Is it really worse to have a Chinese phone?

[yesiamzach]

I live in the UK and my Pixel 7 is dying, so I'm looking at the phone market again. I have been very careful with my data, I generate email addresses to sign up for new websites, refuse cookies every time etc. But when I signed up for Google labs and VPNned to the US to get early access to Bard (now Gemini), I made a conscious decision that it was worth the benefit to give access to my emails, calendar, contacts, everything. I'm now  debating wether it's worth the premium to have an American company store all that data, and use Gemini, or if it's equivalent to have a Chinese company have that data and use DeepSeek-based AI. I'm currently on a 10-day holiday in china so feeling very china-pilledright now the way everything works super efficiently via Alipay/WeChat, etc. Ideally I'd have European OS based on Mistral or something but hey ho. Thoughts? Comments? Opinions?

[dizmo]

You're only going to get personal opinions with this, so you're not really going to get a definite answer. Only you can make that decision for yourself.

Personally I don't like Chinese phones because there's usually a lot of poorly translated or untranslated stuff in the menus. I've even had it with OnePlus. It's just lazy, because there really isn't that much in an Android skin that needs to be translated. The other issue is band support. 

[Blue4130]

48 minutes ago, dizmo said:

You're only going to get personal opinions with this, so you're not really going to get a definite answer. Only you can make that decision for yourself.

Personally I don't like Chinese phones because there's usually a lot of poorly translated or untranslated stuff in the menus. I've even had it with OnePlus. It's just lazy, because there really isn't that much in an Android skin that needs to be translated. The other issue is band support. 

Do you have examples of untranslated stuff? I've been using Xiaomi for over a decade and have not run into that issue unless I am using a China exclusive app. The global apps are all perfect as far as I can tell.

[eLLe7]

Been using Poco then switched to OnePlus with ColorOS since it's a Chinese version. No problem aside from some untranslated stuff.  

[Sauron]

4 hours ago, yesiamzach said:

I'm now  debating wether it's worth the premium to have an American company store all that data, and use Gemini, or if it's equivalent to have a Chinese company have that data and use DeepSeek-based AI.

I would go with avoid either at all costs, but if you don't want to then there really isn't much benefit to giving away your data to an american company specifically. American tech giants have proven countless times that you can't trust them with your personal information. Of course so have Chinese companies, not really any more or less so than their american counterparts.

[yesiamzach]

13 minutes ago, Sauron said:

I would go with avoid either at all costs, but if you don't want to then there really isn't much benefit to giving away your data to an american company specifically. American tech giants have proven countless times that you can't trust them with your personal information. Of course so have Chinese companies, not really any more or less so than their american counterparts.

That's what's got me thinking, it's no better to use Google and have it leak or sold, than e.g. Xiaomi and have the CCP able to access it whenever they want, so why not get the cheaper Xiaomi? A few people mentioned other things like translated menus etc. any other pros/cons I may not have thought of? I know software support is stellar with iPhones and so the lifespan can be expected to be longer as the old hardware will keep better optimised firmware but my pixel has degraded pretty fast, I'm not sure a Chinese competitor can offer the same software support?

[jaslion]

2 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

Do you have examples of untranslated stuff? I've been using Xiaomi for over a decade and have not run into that issue unless I am using a China exclusive app. The global apps are all perfect as far as I can tell.

Only thing I bump in to on xiaomi is either their own wallpaper carousel being in simplified chinese randomly and the home screen adds sometimes gettin a bit confused (ive since removed that with adb so havent seen that in a while). Else never saw an issue

[jaslion]

11 minutes ago, yesiamzach said:

That's what's got me thinking, it's no better to use Google and have it leak or sold, than e.g. Xiaomi and have the CCP able to access it whenever they want, so why not get the cheaper Xiaomi? A few people mentioned other things like translated menus etc. any other pros/cons I may not have thought of? I know software support is stellar with iPhones and so the lifespan can be expected to be longer as the old hardware will keep better optimised firmware but my pixel has degraded pretty fast, I'm not sure a Chinese competitor can offer the same software support?

