Global vs China


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eng333

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Oct 11, 2023
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Is there any difference between buying the global vs China version of the 13U in terms of using the EU rom?
I know there are differences in band coverage. I'm in the US so no warranty regardless.

Does the ROM work better on one vs the other?

The only advantage I can see is that with the global version, if end up not liking this ROM, I assume I can relock the BL and more things (Google, being apps) should natively work vs the China version.
 
I don't think there's ever a difference in hardware, whether it's a Global or Chinese device. It's always about the ROM. After all, you can flash a Chinese ROM to a Global device and vice versa. AFAIK band coverage is handled in the firmware, not hardware, and the firmware is bundled into the ROM's flashable zip, at least the fastboot one (but maybe the recovery one as well).
 
I thought I read a different post that that the ROM had nothing to do with the band coverage? If it is changeable, I'd be very interested to know what options I have for which bands? In the US, it doesn't have the greatest coverage. For example, in the US, it would be ideal to have 2,4,5,12,66,71 n41,n71. Neither has 71. China has 12 but Global is missing 2 and 66. In Europe, I believe 20 is important, but china doesn't have it. If I could somehow get all that china AND global has, that would be great, otherwise it will be important to choose one or the other.

And as I mentioned, I guess having the global to fall back on in case the EU rom does not work well for me is nice since I assume china lacks google.
 
eng333 said:
I thought I read a different post that that the ROM had nothing to do with the band coverage? If it is changeable, I'd be very interested to know what options I have for which bands? In the US, it doesn't have the greatest coverage. For example, in the US, it would be ideal to have 2,4,5,12,66,71 n41,n71. Neither has 71. China has 12 but Global is missing 2 and 66. In Europe, I believe 20 is important, but china doesn't have it. If I could somehow get all that china AND global has, that would be great, otherwise it will be important to choose one or the other.
Click to expand...
This is indeed hard to tell, I can only say what band the phone is connected to, but cannot really know what bands it support. Maybe asking a candidate seller is a wise choice.
eng333 said:
And as I mentioned, I guess having the global to fall back on in case the EU rom does not work well for me is nice since I assume china lacks google.
Click to expand...
China ROM does lack Play Store, but not Google. The underlying GMS is still there and Play Store is just a click away, it's in the Store app. You might be stressed to use the default Baidu keyboard, though.
 
leledumbo said:
This is indeed hard to tell, I can only say what band the phone is connected to, but cannot really know what bands it support. Maybe asking a candidate seller is a wise choice.

China ROM does lack Play Store, but not Google. The underlying GMS is still there and Play Store is just a click away, it's in the Store app. You might be stressed to use the default Baidu keyboard, though.
Click to expand...
I know what bands are supported from the specs. but if a ROM can indeed change that, then I have no idea. That's a question for the ROM developer.
 
No, the SW will not make the missing bands available in any way. Supported bands are a matter of HW.
 
If you don't mind that on the Chinese version you will be fully dependent on the xiaomi.eu ROM for full use of the device outside of China, then it doesn't
matter.
If you install the Global ROM on the Chinese version, some services such as GPay, banking applications, etc. will not work properly.
 
gogocar62 said:
If you don't mind that on the Chinese version you will be fully dependent on the xiaomi.eu ROM for full use of the device outside of China, then it doesn't
matter.
If you install the Global ROM on the Chinese version, some services such as GPay, banking applications, etc. will not work properly.
Click to expand...
Yes, I think the only advantage to the Global version is that if the EU rom doesnt work for me (or stops in the future), I can always fall back to the global rom (on a locked BL) and still have things "working"
 
gogocar62 said:
No, the SW will not make the missing bands available in any way. Supported bands are a matter of HW.
Click to expand...
Indeed, but what I'm trying to say is network band support is part of the SoC, it's unlikely the SoC is different for different markets as it will be very costly to produce like so. Therefore, the SoC as a hardware actually supports all bands, but the decision to enable or disable is determined by the firmware written by the smartphone manufacturer.
 
eng333 said:
I thought I read a different post that that the ROM had nothing to do with the band coverage? If it is changeable, I'd be very interested to know what options I have for which bands? In the US, it doesn't have the greatest coverage. For example, in the US, it would be ideal to have 2,4,5,12,66,71 n41,n71. Neither has 71. China has 12 but Global is missing 2 and 66. In Europe, I believe 20 is important, but china doesn't have it. If I could somehow get all that china AND global has, that would be great, otherwise it will be important to choose one or the other.

