**BRIEF HISTORY:**
I have been using the A series of Samsung starting from Galaxy A10 to the A30, but the one thing that bugged me about Samsung phones especially the A series, was that they weren’t giving enough value to their customers. I’m not a big camera guy, so I don’t take any selfies. The main priority for me was having a big battery and a performance that didn’t lag while i switched between 2-3 apps (Mainly Tidal for music streaming, Whatsapp and Instagram).
The Galaxy A10s on regular use gave me a battery timing of 4-5 hours till I had to plug it back in the charger. After a few weeks of searching, I found some very interesting Xiaomi’s phones, the prices with the features they were providing were giving Samsung phones a run for their money. But I was still hesitant as my uncle bought the Xiaomi Mi A3, which tbh, in that price range was an overpriced phone which gave my initial impression that All phones must be like that. But boy oh boy was I wrong.
**The Phone Itself:**
I bought the **Xiaomi Redmi 8A** for less than $98. 2 gb 32 gb variant with a 5,000mAh battery with a support for 18W Fast charging. The only gripe I had was the fast charger isn’t included in the box. Powered by Snapdragon 439 chipset, which imo is SOOO much better than the Mediatek A22 shit chipset. After buying the phone I did two things to improve the overall quality:
* Since I’m living in Pakistan, I chose the region to be United Kingdom as Xiaomi’s phones start throwing ads in the device if you choose your region to be India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or any country in this region to earn extra bit of money. But if your’e living in Europe you’re fine.
* I uninstalled all the bloatware that came with the phone with Xiaomi’s Fast ADB Tool. The whole process took less than 2 minutes.
But, after all of this, I can safely say this is the BEST phone I have gotten so far. The battery backup is insane. If I use the phone at 9 am, use it heavily all day either on wifi or 4g, doesn’t matter, the battery will still be at 45-50% at 3:45 am. A whopping 16 hours+ on continuous usage.
When you remove the bloatware, it frees up alot of RAM and your phone feels like it’s a 4GB Ram variant and not 2GB. Im not a fan of gaming like PUBG, never played it. So don’t know how the phone will perform on gaming.
P.S, I’ve never been able to completely drain the battery of this device. It’s a MONSTER.
**My final verdict:**
If you want a KILLER device for your day to day use, you’re a battery conscious person like me, want to gift it to your parents, or need to give a gift to somebody that won’t break your bank, then this DEVICE is a BEAST. I HIGHLY recommend you invest in Xiaomi and you won’t be feeling sorry. I do recommend getting the Xiaomi Redmi Note series if you can as those devices are the midrange killers. But if you want to stay on a budget level, then this device kills all other devices.
Peace my Xiaomi family 🙂
I changed from s7 edge to realme xt and I’m loving it, the phone is miles ahead in performance and battery life
I’ve been using Xiaomi devices for the last 5 years and they’re still the value champion! I always get the best hardware for the price and I like the MIUI. I can turn ads off and customise a lot of things without even rooting.
Does yours support 5ghz WiFi?
I have a redmi8 and the wifi performance is soooo bad since it doesn’t support dual band WiFi.
Mine also has a 5000 mAh battery, it’s still pretty good, but with moderate to heavy use I can kill it fairly quickly.
Redmi 10X 5G and Pro are exclusive to China currently. If you’re interested in this device and your old phone is still holding up, I’d suggest you wait for a while. There has been rumors that Xiaomi is gonna be launching the Redmi 10X 5G/Pro as Redmi Note 10 globally in a few months.
I’m definitely going back to Samsung.
You hit the nail on the head.
Even though people(my self included, im using a AOSP on my Redmi Note 7) have gripes with the software. Xiaomi always provide AMAZING value for the money. People tend to forget that the phones are cheap. I personally think that the A3 was a decent phone. It was a bit pricy because it has an AMOLED screen.
I think im going to upgrade my Note 7 when they release a Redmi phone with AMOLED screen.
Yes, it’s worth the upgrade
Istg Samsung is all about marketing hype now with it’s flagship devices. Xiaomi is giving the REAL VALUE to their consumers!
That phone is a GAMING BEAST with the chipset inside and the liquid cooling technology just adds the icing on the cake.
