Database Develop

All Things Huawei Honor Note 8

Per the advice of senior XDA moderator I'm creating this thread for *All Things* Huawei Honor Note 8 phone. This phone does not yet have a dedicated forum, so you can discuss here anything from development topics, such as rooting, bootloader unlocking (there is a working method already), custom roms/recoveries to exchanging opinions about performance or accessories for this phone, which you like.
Honor Note 8 is currently released in mainland China only. However, Honor stated the phone will have international release soon.
Please note, this thread is *NOT* for Huawei Honor 8, which is completely different phone. Stay on topic and have fun. :good::laugh:
http://www.honor.cn/products/mobile-phones/honor-note8/
6.6 inch Super AMOLED display with 2560 x 1440 (2K) resolution
HiSilicon Kirin955 chipset with Mali-T880 MP4 GPU
4GB RAM (Premium Version)
Up to 128GB ROM (Premium Version) and up to 2TB expendable storage
4500mAh Battery
Dual SIM
Primary camera: 13 MP, f/2.0, autofocus, OIS, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama. Video recording [email protected]
Front camera: 8 MP
Fingerprint
USB Type-C
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth v4.2, A2DP, EDR, LE
GPS: A-GPS, GLONASS/ BDS (market dependant)
FM radio
Marshmallow 6.0.1 with EMUI 4.1

First post by me
I have an old Galaxy Note 3. I'm in the USA on Verizon. I've been drooling over the Honor Note 8 since I first heard of it. It's exactly what I want. I cannot get a straight answer online on several questions.
1. Will it work now on Verizon? Most say no, some say yes.
2. Will it come to the USA soon? Again, I'm getting different answers on this.
3. Are there 'tricks' I can learn to force this phone to work well on Verizon now very well, or should I just wait?
I'd prefer to stay on Verizon, but I'd switch to AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile if I have to in order to use this phone.
I'm not a tech wiz, so I'll need some help here. If you can answer my questions and guide me, I'd sure appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Proud Owner of the Huawei Honor Note 8
Hi All,
So having lived in China for a while and having owned and used Huawei phones in the past (my last Huawei Phone was the massive Mediapad X1), I can testify to the quality and advantages of huawei smartphones.
First, I've had this phone for about a week. I ordered it off of aliexpress. I'm pretty familiar with making purchases from chinese websites and getting technical support from chinese companies and sources so i was pretty confident with making this purchase (I can read/write mandarin). Phone arrived super fast and I was happy with the purchase.
Right now I'm working really hard to root my device. I have already unlocked the bootloader using the dc-unlocker method and it worked perfectly (btw, its cheaper to download the app and pay only 1 usd instead of 4 euros). I'm literally scouring the internet and all the chinese websites for news on different roms, but very little luck thus far. I have downloaded some different versions of the operating system (ver. B017 only, as B018, B019, and B020 are not yet available as far as I've seen) but these versions are not boot versions. So no luck there.
I've also spoken directly with Huawei regarding when they will release the updated factory versions of the operating system for download from the EMUI website. There is no confirmation that they will even release them however, as the answer I received was that Huawei wants to move to a system in which all updates are OTA. I was a bit upset to say the least but we'll see what happens in the future.
For now just enjoying this awesome phone. feel free to ask me any questions.
-chris

JohnnyF118 said:
I have an old Galaxy Note 3. I'm in the USA on Verizon. I've been drooling over the Honor Note 8 since I first heard of it. It's exactly what I want. I cannot get a straight answer online on several questions.
1. Will it work now on Verizon? Most say no, some say yes.
2. Will it come to the USA soon? Again, I'm getting different answers on this.
3. Are there 'tricks' I can learn to force this phone to work well on Verizon now very well, or should I just wait?
I'd prefer to stay on Verizon, but I'd switch to AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile if I have to in order to use this phone.
I'm not a tech wiz, so I'll need some help here. If you can answer my questions and guide me, I'd sure appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. You can check on a site called willmyphonework.net
2. You can buy it on ebay
3. Don't know
---------- Post added at 07:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:03 AM ----------
toasty32 said:
Hi All,
So having lived in China for a while and having owned and used Huawei phones in the past (my last Huawei Phone was the massive Mediapad X1), I can testify to the quality and advantages of huawei smartphones.
First, I've had this phone for about a week. I ordered it off of aliexpress. I'm pretty familiar with making purchases from chinese websites and getting technical support from chinese companies and sources so i was pretty confident with making this purchase (I can read/write mandarin). Phone arrived super fast and I was happy with the purchase.
Right now I'm working really hard to root my device. I have already unlocked the bootloader using the dc-unlocker method and it worked perfectly (btw, its cheaper to download the app and pay only 1 usd instead of 4 euros). I'm literally scouring the internet and all the chinese websites for news on different roms, but very little luck thus far. I have downloaded some different versions of the operating system (ver. B017 only, as B018, B019, and B020 are not yet available as far as I've seen) but these versions are not boot versions. So no luck there.
I've also spoken directly with Huawei regarding when they will release the updated factory versions of the operating system for download from the EMUI website. There is no confirmation that they will even release them however, as the answer I received was that Huawei wants to move to a system in which all updates are OTA. I was a bit upset to say the least but we'll see what happens in the future.
For now just enjoying this awesome phone. feel free to ask me any questions.
-chris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Helllo,
I have two questions:
1. What's the audio output like through the headphone 3.5mm jack?
2. What's the camera like?