Well basically since the eu demands long term software support any phone sold there has the min of 5 years required by now. (Or no software updates ever which is appearantly also a thing haha). So really you are good for 5 years. I mean I havent had an update since 2021 on my mi 9t and only now its becoming an issue. 

[Sauron]

24 minutes ago, yesiamzach said:

That's what's got me thinking, it's no better to use Google and have it leak or sold, than e.g. Xiaomi and have the CCP able to access it whenever they want, so why not get the cheaper Xiaomi? A few people mentioned other things like translated menus etc. any other pros/cons I may not have thought of? I know software support is stellar with iPhones and so the lifespan can be expected to be longer as the old hardware will keep better optimised firmware but my pixel has degraded pretty fast, I'm not sure a Chinese competitor can offer the same software support?

This is more true of the iOS/Android devide in general than Chinese phones specifically. Personally I prefer getting refurbished phones, it's much cheaper and you can go for high end devices that still work great instead of something new but low quality - which is what matters more for long term usability imo.

[yesiamzach]

7 minutes ago, Sauron said:

This is more true of the iOS/Android devide in general than Chinese phones specifically. Personally I prefer getting refurbished phones, it's much cheaper and you can go for high end devices that still work great instead of something new but low quality - which is what matters more for long term usability imo.

Same, my current pixel 7 was second hand with smashed back glass but only 8 months after release. In terms of the data though, if I'm going to have access to deeply ingrained AI (which I do actually use & like) _someone_ is going to get it, and I don't think I care who it is anymore. the last thing for me is total cost of ownership possibly being better with Samsung due to parts availability. Have any UK Chinese phone owners had experience with that?

[Blue4130]

3 minutes ago, yesiamzach said:

Same, my current pixel 7 was second hand with smashed back glass but only 8 months after release. In terms of the data though, if I'm going to have access to deeply ingrained AI (which I do actually use & like) _someone_ is going to get it, and I don't think I care who it is anymore. the last thing for me is total cost of ownership possibly being better with Samsung due to parts availability. Have any UK Chinese phone owners had experience with that?

I am probably region biased since I live in China, but getting parts for my various Xiaomi phones has always been cheap and easy. 

 

As for who has my data, at this point, I'd probably trust China with it more than the USA. If you are an American living in USA, who would benefit more from having your data? China doesn't care about you, they care more about their people. 

[Potatoes__]

11 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

If you are an American living in USA, who would benefit more from having your data? China doesn't care about you, they care more about their people.

Really don't wanna go down this road but given the current geopolitical atmosphere I wouldn't be so dismissive about potential safety concerns of leaking your data to a foreign country with conflicting interests hoping that nothing ever happens and thinking that you understand the plans and desires of their (autocratic) government. I was using a bunch of russian services once and hey now it's a real physical safety concern for me, who would have thought. I'm not trying to be all alarmist here and preach WW3, just saying that if things are fine now there's no guarantee that they'd stay like this forever, so if something hits the fan you'd probably want your informational footprint and tech dependency on the potential threat to be as little as possible.

 

Honestly this thread is kinda off track from the start. If you are having second thoughts about your personal info flowing around it should not be the question of "which tech overlords would be more chill with my data" it should be the question of how can you be more mindful when it comes to information safety in general. Wanna buy a Chinese brand phone? Sure go for it, there are plenty of ways to reduce the potential tracking and stuff just like with "western" brand phones, and you really should do it in both cases.

[OddOod]

As far as data privacy goes, you're pretty much cooked whichever phone you use, including an iPhone. 
That being said, the risk incurred is pretty minimal. 
Get the phone that has the features you want at a price you're willing to pay

[yesiamzach]

21 hours ago, Potatoes__ said:

1. I wouldn't be so dismissive about potential safety concerns of leaking your data to a foreign country with conflicting interests hoping that nothing ever happens.

 

2. now it's a real physical safety concern for me, who would have thought.

