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Q: Using Chinese phones in America?
If I buy a Chinese phone, such as a Xiao Mi, will it work when I move to America and try to use the phone with my T-Mobile or Verizon account?
The networks function by the same standards as far as I know. Plus you can deliver your personnal data both to the NSA and its Chinese counterpart, ain't it wonderful!
TMaster, please don't forget the British, the Canadians, the Ossies, and the Kiwis...they all share in the same delivery service.
There are countless types of networks (GSM, CDMA, HSPDA, LTE, FD-LTE, TD-LTE...) and frequencies and spectrums on the market and varies from country to country and region to region.
You really need to check the phone specifications and then check your carriers' back home network specifications to see if your Chinese phone is compatible.
For a Chinese phone, there is a very high chance it will work in 2G mode (GSM) no problem on networks in the USA, but it will be hit and miss with finding Chinese phones that will work on American 3G (some) and 4G (I think almost none) networks.
Iron_Monkey:
I will take a stab at this and say a Xiao Mi 2S and Xiao Mi 3 WCDMA version should work on Verizon and T-Mobile US 3G networks. The Xiao Mi 3 TD version most definitely will not work on American 3G networks.
However, I could be wrong. Really, mobile networks nowadays are so complicated. I miss the days of when having an unlocked quad-band GSM phone could be used anywhere in the world no questions asked.
T-Mobile is shutting down their CDMA network by 2015..
So getting a WCDMA phone for plans to use on T-Mobile would not be a good idea.
T-Mobile is moving to GSM and HSPA+ which is pretty much identical to AT&T's network. For these networks, you're going to want a quad-band GSM phone with HSPA+ and (is possible) LTE.
You're going to want to also stay away from "TD" phones as the "TD" is a Chinese made alternative to the accepted 3G/4G standards so that China doesn't need to pay for loyalties to the western companies that invented the first high speed wireless technologies.
The Chinese "TD" phones are always not compatible to the western counterparts (ie: TD-LTE does not work on any of the USA networks that use LTE). Again, this was required so the Chinese could distance themselves from the patents and royalty payments while creating their own high speed wireless technology which does exactly the same thing in a slightly different way.
If you do end up with a quad-band GSM phone with HSPA+ or LTE (not TD-LTE) then if you use it on China Mobile, you will get 2G only because China Mobile only supports the "TD" phones for 3G&4G last I checked. China Unicom on the other hand appears to support the same HSPA+ standard used by GSM phones in the USA. But my girlfriend has said a lot of bad things about China Unicom and as much as I wanted to switch from China Mobile to China Unicom, she wouldn't help me do that.
If you're looking for a phone that works well at high speeds in China, with the most options of wireless carriers available to you, you're going to want a "TD" phone that really won't work in the USA. It's because the Chinese gov. is really pushing for the use of "TD" phones so they don't need to pay those western inventors for wireless technology.
If I were you, I would suggest just trying China Unicom with a GSM/HSPA+/LTE phone and see how it works for you. I've always wanted to do it, and for my Motorola Razr XT910 (unlocked) it would have been as simple as swapping out the China Mobile SIM card.
If you get a quad-band GSM/HSPA+/LTE phone, it should work on China Unicom (should work), AT&T GoPhone 2G&3G USA (tested and confirmed myself), PCCW 2g&3G in Hong Kong (tested and confirmed myself) T-Mobile 2G&3G USA (should work), as well as Docomo 2G&3G in Japan (should work), and China Mobile 2G-only (tested and confirmed myself)