Racerdude said:
1. You can check on a site called willmyphonework.net
2. You can buy it on ebay
3. Don't know
---------- Post added at 07:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:03 AM ----------
Helllo,
I have two questions:
1. What's the audio output like through the headphone 3.5mm jack?
2. What's the camera like?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To answer your questions:
1. The audio output is excellent. Crisp with perfect amount (not too much I hate that) of base. The volume goes loud enough (using the jack) to hurt my ears, and that's hard to do.
2. The cameras on Huawei phones are usually very good to excellent. This particular phone does not sport Huawei's top camera (I think that might be the Huawei P9 plus or the Mate 8. But again, those phones are much smaller and focus on high quality cameras. This phone's advantages are its size, screen quality, CPU and memory. The camera is very good but definitely not top top quality. It doesn't focus instantaneously for example like some galaxy cameras, but I think it's good enough. I'm not THAT into photography.
3. ALSO**** just so everyone knows, I bought this phone because I wanted to use the latest CAT6 4G LTE speeds in Brazil (where I currently reside) and in China. I'm American though btw. The version I bought in its current form from China does NOT support the LTE bands commonly used by AT&T. Its bands are (1,3,7,38,39,40,and 41). Thus, 3G is the fastest speeds you would get in the US with AT&T. But it will be 4G in Europe, South America and China. If the phone is sold in the US market, Huawei changes the LTE bands to suit the target country's market, so I'm sure the bands for any US or International version of the phone will have different bands.
-chris

JohnnyF118 said:
I have an old Galaxy Note 3. I'm in the USA on Verizon. I've been drooling over the Honor Note 8 since I first heard of it. It's exactly what I want. I cannot get a straight answer online on several questions.
1. Will it work now on Verizon? Most say no, some say yes.
2. Will it come to the USA soon? Again, I'm getting different answers on this.
3. Are there 'tricks' I can learn to force this phone to work well on Verizon now very well, or should I just wait?
I'd prefer to stay on Verizon, but I'd switch to AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile if I have to in order to use this phone.
I'm not a tech wiz, so I'll need some help here. If you can answer my questions and guide me, I'd sure appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some corrections/clarifications to what Racerdude and toasty32 said. First, no one will be able to answer questions about Verizon, because Honor did not announce this phone for US market yet, and it also did not pass through FCC certification. Having said that - most likely the answer is No, it will not work on Verizon. Typically, what Huawei, ZTE and other Chinese manufacturers do when they bring phones to North American market - they don't strike a deal with carriers and they don't release carrier branded phones, like Samsung, Apple, LG and others do. If you want to take past behavior of Chinese manufacturers as an indication what Honor will do - they will just release GSM only (no CDMA, hence no Verizon or Sprint) US version of Note 8, with all North American LTE bands enabled, and let people decide whichever GSM carrier they want to use it with. Honor just did this exact thing with Honor 8 phone in US a couple of weeks ago.
What toasty32 said about this Chinese version working in Europe and South America is not completely true - this Chinese EDI-AL10 version has only one overlapping TDD-LTE band 38 with some of South American carriers (most don't use it), and some European countries support LTE bands 3,38,40 so in some Euro regions 4G will be spotty at best, and in many places won't work at all. Here is the list of operating LTE frequencies by country and carrier
US T-Mobile requires LTE bands 2,4,12 (and optional band 17 used by AT&T because FCC requires them to support roaming)
US AT&T requires LTE bands 2,4,5,17 (and optional band 12 used by T-Mobile because FCC requires them to support roaming)

bootloader unlock
toasty32 said:
Right now I'm working really hard to root my device. I have already unlocked the bootloader using the dc-unlocker method and it worked perfectly (btw, its cheaper to download the app and pay only 1 usd instead of 4 euros).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used dc-unlocker before and had to pay 4 euros to read bootloader code. Do you mind explaining what you meant by this, what app are you talking about and how to pay only $1 USD instead, to unlock bootloader?

JohnnyF118 said:
I have an old Galaxy Note 3. I'm in the USA on Verizon. I've been drooling over the Honor Note 8 since I first heard of it. It's exactly what I want. I cannot get a straight answer online on several questions.
1. Will it work now on Verizon? Most say no, some say yes.
2. Will it come to the USA soon? Again, I'm getting different answers on this.
3. Are there 'tricks' I can learn to force this phone to work well on Verizon now very well, or should I just wait?
I'd prefer to stay on Verizon, but I'd switch to AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile if I have to in order to use this phone.
I'm not a tech wiz, so I'll need some help here. If you can answer my questions and guide me, I'd sure appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've done some research into this and followed up with some other threads with people who bought the phone. Forget the different phone frequency websites, this phone will not get you what you want in the US. No LTE. Some carriers like tmo will get you 3g/3.5g hspa+ but that's the best you'll get and not a smart move. I'm also desperately waiting some any big phone to come with US compatible bands but as it seems now, we're still waiting..

Hi everyone, i write from Italy.
I always loved big smartphones and this would be one of the best right now.
Unfortunately, i think that Honor won't bring in Europe.
I talked to their FB page, and they wrote me :
"Hi Marco, we don't have official news to launch the honor note 8 in Europe. If we have any plans, we will announce at once on our page, thank you - If you buy it from China, Well.. Then the warranty and post-sale service would not apply elsewhere but China" .
I'm a bit disappointed actually, i really don't understand why this amazing phon is sold just in China and they said " We don't know either" ... GOOD

Guys, on the web i saw that the camera sensor is the Sony Imx 278. (Same of P8/Mate S/G8) ...i'm a bit disappointed because i didn't love this camera sensor in the past...what do you think ?

