In the seven years of its existence, Xiaomi has managed to achieve impressive success in the smartphone market. You can discuss at length and in detail the reasons why Xiaomi products have become successful and popular. The fact remains that they were accepted and they want to possess. A large number of residents of the post-Soviet space are no exception, perceiving Xiaomi products with trepidation.

Not so long ago, the company officially entered the Russian market and fans of its products would rejoice here, because now they will not need to order a smartphone from China, fearing to lose their hard-earned money through the fault of an unscrupulous seller. Add to this the presence of official firmware and warranty - and you will understand that a true paradise for Xiaomi fans should have come. Perhaps this would have happened if it were not for the overly aggressive policy of the official distributor RDC Group in the Russian Federation and its subsidiary Smart Orange. The distributor in the face of the "punishing sword" Smart-Orange took on the mission to stop the import of counterfeit and "gray" Xiaomi products into Russia.

First of all, many online stores selling devices imported into the territory of the Russian Federation and not included in the number of favorites were hit. Smart Orange has outlined the circle of partners in Russia who have the right to import Xiaomi smartphones into Russia, and all the rest have become persona non grata. Being the copyright holder of the Xiaomi brand in the Russian Federation, the company stated this in its letter to the Federal Customs Service, becoming in fact the only person who received the right to decide who to import smartphones and who will be left out.

On the one hand, we should have respect for the position of Smart Orange LLC, which decided to rid Russian counters of counterfeit devices. However, analysts and experts believe that under the guise of fighting counterfeit lies an unfair method of competition and a desire to remove networks and stores that sell devices at a lower price. Due to the difference in pricing policy, official sellers often suffer losses, and the goods are stale on the shelves. The problem is that official smartphones are more expensive. An analysis of prices on the market suggests that the markup on Xiaomi products from an official in Russia is on average 30%. Agree, it is extremely difficult to convince us that we have to pay an order of magnitude more than we have done so far, purchasing smartphones directly from China. We know for sure that we want to purchase goods at a lower price and “feed” the monopolist and cover its costs associated with logistics, warranty and maintenance, many do not want to. Almost predictably, the lion's share of Xiaomi smartphone fans would pass by the official store and still buy devices in China, preferring to reflash them themselves.

Events would have developed in exactly this way if private individuals, who, in theory, should not have been subject to these restrictions, did not fall under the ban. But the state machine, represented by the Federal Customs Service, worked surprisingly well, banning the import of Xiaomi products to everyone who was not included in the number of the chosen ones from Smart Orange. As a result, parcels addressed to individuals from China with Xiaomi smartphones are sent back.

The procedure is simple. When receiving parcels with smartphones, customs authorities send a request to the brand owner in the Russian Federation, Smart Orange LLC, to decide on the counterfeitness of the imported goods. Predictably, the answer follows that it is your smartphone that has signs of counterfeiting, and by doing so you violate the exclusive intellectual property rights, which means that the copyright holder objects to its import and asks to return it to the seller.

Similar cases are already occurring en masse at the customs of Yekaterinburg and Orenburg. It seems that this is only the beginning and subsequently an increasing number of customs points will join the “campaign on Xiaomi”. At the moment, users who never received their smartphones from China can seek justice through court decisions, but such a procedure requires certain expenses and a clumsy judicial machine can drag out the dispute for a long time.

With the light hand of a distributor in the Russian market, Xiaomi has become an "innovator" in the fight against counterfeiting, when the interests of ordinary users are "sacrificed". We have been deprived of the right to choose and to have alternatives. We have the right to choose where, how and for how much to purchase a particular product, as well as take on all the risks associated with the purchase. Most companies have not jeopardized the interests of their fans until now by imposing such an embargo on their products. But there is no guarantee that if the Xiaomi distributor's experience is successful and others will not want to implement such a business building model. And we are not sure that, following Russia, this practice will not become the norm on the territory of other states.