The only reason why Samsung launched the A series just to compete with the Chinese brands like Realme, Xiaomi, OPPO etc. but they are producing some of the worst devices in the market. They recently launched Samsung Galaxy A11 in my country for $161 with 2 gb Ram and a 32 gb ROM variant where Chinese brands are giving 4 with 128.
You certainly made the right choice. Xiaomi’s Note series give Samsung a run for it’s money.
Ye I got the cheapest version of the redmi 4x (2gb ram/ 16gb ROM) on 2017 hoping get a new device after 3montgs
And apart from lack of internal storage & the camera, the device is still amazing after 3 years.
My bad. Thought i was replying to a different comment.
But the Realme XT Launched at 60,000 Pkr. Now it’s at 46,000 Pkr. You lost 4,000 Rupees already. When you’ll resale it, it’s gonna go for half the price than that. As much of a good phone it is, Realme fucked it with its ridiculous pricing. Just like they did with the Realme 6 series.
Samsung is a brand a well known brand people prefer Samsung cause it’s a bigger brand
It’s all about complex
https://www.kimovil.com/en/compare/samsung-galaxy-a50-a505fd-64gb,xiaomi-mi-note-10
Well, If I’m being totally honest, Chinese brands are KILLING the budget to premium midrange game. But, if you want to go for a flagship device, I’d recommend going for the S series of Samsung or One Plus devices if you plan to stick with the android series.
The thing with human nature is that we tend to sale our devices around 1-2 years down the road and getting a new one. Since I tend to stay in the budget to budget-midrange category I don’t have to worry about taking that much of a loss while reselling the device.
You never know when Chinese brands might cut down the final price of their phone. In my country, Realme XT launched at a staggering $359. If you convert it in my country’s currency that’s a butt-load of money. The phone didn’t perform well, and a couple of months later, they cut down the price and it’s now available at $269. Now when the users are gonna resell this device, it’ll go for less than $200 or even more.
I’d recommend investing in a device which is in the premium midrange category which is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 series. Spectacular devices and damn good mid-range killers imo.
Stay away from OPPO devices as they are launching very overpriced and underperforming phones.
2GB of RAM is not much, and not everyone wants all their apps killed.
The phone is working flawlessly. No issues whatsoever and saved me ton of space after removing the bloatware considering it’s a 32gb storage. Phone is much faster as compared to what you’re used to with the bloatware installed. It’s completely safe as it’s **NOT ROOTING** your device. You’re using Xiaomi’s ADB Tool to remove the bloatware.
Loosing 4k in almost a year is kinda ok, my s7 edge lost a lot more than that in a year. But personally I don’t change phones frequently so I’m not in the demographic that gets affected by changing prices, I keep my phone’s for about 2 years and by then it’s all worthless lol
No problems in normal operations after uninstalling system apps?
Haha i totally agree with you and the money you’ve invested in. Good choice! S20 Ultra is just a hype beast backed up by good marketing by Samsung on their end.
At the end of the day, you don’t need fucking 8K Recording. You just need a good phone that performs well on any task that you put on it and should give you a solid battery back up.
Welcome to the Xiaomi family 🙂
Ah okay. It’s cause I checked gsmarena and it was listing a 1080p resolution for A31. Yeah Realme could have launched the phones for better prices, and that would have given tougher competition to the Redmi Note 9 series. But it is what it is; Xiaomi seems to be taking the lead here due to their aggressive pricing.
lol i m tryna get a phone and my mom was literally saying tht i should get samsung cuz its a brand whie xiomi is kinda ‘unknown’ and shes never heard of it XD
i literally dont know which one to gettt , how is the camera on the samsung compared to the xiomi one tho?
In May, I bought the Redmi Note 8 Pro instead of the A50 from Samsung. Your post just verified my thoughts that I made the better choice. Xiaomi is definitely an underrated mobile company!!
I don’t get it. Google, Facebook, Instagram, all major American companies are spying on you EVERY fucking where. But that is okay because they’re american and they can do whatever they want?
Bro the realme xt has an amoled display and it’s superb
Edit: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
MY POINT EXACTLY.
My phone right now is at 65% after 21 hours since last charge. Xiaomi is incredible no doubt.
That phone is an insane monster for the specs it has, but it launched WAYY overpriced in Pakistan. At first they put the price to 60,000 Pkr ($363) and now they did a $100 price cut to the device as the phone wasn’t selling enough. It’s still overpriced and it has flopped in the Pakistani market.