Can you guys update from which seller in Aliexpress you bought from?
I paid for the phone last week and it has been 7 days but no update from the seller. Today I cancelled the order but Aliexpress have rejected it stating Seller has the phone in stock and order cannot be cancelled. The sad thing is Seller is not responding has 40 days (33 now) to ship the order (I did not see this while ordering). I ordered because seller was the Highest/most reputed seller while sorting and had DHL shipping. Any ways to resolve?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Ori...2722895630.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.56.UCIAcX
Edit: Avoid this seller at all costs!

cashif said:
Can you guys update from which seller in Aliexpress you bought from?
I paid for the phone last week and it has been 7 days but no update from the seller. Today I cancelled the order but Aliexpress have rejected it stating Seller has the phone in stock and order cannot be cancelled. The sad thing is Seller is not responding has 40 days (33 now) to ship the order (I did not see this while ordering). I ordered because seller was the Highest/most reputed seller while sorting and had DHL shipping. Any ways to resolve?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Ori...2722895630.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.56.UCIAcX
Edit: Avoid this seller at all costs!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd tell Aliexpress to F*** OFF and do a chargeback with your credit card company. People should be allowed to cancel orders, for items which havent shipped, at any time. I'd also recommend to never buy from that marketplace again. Use places like Amazon, or at least eBay, where things are controlled more tightly and these US headquartered businesses will not screw you over without explanation.

My experience with AliExpress and UPDATE on ROOTING
Hi All,
So to answer the question regarding Aliexpress....I purchased from this store/seller here:
.aliexpress.com/store/1802347?spm=2114.13010608.0.126.x0uHsw
and in particular, this product:
.aliexpress.com/item/Original-Huawei-Honor-Note-8-4G-LTE-Mobile-Phone-Kirin-955-Octa-Core-6-6-2K/32714180113.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.129.x0uHsw
I used singapore expedited shipping (super cheap) as it was one of the few options I could use to get expedited shipping to the US considering there was a lithium ion battery being shipped internationally.
I cannot stress how pleased I was with both the seller and the service. I understand that Aliexpress may have a bad reputation because it is a foreign/chinese website and doing business internationally is almost always more difficult that doing business domestically, but that being said, I do want to be fair, and when I do have a good experience, I'll promote it. Like any mass seller website ebay or otherwise there are going to be good merchants and bad ones. Luckily I found a good one.
cheers,
chris
UPDATE:
I was able to finally root this phone with the help of some Chinese programmers (from bbs.xxroot.com <--- the Chinese equivalent of xda developers haha). More details to come.

toasty32 said:
Hi All,
So to answer the question regarding Aliexpress....I purchased from this store/seller here:
.aliexpress.com/store/1802347?spm=2114.13010608.0.126.x0uHsw
and in particular, this product:
.aliexpress.com/item/Original-Huawei-Honor-Note-8-4G-LTE-Mobile-Phone-Kirin-955-Octa-Core-6-6-2K/32714180113.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.129.x0uHsw
I used singapore expedited shipping (super cheap) as it was one of the few options I could use to get expedited shipping to the US considering there was a lithium ion battery being shipped internationally.
I cannot stress how pleased I was with both the seller and the service. I understand that Aliexpress may have a bad reputation because it is a foreign/chinese website and doing business internationally is almost always more difficult that doing business domestically, but that being said, I do want to be fair, and when I do have a good experience, I'll promote it. Like any mass seller website ebay or otherwise there are going to be good merchants and bad ones. Luckily I found a good one.
cheers,
chris
UPDATE:
I was able to finally root this phone with the help of some Chinese programmers (from bbs.xxroot.com <--- the Chinese equivalent of xda developers haha). More details to come.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to point out that Aliexpress has bad reputation not because it is a foreign/chinese website, but because that reputation is well deserved. I personally got scammed for over $300 by that site years ago, and I personally know several people, who got screwed as well. Also, if you do a bit of internet research then like you said - you will discover that marketplace has a bad reputation, and for a good reason - there are plenty of people's testimonies of fraud. Aliexpress is nothing like eBay - scam/fraud rate is orders of magnitude higher.
If you want to take the time and post the root guide for the rooting method you used - I'm sure it'd be much appreciated by a lot of people here, who have or plan to buy this phone. Also, you didn't answer my question from earlier post about how to avoid paying 4 euros to dc-unlocker for unlocking the bootloader.

How can Honor put the same camera of Huawei P8 (Just sufficient) in a phablet with 4gb of Ram DDR4, Kirin 955, QHD Screen....c'mon..

toasty32 said:
Hi All,
So to answer the question regarding Aliexpress....I purchased from this store/seller here:
.aliexpress.com/store/1802347?spm=2114.13010608.0.126.x0uHsw
and in particular, this product:
.aliexpress.com/item/Original-Huawei-Honor-Note-8-4G-LTE-Mobile-Phone-Kirin-955-Octa-Core-6-6-2K/32714180113.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.129.x0uHsw
I used singapore expedited shipping (super cheap) as it was one of the few options I could use to get expedited shipping to the US considering there was a lithium ion battery being shipped internationally.
I cannot stress how pleased I was with both the seller and the service. I understand that Aliexpress may have a bad reputation because it is a foreign/chinese website and doing business internationally is almost always more difficult that doing business domestically, but that being said, I do want to be fair, and when I do have a good experience, I'll promote it. Like any mass seller website ebay or otherwise there are going to be good merchants and bad ones. Luckily I found a good one.
cheers,
chris
UPDATE:
I was able to finally root this phone with the help of some Chinese programmers (from bbs.xxroot.com <--- the Chinese equivalent of xda developers haha). More details to come.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn. That was my preferred seller. While ordering, it showed processing time of 5 days, so decided to skip it and went with the Highest rated seller (Who has/d not mentioned processing time in the listing) and whose feedback was filled with positive reviews about quick shipping.
Apo11on said:
Just wanted to point out that Aliexpress has bad reputation not because it is a foreign/chinese website, but because that reputation is well deserved. I personally got scammed for over $300 by that site years ago, and I personally know several people, who got screwed as well. Also, if you do a bit of internet research then like you said - you will discover that marketplace has a bad reputation, and for a good reason - there are plenty of people's testimonies of fraud. Aliexpress is nothing like eBay - scam/fraud rate is orders of magnitude higher.
If you want to take the time and post the root guide for the rooting method you used - I'm sure it'd be much appreciated by a lot of people here, who have or plan to buy this phone. Also, you didn't answer my question from earlier post about how to avoid paying 4 euros to dc-unlocker for unlocking the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have purchased more than 75 times from AliExpress (atleast 20 expensive items) and this has been my WORST experience for me. Everytime, Orders were shipped either next day or 2 days after and I generally order expensive items thru DHL/Fedex and have had it with me within 10 days. On the contrary, had very bad experience with ebay- both as seller & buyer- and have completely stopped using it (Lost close to $1200 while selling).
Order Update: Seller has mailed me apologising for delay and stating he will ship ' asap' but Still no commitment- (He replied after I bombarded him with messages)
@chris- Do update with the root method. Am so happy that it has been rooted as one of the reasons I tried cancelling the phone (other than obvious delay) was that you mentioning no root and someone mentioning about it not being launched in Europe