And as I mentioned, I guess having the global to fall back on in case the EU rom does not work well for me is nice since I assume china lacks google.
Click to expand...
The ROM is software and the bands are hardware, switching obviously wouldn't give you more bands if on china and you flashed the global, the global also has esim where the Chinese doesn't, other than that there is no difference.
 
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If you install the Global ROM on the Chinese version, some services such as GPay, banking applications, etc. will not work properly.
Click to expand...
I bought a Chinese version and currently on EU ROM (not Xiaomi.EU ROM), GPay doesn't work but my banking applications work fine
 
I don't know which country you're from, but it's interesting that your banking apps don't detect an unlocked bootloader, as is often the case with these apps. Like they have weaker security. :emoji_thinking:
 
I also have the Chinese version, running latest xiaomi.eu and everything works, fp for banking, google wallet, credit card apps etc.....
 
gary toman said:
Don't think so, as far as I'm aware the eea has less ads, also its for eea regions which has different gdpr regulations, that's all I believe.
Click to expand...
I'm just surprised that Google Wallet would not work out of box when buying a Global variant of this phone
 
eng333 said:
I'm just surprised that Google Wallet would not work out of box when buying a Global variant of this phone
Click to expand...
If it's a global phone with a global ROM it will work out of the box, if you switch regions or unlock the bl that's when it breaks.
 
But I believe you can switch ROMs and relock the bootloader, the only one that can't be done is Chinese, but if on anything other than Chinese you can cross-flash and relock, that would fix wallet and stuff, but if say the bl hasn't been unlocked wallet should work
 
gary toman said:
But I believe you can switch ROMs and relock the bootloader, the only one that can't be done is Chinese, but if on anything other than Chinese you can cross-flash and relock, that would fix wallet and stuff, but if say the bl hasn't been unlocked wallet should work
Click to expand...
That's why I asked as it is confusing reading. So there is a China ROM (that comes with the China phone) and a Global ROM (that comes with the Global phone). China ROM, I'd expect somethings not working with google stuff. Global ROM, I'd exact everything with google is working and banking apps)
Then, there are separate custom roms Xiaomi.EU, EU, EEA? These three are all different? And since an unlocked BL is required, some banking apps may not work. It is unclear which ones (since I am in the US and use different banks)
 
I'll explain it to you a little bit.
- Chinese version device > has official Chinese ROM > No Google services.
- Global device version > has official Global ROM with derivatives for different markets (EEA, RU, Global, TR,TW, IN, ID, etc.) > full support of Google services
xiaomi.eu

What the letters in the MIUI version designation mean

MIUI V12.0.5.0. QFJMIXM - Android version M - Android 6.x (Marshmallow) N - Android 7.x (nugát) O - Android 8.x (Oreo) P - Android 9.x (Pie) Q - Android 10.x R - Android 11.x S - Android 12.x - device code (phone model) JA - Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro JB - Xiaomi Mi 10 JC - Redmi 9 JO - Redmi Note 9 JZ...
xiaomi.eu xiaomi.eu

- Then there is a custom ROM from xiaomi.eu that you can install on both versions of the device and Google services work.
 
So china, global and eea are official ROMs, if the bl is unlocked and you cross flash things won't work, china ROM also is the same as gapos can be flashed and Google stuff works fine. Most custom ROMs with an unlocked bl won't work but with Xiaomi.eu (custom ROM) everything works as normal with the bl unlocked. With the Chinese phone things like ok Google, android auto and some other things don't work but banking stuff is fine.
 
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