First, I’ve to say I’ve been a Xiaomi fan from a long date. My first experience with Xiaomi was when I installed MIUI on my old Galaxy S3, but that’s the first Xiaomi phone I have had and I know Xiaomi makes other great stuff. I still have a Mi Band 2 and a Mi Power Bank 10.000mAh.
One year ago [I’ve started a thread here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Xiaomi/comments/a0fe3f/i_recently_boguht_a_mi_a2_should_i_be_scared/) because I was concerned about my recently acquired Mi A2. I’ve seen so many people complaining about many problems with that phone that I got scared.
One year later, here is what happened to my Mi A2:
* Very bad performance. Sometimes slower than my old LG G2. That’s a phone launched in 2013. Doing very basic stuff like typing messages was a pain in the ass.
* Shattered the camera glass. Never happened to me before and I used phone case on Mi A2 from day one I took it out from the box.
* I had to fix the proximity sensor everyday. Very often happened to hang up the phone calls because the proximity sensor wasn’t working properly, then the screen wasn’t turning off as it should making the contact with my face to touch the buttons in the screen.
* Now it isn’t even charging. It charges until 2% and stops there and I have tested with 2 chargers I have.
Perhaps it’s time to upgrade. I recently bought Mi 9 Lite for 200 euros and it’s outstanding. There are some very good options with xiaomi phones depending on your budget.
Oh really? My phone isn’t even turning on.
Mine has been a rock star. Yes, camera glass cracked, but the part is a few dollars and it had been slammed on the floor so many times. Have had it longer and never a problem. It was cheap, so I do not worry about it lasting and have been hard on it, but it keeps on working.
I think with some of these cheaper products, quality control is an issue. I was lucky. Because of the experience with the phone, I picked up a MiBand 4. I was not lucky this time.
The phone was great if you received a good one, but a lot of people had problems, especially software issues. I would buy another Android One phone from them, at the right price.
This was my fear when getting a Xiaomi phone. Especially here in the U.S. because there aren’t any Xiaomi stores and everything is off eBay. But I’m glad that so far my Mi 9 has been amazing.
About proximity sensor, seens like is a common problem in most of Xiaomi phones. I think the only one I know that haven’t this problem is Mi 8 Lite, because they don’t fucked up swaping the proximity sensor and lighting sensor.
I had a Mi A2, and for my luck, I was able to pass along it to a friend that really needed a new phone and hadn’t ways to buy one at that moment. Then I bought 2 Mi 8 Lite, was almost perfect, except that the price was the same as Redmi Note 7 and had an annoying little problem with bottom part of touch, so I changed my Mi8L for a RN7, that is a lot better, BUT, has the same fucking proximity sensor problem.
Specifically, the proximity sensor problem of Mi A2 is because it doesn’t use the proximity sensor to detect proximity, he uses the fucking camera, which is the same lighting sensor (the one that changes brightness when it’s automatic). Also, if you let auto-brightness on, the problem almost vanish.
I reported the fucking bug on official community, got ignored, bothered them agan, they said they would see what they could do, but I didn’t get any answer about that.
The only problem I’ve got with this phone was the most annoying. After an official update it stopped booting. I haven’t loged in with mi account, also dev options were turned off. So I wasn’t able to reinstall an os. Xiaomi global tech help was not answering me. I’ve walked two weeks with my old phone which also stopped working. So I forced to get my ass of from a chair, fucking disassemble phone and fix it. So xiaomi fuck you.
can’t unlock the bootloader ?
WOW A $200 BUDGET PHONE SUCKS? WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT. I bet you are that type of someone who bought a 1998 Honda and when it breaks down calls Honda a piece of shit.
I have Pocophone F1 and it’s the best phone I’ve ever had. I bought it used for 900 zł (230 dollars) with 6GB RAM and 64GB ROM. It’s not the most expensive variant of it, but the performance is outstanding! It has water cooling and it’s not getting hot (not even 50 °C) when you play such games as PUBG or Asphalt 9. The battery lasts all day long. I just love this phone and I recommend it to everyone that needs new phone for cheap.