cashif said:
Have purchased more than 75 times from AliExpress (atleast 20 expensive items) and this has been my WORST experience for me. Everytime, Orders were shipped either next day or 2 days after and I generally order expensive items thru DHL/Fedex and have had it with me within 10 days. On the contrary, had very bad experience with ebay- both as seller & buyer- and have completely stopped using it (Lost close to $1200 while selling).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sounds a lot like Aliexpress advertisement. I bet it's because you sell there yourself, and want people to use it. I'm glad it allegedly works fine for you, but I myself and a lot of people I know would never go near it. Regardless, this is kind of off topic stuff, not related to Honor Note 8, so I suggest we move on.
If anyone can post a root method, or free/chip bootloader unlock method - that'd be very much appreciated. And if someone car figure out a way to mod NVRAM and unlock additional LTE bands in this Kirin955 chipset - that'd be a home-run!

Apo11on said:
This sounds a lot like Aliexpress advertisement. I bet it's because you sell there yourself, and want people to use it. I'm glad it allegedly works fine for you, but I myself and a lot of people I know would never go near it. Regardless, this is kind of off topic stuff, not related to Honor Note 8, so I suggest we move on.
If anyone can post a root method, or free/chip bootloader unlock method - that'd be very much appreciated. And if someone car figure out a way to mod NVRAM and unlock additional LTE bands in this Kirin955 chipset - that'd be a home-run!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to clarify I used to sell in Ebay not AliExpress and I have no relation/business whatsoever with AliExpress !!

Apo11on said:
This sounds a lot like Aliexpress advertisement. I bet it's because you sell there yourself, and want people to use it. I'm glad it allegedly works fine for you, but I myself and a lot of people I know would never go near it. Regardless, this is kind of off topic stuff, not related to Honor Note 8, so I suggest we move on.
If anyone can post a root method, or free/chip bootloader unlock method - that'd be very much appreciated. And if someone car figure out a way to mod NVRAM and unlock additional LTE bands in this Kirin955 chipset - that'd be a home-run!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it sounds like it's been a while since you've actually used AliExpress. If that's true, than I have to say that it has changed and improved a LOT from 5 or even two years ago (not perfect of course). I hate to sound like an advertisement as well though but I do want to be fair. I think you should probably try it again to see for yourself because you're missing out on a lot. But your decision.
In regards to unlocking the bootloader: A little while ago DC-unlocker had a promotion on their website because they had just released their android app on the play store (play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dc.huaweibootloadercodes) and I remember seeing that there was a discount in prices for people who used the app. I took the bait, clicked the link and downloaded the app. Opening up the app on my phone I saw that there was the option to purchase a DC-unlocker account directly for $0.99. This as opposed to buying credits directly from their site. I purchased it and it worked. You guys should definitely try it.
Finally, it cost me a bit to finalize the rooting of my phone (50-100 RMB) especially because I downloaded some software tools from bbs.xxroot.com that they developed to unroot it. Also, it took a LOT of conversations (in mandarin haha) and several painful mistakes to figure out how the hell to root my phone. I am going to describe in a future post exactly what I did in detail but I'm not sure how much it will help people. I'll keep everyone posted.
cheers,
chris
P.S. please click thanks if you guys find my posts helpful! thanks.

So I'm pretty sure I'm hated at bbs.xxroot.com right now. But I succeeded....
check it out --> drive.google.com/file/d/0By2RD6aSQhsNb1NqRnFEd2VMcDA/view?usp=sharing
gonna work on trying to unlock additional LTE bands (if possible).
cheers,
chris

Ordered my 6GB/128GB...

After much deliberation - I've ordered my Mate 10 6GB/128GB. (5th Nov) :laugh:
I hesitated as it's a lot of money - but I've ordered it from Giztop where it was £615+£22 DHL. However, if you signup to their newsletter, you get a discount code of 2%. So full price with postage is £624.99 or $842.41 (although Google tells me this is more like £643)
Giztop don't rebrand, but they appear to install Google services.
Should I want to rebrand - and I probably will, getting the bootloader code from Huawei looks fairly straightforward and then I can use FunkyHuawei's method to rebrand to Asia as I have a couple credits to use.
I'll update when I get the tracking number and when the phone hits my hands. Plus if I encounter any f**king import fees, but Giztop state they declare low value to avoid this.

