Hey. I was just looking for curiosity the official china xiaomi store. And I saw the Redmi Note 13 Pro+, it seems to be a great phone with 12gb of RAM and 512GB of storage, 200MP camera (I know that doesn't determine how good the photos will be) for just 2099 yuans which is approximately 250€, and I was wondering, is it even possible to buy this china only phones for such a great price and import them to europe?
The Redmi Note 13 Pro+ is actually more "westernized" than the rest of the K70 series (the name that it recieves in china) as it even has a western name and I swear I have seen youtube channels who have this phone. (Though if this is doable and someone wants to try, if you look at the K70 Pro you will see an option for 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for 4099 yuans which is an amazing price for those specs).
I know aliexpress exists and I was able to find the phone but for prices a bit higher and the best price I was able to find was on alibaba for around 210€, I would consider buying on aliexpress but unless someone convinces me of the contrary I wouldn't buy on Alibaba.
Nearly every stock Android is a tracking platform. Not wanting to do racist china-hating here as every manufacturer does that, but do you really want a permanent surveillance device "a great phone"?
I had a Pixel 7pro with GrapheneOS, same specs. But 12GB and that size is complete overkill.
I will install custom ROM anyways. MIUI is trash. So that's not an issue, I doubt they exist yet but once this phone comes into western market (if it ever does) I will obviously install pixel experience of maybe even graphene (with google).
EDIT: Also, I know a Pixel 7 Pro would probably be much better. But 250€ for those specs if just awesome. That's my budgets so the better phone I can get with that price the better, and I don't know what to get for that price.
It has a Mediatek chip, you'll struggle to find a custom ROM
Yes for sure. A phone for over 250€ is already insane for me.
GrapheneOS cannot run on that phone but maybe DivestOS can. Its a better LineageOS basically. But its still a LineageOS derivate.
GrapheneOS has amazing tooling and installation. Many devices could support it, its just the relocking and top security that makes them only promote pixels.
Have in mind, that custom ROM may not appear at all. My Redmi K30 Ultra is an awesome phone, without ugly dot in the screen, but unlike it's global counterpart "K30 Pro", my "china only" phone have different cpu and no other ROM's for it cause of that. China only also means, that this phone do not have NFC support for gpay (only huawei wallet and some weird china\russian software for some reason) and no gapps installed (like, at all, even tho playmarket will work after manual install). Also, 1/3 of OS is not translated at all, even tho english one of the few languages that supported even on china only rom. Also, you need root to "spoof" your phone ID otherwise some banking soft may not acknowledge this phone (altho, this is very unlikely). Another problem, that all xiaomi phones require you to use official app for windows with connected xiaomi account, then wait for ~2 weeks and only then unlock your bootloader (and for anything bootloader related, like installing different recovery, gaining root or install different ROM).