Our site in no way calls for some kind of rebellion and orderly revolutionary ranks to arrange a coup. But we are sure that it depends on our reaction of ordinary consumers whether we will get the right to choose and whether such business building will become the generally accepted norm. Media space is a huge platform where you can and should

All Xiaomi smartphones imported into Russia, so many buyers of mobile devices from this manufacturer have not been able to receive their packages. Chinese online stores and sellers understood this and returned money to buyers for undelivered goods. Even despite the fact that thousands of Russians have already filed complaints with several Russian authorities and the Xiaomi CEO in China, the likelihood of resolving this situation with customs peacefully is extremely small.

The editors of the site carefully analyzed the situation and found two really working solutions that will help buyers from Russia continue to get their hands on Xiaomi smartphones at very low prices. At the same time, the likelihood of any problems with the customs service of the Russian Federation is negligible. If everything is done correctly, then the parcel is guaranteed to be in the hands of the buyer, bypassing the traps set by Smart Orange, which asked not to let allegedly counterfeit Xiaomi smartphones into Russia, since it owns the rights to this trademark.

Negotiate with the seller or online store

Russian customs operates very simply. If the postal packaging contains words like “Xiaomi smartphone”, then such a postal item will not reach Russia. All Chinese online stores and individual sellers usually mention the name of the company, so the Russian customs are actually provided with all the data to complete their task.

Before buying a Xiaomi smartphone in China, you should contact the representatives of the online store or the seller in advance, asking them not to indicate the brand name of the smartphone, limiting themselves to the words “smartphone” or “Android mobile device”. In this case, the customs service will never be able to know for sure which smartphone from which manufacturer is inside. Of course, the package can be opened, but this almost never happens.

Compliance with this simple rule will allow you to continue ordering Xiaomi smartphones from China without overpaying double the price to the Russian representative of the company. At the same time, everything will be on completely legal grounds, since the essence of the parcel does not change from this. Customs officers will still understand that there is a mobile device inside, but which one, they will only have to guess.

Order Xiaomi smartphones from the Mall

As part of the integration into the Russian market, the largest Chinese online store AliExpress opened a so-called "Mall" a few months ago, in which Russian residents can order goods not from China, but directly from their country. Thus, postal items bypass customs checks, which means that you can buy Xiaomi smartphones in such a simple way.

Of course, goods from the Mall cost approximately 10-15% more than those delivered from China, but the confidence in receiving the package and the absence of headaches with customs are definitely worth it. We also note that all postal items moving only in Russia reach the recipients within two weeks, and this is another reason to buy a Xiaomi smartphone through the Aliexpress Mall.

Join us at

The scandal around Russian customs and Xiaomi smartphones does not subside: more than 10 thousand people have already signed a petition against the ban on the import of devices. We will learn from experts whether the actions of the customs and the Xiaomi distributor are legitimate.

What happened?

In Russia, cases of delays at the customs of postal items with Xiaomi smartphones have become more frequent. People buy them from Chinese online stores, but the parcels do not go through customs. The reason is the appeal of the Xiaomi distributor in Russia (Smart Orange LLC): they own the rights to the XIAOMI trademark and declared all devices passing customs to be counterfeit. Therefore, customs prohibits the import of Xiaomi smartphones through mail.

According to rough estimates, more than a thousand Russians are faced with this situation.

Whose side is the law on: what the experts say

Hi-Tech Mail.Ru talked to lawyers about this situation and found out some interesting details. Experts reported that they had not heard of similar cases in other countries.

It is entirely possible that customs will be bombarded with lawsuits, since despite the completely legitimate claims of brand owners, according to the law of the Russian Federation, a material carrier can only be recognized as counterfeit by a court.

As Ivan Nikitenko, an intellectual rights lawyer, explained:

A material carrier can be recognized as counterfeit only by a court. That is, until the entry into force of the court decision, it is correct to consider the disputed goods as “goods with signs of counterfeit”. The concept itself is legal. Therefore, it is up to the court to decide.

