I was going to buy a Moto g8 LITE, but the Readmi phones get rave reviews. I’m not that bothered really, but things like waterproofing, proper compass and decent camera would be nice. However, I know there is a lot of bad blood between Huawei and Google, to the point that they are stopping them access to their apps or something? So was wary about buying a Chinese phone. Any reason not to?

Cheers!
FM

RE the google issue, Xiaomi and Huwawei are completely different brands, as far as I know the Huwawei issues haven’t impacted Xiaomi at all.

I’ve got a Xiaomo Mi 9T (also called a redmi something or the other in different regions), which is fab for the money. Not quite as good as the big brands, e.g. oneplus, Samsung, but at less than half the price for a comparable phone the compromises seem worth it.

There were some software things that really frustrated me when I got the phone- this seems to be the biggest difference between this and more expensive ones, e.g no toggle button for work profile on/off (so you had to dig right down into the menu to change it), but they’ve been constantly updating the software and all of my issues have been ironed out now. I’d suspect this continuous update cycle applies more to the flagship-level phones than their entry level ones, so might be something to consider.

Fingerprint sensor under the screen isn’t as fast as an on-screen one, and seems to get my thumb wrong after a month or so, which seems really odd.

I also get a few issues with strava crashing… I also had this (but much worse) on my oneplus 3t. I think it’s more of a strava issue than phone issue. But now we’re all looking for strava alternatives this shouldn’t be much of an issue!

I have the Note 7 – an excellent phone once you’ve turned off all the embedded advertising. There are online guides on how to do this. It’s a bit big IMO, but that seems to be what people want.

Redmi note 6 Pro here, it’s been an excellent phone so far with an impressive camera.
As ransos says you do need time to setup the phone, removing the Xiaomi advertising and downloading the apps you want, well worth it if you like to tinker.

ive got a xiaomi mi 9. Ive only got good things to say about it. If you put the Lawnchair launcher on it you largely remove the annoying software

I bought a Redmi 4 Pro as a stand in about three years ago for £180. Over those three years it was so good I have replaced it with a Redmi 9SE (compact version of 9) which is also good though perhaps there are more competitors at the lower price points than there were. But generally highly recommended.

As above Xiaomi totally different from Huwawei.