Xiaomi Smartphone, Saga, Update, Customer Report

Less than two months ago, I bought myself a Xiaomi Mi A2 without very extensive research about it. I knew that I didn't want to spend an awful lot, and I was totally disgusted with Samsung, because my J7 hadn't even lasted two years before dying suddenly. Instead of buying a low price phone from a good (expensive) company I bought a top of the line from an inexpensive one.

So far the big pros of the phone are

• the two year warranty versus one year for my Samsung phones
• and the camera
• the size, very similar to the J7, so no adjustment

They are both superior to the Samsung J7 and the previous Samsung I had which was a Samsung Galaxy II Plus, a not too bright but hardy workhorse.

Now for the cons.

• An annoying disadvantage was/is that I couldn't find a selection of cases, just clear ones which showed off the boring black phone. First I decorated the free case which came with the phone with red and white sparkly stick-ons. 
• The serious problem is that many people say they can't hear me clearly when we're trying to have a conversation. Others have no problems talking to me on the phone. And I discovered that some of them are convinced that I talk when washing dishes or some similar noisy pursuit. But I must admit that some of my kids complained that towards the end, they hadn't heard me clearly on the J7.
• It doesn't come with a choice of ringtones. I'm pretty good at figuring out various devices, and although the phone wake-up alarm has choices there are no choices when someone calls. I asked on facebook, and someone suggested Zedge, which gave me a Beatles tune. Yay!

Last week I did find a better/stronger and more "attractive" case, which gave me two choices of  "decoration." They are actually pieces of paper shaped to fit inside the clear protective case. I can live with the sparkly silver one. 

I haven't had a major problem getting used to the different system and figuring things out. Yesterday I did panic a bit when it stopped ringing, but after searching a variety of set-up options, I succeeded in solving that problem.

An annoying thing is that it doesn't use the same plug for charging, but I bought an inexpensive piece to add to one of my old chargers. Of course, it comes with one free charger.

Now for the sixty four thousand dollar $64,000 question...

Do I recommend the Xiaomi Mi A2? Is it a good/great smartphone for the price?

Honestly, I'm still not sure. I don't know any other users. If you have the phone, what do you think?

Decorated New Phone Case

Yesterday I went down one of the main commercial streets in downtown Jerusalem looking for a case for my new smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi A2. But it was a waste, because they haven't gotten any nice ones in.

So far the worst thing about the phone is that it's black, and nice colorful cases for it haven't been marketed here in Israel for it. Apparently, it does come in other/nicer colors, but the store I bought it in only had black.  I need a simple case, since I carry it in my pouch/fanny-pack. All I could find was clear or black.

It occured to me that I could decorate it with stickers, and I envisioned pretty colorful flowers all over the freebie case that came with the phone.

So, this morning I went into the local toy etc store for stickers. They didn't have what I wanted, so I spoke to the owner who pointed to special stickers, davka for phones. Of course, I hadn't had a clue there were such things.

The total price was NS8, or just over $2- and a few minutes of cutting and pasting.

Granted I don't have the phone case of my dreams, but I'm happy with it, B"H. It's certainly fine for the time being.