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(See Best Xiaomi phones) All today’s best deals on Xiaomi ship from China – the Mi 8 (reviewed) cannot be beaten by any other flagship Android phone at £355.52 (buy here), and is possibly one of the best phone deals you’ll see today. Some are discounted in the UK and China. For example, the Pocophone F1 (reviewed) is down to £311.54 at Amazon, but cheaper still at GearBest at £266.64. If you are asked to pay import duty it may make up that difference. Where possible we would advise UK customers to go through official routes to buy these products. Some local stockists include Three, Amazon, Argos, John Lewis, Carphone Warehouse, Currys/PC World, Go Mobile, Mobile Phones Direct, eBuyer, Scan, Box, Halfords, Very, Littlewoods and Mi.com. However, we are well aware that there are many products within Xiaomi’s line-up that are not yet available in the UK, and that even those that are can usually be found cheaper in China.

GearBest and Geekbuying have some awesome flash sales, for example. There are some caveats, though, as we’ll run through below. Limited time deal: If you buy a Xiaomi phone SIM-free from Carphone Warehouse you are entitled to a free £10 Currys/PC World voucher – click here for details. The offer ends on 20 December 2018.

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Best Xiaomi Deals Up to £50 off at Mi Store Xiaomi is also reducing phones by up to £50 over at the official Mi Store. Discounted phones include: Xiaomi Buying Advice This might sound obvious, but remember that if you do buy from China the product is likely to be Chinese. The Chinese Mi Band 3, for example, has Chinese icons that you probably won’t understand – and the UK version is so cheap anyway (£26.99 retail price) that the few pounds you might save simply isn’t worth it. For Xiaomi phones you can get around this by looking for a Global model on which Google services are preinstalled (if you do get a Chinese model you will need to install Google services yourself). Double-check which connectivity bands are supported in the product listing – Chinese-ROM Xiaomi phones very often skip Band 20 (800MHz) 4G LTE. This isn’t the end of the world for many customers as it’s one of three 4G bands we use in the UK, but if you’re on a network that uses only that band for 4G (O2, GiffGaff, Sky Mobile etc) you will be limited to 3G or Wi-Fi. Xiaomi laptops are gorgeous, powerful and excellent value devices, and the only thing that stops us recommending them to UK users is the fact they are sold running Chinese-language Windows 10 with a US keyboard layout. You might be able to get through the setup procedure using Google Translate, but you’ll still find much of the OS is Chinese.

A better approach is to reinstall an OEM version of Windows 10 designed for UK users, and you can get these for as little as £10-£20. As well as reinstalling the OS you’ll want to install missing drivers that are wiped during this process, which you will be able to find online if you have another computer you can use to download them. A driver updater utility will also help here. Note that you will probably need to have to hand a wired mouse to install these drivers if the trackpad drivers are missing. Ignoring the language issues, one other thing to watch when buying from China is that you are liable for paying import duty.