Xiaomi Hongmi Note 4G

[drewski]

I am thinking of picking up a XIaomi RedMi Note 4G LTE to be use in Montreal. However, matching frequency bands of phone with network operators is not easy to say the least. For 3G it seems that 850/1900 is a possibility, I am ok with LTE not working. As you have done quite a bit of research on a similar phone, could you confirm whether that is in fact correct? Thanks.

Hi Mather,
I had referred to the phone I helped my friend pick up as the "Hongmi Note 4G". Not sure if that was the point you were referring to when you said I was researching a similar phone, but HongMi = RedMi (literally, means Red Rice), so it's the same device. There is a RedMi/HongMi Note, which is a 3G only phone, but the 3G is incompatible with Canadian bands. Then we have the RedMi/HongMi Note 4G LTE, which IS compatible with Canadian 3G bands (not all though), but the 4G is not compatible. To make matters worse, I just realized that there is now a variant of this Note 4G LTE being released in Singapore/HongKong/Taiwan that DOES have the 4G LTE support for Canada/US! Still trying to find more information about that one myself.

Coming back to your original question, which provider in Montreal were you thinking of using the phone with? If you're thinking of going with one of the Evil 3 :-) (Rogers/Bell/Telus), it will work just fine on 3G. Videotron will not work on 3G on this phone. The China version of the Note 4G phone I ordered does support 850/1900. Hope this helps, but do let me know if you have other questions, and I'll be happy to answer it (if I know it!)