white43 said:
After much deliberation - I've ordered my Mate 10 6GB/128GB. (5th Nov) :laugh:
I hesitated as it's a lot of money - but I've ordered it from Giztop where it was £615+£22 DHL. However, if you signup to their newsletter, you get a discount code of 2%. So full price with postage is £624.99 or $842.41 (although Google tells me this is more like £643)
Giztop don't rebrand, but they appear to install Google services.
Should I want to rebrand - and I probably will, getting the bootloader code from Huawei looks fairly straightforward and then I can use FunkyHuawei's method to rebrand to Asia as I have a couple credits to use.
I'll update when I get the tracking number and when the phone hits my hands. Plus if I encounter any f**king import fees, but Giztop state they declare low value to avoid this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You used Giztop before? How do you rate them? Are they like Amazon and aliexpress? I might get the pro too as its better on battery it seems. Have the one you're getting already. Bought from wonda mobile. Next day delivered from Hong Kong! Next.... Day!

lawtq said:
You used Giztop before? How do you rate them? Are they like Amazon and aliexpress? I might get the pro too as its better on battery it seems. Have the one you're getting already. Bought from wonda mobile. Next day delivered from Hong Kong! Next.... Day!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never used Giztop before. Someone else here did and got no issues. Paid via Paypal for the protection offered. They're not like Amazon or Aliexpress. More like Wonda. But they were significantly cheaper than Wonda.
I'm not interested in the Pro as it doesn't have the 2K screen which I like to use with Daydream.

I received a tracking number this morning. So that's less than a couple days.

I just ordered the pro blue 6gb/128gb from giztop on Friday. I'm not expecting to get it for a couple of weeks seeing how it's not out yet even though they emailed me stating they might send it this week and their website states it is in stock which is the reason I originally bought from them.

does anyone know, is it possible to buy ALP-AL100 Mate 10 6/128 in Taiwan? in offline shop
or does not make sense inasmuch as online with global shipping will be cheaper anyway?

Right, so I have the Mate 10 in my hands and have had for about 14 hours.
Phone ordered 5th Nov and I had TNT tracking on the 7th. Phone arrived on 10th in the UK. Giztop marked it as worth $58. So no customs charges.
Big surprise? Already running L29 C636!!
Checked for update and got 115 straight away OTA.
So impressed with Giztop there. I was dubious after a couple poor reviews I found and what seemed to be no response to emails. Then they did.
You get the same package as Wonda, but for cheaper
Comes with a well fitted gel case. Mate 9 Pro came with an ill fitting plastic one that allowed grit inside and scratched the back of it
As for the Mate 10. Nice bit of kit. Not sure the screen is as nice as my Mate 9 Pro. Still finding my way around Emui 8, which is a little different to 5. My Tesco banking app doesn't work. Tells me not compatible with this device.
Mate 9 Pro also had the ability to turn on a general dark theme in battery settings. Not available here, maybe only Pro models.
No separate SD card holder. Dual SIM or single and SD card.
Can't get the single home button navigation to work very well, so using on screen buttons, which, for a screen this size, doesn't matter
No crashing, very stable.
Not tried the cameras yet, but they're virtually the same as Mate 9 Pro anyway.
Will be interested to link to a monitor.

white43 said:
Right, so I have the Mate 10 in my hands and have had for about 14 hours.
Phone ordered 5th Nov and I had TNT tracking on the 7th. Phone arrived on 10th in the UK. Giztop marked it as worth $58. So no customs charges.
Big surprise? Already running L29 C636!!
Checked for update and got 115 straight away OTA.
So impressed with Giztop there. I was dubious after a couple poor reviews I found and what seemed to be no response to emails. Then they did.
You get the same package as Wonda, but for cheaper
Comes with a well fitted gel case. Mate 9 Pro came with an ill fitting plastic one that allowed grit inside and scratched the back of it
As for the Mate 10. Nice bit of kit. Not sure the screen is as nice as my Mate 9 Pro. Still finding my way around Emui 8, which is a little different to 5. My Tesco banking app doesn't work. Tells me not compatible with this device.
Mate 9 Pro also had the ability to turn on a general dark theme in battery settings. Not available here, maybe only Pro models.
No separate SD card holder. Dual SIM or single and SD card.
Can't get the single home button navigation to work very well, so using on screen buttons, which, for a screen this size, doesn't matter
No crashing, very stable.
Not tried the cameras yet, but they're virtually the same as Mate 9 Pro anyway.
Will be interested to link to a monitor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Surprised about the single home button not working so well for you. Others have mentioned it as a key difference between the pro and non-pro version. Franky it was one of the big reasons why I was leaning towards the non pro version.
What's been the problem for you?
Thanks.

Great that they rebranded yours. Mine came in with 00 with GP installed. Took a bit to hide all the Chinese stuff. IMO desktop mode is pretty good. Not I7 gtx 970 good but beats the hell out of Dex. I'm still on 113 and reception is a little weak. If no update in a month will see Funky. How are you liking yours so far? That K970 pretty fast isn't it.

white43 said:
Right, so I have the Mate 10 in my hands and have had for about 14 hours.
Phone ordered 5th Nov and I had TNT tracking on the 7th. Phone arrived on 10th in the UK. Giztop marked it as worth $58. So no customs charges.
Big surprise? Already running L29 C636!!
Checked for update and got 115 straight away OTA.
So impressed with Giztop there. I was dubious after a couple poor reviews I found and what seemed to be no response to emails. Then they did.
You get the same package as Wonda, but for cheaper
Comes with a well fitted gel case. Mate 9 Pro came with an ill fitting plastic one that allowed grit inside and scratched the back of it
As for the Mate 10. Nice bit of kit. Not sure the screen is as nice as my Mate 9 Pro. Still finding my way around Emui 8, which is a little different to 5. My Tesco banking app doesn't work. Tells me not compatible with this device.
Mate 9 Pro also had the ability to turn on a general dark theme in battery settings. Not available here, maybe only Pro models.
No separate SD card holder. Dual SIM or single and SD card.
Can't get the single home button navigation to work very well, so using on screen buttons, which, for a screen this size, doesn't matter
No crashing, very stable.
Not tried the cameras yet, but they're virtually the same as Mate 9 Pro anyway.
Will be interested to link to a monitor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi can you please let me know are you in the UK? I ask because I also have the rebranded mate 10 like you and you said you got an OTA. Which build number are you on now?