Under Russian law, a product can only be recognized as counterfeit by a court decision.

However, the Head of the Moscow Human Rights Center, Mikhail Salkin, said that the actions of the distributor and Xiaomi are completely legal:

Customs has the right to do this - this is regulated by various laws, as well as agreements. Under Russian law, customs may require you to provide a document that authorizes you to use a trade or trademark in Russia.
Mikhail Salkin
Lawyer, head of the Moscow Human Rights Center

Lawyer Alexei Yegorov also called these actions legal:

The situation is indeed quite loud. However, from the point of view of the law, the distributor, alas, is right. He is the owner of the brand in Russia. This is supported by the decision of the FCS. Now, upon receipt of a smartphone, customs is obliged to send a request to the distributor, and he, of course, will answer that it is counterfeit. Therefore, Internet sites selling gray models can already be considered violators of Russian law. It is easier for them to agree with customs and send the order back than to have problems with the law. Well, or at least not to write that they sell a smartphone of this particular brand (this is just a trick, and not a legal way of selling).

Position of Xiaomi and Aliexpress

Hi-Tech Mail.Ru contacted the Xiaomi press service in Russia. to find out their attitude to this situation. They are aware of the situation with Russian customs and distributor:

Xiaomi is aware of the situation and is working with our partner RDC Group to resolve the issue. Our fans have always been the company's top priority.
Press service of Xiaomi in Russia

It should be noted that Aliexpress representatives declined to comment officially.

Is there a war with the “seryakom” coming?

So, Xiaomi smartphones are being held up at customs - this is annoying, but another question arises: will this become a trend? Other companies, such as Meizu or Apple, may also claim ownership of the brand and declare counterfeit all devices ordered from other countries. Then a large-scale war awaits us between official distributors and sellers of "gray" devices.

Customs' actions set a precedent for other companies. There are already reports that devices from Sony, Blackberry, Chuwi and some other companies have been “wrapped” in this way.

As Yuri Salkin said, such an outcome is quite possible. Customs services received new equipment that allows them to examine parcels without opening them. Therefore, there is a possibility that some iPhone ordered from an uncertified online store may also get stuck at the border. So far, there have been no such cases, but be careful.

So far, all cases have occurred in the Yekaterinburg and Orenburg customs, which is strange. For some reason, parcels with smartphones are not detained at Moscow customs and other cities. Perhaps so far only new equipment has been introduced there and it is being tested. So in the future, probably other customs will also begin to stop parcels with smartphones.

Why do people generally order equipment in China

The reason is simple - the price difference between the "white" and "gray" device reaches an average of 30-40%. Let's say Redmi Note 3 Pro in the Smart Orange store will cost you 13490 rubles. On Ali, a similar copy with global firmware is estimated at 8700-9500 rubles. In the upper price segment, the percentage difference is smaller, and in absolute terms it is higher - the “official” Mi Note 2 is given for almost 35 thousand rubles, and the “Chinese” costs 28,781.

"Wrap" at all points?

Not really. Among the indignant buyers, Yekaterinburg and especially Orenburg customs points are notorious. Users note that Xiaomi smartphones pass through Vnukovo almost without problems. A trend has also been noticed: several devices that arrived in Yekaterinburg in early May have been tested, but the ones from April are still lying around. Community subscriber Irina K. from a certain moment began to collect statistics - which smartphones passed the control, and which failed. From these data, it can be seen that a lot of devices hung tightly in Orenburg, and the “May” ones, no, no, and even leave Yekaterinburg:

Why did Smart Orange do this?

As in the case of consumers, suppliers are simply looking for their own benefit - "parallel" imports somehow hit the contents of the pocket. It is problematic to calculate the volume of “left” deliveries, but, judging by the hype of the deceived investors, a certain percentage floated past the official importer. The senior vice president of Xiaomi himself spoke about the intentions to “strangle” gray smartphones at a presentation in Russia. Another thing is that such a step, it seems, was designed primarily for wholesalers - Internet shuttles, which they bought cheaper there, sold more expensive here. Alas, he hooked and ordinary users.

