Best Xiaomi Deals for Christmas 2019

Xiaomi’s Black Friday sale has finished, but if you look around online you’ll find some excellent deals – especially if you’re prepared to look outside the UK.

GearBest is a well-known distributor of discounted Xiaomi products, and is currently holding a sale on Xiaomi.

Launched in Spain in November, GearBest has the cheapest price on 108Mp Mi Note 10 – and it’s the only place you can buy it in the UK right now. Pick up Mi Note 10 for just £343.73 in Aurora Green, Midnight Black or Glacier White with coupon code GBXMNT10BF.

It’s also listing the (new to the UK) Redmi Note 8T, and is currently offering a launch deal that brings down the price to £149.15/$189.99. Use coupon code GBNOTE8T1 for the Starscape Blue model, GBNOTE8T2 for Moonlight White, and GBNOTE8T3 for Moonshadow Grey.

GearBest is offering Tech Advisor readers an exclusive discount code that will net them 10% off any product over the value of $10 that is not already discounted. That means you can enjoy a discount on every single product in GearBest’s catalogue. The code you need is GBBFCMSALLDC, which you should enter at checkout. It’s valid until 31 December 2019.

(See more Christmas tech deals.)

Best Xiaomi Deals

Xiaomi Buying Advice

This might sound obvious, but remember that if you do buy from China the product is likely to be Chinese. The Chinese Mi Band 3, for example, has Chinese icons that you probably won’t understand – and the UK version is so cheap anyway (£26.99 retail price and currently available on Amazon at £22.99) that the few pounds you might save simply isn’t worth it.

For Xiaomi phones you can get around this by looking for a Global model on which Google services are preinstalled (if you do get a Chinese model you will need to install Google services yourself).

Double-check which connectivity bands are supported in the product listing – Chinese-ROM Xiaomi phones very often skip Band 20 (800MHz) 4G LTE. This isn’t the end of the world for many customers as it’s one of three 4G bands we use in the UK, but if you’re on a network that uses only that band for 4G (O2, GiffGaff, Sky Mobile etc) you will be limited to 3G or Wi-Fi.

Xiaomi laptops are gorgeous, powerful and excellent value devices, and the only thing that stops us recommending them to UK users is the fact they are sold running Chinese-language Windows 10 with a US keyboard layout.

You might be able to get through the setup procedure using Google Translate, but you’ll still find much of the OS is Chinese. A better approach is to reinstall an OEM version of Windows 10 designed for UK users, and you can get these for as little as £10-£20.

As well as reinstalling the OS you’ll want to install missing drivers that are wiped during this process, which you will be able to find online if you have another computer you can use to download them. A driver updater utility will also help here. Note that you will probably need to have to hand a wired mouse to install these drivers if the trackpad drivers are missing.

Ignoring the language issues, one other thing to watch when buying from China is that you are liable for paying import duty. Yes, it’s true that not all parcels are picked up by Customs, and you might ‘get away with it’, but by law you should pay 20% of the value printed on the shipping paperwork. Some people find they get a request for this payment several weeks after the product is delivered, while others will have to pay before it is delivered. Either way, if it looks like a good deal, make sure it still sounds like a good deal when you multiply it by 1.2.

Not sure what you’re looking for? Also see Best Xiaomi phones.

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