Get out.
he’s comparing it to an older flagship on top of that… I’m not saying there can’t be issues… but no matter what you say, flagships from 2013 are still pretty competent…
Ignore the kid
Uh, Android One devices do not utilise a Mi account.
Thanks mate!
I can share this opinion. I also bought Mi9 lite and it’s a fantastic phone.
xiaomi devices are usually pretty good for the long run, so here the op is being reasonable
eg- my 90$ redmi 4x is perfect even after almost 3 years. ( apart from the camera quality, i have no major issues)
I am an owner of mi a2 as well, but I never got any of those issues – with the exception of ocasional slowness, but that is fixed with a restart for me, which i do once per week. I even do not use a case, but I am careful with it. So it only got some fine scratches on the antenna lines.
I am very pleased with the phone. It has flaws, but for the money I paid, there was no other option at that moment and it was/it is still great value for money.
I wish it had nfc, this is my biggest complaint. I do not like that much Miui, so for the next phone, I am looking for android one devices (bootloader unlockable) or oneplus etc.
Seems good I was considering a mi A2 but went for a Redmi note 5 pro with a custom rom because the note 5 had a better soc camera and bigger battery and no notch and a headphone jack.
Not sure how much you paid for it, but next time instead of getting a budget phone brand new, try getting an older more high end phone (used or refurbished) if you can. Here in Europe at least, you can find an iPhone 6S/ SE (just an example) for as much as a brand new Mi A2, and the iPhone still hold up very well in terms of hardware and software (it received the latest iOS 13 update). This goes for other devices aswell, like laptops. Never settle for budget options when you have the option.
Dude bought it a year ago, the A3 dropped way later than that.
You get what you paid for. Also that’s 6 years old what do you expect?
Yep,second that,an older iPhone is a better choice and it gets supported even more than a newer Xiaomi phone.For example the iPhone 7 got out in 2016 and it’s expected to be supported for 2-3 more years.
And it still performs like a king with the A10.
I’m still on MI A1 and it’s great.
Only way to bring it back to life is to open it up, short 2 contacts and flash in EDL mode. Been there.
Don’t buy an IPhone 7 anyway, my sister has one and had to pay 150 to get the Audio ic chip resoldered on it, common problem apparently and apple just try and sell you a new phone.
Of all Xiaomi phones that are great for price the A2 and A3 were really disappointment. I had A1 and was looking forward to upgrade each year but when they came out they seemed really bad so I skipped them and got RN7 was worried about MIUI but it turned out fine, gave A1 go my sister and it’s still going strong with no problems at all.
Did you read the post? They said they made a post a year ago about recently getting it
Maybe, but the MI flashing app asked me a account which was logged on device. I’ve tried to use new account but it kept saying I’m not privileged to flash it.
In my case it works perfectly in every aspect,that’s why I’m suggesting it.
Only aspect which is kinda disappointing is the battery,which wasn’t great in the first place but it balances its performance with a good standby time.
I have a Mi A2 for more than a year. The Stock ROM was buggy and in February this year the update made the recent apps menu not work sometimes. The colors were weird and couldn’t switch back to sRGB.
I decided to flash HavocOS after that February update. This phone is great with HavocOS. It doesn’t lag at all, there are no bugs and I think the battery lasts a bit longer too. I also installed Gcam and that improved the camera a lot.
I use the case that was included in the box and I don’t use a glass protector. This phone fell so many times. I have a small scratch on the side where the paint fell off when it fell down the stairs.
The only things that bother me about this phone is the lack of a headphone jack and that battery life is not so great.
Note 5 Pro has a Snapdragon 636 which is a downclocked version of Snapdragon 660 that Mi A2 has.
Either you got a faulty / refurbished unit, or you’re too clumsy. Bought when it launched, zero problems, superb stability and performance… The battery is superb also I’m talking about 2 full days with heavy usage and bluetooth devices connected, and stock OS… You’re doing it wrong.
I had Mi A2 since October 2018, my only issue aside from usual update bug is that front facing camera hangs, When I take photos it hangs and need to close it. I just found out that beautify is turned. then the photo quality also degraded i don’t know why. But aside from that everything is smooth. Now i will give it to my dad. Note that i didn’t do any mods on that phone, I just buy and use it.