Will others do the same?

In this regard, the behavior of Meizu, a direct competitor of Xiaomi for the attention of the Russian consumer, is indicative. Meizu also has a representative office in the Russian Federation, but no one is fighting the flow of gray imports - apparently, they want to drown it out not with bans, but with service and other advantages of "white" smartphones.

But there are also opposite examples, moreover, from the well-known Sony company. The story about a guy from Surgut who ordered a PS4 Slim in Germany and received a fine has recently spread all over the Internet - but it’s more about the imperfection of the bureaucratic system: the new “slim” simply did not have time to register in the database of notifications about the characteristics of encryption tools and goods. But the story that an employee of the press service of the Khabarovsk customs told to AmurMedia deserves close attention:

“There was a precedent when we turned back a package with a Sony PlayStation, because the copyright holder said that he did not give permission for import,” Victoria Aleshina, press service of the customs office of the Khabarovsk Territory.

Victoria clarified that if a product is found in the parcel that is included in the list of Rospatent, then a request is sent to the copyright holder whether he gave permission for import. If the manufacturer refuses, the goods are returned to the seller. Judging by customer reviews, Sony is now adhering to just such tactics.

Ok, I bought a smartphone and it got stuck in customs, what should I do?

Strictly speaking, you have two options. Of these, only one is capable of leading to a satisfactory solution to your local problem.

Option 1. To sue the FCS, which is long and dreary. Even in the case of a successful outcome, the trial may last more than one year. By that time, the smartphone will lose its relevance. Plus, the overhead costs of litigation should be taken into account.

Option 2. Try to get money back. This option is preferable at least because there are successful precedents. For a refund, you need to make a request to the customs office about the reasons for the return, then open a dispute and attach a scan of the answer there, explaining that the transport company returned the goods.

Tags:

After a wave of complaints to the ICR, the FAS, the prosecutor's office and the media, customs officers stopped "wrapping" parcels from China

Parcels with phones ordered by Russians in foreign online stores, customs began to skip. Recall that in April, the Federal Customs Service froze thousands of orders, mainly with Xiaomi brand mobile phones, seeing signs of counterfeit goods in them. Buyers who did not wait for orders considered these actions arbitrary and suspected customs officials of colluding with dealers who sell the same devices in Russia for one and a half to two times more expensive, and began to complain to regulatory authorities. After the hype raised, smartphones began to be produced, but it is not known whether the conflict has been resolved: the FCS considers its actions legal, as does the Association of Internet Trade Companies. Details are in the material of Realnoe Vremya.

Telephone amnesty, or Customs gave the go-ahead

The Federal Customs Service began to allow smartphones from China to pass through. On the page in the social network, which was created by the Russians who did not wait for their parcels, there is a joyful revival. If a few days ago they posted samples of complaints about the actions of customs officers to the prosecutor's office, the Investigative Committee and the antimonopoly service, now they are screenshots with tracking packages with the long-awaited "released by customs". Almost all parcels hung at customs for 16-20 days.

“Oh, they released it on May 3rd. It looks like an amnesty. Or “Smart Orange” gave the go-ahead,” Irina Koroleva writes in the comments.

Recall that problems with the delay of smartphones ordered in Chinese online stores began in April. The Federal Customs Service included the Xiaomi trademark in the register of intellectual property objects based on the request of the copyright holder, which in Russia was Smart Orange LLC. According to the law, customs must notify the representative of the right holder about the importation of a suspicious phone into the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union. Smart Orange, in turn, replied that this product had signs of counterfeiting, and objected to its import. Thus, customs officers began to return thousands of phones back to China.

