Best place to buy - after price drop due to new Mi5S launch?

[Gadgetguy2005]

Hello all,
since the new Mi5S was launched, several places dropped the price on the Mi5.

What would be your recommendation - where is the best place to get it now? (I am in Canada, would go for the 64GB version and would need DHL shipping).

Thank you for any recommendations!

 

[Ulver]

I got mine from ibuygou.com

Sent from my MI 5 using Tapatalk

 

[nkt09]

I bought mine at Gearbest, for 260€. (3/32GB variant)
It's at a great price, and it comes to Europe via China without customs tax.

 

[mrsachou]

http://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-xiaomi-mi5-32gb
Look chepeast price

 

[Kedas]

I bought mine at Gearbest, for 260€. (3/32GB variant)
It's at a great price, and it comes to Europe via China without customs tax.

How does that work without import tax?

 

[nkt09]

How does that work without import tax?

They have a Priority Line for certain countries. I'm from Portugal.
I think the package will come to England and then to Spain, that way enters the EU, so there's no taxes involved.

 

[iMaterial]

I saw someone selling it for €208, (the 64GB version) on Amazon.de, but the day after the price was €370 so it was probably an error.

 

[muff99]

Its on sale at gearbest, 64gb version for 305€, no additional taxes/customs fees. Will hopefully reach me in 5-10 days.

 

[troublecro]

Bought mine on vopmart .

No problems whatsoever,no taxes for EU.

 

[Ulver]

Its on sale at gearbest, 64gb version for 305€, no additional taxes/customs fees. Will hopefully reach me in 5-10 days.

Good luck dealing with their modified MIUI ROM.

Sent from my E6853 using Tapatalk

 

[iMaterial]

Good luck dealing with their modified MIUI ROM.

Sent from my E6853 using Tapatalk

That didn't sound too good, there's a difference?

 

[Ulver]

That didn't sound too good, there's a difference?

Yeah, you run the risk of getting a non-offical MIUI build. So basically, you're stuck with that ROM and you're not able to update. Check en.miui.com, there's some tutorials on there on how to get back on official builds.

Sent from my E6853 using Tapatalk

 

[iMaterial]

It's £277 on Amazon right now.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...4&creativeASIN=B01IMOU2RG&smid=A167EEIELTDYTC

 

[marcel112]

Yeah, you run the risk of getting a non-offical MIUI build. So basically, you're stuck with that ROM and you're not able to update. Check en.miui.com, there's some tutorials on there on how to get back on official builds.

Sent from my E6853 using Tapatalk

When you have ADB and usb driver installed its not that hard using fastboot.
Like the man said there are several threads at en.miui.com how to.

If you like there are also variants that have multilanguage's at https://xiaomi.eu/community/
For that to work you need to unlock the bootloader if im right...

 

[muff99]

Good luck dealing with their modified MIUI ROM.

Sent from my E6853 using Tapatalk

My phone arrived today (11 days from china to germany, not bad actually), and it really did contain a strange non-official global MIUI version.
Most tutorials suggest flashing a MIUI dev version in order to unlock the bootloader, but this did not work with this modified MIUI. That got me worried, actually.

However, after spending a few hours with it, I found that booting into EDL mode and using MiFlash with a fastboot-version of the latest official dev MIUI version did work (afaik the only variant that works with a locked bootloader). This probably won't work in the future, I heard that newer roms do not allow the EDL mode any more ... maybe in the future you need to use a special usb cable ("deep flash").

My brand new MI5 is now cleaned off that gearbest crap, and is running an official global dev rom. I am now waiting for my unlock confirmation.

More info on deep flashing and where to ge the official fastboot roms that work with EDL mode :
http://xiaomitips.com/guide/miui-deep-flash-engineering-cable-solution-to-non-edl-device/
http://en.miui.com/a-234.html

 

[Ulver]

My phone arrived today (11 days from china to germany, not bad actually), and it really did contain a strange non-official global MIUI version.
Most tutorials suggest flashing a MIUI dev version in order to unlock the bootloader, but this did not work with this modified MIUI. That got me worried, actually.

However, after spending a few hours with it, I found that booting into EDL mode and using MiFlash with a fastboot-version of the latest official dev MIUI version did work (afaik the only variant that works with a locked bootloader). This probably won't work in the future, I heard that newer roms do not allow the EDL mode any more ... maybe in the future you need to use a special usb cable ("deep flash").

My brand new MI5 is now cleaned off that gearbest crap, and is running an official global dev rom. I am now waiting for my unlock confirmation.

More info on deep flashing and where to ge the official fastboot roms that work with EDL mode :
http://xiaomitips.com/guide/miui-deep-flash-engineering-cable-solution-to-non-edl-device/
http://en.miui.com/a-234.html

Nice! Glad you got it working like it should. This is why whenever I buy a Xiaomi device I make sure the place I'm getting it from sends me a sealed untouched phone. It's so much easier to unlock the bootloader and get on a global ROM when you're on an official build.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[spaniard]

Goldway in Aliexpress, Mi5 64GB 281€ with Global ROM, has very good support from the shop in spanish forum.

 

[muff99]

Nice! Glad you got it working like it should. This is why whenever I buy a Xiaomi device I make sure the place I'm getting it from sends me a sealed untouched phone. It's so much easier to unlock the bootloader and get on a global ROM when you're on an official build.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I wrote a not-so-good review on the mi5 on gearbest, stating that I didn't like the modified rom on my shiny new sealed phone.
They came back to me and offered a full refund if I wanted to send it back, or gearbest store credit. I took the credit, since my MI5 is happily running CM 13. I though about sending it back and ordering a MI5S for a moment ... instead I just flashed the new falcon kernel and OCed it to 2.5 GHz myself, the effect is pretty much the same

In general I completely agree with you, gearbest should at least give customers the choice:
Send out modified phones for the lazy western customer with a play store ready to go and clearly state this on the webpage, or keep them untouched as one would expect it to be (what xiaomi is actually going for by locking the bootloader in the first place).

 

[Ulver]

I wrote a not-so-good review on the mi5 on gearbest, stating that I didn't like the modified rom on my shiny new sealed phone.
They came back to me and offered a full refund if I wanted to send it back, or gearbest store credit. I took the credit, since my MI5 is happily running CM 13. I though about sending it back and ordering a MI5S for a moment ... instead I just flashed the new falcon kernel and OCed it to 2.5 GHz myself, the effect is pretty much the same

In general I completely agree with you, gearbest should at least give customers the choice:
Send out modified phones for the lazy western customer with a play store ready to go and clearly state this on the webpage, or keep them untouched as one would expect it to be (what xiaomi is actually going for by locking the bootloader in the first place).

I'm surprised they offered you something. I was looking at other places to buy Xiaomi devices when I was looking to buy my Redmi Note 3. Vickmall.com seems pretty decent. They actually have an option to select what ROM you want, which looks pretty cool.

I would have kept the Mi5 too. You do have more options for ROMs and will get better support.

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Jogutierrez]

Xiaomi has an online mall mi.com/en