Get the k20 pro it is a beast
Same!
I don’t have any issue for the whole year, except fast charge not working.
We have an MI A2 at home and recently purchased an MI A3. Both phones seem to have performed wonderfully. The vanilla android experience is rewarding, as it has no ads whatsoever. You always have a plethora of apps on the Play Store to add the features you deem missing. I have a PocoF1 myself and I really find the MIUI ecosystem very comfortable to use. Also, the problems you mentioned, I haven’t encountered even on of them.
You don’t need the Mi unlocking tool for their Android One devices.
These can be unlocked using the fastboot command.
Cheers!
Yeah that’s right but the other aspects are better
The only regret I had, with this device was that getting Gcam to work, on the later firmware versions was incredibly difficult/near impossible.
A work around I found, was flashing Havoc ROM, which had a version of Gcam built in, and camera2api enabled.
That, and the devs didn’t really take to the device, for various reasons.
Other than that, it was a much sought after device, when it was launched, and one of the best Android One devices available, at the time.
The came the devices with the new 48MP sensors, which ran Android P ROMs, with the camera2api functionality already enabled, thereby making installing a Gcam a pinch.
These blew the A2 out of the water, by a mile and a half.
Still have 2 units in use, in our household.
Cheers!
I can’t remember clearly, but it didn’t work for me.
I used a Mi A2 for a year before jumping to Galaxy S10. The Android One software made the phone extremely smooth and responsive compared to other brand’s SD660 phones (except for Nokia, they sell Android One phones too LOL) or even Xiaomi’s phones as well (Redmi Note 7, Mi 6X…). I love the stock Android experience and I don’t see why the Mi A2 sucks in your case. I had to get a Galaxy S10 because I couldn’t get a OnePlus of a Pixel in my country.
Or did you use the Mi 6X with MIUI instead of Mi A2 with Android One?
The A2 was a bad phone imo. I bought the lite to an uncle and that shit was awful, I had to send it back.
I unlocked it’s bootloader in a legit way (no hacky methods) and that shit wouldn’t boot after, just stuck in the boot image. Locked again and it would boot. It would fail every update too, even flashed directly. There was also something weird with turning on. Just no. It had a ton of issues like this.
Instead I bought the redmi note 5 or 6, can’t recall, it was like 10€ more but so much better everything.
I only have great things to say from the literally every other xiaomi phone though. My wife had a note3 that lasted 5 or 6 years, died a month ago (but I suspect software and I can probably fix it), a note 5 that is going strong. Another friend had a ton of mi’s, had a mi6 and bought the mi9t pro last week because he wanted a bigger screen. Trust me, his phones don’t have an easy life, they hold on like champs. A lot of members of my family are using xiaomis too, no issues.
I’m using a OnePlus 6 but if I need to trade, I’m going xiaomi. Just can’t beat their price and the phones are nothing short of awesome.
If you add pixel cam mod to mi A2, you literally have a Pixel 3/4 camera capability.
The only negative I have is the battery. That’s all.
How do you make your battery last 2 days?! I’m scrambling for a charger by 3 pm. Otherwise the phone is magnificent!
They messed with the headphone jack and battery. Otherwise A2 is a beast with Gcam
Yeah the security on this phone seems pretty solid. I had to figure out how to add Gcam but the mod made my camera next level. Otherwise, the phone is pretty good except the battery and no jack
A 2018 midrange phone shouldn’t be slower than a 5 year old flagship
You can do it by hotwiring the USB cables if need be, did it with my Note 3
Hmmm don’t know! I have the battery optimizations enabled for everything but Gmail and WhatsApp, but I think that’s by default right?
Same
Stop downvoting him already. We all know that Mi A2 users had a 50% chance of getting this kind of experience.
I had the proximity sensor issue with the mi a1 and couldn’t fix it, it was so annoying, during calls my ear would often disconnect calls or even add other people to whatsapp chats etc , id come off the phone some time and the torch and everything else would be on all pressed by my ear
I upgraded to Mi 9t as others said I cannot recommend it enough
I had it on Mi A1 which was otherwise a great phone and id still be using but i just fell in love with the mi 9T
Mi A2 has no notch either. Maybe you’re thinking of Mi A2 lite.
