RedMi Note 2 questions

[pz93c]

Considering this one.

Not a modder. How is the stock OS? Glitchy? Stable?

Is there a maximum size for picture messaging?

Thank you.

[Sniper47]

MIUI is very stable.

For picture messages, I'd guess this is limited by carrier, not the phone itself. Maybe @trenzalore ['s tank!] could answer this.

[Trenzalore]

I don't own the phone, but I was able to use it for a bit.
Stock OS is stable, yes. One thing that was quite significant was the over eager optimization of the phone.
You'll have these "clean up" apps in the background that try to keep RAM utilization as low as possible. Power management was clearly a focal point. Charging profile is great -- it quick charges at the beginning of the cycle and seems to know how to trickle charge. When battery starts running low, the phone takes it upon itself to disable apps it deems unnecessary.

There were small bugs here and there -- every phone has some. A bit of a sync problem with Hangouts, Skype, etc. It didn't always occur...just on select networks, as far as I observed.
Then there was this annoying app that kept sending random pop-ups inviting you to download more apps and such. I suspected it was some malware and had my friend run a thorough scan, but it didn't return anything. There was a lot of bloatware in the stock ROM, so it was difficult to tell which one was throwing the pop-ups.

A newer ROM version fixed this, I believe...
A lot of things happened and I can't really keep track of it. I think there was a bad update...so we reflashed to stock, installed gapps with aroma installer (not hard to do at all). I can't remember which update fixed the pop-up issue, but there definitely was a good one, and it also got rid of a bunch of bloatware.

The up side here is that Xiaomi provides continuous support. If you plan on keeping everything stock, you should have zero problems in getting system updates. They should slowly work out whatever little bugs are there.

If you will be getting this phone, take note that there are a number of versions.
The 2GB/16GB standard version has 2 sub-versions. One has both SIM slots 3G (Worldwide) ready, the other has one 3G (WW) and one 2G (WW)/3G (China).
The 2GB/32GB pro version has one 3G(WW) SIM and one 2G(WW) SIM, i think.
Just make sure to clear it up with the seller which version you are getting.

Good luck!

[pz93c]

Sniper- I don't think it's carrier based. My brother and his wife are on the same carrier, Cricket, and they have no problem. They use an AT&T branded iPhone and a Cricket branded Galaxy. My iNew won't send or accept anything over 150KB.

Glad to hear about the stability though and the continued support from Xiaomi. Makes for peace of mind.

[Sniper47]

Thanks for pointing this out. Researching it further, it is carrier based to some extent, but according to AT&T, they allow up to 1MB. Not sure if it's same for Cricket, but 150KB is definitely too low. I would think a minimum of 300KB. It can be that some devices only allow for up to a certain size, which I find very odd.

My guess, based on knowing Xiaomi as an international and very serious brand will not limit you to anywhere near 150KB, or 300KB for that matter. Likely 600KB minimum.