Xiaomi Redmi Note - Part 2

Despite my fondness of my new Xiaomi Redmi Note phone, there are still some deficiencies which I will highlight in this second post.

Slow Order Processing

I made my order for the phone on 2014-08-05 (Tuesday). The phone was delivered on 2014-08-14 (Thursday), a whopping 9 days later! This is just too slow!

In most of my internet purchases, goods that are shipped via air are typically delivered within 1 week. As Xiaomi does not have brick and mortar stores, they really need to invest more in their logistics operation. They should take a leaf from Amazon operations, which can typically ship goods much faster than Xiaomi, despite the fact that Amazon ships from USA, while Xiaomi is shipping from Hong Kong.

Flip Case Was Not What I Expected

When I made my order for the Redmi Note, I also ordered both a soft case as well as a flip case. While the soft case meets my expectation, I was extremely disappointed with the flip case.

The main problem with the flip case is that unlike other flip cases that I have bought for my first Samsung Galaxy S and my Shanzhai phone, the Redmi Note flip case uses ADHESIVE to adhere the phone to the case!

The problem is that if you want to change the battery, or insert a different microSD card, you must then peel the phone from the flip case adhesive! According to the pamphlet that came with the flip case packaging, the ADHESIVE can be re-used 300 times. But I don't buy this bullshit. Almost every kind of glue hardens and lose their stickiness after a while, particularly in the hot and humid weather we have in Singapore. Also, the main idea with having interchangeable cases is to change them. Suppose I want to switch from my flip case back to my soft case. Once I peel my phone from the flip case, the flip case adhesive will be unprotected and exposed to the air. Exposure to air will cause the adhesive to lose its stickiness even faster. This adhesive design makes the flip case unsuitable for interchangeable use.

Unfortunately, because all the flip cases I have used previously do not use adhesive, I was under the impression that the Redmi Note flip case would be the same. So I was very disappointed on receiving the package to learn that Xiaomi has decided to cut corners and use this kind of sub-standard design for their flip case.

I subsequently went to the Xiaomi web site, and saw that although they made no mention that the Redmi Note flip case uses this cheap and lousy adhesive bonding, the flip case for the Mi 3 uses the same cheap and lousy adhesive bonding, and which is documented in the Xiaomi web site.

http://store.mi.com/sg/item/3141000008

If you are considering buying the Redmi Note, take my advice and just buy the soft case. Don't waste your money on the flip case. It is a very disappointing piece of accessory from Xiaomi.

Non-Standard Micro USB Connector

I wasn't aware of it at first, because my existing micro USB cables which I was using for charging my Samsung Galaxy S phone, Samsung Galaxy Note tablet, and the Shanzhai phone, could also be used to charge the Redmi Note. Until one day when I realised that although the cable was "connected", it was not charging the Redmi Note. Apparently, I had touched the cable just a smidgen, and that effectively dislodge the seating of the micro USB connector.

I then became aware that the micro-USB connector always appear to be "loose" when plugged into the Redmi Note, unlike the very snug fit with all my other Android devices. When I examined the Redmi Note phone, I realised that the socket is actually a rectangle instead of trapezium shape as on all my other smart phones.

It turns out that whereas almost every Android phone uses the Micro B USB connector, the Redmi Note actually houses a USB socket that supports both the Micro B USB as well as the Micro A USB connector.

The Micro B USB connector used by almost every Android phone manufacturer.

The Micro A USB connector, which can also used for the Redmi Note.

Because the Redmi Note socket has to accommodate both types of connectors, the side effect is that it actually makes using the Micro B USB cable a looser fit! Unfortunately, the cable that Xiaomi provides is also an industry standard Micro B USB cable. This makes me wonder why in the world did Xiaomi decide to use a Micro A+B USB socket on the phone in the first place?

Bug

Although the MIUI is at version 5 (the phone is currently running version MIUI-JHDMIBF29.0), I have encountered a bug that require the phone to be shutdown and restarted.

I have a 2G SIM card which I used for making voice calls, and a 3G SIM card which I use for mobile data. The 3G SIM card is provided with a monthly allotment of 1 GB of free mobile data, so I only wish to use it for internet surfing. However, the 3G card can also make voice calls and send SMS, but these are not free. Unfortunately, if I leave the 3G card in standby mode, I keep receiving spam SMSes, and also spam voice calls, which are chargeable. Thus, to avoid paying for these spam voice calls on the 3G SIM card, I always disable the 3G SIM card if I do not need to use the 3G card to access the internet.

Thus, if I need to use the 3G  SIM card to access the internet, I will first enable the 3G SIM card, then enable mobile data. When I have finished surfing the internet, I will disable mobile data, and then disable the 3G SIM card.

However, many a time, when I disable the 3G SIM card, I will also effectively cut out the 2G signal, as if I had also disabled the 2G SIM card. The phone will then not be able to receive SMSes and voice calls on the 2G SIM card. I tried to "re-enable" the 2G SIM card, but the phone will show that the 2G SIM card has not been disabled. But there is nothing I can do to re-enable the 2G network through the Settings app. The only way to restore the 2G signal is to reboot the phone.

Because I normally use wi-fi to access the internet, this is not so problematic. But the 3 times I had to enable the 3G SIM card to access the internet using mobile data, I ended up having to reboot the phone so that I can restore the 2G voice service after I disabled just the 3G SIM card.

I don't have this problem with the Shanzhai phone, where I can always disable the 3G SIM card without affecting the voice network on the 2G SIM card. This problem only occurs with the Redmi Note.

Perhaps the new MIUI version 6 will resolve this problem. However, I don't know whether the Redmi Note will be getting MIUI 6, although by all indications, it will be available. This is one good thing about Xiaomi. Customers are constantly receiving new versions of the MIUI software. This is unlike Asus or Samsung, who do not provide firmware updates even to relatively new devices.