I have a college in beijing and i can ask him to look at the mi.com.
I am not familliar with rooting and i don't think i dear trying that on my s5
let me tell you, cause even on mi.com stocks are low if not sold out or unavailable, because of high demands! There are some benefits from getting it from a scalper! because his main reason to sell the device and trying to pocess a couple is, so they can make a profit! he can only make profits when demands are higher and stock is low or in this case when there is no other way to get it as a buyer!
So for you having an opportunity to get it from mi.com itself, is the way you should get lowest price possible on a definitely real device! But your colleague needs to ship it aswell and you might run into problems with customs and tax!
try sending as gift!, gift wrapping the device etc. He needs to state a lower value on the package as well for it to pass customs.
Stated as an mp3 or mp4 player, value like 20$, this is normally what ibuygou does, and all 6 orders came trough fine, no additional costs! Cool and all but youd be in trouble when packages get lost! with insurance you only be rewarded the amount of value stated on the package!
normally scalpers handle a profit of between 50-100$
I'd recommend you to figure out why you want that new mi4 or oneplus in the first place! what will be benefits and losses for changing to this device! Mostly diffrent preferences and needs lead to different devices, i get that!
mine was for the need off having a good powerful cheap reliable smartphone, to replace my former one while leaving a little profit for me when i sell the older one!
i was in the need for selling almost anything valuable to pay my tax depth, so i startted looking into getting cheaper stuff trying to maintain quality!
Ive had some really bad experience in the first place getting that mi3 and i almost gave up on it!
first tried aliexpress, and naif as i ways i went for good shop recoomendations and lowest price!
And sure enough i got the phone, but it was a cloned mi3! quality was nothing compared to seeing the real mi3 reviews!
250,-euro down the drain! and after a few weeks i won the dispute and repocessed my payment. i went to more and more fora asking what ways were reliable to obtain a real mi3! and i found ibuygou.es! but .ES is spain wharehouse and shipping within europe without additional tax! but they allready calculated the risk into the selling price! the .COM shop was much cheaper, but there was a risk! The shop held word! and they shipped me a perfect mi3 64gb! within 4days! No tax..
i like it so much, i showed it off to some colleages and some asked me to get them one as well! Seeing is beleaving sometimes!
ordered two mi3, three hongmi 1s, and one redmi note pro!!
and that time i learned from the oneplus and depending on the reviews i wanted to try it! so instead i sold one colleque my mi3 for a bit less than retail and paid up for the difference and got the oneplus!
It wasnt a bad phone but i prefered the mi3 for mentioned reasons!
so i traded back a mi3 with another buyer looking for the oneplus!
so now im on mi3 again and loving it even more, knowing the oneplus wasnt anything better!
offcourse knowing xiaomi quality, i think mi4 will be the one beating its own mi3!
that when you cab get it for its normal retail! at scalpers the price differenc is not worth it, mi3 is getting discounted so they make space for mi4.
Mi3 is still a very good phone! but not shure if youll like it more over your s5? it really depends on what your looking for!
so for my beefy lifestory concerning xiaomi and oneplus! just wanted to putt the info out and inform you the best i can.