The Federal Customs Service included the Xiaomi trademark in the register of intellectual property objects based on the request of the copyright holder. Photo anrt.info

As representatives of the Federal Customs Service commented to Realnoe Vremya, “in accordance with Article 111 of the Customs Code of the Customs Union, customs officials, when performing customs operations, check documents and information, during which they send appropriate notifications to copyright holders about the identification of goods in the MPO that have signs of violation of rights intellectual property (counterfeit). When sending this notification to the right holder, the customs authority decides to extend the period for the release of goods. If, according to the information provided by the copyright holder, the goods being sent are counterfeit, the customs authorities, in cooperation with the Russian Post Federal State Unitary Enterprise, take measures to prevent the import into the Russian Federation of prohibited goods arriving at the MPO, and ensure their immediate export from the Russian Federation. .

Have phones suddenly ceased to find signs of counterfeit goods?

According to media reports, Smart Orange LLC asked the customs to take a closer look at phones from China in order to stop the "gray" shipments of smartphones and accessories under the Xiaomi brand. Perhaps the company saw the main threat in private entrepreneurs supplying gadgets bypassing official channels, but as a result, retail customers who order smartphones for personal use began to suffer. The actions of the customs officers, "deploying" such parcels, the president of the National Association of Distance Selling, Alexander Ivanov, called lawlessness.

I have serious doubts about the legality of this. With us, this story - with the rights of individual distributors - does not apply to goods for personal use. Goods for personal use are not subject to certification or law in any way. What has happened now is an outrage. The question is whether the victims will sue and prove their case. A private person has a weak position in this regard - it is practically powerless against the state. And the Chinese seller will not go to Russia to sue - for him this is a microscopic part of the business, - Alexander Ivanov told Realnoe Vremya.

What happened, since the phones began to come to customers, did the customs officers change their position or did Smart Orange LLC suddenly stop finding signs of counterfeit goods in Xiaomi ordered directly from China? Smart Orange was unable to promptly comment on its position to Realnoe Vremya, we sent a request and are waiting for a response.

Buyers believe that the original Xiaomi phone purchased in China from an authorized dealer cannot be considered counterfeit - it is, without a doubt, original and manufactured in the sender's country. Photo miui.su

Discounts for victims of "greed"

From dissatisfied buyers, a shaft of criticism fell upon the official distributor. They believe that the original Xiaomi phone bought in China from an authorized dealer cannot be considered counterfeit - it is, without a doubt, original and made in the sender's country.

According to buyers, the distributor's attempts to stop the supply of smartphones directly from China are connected "only with greed." The petition sent to the management of Beijing Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd, says that the official distributor of Xiaomi in Russia sells phones at excessively inflated prices.

“On average, it is 2 times higher than the price set on the official website of the manufacturer,” writes Aleksey Sadchikov, the author of the petition.

In the official group on the social network, representatives of Xiaomi in Russia are already tired of answering what the price of the product in Russia is made up of.

“The pricing policy has already been discussed earlier, however, we are ready to repeat it. The price of our products in Russia depends on many factors. Taxes and customs tariffs of the Russian Federation are one of the most important. In addition, we offer a number of services included in the price of the goods: warranty service, localization, adaptation to the local market, and much more,” the official distributor answers.

It is noteworthy that, as soon as problems with the delay of phones at customs began, the distributor offered buyers whose phones were sent back to China "the maximum possible discounts on official Xiaomi products." To do this, it was necessary to send confirmation that the goods were returned to the seller. From the messages under the post, one could understand that the discounts were meager and they were in no hurry to use them.

According to Fedorov, cross-border e-commerce has long become a channel for obtaining small consignments of goods for commercial use. Photo allinvest.ru

AKIT protected the customs

The actions of Smart Orange LLC, which declared war on Chinese online stores, were opposed by the public organization RosKomSvoboda and the National Association of Distance Selling. However, there are experts who agree with the position of the Federal Customs Service and the official distributor.