My previous phone was A50. Switched to MI 9T Pro after a few months. A50 was not worth the money given the competition in its price range. And it’s camera is really horrible.
How much is MI Note 10 Pro there? Last I checked, it’s priced quite high for a midrange processor.
That’s pretty sick man. Good for you!
Dude here.
If you’re from India, then I’m your friendly Pakistani neighbor. I’m also sick of Samsung providing a phone for 26,000 Pkr (roughly 12,000 Indian Rupees) and giving us 2 GB with 32 Gb Rom in their latest devices. Xiaomi has certainly won me over with the Redmi 8A. Gonna be buying happily from them for years to come.
How much is the poco f2 pro?
Fellow Pakistani here who used Samsung for a long time finally switched to Xiaomi and got Redmi 9s. My thoughts and experiences are very similar to yours. Can you give me a screenshot of the apps you removed via Fast ADB Tool?
I guess Xiaomi’s budget to mid-range phones have an IPS LCD Display. But if your budget is a bit more towards the premium midrange devices, they have SUPER AMOLED Panels in devices like Xiaomi Mi Note 10, Mi 9T Pro, an AMOLED Display in Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite and Super Amoled display for Mi 9 Lite.
You just have to increase your budget a tad bit. And you can get those devices. WAYY better than Samsung devices in those prices.
I thought it wasn’t even being sold anymore and they came out with the x2 which is actually inferior. I got it for 50k in KHI. I think it’s totally worth it for that much though
Edit: got it in September last year
Good luck for the shit products they’re gonna throw at you in the A series. The only good products they have were the S10 and S10 Plus.
i had the samsung S1-S9 and decided to give xiaomi a try,went with mi 9t pro abiout 6 months ago,couldnt be happier. when im done with this whatever the flagship xiaomi is will be my next
To answer both of your questions:
1. You can get the tool [FROM HERE.](https://github.com/Szaki/XiaomiADBFastbootTools/releases/tag/7.0) It’s written in Java, so you need to download and Install the Java JDK first. Simple download and Install, which you can do from [HERE](https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase-downloads.html). Once you download, you should have Developer Options enabled in your device. Enable USB Debugging Mode. (Google this, it’s easy af). Then plug in your USB Cable with the phone while you open the Xiaomi ADB Tool. Grant Permission and you’ll see all the apps infront of you that you want to remove.
2. No, this won’t brick your device as this is **NOT ROOTING.** It’s a tool that completely and safely removes the xiaomi bloatware and google bloatware that you can’t remove manually.
Hope it helped!
The ads are there only on specific regions like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh etc. But you can simply change the region to UK or any European country and the ads don’t come. They’re region based.
I’ve selected my region to be UK and i’ve not seen a single Ad on my Redmi 8A.
Woah. I never knew Samsung also puts ads on it’s flagship devices that cost $1,000? Damn that’s some next level greed shit.
If you think Samsung has software issues…
Mi Note 10 Pro and the Poco F2 Pro in Pakistan are way TOOOO overpriced.
the price of the mi note 9 pro is nice, f2 pro is a bit pricy was hoping for a price drop
or might just go with the k20 pro
i really like the OLED screen, it’s just a nice to have,
Xiaomi doesn’t do enough marketing in Pakistan like how Samsung invests in all their Ad campaigns here. Everyone knows about Samsung but hardly a few have heard about Redmi brand of Xiaomi. It’s surprising how much Ads and marketing drive people to make a decision on what product to buy. Even if it’s not best for them!
I uninstalled literally every bloatware there was on my device. Gmail, Youtube, Google Search application, Zoom, Ebay, Xiaomi’s apps which were Video player, photos, etc. I believe there were 20-25 apps which I removed.
It’s not an official tool. This is the only method in removing the bloatware **WITHOUT ROOTING** your device.
[THIS IS THE LINK TO THE GITHUB PAGE](https://github.com/Szaki/XiaomiADBFastbootTools)
[THE FILE CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM HERE](https://github.com/Szaki/XiaomiADBFastbootTools/releases/latest)
If you have any problems deciding how to use it, hmu and I’ll send the youtube link on what I followed that helped me remove all the bloatware.
