn’t come with all the bloatware that Samsung load on.
Worth looking at for a budget phone that works like something costing a lot more.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0939ZCP6X/ref=pe_27063361_485629781_TE_item?th=1
I’m on my second Pocophone, the F3. Nothing wrong with the previous F1 just wanted more memory and storage.
I bought it at the same time as my wife got a Samsung 21.
Cost half the price. Doesn’t have contactless payment or charging but I’m not bothered by those gimmicks.
Camera is not quite as good but has more storage and memory.
The OS is tweaked android but not an issue. Build quality is good.
It cost less than my daughter’s ‘new’ pre-owned Apple iPhone 11.
If you’re an Apple fan don’t buy it, otherwise for the price you won’t get anything better.
As for all the scary China stuff, China will probably get your info anyway. If it looks at my phone data it’s going to be very bored.
As a note I’d hardly define China as communist despite its claim s to be.
Have a search, maybe black Friday deals still available. I just got a Samsund A52s 5g for £6 per month for 36 months from Vodafone. That is £216 total.
Last phone I bought outright and had a sim only contract, that was a Huawei P20 which was a really good phone, and still is, but the Samsung offer was too cheap to pass up.
Another vote here for Motorola, great value with good features.
I’ve had 2 over the last 5 years with no problems.
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When it comes to phone Espionage ,if the Chinese are doing it you can bet your life everyone else is too, and your never really going to know what they’re up to, and there’s nothing you can do about it anyway ,and when it comes to dodgy dealings the Yanks and Russians take some beating, not that I buy much in the way of Russian goods, apart from Vodka 
although an old neighbor of mine had a Cossack Urinal motorcycle which was state of the art WW2 technology.
In terms of more security focused OS for android devices Copperhead and Graphene are good choices, although honestly the amount of hardware flaws known and still to be made public will undermine even the best software and data management practises. And of course installing or accessing things facebook/Amazon etc will open you up to tracking and fingerprinting.
If security is really a focus a smartphone isn’t for you.
Either way lets be honest, the UK is a surveillance state and has whittled away our digital privacy rights. Why worry (too much) about what other nations are getting access to when there’s those much closer doing the same.
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“old neighbor of mine had a Cossack Urinal motorcycle which was state of the art WW2 technology.”
Did you stand up to use it ?
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well it was fine as a Urinal, and my dog used to cock his leg up as well
I’ve had a Xiaomi 9 since the summer of 2019 - it’s great! The camera is very good too (better than OH’s iPhone in both our opinions).
Thank you all. Samsung seem to offer the longest support and updates so might go with them. But the price still seems unjustifiable.
And for those who do not know, your government here in the UK can listen to your conversations and read your messages without needing to justify why, no matter which phone you own. And it’s legal.
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I recently picked up a second hand Samsung S10E from blackmarket.com for ~£150. Cant fault it, although physically the shell is scratched (bought the cheapest/worst condition one) but that doesn’t bother me as it sits in a case and is purely for navigation strapped to the handles of my motorbike/pushbike. Might be an option to go second hand.
My main grievances with samsung, is that they add a ton of bloatware - a lot of which you cannot remove.
IIRC the longest guaranteed software support is from google’s own pixel lineup, but they may be out of budget.
With regards to the government that’s correct (especially scary as they need no warrant and have no oversight), with the exception of politicians and police if I recall correctly. There was also word of them being able to force security experts to work for them, which personally was enough for me to continue to live abroad until I couldn’t any longer due to health issues. With that said, I personally still try and avoid Chinese brands as much as possible, although avoiding “made in china” is currently a fools errand.
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- another for Motorola…got mine a few years ago and been really please with it…I think it was a “G5” or something…obviously newer variants available, but relatively low cost, reasonable battery life and does everything I need to do…
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Well I’ve just ordered some Chinese Takeaway on my Xiaomi phone along with some Tsingtao beer to wash it down, and the delivery rider uses a Cossack motorbike 
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Agree, my wife has a Motorola , and loves it.