I'm really interested in HarmonyOS and other Chinese domestic market (CDM) phones and OSes after reading so many discussions about Huawei, Vivo, and OPPO phones. I was hoping we could compile some details on them and how one might get one from outside of China. A place where we could discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and distinctions of using them on a daily basis, perhaps with some reviews?
Something you might consider is getting a global version of one of their phones from a US/European retailer and flashing the Chinese ROM if you really want to experience it. This is much easier and cheaper than importing one, especially if you're in the US. They can be downloaded from XDA Forums.
There are sometimes differences in hardware, with Chinese markets getting to purchase phones with more RAM or storage or exclusive colors. But most Chinese phones are very easy to root.
The Chinese ROMS are sometimes worse than the official global variants though. As in sometimes features are cut and things of that nature. Sometimes you get other features back in return. For example, on OnePlus phones, you can't use eSIMS and Chinese ROMS have built-in ads that you can't get rid of.
Edit: Also need to remember that devices like Huawei don't always work on your carriers, again especially if you're in the US. Stuff like Huawei might work unofficially by activating a SIM in another phone first. But even if they do, they lack hardware bands for cell connectivity so things are slow.
I have a OnePlus 12 in the US and its one of the only Chinese phones will full band support and a US retailer. It's the best phone I've ever owned.
What about the OnePlus 12 do you like/dislike? Also are you running the stock rom?
I'm on the stock US ROM because there's no custom ROM available yet. The first one was just booting as of last week. And theres no recovery tool, so if things go wrong, its bricked. You can swap between official region Roms after rooting the phone.
I love the battery life for one. I've used Pixels since the 3 and aside from being able to use GrapheneOS and being smaller, they're junk, especially in that department. I would often come home with my phone at 4% on battery saver while traveling and taking photos, but this thing has lasted me two days before getting to that point. It also doesn't overheat in the slightest, except when fast charging. It has VOOC charging that gets it full up within like 20~ minutes.
The software isn't anything to write home about. Aside from the app drawer and the OnePlus apps, it's pretty close to stock Android. I replaced most of the stock apps with open source ones.
I don't play intensive games, but it has strong FPS throttling if it starts to detect heat to keep things cool, which can affect people who play stuff like Genshin Impact.
I paid $398 after trading in my previous phone and plan to keep this for as long as possible and hopefully put LineageOS on it when its available.
Not a fan of android or google tbh, but the hardware seems pretty nice. Also I was pretty surprised to see someone on Hexbear talking negatively about GrapheneOS and pixels. Good info tho, thanks for your input 
Oh, Graphene is great. It's just that you can only install it in Pixels. There was a recent info leak showing that Graphene was one of the only operating systems aside from newer iPhones that couldn't be cracked by the fancy new Israeli hacker software that the US government uses. But they're focused on security, not privacy. So if you're not concerned about the govt getting your phone, most of the benefits can be replicated by using open source software, a private DNS, etc. Graphene sand boxing apps by default is sometbing that should definitely be a standard though.
As for Pixels, if you look at benchmarks, they are always significantly behind comparably priced and even cheaper phones in every category. You might say 'oh well thats just benchmarks and doesn't carry over to every day use' but they're still selling people objectively worse hardware for flagship prices. They also have overheating issues and poor cell signal in addition to the overall subpar performance. They're better than like prepaid phones, but that's why I said they're junk.
Xiaomi 13 and MIUI
The good: The build quality outperformed any previous iPhone or Pixel I've used. Super fast charging, It took less than 15 minutes to reach nearly full charge. Also everything I used ran quite quickly, including the OS.
The bad: It was nearly difficult to properly receive notifications due to MIUI's battery management. There were no basic aesthetic modification options available; I got the impression that Xiaomi was pressuring me to purchase themes.
The meh: The language barrier was somewhat inconvenient when the keyboard would automatically switch to pinyin, could chalk this up to the pre install rom and my own skill issue of not being able to read hànyǔ or zhōngwén.
How do I get one outside of china? I have seen these on AliExpress, but I'm not sure whether I can help with this one as I acquired it from a close friend.
I had some version of the Redmi 4 or Note 3 for just shy of 4 years before it was lost during an automobile hitting me (a pedestrian). It was fully encrypted running an AOSP ROM at the time so w/e. It was a global variant confirmed to work on (at the time) 3G/LTE bands in my area which I checked with family members' phones who were on AT&T/Cricket. I was using a smaller MVNO with a 10$/mo 1GiB plan but they were also reselling AT&T. Got it from AliExpress, <200$ at the time. I unlocked the bootloader after registering it and going through Xiaomi's website and installed a ROM from XDA Forums.
Then I've used a Redmi Note 9S for the last 3.5-4 years now as well. I bought it on Amazon because I needed something quickly to replace the lost phone. It was ~180$ at the time.
These things are great can't run AAA mobile games I'm sure but I'd never want to do that and they're so cheap compared to everything out there for no real significant benefit to me... The Note 9S I have still has incredible battery life. Shits on the work-provided iPhone SE 3/3rd Gen I have - but that might be security shit they have running because it'll be at 77% battery after checking the lock screen twice and sleeping with it unplugged.
MIUI sucks and has aggressive anti-background activity that can be overridden but updates will add another menu in which something needs to be customized for each background app and reset or require disabling and re-enabling previously set exceptions...
If you had to replace your note 9S today what would you go with?
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