Xiaomi what you're working with: Chinese mobe-flinger proffers two Redmi Note phablets for UK market Chinese phone-maker Xiaomi's onslaught into the UK market continues with two more phones: the MediaTek Helio G85-powered Redmi Note 9, and the more upmarket Redmi Note 9 Pro, which uses the Qualcomm 720G platform. Of the two, only the standard Redmi Note 9 is a new product, with the Pro version previously released in India, …
One of the things that keeps me with Xiaomi is the IR remote. (Other Chinese brand do offer these too.)
An ever useful feature. Especially in hotels where they've replaced the standard TV remote with one that doesn't let you play around with inputs and settings.
But the standard phones have gotten too big. And these Notes are waaaaay too big to be practical. (So have had to source a cut-price, last-in-stock Mi 9SE and sacrifice the 3.5mm jack for my Latest Xiaomi adventure.)
Wow, infrared connectivity isn't something that any of my phones have had since, let me think, my SonyEricsson T610 (a very very nice phone, in its time).
Although much less of use for connectivity these days (probably not at all?), it would still be a very useful feature to have to let you use your phone as an alternative for tv or hifi remote controls, etc.
"Apparently Google have insisted Xiaomi add "with easy access to the Google apps you use most" branding on their boxes."
That's just the sort of power and leverage that Google should NOT have. You want to have Google Play on your phones? Well here's how your advertising should look. Here's the pre-installed apps you MUST put on the phone Oh, and yes, you MUST put the app icon in this specific part of the screen. Sorry, NO, if you have your own apps that compete with Google ones, yours have to be hidden on secondary screens.
Got a Redmi Note 9S international version 6GB/128GB, 720G platform 6.67" screen & 5050mAH battery for partner £ 187 and change, delivered yesterday. Unfortunately it has the play store and all the rest preinstalled on Android 10. Partner thinks it's great, esp the shiny blue colour.
The entity list which blocks manufacturers from American products only has Huawei on it. Other Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Realme can buy anything they want from the U.S., and they do. If you want Google Play Services, any of these will be fine. If you don't want them, Xiaomi's devices are most likely (though not guaranteed) to be supported by AOSP-based variants like Lineage OS.
I've been a Xiaomi user for some time - though something of a luddite as I use it as little more than a phone; I never browse from it and have only a couple of apps that I use. However, that amount of tracking is something worthy of more investigation... the Forbes piece suggested that it was just the use of the browser - is that the case?
Xiaomi has some positives and some negatives. Among their negatives are that their variant often comes with a lot of bloatware and has advertising throughout most of the included apps. This tracking would be another one to add to that list, and it wouldn't surprise me all that much that one of the bloatware apps they installed is doing it. I usually consider Xiaomi because I'm planning to put Lineage OS on it, rather than for the included software.
"lot of bloatware and has advertising throughout most of the included apps"
I have a Mi A2 lite.
With the stock software, I haven't noticed any bloatware or ads. (or removed it when first purchased and then forgot). It comes under the "Android One" umbrella, most recent patch 1/3/20 (March this year)
The default install for new Xiaomi kit might have changed since I bought it though. *shrug*
I got one of these purely because of the “AndroidOne” o.s.
My prevoius phone an otherwise excellent and fully functional HTC, became gradually unusable as newer apps refused to install on a 4 year old OS.
So if you want your phone to still be useful in five years time make sure it’s “One” branded.
In terms of ads, there is a single toggle seeing to turn most of them off in the global ROMs. Google it for a guide.
Only took 5 mins on my mi 8.
Another thing is that Xiaomi don't abandon their handsets after 2 minutes, still releasing updates to the OS and MIUI after several years.
You're missing the point - this isn't about the ROM as such. The global ROM is what is on the phone if you buy a genuine UK market Xiaomi handset.
Given that most people will do some customising of their settings, even if it's just their ringtone and wallpaper, it's not that difficult to search for and turn off a setting for displaying adverts (or as Xiaomi put it - suggested apps).
Xiaomi accused of recording, sending data of millions of users to remote servers
I was almost surprised that this wasn't mentioned in the article - then I remembered el Reg only bashes Apple.
To be fair, all the phoning home is expected *and* can be easily blocked if you root the phone.
(Probably also true of the Huawei phones as well !!!)
I have a Xiaomi Note 7 and there is *no* phoning home, as my Firewall etc can prove !!! :)
Easy snipe to attack the chinese brands but they are usually quite good kit for the money .
As always you need to *know* what you are getting and factor that in before you buy !!!
Xiaomi have already confessed. They claimed it was agreed to, which it clearly wasn't. It's a bit late to try to defend them, when they've been caught red handed and admitted it.
I hope the EU bans their spyware crap outright. As for the UK, you're on your own soon. They'll probably offer the data to the UK spooks and it will be all fine. Data quid-quo-pros all round!
