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?
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.
Custom roms like lineageOS let you use banking apps, it is when you root the device that it becomes an issue, and even that can be fixed by installing safetynet fix.
You’re right of course, but I didn’t feel like playing the cat and mouse game with Google for access to certain apps and functionalities that I often use.