Pr20 said:
Surprised about the single home button not working so well for you. Others have mentioned it as a key difference between the pro and non-pro version. Franky it was one of the big reasons why I was leaning towards the non pro version.
What's been the problem for you?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I turned it on and it didn't seem that responsive to me. I only used for ten minutes and couldn't really get on with it. Perhaps I was doing it wrong?
ramheer said:
Hi can you please let me know are you in the UK? I ask because I also have the rebranded mate 10 like you and you said you got an OTA. Which build number are you on now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes in the UK.
Build:
ALP-L29 8.0.0.115 (C636)
I was expecting it to be rebranded. Out of the box it was running 103, I checked for updates and it went to 115. Not sure if 118 is the latest to install? (What firmware finder says...but it's only looking for ALP.

white43 said:
I turned it on and it didn't seem that responsive to me. I only used for ten minutes and couldn't really get on with it. Perhaps I was doing it wrong?
Yes in the UK.
Build:
ALP-L29 8.0.0.115 (C636)
I was expecting it to be rebranded. Out of the box it was running 103, I checked for updates and it went to 115. Not sure if 118 is the latest to install? (What firmware finder says...but it's only looking for ALP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have your Google feed / cards working when you swipe from the left of your home screen.?

ramheer said:
Do you have your Google feed / cards working when you swipe from the left of your home screen.?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, Hiboard. Which I disabled.

ramheer said:
Do you have your Google feed / cards working when you swipe from the left of your home screen.?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Google feed, disabled it though. And dual sim functionality all working after rebrand to ALP-L09C432

lawtq said:
I have Google feed, disabled it though. And dual sim functionality all working after rebrand to ALP-L09C432
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't the Google feed on the left pointless if you can access the same Google Feed with an upwards swipe of the fingerprint sensor?

lawtq said:
I have Google feed, disabled it though. And dual sim functionality all working after rebrand to ALP-L09C432
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't remember buddy - was it you I had the conversation with - rebranding to European rom on 6GB/128GB was fine and all dual sim worked?

white43 said:
I can't remember buddy - was it you I had the conversation with - rebranding to European rom on 6GB/128GB was fine and all dual sim worked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol I can't remember either but yes it'll all be fine dual sim wise.

tboy2000 said:
Isn't the Google feed on the left pointless if you can access the same Google Feed with an upwards swipe of the fingerprint sensor?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That gets me to Google assistant. Not Google Now.

white43 said:
That gets me to Google assistant. Not Google Now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah you have to make English US Virgin Islands your default language to disable Google Assistant and get Google Now feed. I hate Google assistant so now have Google Now feed when I swipe up from Finger Print sensor.

lawtq said:
Lol I can't remember either but yes it'll all be fine dual sim wise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you use Funky Huawei method to rebrand? I do have my bootloader unlock code.

Explorer Edition - does it actually exist....?

Its been a fair amount of time since the 'regular' Mi 8 launched. Does anyone on this forum have an Explorer Edition? I've not seen a single place that has stock (just pre-orders and no idea when they might be shipped). It would seem odd to have such a big lag between the two editions, particularly if people are paying top price for something that's bleeding edge technology (and the risk of it being less and less so as other new products get launched). Anyone know anything about the Explorer?

ibarro said:
Its been a fair amount of time since the 'regular' Mi 8 launched. Does anyone on this forum have an Explorer Edition? I've not seen a single place that has stock (just pre-orders and no idea when they might be shipped). It would seem odd to have such a big lag between the two editions, particularly if people are paying top price for something that's bleeding edge technology (and the risk of it being less and less so as other new products get launched). Anyone know anything about the Explorer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could be wrong but I have a vague memory reading that it would be 1000 EE phones at launch then rest would come at a later date and last global firmware got EE support so I would say it's gearing up for release anytime now. Though it seems EE has smaller battery than standard and in screen fingerprint reader as real differences.

It exists, check on youtube.

Local resellers here in the Philippines already have it.

Does anyone know when it will be available to ship wide world ? Mi Max 3 will appear soon, and still no info about Mi8 EE...

I just got one from Trading Shenzen, it wasn't cheap and so far I'm happy with my purchase. Only gripe I have so far with the phone is the inability to install Netflix on the phone since it comes with the Chinese rom. It took me a couple attempts but I finally got Google Play installed also. All I need now is to find a retailer that sells a decent tempered glass screen protector that won't take forever and a day to ship it to me.

it's Xiaomi a India only, are they aware there are more people in the world?

I see they too privilegiate India market, ok India means big sales, but please do not at the expense to make feel non India users as second class citizen in Xiaomi's ecosystem.
There are things that should not ever happened:
1 discriminate features as QC4 when is a thing they can enable worldwide at no expense.
2 Pie update, when it initially seemed a progressive rollout, now seems another "India exclusive" Grace.
I do not have nothing about Indians they're my friends, but I feel this strategy from Xiaomi it's simply unfortunate and at large will have a cost for Xiaomi.
If there are people from Xiaomi here please provide us your version on this history.

because India is xiaomi biggest market after china

I dunno if Xiaomi is doing anything that other makers do. Samsung and LG devices I have had over the years always had staggered rollouts. I have waited weeks for updates to hit my Pixel from Google too.
I have no idea why quick charge would be enabled in some markets and not others. It's a trademarked technology so I would believe that they would have to pay Qualcomm to use/license the trademark and tech.
I bought this as a budget device and my expectations are as such. That said, my expectations have been exceeded for the most part as the experience has been similar to devices that have costed me much more. I suggested you look to another manufacturer, but I think you will find similar issues elsewhere.