---
Can I take a swipe at Google here. I just bought a bunch of cheap Chinese Android tablets, including a Teclast P10 with Vanilla Android 9 on it to make a data visualization wall.
I found the vanilla Android 9 tablet was pre-consented for all of Google's surveillance data, even the keyboard was sending data. "Automatically send keyboard usage stats to Google" turned on by default.... no Google, bad Google!
When I looked at their settings the link to their privacy policy took me to a Chrome Browser which wouldn't let me see the page without first agreeing to their privacy policy!!
Google is another company that needs slapped down REAL real hard. I get that they're struggling to expand their business with Chrome OS being a flop, but they can go **** themselves, as far as I'm concerned. They're data snarfing is worse than Facebooks and Xiaomi's combined.
If you watch Google Play Services (which now in v9 cannot be disabled), its tracking everything. It literally phones home every few minute.
It has faux consent in it too. I cannot consent for Google to sniff the Wifi signals of the people around me, I am not them and cannot consent on their behalf whatever Google pretends. Nor can I consent to hand Google their contact data if it happens to be on my phone. Them consenting for me to have their contact data is not them consenting for Google to grab that data.
I'm waiting for the shops to open after Covid to buy a Huawei Tabpro which has no Google, but I have low expectations for it. It will likely have someone elses spyware baked on it. I will see.
[In Thailand, Covid has passed, quarantine was a success as usual, only 54 deaths despite having a mega city, and less than 10 new cases a day, all contact traceable. Shops open in 14 days if cases remain below 30 people a day. Same across most of Australasia. Quarantine, 40 days of disruption and the disease is over, no need for tens/hundreds of thousands of deaths, no sacrificing mum and dad to save the stock market].
It's amazing how a once very personal and private device with just simple contacts in each of our pockets (think early Nokia's), has slowly been transitioned into a powerful monitoring/surveillance device for Government, with access to cameras, microphones, locations, and other sensors. You'd be naive to think Priti Patel and the Met wasn't after such data, these types just can't resist and too stupid to understand the nuances of why this data should remain private.
Now they're 'politely' asking for permission to install a 'cute' NHS tracing app when they have all the permission they need to do so anyway under the Investigative Power Act/Coronavirus Bill. If it was written as fiction, it would be a somewhat unbelievable story, yet as fact, this is what's happening.
And why, Huawei has always seemed more a case of refusing to give a backdoor to interested parties. Whether there is or was ever a backdoor for just China is another matter entirely, but the UK Government/Huawei has a whole 550 acre site in Cambridge,UK going over Huawei's code base, you have to ask - for whose benefit?
xyz123,
Only if you allow it !!!
All phones made in china for the chinese market will have spyware built in.
Expect it and plan accordingly !!!
When they are sold elsewhere do not be surprised if the spyware is *still* there.
(From the chinese perspective it is worth a go !!! )
Root the phone and remove and/or replace the offending bits of s/w and you will be OK.
Simples.
"Root the phone and remove and/or replace the offending bits of s/w and you will be OK."
Oh it's THAT simple!!! Great!!! I'll just tell my 80 year old gran who was bought this by her relatives because it was 'cheap'. Or our neighbours who haven't a clue about technology but got suckered in by the low on-contract price. Or teenagers who neither know nor care how valuable their personal data is and how it can be used to monetise them, because they just want WhatsApp and Insta. Or harassed parents who want their kids to be reachable so bought them the cheapest Android they could find. What a stupendously idiotic comment.
The fact that it might technically be possible to remove dataslurp does not make it right to let it happen in the first place. And that the Register can't be bothered to mention this is flat out negligent.
I'm really miffed after trying to buy a Wyze Cam V2 - I was sent a cheap and nasty Xiaomi Hualai Xiaofang camera instead which only spoke Chinese, had Chinese manual and packaging. The Wyze App would not connect, so I tried everything I could with the router for hours and concluded this was not a genuine Wyze. I had to use Google image translation to find out what the heck it actually was and eventually managed to get the Mi Home app to recognise it by pretending to be located in mainland China, because otherwise the model does not show up in setup. It then downloaded a firmware update and promptly said "Not authorised for use outside Mainland China!" and bricked itself. The only way I can revive it is by a using a previous firmware and I almost tried that (the older firmware that didn't recognise the SD card without the new firmware, which bricks it) until I remembered that I wanted nor ordered the fscking thing in the first place. It's totally useless even when it is working because you need a cellphone on and connected at all times (if you can't record to the SD card, which you can't do unless you install the new firmware, which bricks it), if you want to record to the phone, and you can't record to an SD card unless you get a firmware update, which bricks the camera. I hated Xiaomi before but I really, really hate them now.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