ACIT believes that the activities of the FCS are fully justified and correct from the point of view of the law. In our understanding, it is the right holder in the country where products under his brand are sold that must determine whether a particular product is counterfeit or not. With the rapid development of the Internet, cross-border online trading has become the main channel for counterfeit products to enter our country. At the same time, for example, in classical imports, customs has long learned to stop the supply of counterfeit products. Cell phones coming from abroad in parcels do not undergo certification and security checks (at the same time, all phones officially imported into the territory of the Russian Federation must be certified by the security agencies of the FSB and FSTEC), cannot be used when working with our telephone communication standards . And this means that such goods cannot be legally sold in Russia, - says Alexei Fedorov, President of the Association of Internet Trade Companies.

According to Fedorov, cross-border e-commerce has long become a channel for obtaining small consignments of goods for commercial use. Increasingly, for example, in the regions, a resourceful entrepreneur orders a batch of phones in several parcels “for personal use”, keeping within the duty-free threshold of 1,000 euros in the Russian Federation. The sale of goods in this case takes place on the territory of the buyer, at the place of receipt of the goods, that is, such products are considered purchased on the territory of the Russian Federation, and not abroad.

The Association advised not to purchase goods from unofficial sellers and always remember that "the miser pays twice." Photo miui.su

“Marginality of sales of Apple phones is less than 3%”

Often, goods in foreign online stores are cheaper than analogues in Russia. ACIT believes that this is due to the fact that some models are not designed to work in our telecommunications networks. In addition, they lack warranty and post-warranty service and maintenance.

In our work, we have repeatedly come across a big misconception that Russian sellers receive 300-400% of the profit from the sale of one phone, which, of course, is not true. So, for example, the marginality of sales of Apple phones is less than 3%, while sellers receive income from the sale of accessories and maintenance of equipment, but the difference in customs payments that Russian companies pay and their foreign competitors do not pay reaches 28%. We are well aware that today the Chinese counterfeit everything. At the moment, even on the Runet, you can find a huge number of sites selling copies and replicas (which, in fact, is just a beautiful name for counterfeit products). China has a powerful production of modern technology, but in parallel with this, a huge number of clandestine factories for the production of well-known brands, which can be bought at very low prices, are developing, says the president of the Association of Internet Trade Companies.

The Association advised not to purchase goods from unofficial sellers and always remember that "the miser pays twice."

After receiving the goods, in most cases you simply cannot return the money from a foreign seller, - Alexey Fedorov is sure.

It should be noted that the Federal Customs Service in the case of Xiaomi smartphones did not confiscate the goods, but sent them back to the seller, who returned the money to the buyer.

Daria Turtseva

Do you already know that a number of Xiaomi smartphones do not work correctly in Russia?

Now I will tell you what, why and why what is happening will forever make us buy from official distributors.

But first, a little history to make it clearer.

What helped Xiaomi take over the world

The advent of Xiaomi has fundamentally changed the history of gadgets. Before them, major brands officially released regional versions, actively joining the fight against the "gray" product.

It's more familiar to you than ever with a MacBook: blocked wireless frequencies, lack of regional languages, refusals to contact the service.

All Xiaomi gadgets at an early stage of the company's development were initially sold only in China, but did not have a regional reference. What does it mean?

In the firmware, it was possible to set any language of the system and keyboard, up to Hindi or Ethiopian. This is how Android works - just download the package you need, the rest will be done by the system. The developers did not restrict buyers.

Support for regional communication standards has always been tied to China: a smartphone must first of all work there, and only after that - in another country. But, the initially laid down working ranges were easily unlocked.

Fortunately, Xiaomi did not limit fan communities in support, willingly contacting everyone and sending the firmware source code for developing unique custom firmware and beta testing official ones.


This is how popular versions of the proprietary MIUI operating system appeared from the official xiaomi fan communities. EU, MiuiPro, MultiROM. All of them are updated once a week/month via OTA (“over the air”) on any Xiaomi smartphone.