We don’t have a 5G Network Infrastructure in Pakistan. Maybe 3-5 years down the line we’ll see one. But right now it’s working on 4.5G Network. A hybrid of 4G and 5G.
Hmm i’ve never been able to kill the battery of my Redmi 8A completely. The furthest I’ve taken this phone before I got REALLY tired was at 40% till i plugged in the charger.
Oh yes, always go for what your NEEDS are. Not for what your WANTS. But in 2020, I do recommend getting a phone with atleast 32gb of Rom, as 16gb is just not enough for a device in this day and age.
Hey fellow Pakistani comrade, Mubarak ho 🙂
That phone is an absolute beast with such an aggressive pricing by Xiaomi in the pricing market. Everything about it is flawless. Samsung is launching phones with no second thought like the Galaxy A31 for 42,000 Pkr with only 720P resolution.
As far as Realme 6 is concerned, it’s an overpriced device and so is Realme 6 Pro. They should have been around 34,000 for the Realme 6 and a maximum 38-40,000 for the Realme 6 Pro. Because of this pricing strategy, Xiaomi has really grasped the midrange market with their Note 9 series and recently killed the budget series with their 3/32gb variant of Redmi 9.
Yes that’s very true. Ads have a lot of influence on our choices.
Ye i got the mi note 10 lite and am loving everything about it! With normal usage i can run into day 3 before chsrging.
At some point if you feel you need more ram you should give custom roms a go. My 2 year old note 5 pro still performs good as new with a custom rom.
Pakistani\* is better.
Redmi Note 7 just felt like it was quite older phone for the price tag at 27,500 Pkr. But performance wise it’s a beast. Just like the Redmi 9 3/32GB variant has killed the Realme C3 and alot of other phones with the features it’s coming out with at 21,500Pkr.
Xiaomi just needs 2-3 years and it will capture the Pakistani and Indian market with ease if they keep pumping out devices for their budget to midrange friendly customers that Samsung is shitting them on.
Khair Mubarak, and also Eid Mubarak in advance 🙂
Yup, idk what they were thinking launching the A31 at that price when a device like Note 9S exists at a lower price. Btw isn’t its resolution at 1080p?
Realme 6 is sort of the direct competitor to Note 9S specs wise I think, but they did launch a lower variant for the same price. I think it’s slightly overpriced, but still not that bad of an option considering it has a couple of things which the Note 9S doesn’t have (90Hz and 30W fast charging, though both of these weren’t that important to me). The Realme 6 Pro at 55k, on the other hand, is way too overpriced. 40-45k would have been better. But yes, the Redmi 9/Note 9 series as a whole is a really solid one for consumers.
>Xiaomi’s Fast ADB Tool
oh really? can you share the info? want to change my rn7 soon was thinking about something with 5G already
Samsung has lost me as a customer now. Doesn’t matter what they do, they don’t give enough value or two shits about their budget – midrange friendly consumer market. Just a brand name of SAMSUNG isn’t gonna convince people to buy any shit they put out now. People are becoming more aware.
Lol. What even?
Get a redmi note 7. Install an EAS Custom Rom with an EAS Kernel, and voila…you got yourself a phone that competes with many flagships in smoothness. Far better battery backup than most flagships and a snappy aosp experience. And on top of it…its gonna last pretty well for more than 4 years.
All of this is mostly true for all xiaomi phones, so you can do this on your phone too. If you’re impressed by the stock performance of this phone, get ready to blown away if you get into this custom rom and kernel community.
Im a paki too; in our market, xiaomi phones are pure gold mines
That i have to agree unfortunately. MIUI can get away with ads because their phone are cheap. Samsung, especially note and S series phonds are not. And they had the audacity to put ads on $1000 devices
Thank you!
At least I didn’t have problems connecting my Samsung device to PC and it freezing and giving terrible bugs and errors, making it impossible to transfer files.
Poco F2 Pro is overpriced as fuck in Pakistan. More expensive than the Galaxy S10. Don’t know what price is there in your country. Wouldn’t recommend going that far high with Xiaomi.
Xiaomi Note 9 series is sensational. Give that one a try.
Welcome to the Xiaomi family brother.
