Spoiler: Xiaomi is #1 now.
I tried the Mi 8 Lite, honestly I’m not impressed. It’s super cheap, which is really cool, but the OS it comes with is riddled with bloatware… Not sure it’s worth it
I returned my last Samsung because it was riddled with bloatwear that could not be disabled or uninstalled
Facebook was one such app, if I disabled it, it would re-enable itself on reboots
And it wasn’t even a cheap phone
but the OS it comes with is riddled with bloatware…
As opposed to Samsung and Apple? Right…
I bought an umidigi Bison Pro 3, years ago. It’s still going strong with no noticeable issues
I tried to get a custom ROM but they don’t seem to exist, people call this a garbage brand (it may be, I don’t know) but it has served me well and I’m happy to have paid $250 for a fast phone so I can constantly chat with my wife and browse Lemmy… Why would I pay $1000 for a “flagship” phone to do those 2 same, completely non critical, tasks?
Security and software updates
Not really a surprise considering the size of their domestic market. An interesting statistic would be each of these vendor’s shares outside of their home country. I’m particularly curious at Apple’s share without the US’s iPhone majority.
Xiaomi isn’t actually that big in China AFAIK. There is a lot of competition, not just from Apple but all the other Chinese vendors, most of whom are larger. Huawei, Honor, VIVO and Oppo all have at least an equivalent, if not larger, segment of the Chinese market.
I don’t know what it looks like now. In 2019, at least in one of the cities I went to, it seemed like everyone had a XiaoMi
I started using Xiaomi Redmi Note 7pro back in 2019 and have upgraded every year. At $300 average price tag, it is a fantastic device. HyperOS is really good and my current Redmi Note 13pro came with some garbage but it was easy to remove/disable.