The first localized versions appear a couple of weeks after the release of a new smartphone and do not require anything for their installation: you install how you update the system without the Internet, using the built-in system tools.

It saves if the brand did not have time to release a global firmware: full localization and integration of the services necessary in Europe / Russia are right there.

You can also talk about popular home gadgets: third-party developers helped Xiaomi in the shortest possible time to help customers in their other regions.

And this at a time when other brands artificially limited the distribution of their devices between local markets.

The first smartphones for the domestic market

The first Xiaomi smartphone that never received an official global firmware was Redmi Pro with a dual camera and an AMOLED screen. Well, it didn't hurt.

It was followed by Y1 and 5C, which did not gain popularity even in China. And it would be fine, but a lot of people bought Xiaomi Mi 5X, hoping to reflash to the global version ...

Bootloader (Hboot) is a program that controls the kernel of the operating system. The closed one provides protection against unwanted programs, the open one allows you to modify the lower levels of the operating system.

And they could not do this, because exactly the same smartphone with "pure" Android on board - A1 - entered the global market. The bootloaders of these two smartphones are incompatible, so you can’t reflash the Mi 5X into a full-fledged A1: when you try to update the system (OTA comes over the air), the smartphone turns into a “brick”. Treatment - dismantling and hardware sorcery.

Some Chinese stores have thrown out another option for sale: an allegedly Russified version of the Mi 5X. Of course, this never existed. What is this?

Unscrupulous sellers were able to install the system bootloader with Xiaomi Mi Max, which made it possible to install the Russified version of the firmware.

When trying to reflash such a smartphone using standard Xiaomi methods (it's very simple - downloaded, pressed the button), the buyer received a dead device without the possibility of recovery. Later, craftsmen learned how to restore them, but the methods require great skill.

Now gadgets that previously worked normally have problems. And smartphones received 2 articles for one model at all - for different markets. And it started...

How Xiaomi blocks the use of Chinese technology

Let's start with home appliances. My Xiaomi R1D router worked faithfully for 2 years until Xiaomi updated the firmware and servers. I admit - instead of the official Chinese, I used a custom English version.

She stopped connecting to her smartphone, synchronizing via DLNA and downloading torrents. The application refused to see the router even after a hard reset.

Until I installed the Chinese firmware and set the correct region (Other), the smartphone application did not allow me to connect. Now in one Mi account I see only a router, in another - all other gadgets.

But my router is released only for the Chinese market, so the full range of functions is only available when connected to Chinese servers. Or a slow VPN (can you imagine driving home traffic through an external server), or putting up with broken DLNA and not connecting smart home gadgets.

The former is solved by another NAS or third party OpenWRT firmware. But a "smart home" from Xiaomi components can no longer be built.

Flash can not be used as is

Put a comma yourself after reading, because with smartphones everything is much more interesting. The story with Mi 5X is repeated with all Xiaomi devices.

The flagship Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s received 3 options: global, Chinese, Russian. Each has a different model code.

If you install a global firmware on a smartphone with AliExpress, you cannot use Google Pay and some banking applications. The international version of the device costs like last year's Samsung. The Russian one is more pleasant for the price, but it has a bunch of extra applications preinstalled.

What's happening? To reflash a smartphone from one version to another, you need to unlock the bootloader. Old Xiaomi smartphones allowed any manipulation with it.

If one of the new Xiaomi is flashed from Chinese to international firmware, the bootloader must be left unlocked, otherwise the smartphone stops turning on.

An unlocked bootloader causes bank apps and Google Pay to crash. The only salvation is crutch custom firmware.

However, the long-awaited Mi 8 and gaming Black Shark never received an official international version of the firmware. Fans are waiting, setting up customizations, tormenting themselves with the settings.

What happens if you buy a "gray" Xiaomi on AliExpress?

What is the result? There are no more guarantees that your Xiaomi from AliExpress, bought at the start of sales, will receive international firmware. Or that you can use it - you may have to custom it.