The apps I removed from my phone were the Xiaomi Bloatware which consisted of Xiaomi Mi Player, Photos, etc and the Google bloatware of Youtube, Gmail, Google search app, etc. Collectively I remember removing around 20-25 apps which I couldn’t manually.
The note 10 pro might be a bit outdated now and the processor couldn’t cope very well with the 108mp camera
If you’re paying 50k for a device, you should get an Amoled or a Super Amoled display. IPS LCD display doesn’t do justice when you’re spending that much on a device. The features are amazing no doubt about that. But the display is the only main gripe about it as compared to the price.
Yes, Samsung is just a marketing hype now with no real features. Do you know, Samsung is launching a device with 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM in 20 fucking 20 and has a more pricier tag than the Redmi 8A? Samsung is high on drugs.
I’m glad you found my review useful.
if all you want is phones with good battery life and better performance, why did you choose A series samsung in the first place? M series phone by samsung offer big batteries and faster processor for the price.
Not just hardware as well constant software support. Even budget phones redmi A series like redmi 7a, 8a and etc… receives 1 major android update and atleast 3 miui updates.
I don’t know why you’re downvoted, it’s true
Very true.
> constant software support
Me and my Mi Mix 3 5G weeps.
Xiaomi’s ADB tool is official? and which apps did you uninstall?
I didn’t know people in Pakistan called themselves that I thought it was a slur
That wasn’t even at all the question being asked
How many years of updates so you get with a Xiaomi phone?
Can u tell me more about the ADB tool??? Where can i get it from? Will it brick my device??
America has the most army bases around the world and you think America won’t do any bad? Lol
America is what’s everything bad in the world. Not America as a whole but the people who actually control the strings by using America as a puppet.
ye lol not going bellow 128, living with 16 is hell ( i’d say 64gb should be minimum if u plan to use long term)
going to get a poco f2 pro and will have it for a very long time
No, not 5G. Not the network.
Your regular everyday WiFi band, 2.4ghz vs the newer 5ghz.
Some xaomi phones don’t support the 5 GHz band.
Same experience. After several samsung S and Note, an year ago i took the xiaomi mi9t. As mi9t pro was being released, i found a very good price. I’m very happy and i’m not going to change it!
Fellow Pakistani here, just got the Redmi Note 9S a couple of months back. It’s my first Xiaomi phone (and first non-QMobile phone :P). It’s such a value for money device, and I am really happy with its overall performance. Agreed with you that Samsung seems to rely too much on its brand name, and the current budget-midrange phones they are offering are really underpowered considering their prices. I guess Realme 6 is the only solid competitor at around 40k.
Glad to see Xiaomi is going hard in the budget segment as well. Seconding the battery life too; it’s insanely good!
Khair Mubarak dost.
Let me clarify the points.
1. Galaxy A31 is 720p resolution. YES. In 42,000 Pkr ($250), Samsung is giving 720p resolution whereas Xiaomi Redmi 9 (3/32gb variant) is giving 1080p resolution for $119.
2. Realme 6 would have given direct competition if it was slightly lower priced than what it currently is right now. If it was around 36,000Pkr instead of 40,000 it would have killed the Redmi Note 9 series for sure. But sadly they’ve overpriced the Realme 6 series by quite a fair margin.
3. They did launch a lower variant called Realme 6i, but that was deployed around 32-33,000Pkr. Again that was a device which had a 720p resolution and the chipset in that device also resulted in heating issues.
Overall, I’d say Realme 6 series, excluding the 6i, have tremendous features. But the pricing is just wrong. If they had done competitive pricing like they did for Realme 5 and 5 Pro, they could have cemented their name as the mid-range kings of the mobile markets. But sadly they’re now starting to think they’re Samsung and can charge any price and people will buy them.
If it was my choice and my money, I’d take the Note 9 series any time of the day as compared to Realme 6 series.
S7 Edge is atleast 4-5 years old so that is acceptable that it has lost it’s value alot. You could have gone for the Redmi Note series. Redmi phones are killing the mid-range phones of Realme by quite a fair bit of margin.
But again, Eid Mubarak and Congrats on the device 🙂
I’d recommend poco f2 pro over MI Note 10 Pro.
My mom and I use Xiaomi phones and we want to say: never, NEVER put a tempered glass since it gets the proximity sensor go crazy. Just use a thick cover