 

3. there are plenty of ways to reduce the potential tracking and stuff just like with "western" brand phones

1 & 2. I've always felt like my data security was "just in case" but I don't really know just in case of what... Like let's say the UK and China fall out, and they decide to attack me. What kind of attacks are we even looking at? I use a 3rd party password manager so no account hijacking, or buying bitcoin and sending to themselves etc. Surely PII like my calendar and stuff doesn't give them access to any of that?

 

3. I do use adb, ddg email fwding and tracker stripping, VPN 100% of the time with tracker blocking etc, and might use incogni, but back to my original point, if I want one company to have ALL the data so as to have the best tailored AI experience I need to decide who. If I get a cheaper Chinese phone, it sounds from the discussion that there isn't THAT much "phoning home" and I shouldn't worry about it so much.

[Potatoes__]

1 hour ago, yesiamzach said:

What kind of attacks are we even looking at? I use a 3rd party password manager so no account hijacking, or buying bitcoin and sending to themselves etc. Surely PII like my calendar and stuff doesn't give them access to any of that?

I'm not going to pretend that I know exactly what might happen in case of a theoretical conflict in a theoretical future, nor that I knew what to do when it happened to me. Honestly I don't even know to what extent I can share my thoughts and experiences on this topic before the mods take it down as "too spicy".

 

I'd say the general rule is that you want to keep your physical location, involvement in the defense efforts and relations to other people (of interest to the belligerent) to be as secret as possible. Plus general hyper vigilance in information security - assume that even the password manager is not enough and you are operating in a dangerous web environment overall. It is not possible to be 100% anonymous and impervious to intelligence experts on the web but minimizing your footprint is paramount.

 

Dangers coming from it may range from something trivial as in being targeted by enemy state sponsored/aligned hackers to physical targeting as in getting a suicide drone in yo window or being a target of a domestic terror attack, depending on who you are and what you do and who you know. Just imagine that there will be thousands of people whose full-time job would be to screw with your life, and if you think that you are insignificant enough for that then you better think again. 

 

Like for example, we had things like certain Call ID apps that scrub your phonebook used heavily to identify and harass/physically attack military people or prominent resistance members. Sounds trivial but in practice it turned out to be dangerous.

 

Again, I am not here to preach doom and all and the stuff I share is pretty mad and paranoid from the perspective of someone who never been through a full scale war as a civilian, and I hope you never will. And not saying that you must prepare for the war with China or something. But, what I want to say is that if you are having second thoughts on sharing your personal data and stuff with certain countries you should really listen to your gut so that hopefully it won't bite you in the ass later on, because international relationships are insane nowadays.

 

1 hour ago, yesiamzach said:

I do use adb, ddg email fwding and tracker stripping, VPN 100% of the time with tracker blocking etc, and might use incogni, but back to my original point, if I want one company to have ALL the data so as to have the best tailored AI experience I need to decide who. If I get a cheaper Chinese phone, it sounds from the discussion that there isn't THAT much "phoning home" and I shouldn't worry about it so much

If possible I'd look into using some scrubbed custom ROMs as well, if the software is not "phoning home" that much at the moment it does not mean it wont change the behavior later on. Just as Google services can change their behavior with time without any user input depending on the server-side stuff happening on the background.

 

On AI, really nothing to say as I am a filthy luddite and I won't go that deep into it even if a Ukrainian company next door runs it 

[Commodus]

My rule of thumb: Chinese phones are okay if they're the global editions.

 

I haven't seen evidence that all Chinese phones are sending info to the country's government, but it's safe to say that a device meant for Chinese residents using Chinese services is more likely to be subject to official mandates. Global editions have the Play Store (i.e. less chance China is sneaking in surveillance tools) and are otherwise under closer scrutiny.

 

And while I'm not so naive as to believe American companies are completely innocent, I'd still trust them more.