chriskwarren said:
I dunno if Xiaomi is doing anything that other makers do. Samsung and LG devices I have had over the years always had staggered rollouts. I have waited weeks for updates to hit my Pixel from Google too.
I have no idea why quick charge would be enabled in some markets and not others. It's a trademarked technology so I would believe that they would have to pay Qualcomm to use/license the trademark and tech.
I bought this as a budget device and my expectations are as such. That said, my expectations have been exceeded for the most part as the experience has been similar to devices that have costed me much more. I suggested you look to another manufacturer, but I think you will find similar issues elsewhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pixel updates are always global, as long I know Qualcomm do not charge to enable features in their soc.
Samsung updates use to be smooth progressive, only carrier customized devices delay, and actually they global rom are the first to update and market specific the latest, 180 degree approach from Xiaomi's global last.
Motorola has similar approach to Xiaomi but they start with they smallest markets as policy to avoid damage spread in case some inadverted bug, it's Clever, but Xiaomi's IMHO it's just bad advertising, India people do not eat discrimination, they want good timely service but not to feel sorry for that.

Most likely they want to check if there will be problems, so they push the update only for India, their biggest market, and two small countries in EU, Netherlands and Belgium.
They will wait a few days for customers feedback, and if there is no problems, they will push the OTA update all over the world.
This is how I see it, it doesn't mean that this is what is happening.

minnuss said:
Most likely they want to check if there will be problems, so they push the update only for India, their biggest market, and two small countries in EU, Netherlands and Belgium.
They will wait a few days for customers feedback, and if there is no problems, they will push the OTA update all over the world.
This is how I see it, it doesn't mean that this is what is happening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That makes sense for Netherlands and Belgium, quite small markets, but if they just want to re-check for problems, why they start with their's most sensitive market?
As you said, if they started only with belgium and netherlands, and then follow biggers markets to end with India and China, I'll say Ok, that's the way motorola does (and others), conservative, not funny but justified. this is the opposite of non-sense.

AcostaJA said:
I see they too privilegiate India market, ok India means big sales, but please do not at the expense to make feel non India users as second class citizen in Xiaomi's ecosystem.
There are things that should not ever happened:
1 discriminate features as QC4 when is a thing they can enable worldwide at no expense.
2 Pie update, when it initially seemed a progressive rollout, now seems another "India exclusive" Grace.
I do not have nothing about Indians they're my friends, but I feel this strategy from Xiaomi it's simply unfortunate and at large will have a cost for Xiaomi.
If there are people from Xiaomi here please provide us your version on this history.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They just rolled out the update to the global variant of MI A2. Some user of XDA from Hong Kong reported having recieved it.

I can't believe people are so angry that India is getting the Pie update first. I personally have zero problems with India beta testing the Pie update for the rest of us.
The level of teenage drama and temper tantrums here is incredible. To the OP, are you seriously asking the "Xiaomi" people who may visit this website to explain why they love India and "hate" the rest of us? Really?
Do you think you will personally be able to guilt Xiaomi into explaining why India is getting the Pie update first?

pgkane said:
I can't believe people are so angry that India is getting the Pie update first. I personally have zero problems with India beta testing the Pie update for the rest of us.
The level of teenage drama and temper tantrums here is incredible. To the OP, are you seriously asking the "Xiaomi" people who may visit this website to explain why they love India and "hate" the rest of us? Really?
Do you think you will personally be able to guilt Xiaomi into explaining why India is getting the Pie update first?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no complaints on Indian, neither I think they are actually "lucky", my complaint are on Xiaomi's immature tricks to approach the Indian market at the expense to allow non sense discrimination, I've meet Indian people and IMHO are the among the less discriminative in the world (despite few exceptions, all populations have exceptions).
Would be good some Xiaomi's official to explain their approach to India (I feel it's dumb), given they don't care to have a public change log about updates, chance to see here (even at Xiaomi's forum) an official apology are close to Zero, these are things to expect from Samsung, not Xiaomi.
Sent from my Xiaomi Mi A2 using XDA Labs

I rather wait for a stable update than get it among the first and full of bugs. Anywhore, people are confirming the slow read write bug on pie, so if this and the budget pixel phone are true, I'm preparing my jetpack and going bye bye.

AcostaJA said:
I have no complaints on Indian, neither I think they are actually "lucky", my complaint are on Xiaomi's immature tricks to approach the Indian market at the expense to allow non sense discrimination, I've meet Indian people and IMHO are the among the less discriminative in the world (despite few exceptions, all populations have exceptions).
Would be good some Xiaomi's official to explain their approach to India (I feel it's dumb), given they don't care to have a public change log about updates, chance to see here (even at Xiaomi's forum) an official apology are close to Zero, these are things to expect from Samsung, not Xiaomi.
Sent from my Xiaomi Mi A2 using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is "discrimination" even a factor here? You're not getting your PIE update when you want it so you're gonna stomp your feet and claim discrimination?
Xiaomi doesn't owe you a thing. They are a company trying to deploy a major update to our OS in a manner that doesn't piss off people like you. I'm sure if you received your update today and it didn't work as you wanted it to, you be stomping your feet saying "Xiaomi hates me because they released this piece of crap update and didn't test it first!! Off with their heads!!"
Talk about immature tricks....you're whole post is an immature trick to get an major phone manufacture to answer to you....it's laughable.

pgkane said:
How is "discrimination" even a factor here? You're not getting your PIE update when you want it so you're gonna stomp your feet and claim discrimination?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is not only updates, its also QC4, in general Xiaomi is using these "special graces" as marketing tool, which is not good.
pgkane said:
Xiaomi doesn't owe you a thing. They are a company trying to deploy a major update to our OS in a manner that doesn't piss off people like you. I'm sure if you received your update today and it didn't work as you wanted it to, you be stomping your feet saying "Xiaomi hates me because they released this piece of crap update and didn't test it first!! Off with their heads!!"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I'm a Xiaomi customer I put money buying their devices, I deserve timely, fair non-discriminatory treatment, privilege updates to some Market following marketing guidelines instead technical reason is unfair.
pgkane said:
Talk about immature tricks....you're whole post is an immature trick to get an major phone manufacture to answer to you....it's laughable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to attack me, it you think all this post is immature, what do you care of?

