New To Xiaomi...

[_pete_]

Hello, first post so please be gentle I respectfully ask for your advice

I have ordered a Redmi 4 Prime from a reseller website (oppo mart) for my lady, hope it will arrive before Xmas. I got it because for price/spec it is the best option at the moment.

Anyways, she's French and not a proficient user of android. I bought safe in the knowledge I am buying a Chinese phone that is not presently planned to be distributed in Europe. I found this site in my search for possible ROM solutions. From what I see it seems like the best place to start!

So from what I can see I have to follow the following procedure to get a French flavour of Miui, and thus have access to google playstore and apps.

1. Unlock bootloader:
I can do this via the offical site (wait a few weeks for code?) or by adb fastboot oem unlock.

2. Flash twrp:
Put the zip on an SD card and run it from boot menu.

3. Flash International Miui 8 ROM:
Found here in the repositories on this very same useful site.

4. Flash gapps?
Do I have to do this to get playstore etc or are they in the ROM? Do Gapps work on Redmi 4 Prime?

As you can guess, this is my first Chinese phone, and I am relatively inexperinced with flashing.
(I have done in the past back with an LG and CM7).

Ideally I'd like to have a rom on the phone that has OTA updating so my lady doesn't have to worry about reflashing and possible loss of data. But I guess that could only happen if an official Miui international rom is released for this phone. Am I right?

Also I will have to buy a screen protector and flipcase. I see that another reseller seems to have them (honor buy). But I think I'll wait till I see some shipping info regarding the phone first.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Manoj.Rollo]

0. Install the correct drivers (ADB, MiFlash/MiPcSuite, Qualcomm,..)
1. Request unlock permissions
2. Flash china dev
3. Unlock with MiUnlock Tool
4. Flash TWRP with fastboot and ADB
5. Put the rom in to the phone and from TWRP flash it
6. Start the phone and enjoy the MIUI by Xiaomi.eu

But, notice that at the moment MIUI.eu has realesed only the developer rom, which may contain some bugs and problems... you may want the Stable version, that maybe will be released at the end of the month

MIUI.eu stable does not have OTA, only the developer but once a month

These versions have Google play store pre-installed.. for the other GApps, you can get them from the app store singularly individually or with gapps in stock

 

[_pete_]

Well the phone has arrived and on boot it gave the option of French as language and also has playstore installed.
I can not see any bloat apps visible. It seems to be running OK.
The rom running is Miui 8 Global MBECNDG.

So I have 2 options:

1. Try to install the miui.eu ROM and risk bricking the phone.

2. Stay with this ROM and have the potential risk that Opppomart installed the People's Liberation Army backdoor and have a nefarious interest in my lady. I see the settings has an update section, so I hope it gets OTA updates.


I think I'll go for option 2 at the moment, as this is phone is Xmas present and I can't afford to replace it.
Again, any of your advice is appreciated in the spirit it is given.

 

[HofMan]

Here on this side http://tradingshenzhenblog.com/support/tutorials/xiaomi-redmi4-pro-prime/
is a tutorial to help!
Its in german but with pics and you can take google chrome to translate!

Have a nice Day!

 

[HofMan]

1. Try to install the miui.eu ROM and risk bricking the phone.

You dont brick it!
If the Handy is doing nothing after installing a ROM or Recovery you can flash original rom from http://en.miui.com/a-234.html with fastboot!

 

[_pete_]

Danke for the advice.

I will see how the user gets on with the device before I consider unlocking and flashing, because at the moment it is looking OK.

At the moment I see little need to go to the trouble of installing the miui eu rom when it will not gain me anything with regard to playstore or language. I can only hope that oppo mart did not install something strange running in the background on it.

If I do look at flashing later it will probably be for a more "western" rom (such as CM) or wait until an offical global rom is released.

 

[Manoj.Rollo]

Well the phone has arrived and on boot it gave the option of French as language and also has playstore installed.
I can not see any bloat apps visible. It seems to be running OK.
The rom running is Miui 8 Global MBECNDG.

As I know French isn't include yet in Global stable, which, by the way, isn't available yet for redmi 4 series.

Check if (as I think) it is a custom ROM like MIUI Global x.x.x.0.0 (with a double zero at the end).... if it is so the phone has a custom store rom which never gets update.