 

If you're reluctant to share info with Google, get an iPhone. You don't have to share info with Google much or at all, and even the upcoming Gemini-based Siri should have fences around personal data. China is actually frustrated by iPhones as it can't install tracking software as easily.

[CHTechman]

I would recommend steering clear of Chinese Phone Brands for other practical reasons as well. You will find that software support/updates is going to be more limited on the handsets alongside some other instances of cost cutting in order for them to hit the low prices they target. Even global editions have sometimes been found to ship with software that reports a ton of information like IMEI,GPS and more.

 

However fact of the matter is that someone is always stealing your data no matter where you are and what you use. Yet the fact is that most people are simply not important enough to actually be targeted by these bad actors. If you aren't an important figure politically then you should probably be safe enough no matter what you use.

 

However, I would personally recommend a recent Samsung phone as it has the sweet Knox Security suite and also just more practical when it comes to things like parts and software updates. The phones are also customizable enough that you should be able to be a little more intentional with your data than you would be able to with an oppo or a xiaomi. Also the lovely google integrations should mean you get access to the nicest new AI features basically as soon as they come out. 

In essence:

1. Chinese devices do phone home a little, would cost more due to shorter lifespans and less software support.
2. If you are using AI then google probably already has enough of your data.

3. Samsung has pretty good security and the phones are nice too. They are also ahead in AI compared to Apple

 

 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 4/14/2026 at 4:54 AM, yesiamzach said:

That's what's got me thinking, it's no better to use Google and have it leak or sold, than e.g. Xiaomi and have the CCP able to access it whenever they want, so why not get the cheaper Xiaomi? 

What I have against Xiaomi specifically is the large amount of uninstallable bloatware side-by-side with Google's uninstallable bloatware, plus the push for Mi accounts, etc. Many UX-intrusive features can be disabled but they still work in the background, cluttering RAM and internal storage. Like, I think every phone should be rooted or one-toggle rootable by default and every app uninstallable, and here I am with two sets of apps for the same function, neither of which can be removed...

On the spyware side, though, I guess Chinaphone is better outside China and Western phones are better in China, although maybe in China you are screwed regardless (see all the Western companies making Chinese versions of their hardware/software to comply...).

 

I think my best Chinaphone experience was when going really cheap, since the companies not trying to be the Chines Apple/Google can't care to develop so much bloatware of their own. Leanest phone ever 

[Commodus]

On 4/18/2026 at 6:14 PM, SpaceGhostC2C said:

What I have against Xiaomi specifically is the large amount of uninstallable bloatware side-by-side with Google's uninstallable bloatware, plus the push for Mi accounts, etc. Many UX-intrusive features can be disabled but they still work in the background, cluttering RAM and internal storage. Like, I think every phone should be rooted or one-toggle rootable by default and every app uninstallable, and here I am with two sets of apps for the same function, neither of which can be removed...

On the spyware side, though, I guess Chinaphone is better outside China and Western phones are better in China, although maybe in China you are screwed regardless (see all the Western companies making Chinese versions of their hardware/software to comply...).

 

I think my best Chinaphone experience was when going really cheap, since the companies not trying to be the Chines Apple/Google can't care to develop so much bloatware of their own. Leanest phone ever 

I'm not worried about background resources as the Xiaomi phones I've used are still very speedy; it's just that the company leans hard on promoting its services and apps. Apple is downright restrained by comparison.

[Tan3l6]

I've got Redmi Turbo 4 Pro Chinese edition. Lacks some Google features and swiping right gives some untranslated icons and menus but otherwise I'm fine with it.

At least it's specs are quite nice - 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, octa-core etc. For my needs it's very decent option. Too bad that only Chinese region ROMs are available for that model, or at least no EEA one.

[Mark Kaine]

On 4/14/2026 at 11:07 AM, jaslion said:

Or no software updates ever which is appearantly also a thing haha

Which phones(s)? I NEED it!!!

[jaslion]

12 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Which phones(s)? I NEED it!!!

https://www.androidauthority.com/motorola-eu-software-updates-loophole-3636627/