AcostaJA said:
The problem is not only updates, its also QC4, in general Xiaomi is using these "special graces" as marketing tool, which is not good.
Sorrÿ, I'm a Xiaomi customer I put money buying their devices, I deserve timely, fair non-discriminatory treatment, privilege updates to some Market following marketing guidelines instead technical reason is unfair.
You don't need to attack me, it you think all this post is immature, what do you care of?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you not received all monthly security patches on time? I've noticed I get my security patches long before the "major" manufacturers deploy their security patches. And Pie was released a week ago on the Mi A2. Generally speaking, every smartphone manufacturer (perhaps with the exception of Google) uses a phased deployment approach to updating phones so not everyone is impacted by a potential issue that may crop up. So you say Xiaomi is treating you unfairly because you don't have the update a week after releasing it to India? Since I doubt they are going to change their behavior based on your posts here in this forum, I think you have two options to get updates as soon as they're released...either become a beta tester, or move to India.
And I'm not attacking you. Sorry if it feels that way. Just calling out a temper tantrum for what it is.

Not to mention, it hasn't even been a week, its been four days.

AcostaJA said:
The problem is not only updates, its also QC4, in general Xiaomi is using these "special graces" as marketing tool, which is not good.
Sorry, I'm a Xiaomi customer I put money buying their devices, I deserve timely, fair non-discriminatory treatment, privilege updates to some Market following marketing guidelines instead technical reason is unfair.
You don't need to attack me, it you think all this post is immature, what do you care of?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You aren't even qualified to complain. As far as I know you live in the US, where xiaomi never officially launched this device. They could have totally blocked any updates for people like you. I have had an lg phone (Unlocked US Carrier version), and they only release OTA for people with their sim card. So if anyone was to complain you'd be at the end of the line.

ubc said:
You aren't even qualified to complain. As far as I know you live in the US, where xiaomi never officially launched this device. They could have totally blocked any updates for people like you. I have had an lg phone (Unlocked US Carrier version), and they only release OTA for people with their sim card. So if anyone was to complain you'd be at the end of the line.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not In the US, Xiaomi sell a Global Unlocked phone, it means I can travel with it wherever I want, take a minute a visit Xiaomi's AliExpress global store.
Carrier locked devices are another question.
Sent from my Xiaomi Mi A2 using XDA Labs

There are too many impatient people on MI A2 XDA Forum.

anshmiester78900 said:
There are too many impatient people on MI A2 XDA Forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not just being impatient, it's also the question about QC4, the logic about updates is a progressive rollout starting with a random pick of smaller but representative markets and then progressively include bigger markets, this is how Samsung HTC Motorola does. This mess it's just an unfortunate advertising tactic, as the Indian as first batch are more susceptible to receive a buggy update (as seem is the case as looks like the rollout was suspended).
Then you have the QC4, Indian A2 are 1:1 global AS same hardware, QC4 is blocked to global A2 by software, neither Xiaomi need to pay Qualcomm license as (as far I've searched) is included with the SOC procurement (as was with apt-x hd later enabled -wich many morons claimed not included to lower costs-.
I love the A2, but Xiaomi still has a long way to walk to reach the global phone maker status they pursuit, current marketing tactics drag they in the opposite direction
Sent from my Xiaomi Mi A2 using XDA Labs

qc4 is a must in India, they got special bricks with A1 also since the electric grid is unstable ... i'm not sure if qc3 or qc4 matters anywhere else ... chillax mate, your throttle will resolve nothing, long life is rare. If you have a little experience in electronics, you'd know that no current above 2A (@5Vdc) is healthy for the battery. Unless ou want to cry in the same fashon in 6 months after purchase that the battery doesn't keep the charge even for a day.

QC4 is a healthier QC3 indeed .
Sent from my Xiaomi Mi A2 using XDA Labs

Question Reliable Asian shops to buy from a SM-G9980 to be sent to the EU

The question to some of you who successful accomplished a purchase and got the new toy in originally sealed box.
I already tried once, and placed an order by T-dimension, but after one week waiting time they informed me they were not able to deliver and cancelled my order.
Any suggestion on reliable shop with PayPal as a payment option would be much appreciated.

Don't know where in Europe you are, but I'm in Scotland and ordered the G9980 model from UltraOnlineUK for £704 on 14/05.
The tracking from them was terrible - there was no change for 12 days. Then on 26/05 there were updates to the tracking with it saying I'd receive it 28/05 by Royal Mail. So I received it today, exactly 14 days after placing my order.
It arrived with the original seal intact - and I paid via PayPal.
You can check their trustpilot rating for a whole load of mixed reviews, but in the end it was worth it for me.
I've attached a screenshot of the tracking, just incase you are able to order from there and are curious.
Edit: Oops, your title said EU, not Europe. So this probably isn't much help!

naveed said:
Don't know where in Europe you are, but I'm in Scotland and ordered the G9980 model
Edit: Oops, your title said EU, not Europe. So this probably isn't much help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your response, you information is quite useful indeed.
The ultraonline (UK) (DE) (FR).com sells across the whole Europe including EU.
But all those terrifying reviews on trustpilot...
Nevertheless, it's good to know that some one has actually received the phone.

I used Etoren. It was referenced on kimovil. I am satisfied. It was delivered in a week. No problem at all. They have good reviews in trustpilot also.