schizoidman

For me Chinese brands are the best things to happen for consumer products like mobile phones & electric cars.

Before Chinese smartphones became mainstream. Non flagship smartphones are usually of much poorer quality to the point of being unusable and not lasting very long. I remembered my zenfone 6 would take up to 5 minutes after boot for the wifi to connect. Not to mention all the other overheating Issues & hideous UI etc. The Xiaomi redmi note 4G released around the same time. Was basically much better in evey way despite being much cheaper. I.e It had 4G, much better OS & a user replaceable battery etc. It took many years for other manufacturers like Samsung to have decent phones at those budget prices.

Same thing for Electric cars. Before BYD made LFP batteries mainstream, other electric cars like the nissan leaf or Tesla model S had NMC type batteries that do not last as long, cost more & contains ethically questionably sourced raw materials.

You should spend less time reading right wing publications.

I always use gcam on any android phone as I much prefer the photos I get from it.

Go to the apps that have ads and in it's settings turn off receive recommendations to disable them.

Other bloatware can be disabled via ADB

As for installing custom rom. You are required to wait for some time for xiaomi to approve your request before your bootloader can be unlocked.

From my experience, Google mobile services all work fine with Xiaomi phones.

Bloatware you can disable with ADB.

Scrolling now feels smooth with the latest update.

Don't hold your breath for it. I suppose the US may pull some national security or human rights move to block BYD & other chinese cars from selling there.

The amount of salt in wsj comment section is amazing

Install a browser with adblock like mull.

Koreader an ebook reader from f-droid.

Use ADB to remove everything else you don't need.

I wonder if there will be HiPhi police cars as well considering the investment.