I do think the stock Rom for the Mi a2 is just….. Bad. I’m running on Havoc OS now (though there are some bugs here n there) and it’s been good. The only complaint that I can say is that the battery life is kinda shit.
But hey its 11 months since I’ve got the 128gb ver on discount (160 usd) and I was in dire need to replace my aging Honor 5C so yea. But Mi A2 does have its weaknesses, mostly on the software side.
Also I cracked the screen after I accidentally dropped it knee height. Gorilla glass my ass!
Planning to buy a mi9 lite in the coming weeks tho.
Yeah that’s the one
Don’t buy Mi A* series because the stock android rom doesn’t allow Xiaomi to improve your user experience.
The Xiaomi smartphone with the MIUI rom are just incredible! The experience is always smooth, the screen quality is amazing like the experience in general.
Sane on my phone gcam is pretty great
Yeah I have a Mi A2 and the only thing that doesn’t work that well is the fingerprint scanner. It used to work really well but now I always have to clean it every 5 or so uses to work properly…
It’s basically perfect, apart from the stupid goddamn under-screen fingerprint sensor that makes me hate unlocking my phone. I don’t understand why they went with that when a back sensor is instant and perfect.
Other than that, the phone is amazing, and I would still recommend it despite the flaw.
I switched a week ago to a Mi A3.
The Mi A1 still works like new and now belongs to my dad. Considering now getting a Redmi 8A for my mother
A3 prices fell off a cliff. It’s a great value now
have you tried at least ? your mi account need to have the right to unlock
Currently Mi 9 here, upgraded in March from a Mi 5 which still works great for its age. My mother and brother have a Redmi 5 Plus each, my girlfriend has an A2 Lite, her sister has a Redmi Note 7 and so on. I’ve had a Mi Band 2, 3, 4, Air Purifier 3, a bluetooth speaker, pens, screwdrivers and so on. I’m a huge fan of Xiaomi and their associated brands and have had close to 0 issues. You just got unlucky. All tech can fail and it happens. I recently got my Logitech G513 keyboard replaced under warranty after a year and a half. It doesn’t make it a bad board and definitely doesn’t make Logitech a bad company. My mother had a brand new LG G5 die in a few months yet your G2 is still kicking.
I’m not a huge fan of the A series as I like MIUI a lot and I’m mostly interested in flagship phones, but I don’t think it’s a bad device. You got a bad one tho. Mi 9 is an insane phone if you’re looking to upgrade and the price is great lately.
My Mi A1 was fantastic, I never had any problems but it really didn’t work well in the US. It didn’t have many of the bands required for service in my area, so my network was very spotty. I upgraded to a Mi Mix 2, and it’s the best phone I’ve ever owned, but apparently it’s not “Widevine L1” so I can’t install Disney+ :/
Smells like bad unit to me. Two friends of mine have bought Mi A2 and it works pretty OK for them.
The Mi A1 (Mi 5X), Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4X, Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus, considering their age, are absolutely running great today. These devices are legendary…
I got a Redmi Note 4 in January of 2018, and have used it for pretty much the entirety of 2018. I absolutely loved that phone, so much in fact, that I would get the Note 5.
I gave the Note 4 to my mother, and another year passed by.
That phone still runs exceptionally great today with MIUI 11! It even launches the Play Store faster than my Note 5 in certain cases..
I did notice that Xiaomi started watering down the camera though, the pictures end up washed out no matter what, the lenses are absolutely clean, but that’s no surprise considering they intentionally broke the Camera2 API functionality in both the Note 4 and Redmi 4X with MIUI 10.
But looking back at 2018 in Google Photos, I’m just [amazed](https://photos.app.goo.gl/C2zYtXGkTofX4DFA8) at what kind of photos the Note 4 could capture with either MIUI cam or Gcam on MIUI 9…
> Note 5 Pro has a Snapdragon 636 which is a downclocked version of Snapdragon 660 that Mi A2 has.
