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Comment by MichaelRo | Hacker News Reader

I had many Xiaomi phones roughly from 2014 to 2024 and all were chock full of software bugs, going worse in more recent phones up to the point I couldn't take it anymore and bought a Samsung.

I will never go back to Chinese crapware. The hardware is useless without stable software and what they have is a sad impression of such. Couldn't care less if Xiaomi puts a trillion zillion gigs of RAM and CPUs and cameras and shit, wouldn't pay one dollar for their flagship phone, not to mention asking comparative prices to top Samsung, lol. Never again Chinese!

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I may have been lucky then with my Redmi Note 5 Pro (and a similar one for my daughters), possibly because the first thing I did with these phones was root them, remove all bloatware, remove all Xiaomi-specific apps including the 'Mi account'-related things, remove the Googly bits, add F-Droid and install free software. Never had problems with the things for 8 years, I'm currently running one of them with LineageOS 23.2 (Android 16), the other lost its screen so it is playing Linux server. Good hardware, possibly questionable firmware but that can be mitigated. I was forced to move to a new device with NFC (a Motorola G75) by the same app - Swedish BankID (and this time also Dutch DigiD) - which forced me to move from the Motorola Defy+ to the Redmi Note 5 Pro all those years ago. In another 8 years time they'll probably force me to move yet again for reasons as of yet unknown. Since I also used the Defy+ for about 8 years this seems to be the current practical lifetime of an Android device, at least for me. Those now 16 year old Defy+ devices still work but Android 4.4 has gone out of fashion quite a while ago. They are still usable for other purposes though, as trailer camera, sensor device, music player and more.

The only reason i use this phone is periscope camera and it's quality, there is simply no other manufacturer who delivers such things.

I was afraid of this but switched from Samsung to an Oppo Find X9 Ultra anyway as the new Samsung S26 Ultra feels stuck in the past. I was pleasantly surprised with ColorOS. The only thing Samsung has going for it is OneUI. OneUI is better, but not by a lot.

Oppo is also superior as cameraphone comparing to Samsung

This matches my experience with xiaomi phones.

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