I will talk about the phone which actually made Xiaomi the best budget phone manufacturer - the Redmi 2 (the original 1GB ram variant which had sold @ ₹ 5999 back in 2015). And Guess what ? It had already sold more than 13 million units as of June 2015, 13 millions = 130 lakhs or 1.3 crores or 1 crore 30 lakhs. Surprised ?
This phone was so good that flash sales would last for less than 2 min. After literally trying hard, I got one around my birthday date in August 2015. Guess what ? It could thrash a Samsung Midranger costing between 10–15k INR in almost every benchmark. UX was fluid like anything, probably the midranger with most fluid UI and UX with no bloat-wares (that cannot be uninstalled).
It was launched with MIUI 6(if I’m not wrong) on the top of KitKat 4.4.4. It did get MIUI updates. But what really was frustrating is instead of providing the Lollipop update for the 1GB variant they came up with a 2GB RAM + 16GB memory variant that ran the Lollipop.
What drove me nuts about Xiaomi is that the 1GB variant never even got the VoLTE update too. It did get MIUI updates till MIUI9 but got blacklisted from the software update page because the hardware was too old to support further updates. The latest and last received security patch is dated 2016–10–01 with MIUI v9.2(on Android v4.4.4) and trust me the MIUI version change/update was just like you change themes on this phone, no extra features introduced. The second space and dual apps were only present on the 2GB RAM variant.
So, Xiaomi cheated. How?
It never gave the VoLTE patch update to the phone which sold at least 1 Crore units in just five months. Doesn’t that sound crazy?
It never got any android version updates. Doesn’t that make you angry ?
It stopped software support for the phone which actually helped in making the backbone of Xiaomi in Indian market.
Now probable reasons why Xiaomi is still cheating people:
If making a phone available offline costs a 500₹ addition to the actual cost then still they are not doing it and letting an average seller earn up to 2000 rupees with black-marketing of Xiaomi phones.
Trust me all those lucrative names of sub brand phones (Redmi A variants) you’ve seen will stop getting software updates soon.
The Redmi 5 Plus from China got launched as Redmi Note 5 in India(and globally) and The Redmi Note 5 from China got launched as Redmi Note 5 Pro in India(and globally). Will you call it a mistake or a scam?
It didn’t launch Mi 6 and Mi 7 in India. They have a fair explanation on whys and hows, ask them.
One of the most idiotic thing is that if a patch gets released on the forum, you’ll have to reply with “something” to that post in the forum to activate the download link for you. Therefore you will see thousands of “thank you” as the reply on that post. Like really?!
Am I a Xiaomi Fan? - NO! I was, until my phone was getting MIUI updates at least.
Do I love Xiaomi ? - NO, not anymore.
What happened with your Redmi 2 ? I still have it and use it. And I love it.
It can run latest version of Android with Lineage ROM.
Have I ever used a Samsung Phone ? Yes, S Duos and S Duos 2. But these weren’t the phones which made Samsung recognizable in Indian Market. Samsung was already known for its Smartphones(Good or Bad, it existed already).