[ilamont]

highly-regarded Chinese outfit

It wasn't so much a matter of being "highly regarded" as it was being overly hyped. I am not sure if it was the media’s fault or Xiaomi’s own PR efforts, but the nonstop “Steve Jobs of China” headlines and fawning articles about the hardware and Miui were over the top. When Xiaomi was listed #2 in Technology Review’s “50 Smartest Companies” of 2015 (behind Tesla, 1) I was flabbergasted — yes, they are nice phones (we own a Hongmi and a another larger-screen phone whose name I can’t remember) but there are lots of problems with Xiaomi’s Android implementation, and the low-cost strategy is clearly not sustainable.

Design can only take you so far in the Android universe, as the HTC example demonstrates (2). Undercutting competitors on price is also not a long-term strategy.

1. https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2015/

2. http://www.recode.net/2016/4/12/11586042/htc-10-looks-to-mak...

[ian0]

I don't think they are overhyped at all.

I own a Mi4i, converted from a Nexus 5. My biggest worry was unfounded, I ended up loving MIUI. It is, in my opinion, way more usable than vanilla android and they seem to do significant updates once every few weeks. The design is very nice, its routinely assumed Im using a high-end smartphone. The screen is great, battery is ok (relative to the times), its occasionally laggy with lots of apps open but nothing that really annoys.

Of course the pricing is absolutely insane, cant comment on them as a business. Worth saying that while Im not an a typical user I would pay double the price before even considering another brand.

[HiroshiSan]

As a proud owner of a redmi note 3 replacing my nexus 5, I couldn't be happier. Love the MIUI.

[saurabh]

Yup, I own a Redmi 3S Prime for ~$130. It's a great value phone and doesn't lag. MIUI is extremely slick and easy to use. I persuaded four of my family members to go for Xiaomi phones and they couldn't be more happier.

[adventurer]

Counterfeit Jobs is just the media being the media. Lei Ju dressed like Steve and presented like him. They have done nothing remotely innovative as a company. Their phones looked like duplicates of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy lineup for years, which from my understanding, is why they haven't entered the U.S. or other markets yet.

[izacus]

If you actually used any of their devices you'll quickly see that "done nothing remotely innovative" is an utter lie.

[adventurer]

You are correct, I can point to countless articles showing what they have done without actually using them. Blatant design and OS ripoffs is what I can take away from it. "AN APPLE OF ANDROID", "Xiaomi's Mi Pad Is Almost a Spitting Image of the iPad Mini", etc. Show me an article or two where they have been innovative, please.

[_kyran]

Their battery banks are some of the best on the market.

[dingleberry]

i used samsung galaxy for a couple of weeks. and no, mi does not copy samsung certainly.

samsung is loaded with utter crap default apps. asus follows this path with so many uninstallable default crapps.

i never rooted my mis and always update community roms. the default crapps are minimal.

mi phones (and miui) are ways up from others. it takes effort not to notice. buy one, play with it a couple weeks, and u never want to use other android phones.