The Note 5 Pro performs just as well as the Mi A2 in terms of performance in every-day tasks.
Also, the Note 5 Pro has kernels that can overclock the CPU to 2.2Ghz (or basically remove the 1.8Ghz limitation).
Since it’s an Android One phone you don’t rely on Mi Account, but you need to activate OEM Unlocking under developer options. You can’t unlock bootloader if you are unable to boot and activate it.
so theses dumb manufacturers can’t offer a solution to fix a phone I thought there was a way to unlock the bootloader without booting on android, like with a Google account verification whatever
I’m sorry you’ve had such bad luck with your a2. I also just dumped mine. I ended up getting a pixel 3a since it was so cheap on sale. The pixel is such a better experience.
I didn’t have too many issues with the a2, but the wifi was really slow for me. No idea why since my other devices we’re so quick. It also didn’t ring right away when I would get incoming calls. My wife literally stopped calling me and would text me to call her since she said Everytime she called it would go to voicemail, and it wasn’t me forcing it to voicemail lol.
I really love the pixel so far, but I can already tell that the a2’s battery was better. Oh well.
Very unlucky, the broken camera glass can happen if it lands on a small stone for example
Battery is also very unlucky…. Had a lot of phones from China for me, friends & family (at least 10 phones) no issues in 4+ years on multiple models and users
All in all very unlucky i’d say… Combined with Faulty sensor
If you look for new phone I can recommend you the A3 If you have a low budget, or Mi 9T they are def. Better value than A2 (screen, camera and battery)
EDIT: The performance drop is very weird though… My parents have RN5 and its basically similar SoC (actually even worse) and its butter smooth… No problems at all. Try factory reset? Replace battery? Replace camera glass, but again… Dunno if its worth it to spend money now…
If had the money I would buy a OnePlus 7T. I had the 3T in the past and that was an amazing phone. But I want to wait until OnePlus releases a 5G able phone.
so far the Android one series has been pretty meh. I don’t see a reason to upgrade from my A1 except its shitty camera lol (yes i know you can install GCam etc but it’s too much of a hassle for the mere commoner)
I bought a mi pad 4, the screen was so terrible. It had this noticeable stutter when scrolling it was painfully bad. Installing a custom doesn’t fix the issues since it’s not software related. It is probably because xiaomi cheaps out on hardware components, which is how they get all their phones so cheap.
Hey dont forget the mi max 2 with the same processor. Still runs great with about 90 percent of the battery capacity even after 2 years.
Sounds like you got a lemon. And maybe the flash storage is bad, that will cause very bad performance issues.
Yeah, I’ve done some research and people are complaining some units are having much lower read speeds. I ran a storage benchmark and could confirm mine is running on lower read speeds too.
I love my a2 with custom everything
Which ROM are you using?
miui 11 eu
[https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2/development/rom-miui-10-t3933715](https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2/development/rom-miui-10-t3933715)
pm me if need help
I’m considering to flash some AOSP based ROM, maybe Lineage OS or Pixel Experience
havoc
What makes Havoc a better than these I mentioned?
Tons of features
I have a MI a2 and it’s one of the best phones I used, maybe you got a faulty unit?
Mi a2 is a android one phone, or am i understanding it wrong?
I am also using it for a year now. It has never been in water and always in silicone protection mask.
My issues after one year:
• constantly reconecting every few minutrs to the same Wi-Fi
• very laggy touchscreen
• fingerprint sensor barely works but looks as new, not even a scratch
• images taken by camera are lame because of shitty software
• front facing flashlight when i turn it on on ‘Photo’ mode, just blinks
Truly, the greatest shit that Xiaomi produced.
Thank you very much for everyday headache and battle with typing 💋
You are correct.
I use Mi 2 and I have a few problems:
•Sometimes my keyboard doesn’t load when I want to type something. It is really irritating sometimes.
•Overheating- I don’t play any big games and I have a lot of memory but my phone overheats every time I’m using it. Also right now when I’m typing this my phone is overheated.
•Crashing- Sometimes it crashes when opening apps that are pre-installed like gallery contacts, etc…
It also crashes on games and other apps…
Mine has a weak ass display