Living with a Chinese Phone in the US with Mint Mobile
Is it possible to use a phone with a Chinese ROM in the United States? I did for the last two months! Let me tell you about it!
This is the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G League of Legends Wild Rift Edition and it is amazing! Please bring back amazing, beautiful, whacky, and colorful phones to the US!
- For the past 2 months I’ve been using one of the coolest phones on the planet! At least I think it’s cool. Two reasons, first, it’s a League of Legends Wild Rift themed phone. Second, it’s a beautifully built phone. Something we don’t get to see enough of in the United States. This is the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G League of Legends wild Rift Edition.
- This China based phone, which seems to be the case with other phones with chinese ROMs, has a few oddities. Let me walk you through what it’s like having a Chinese phone for the last 2 months.
- First, let’s take a look at this phone. The first thing I absolutely love is the build.
- 6.5 in screen. 158.2mm tall, 73.2mm wide, and 7.45mm thick! 180g.
- Compared to the S22 Ultra, 6.8in screen, 163.3mm tall, 77.9mm wide and 8.9mm thick, 229g.
- Much more similar to an iphone 14 Pro Max without the price tag.
- I love the thinness and lightness, there aren’t a lot of android phones like this
- Then there is the colors, the material, and just the gorgeous lighting.
- Since we’re just looking at pretty things now, let’s also enjoy the League of Legends customizations. Obviously the logos all over. But the software has it’s own themes. Animated backgrounds, custom icons, sounds from the game.
- Other nice things include the incredible quickness of the phone. From the face unlock, to the 120hz refresh rate screen to the 65w super charger.
- Now here’s a few of the oddities I was mentioning before, about working with a Chinese phone. Now there’s a difference between a China ROM and an International ROM. I have read that most of these issues don’t exist with an international ROM.
- First is, will it work with US carriers. What I read was that you need to look at the specific cellular frequency bands that a specific phone will connect to and then make sure your carrier is outputting those bands. When a carrier here in America says, It has 5G! They are saying that it will use the 5G bands that are broadcast here in America, but those same phones might not read the 5G frequency bands that are actually being broadcast in any other country. That’s about as in depth about that as I understand…
- So I confirmed with my carrier, Mint Mobile, which operates of the T-Mobile infrastructure , that they were in fact broadcasting on frequencies that this phone should be able to read.
- The other thing I read is that sometimes the carriers will still broadcast the correct frequencies but outright just block the phone because it’s not from a US based company. So again, take what I’m saying with a grain of salt and pursue at your own risk. I feel like I got lucky and have not had any of those types of problems. I have not been able to get 5G in my area, but 4G is fine for me.
- Now let’s talk about the software. Being a China native phone, it obviously came default in the Chinese language. That wasn’t too difficult to change during setup, but that’s not exactly where it stopped. There are many apps installed by default that are only capable of being used in Chinese. Which means I can’t use them. And because the ROM is locked down so much, you can’t remove those apps. I went as far as removing them via the adb interface and still, the next time you reboot the phone, they pop right back up.
- Another abnormality that is hard to not contend with is the lack of Google services built in. Some people might like that, but for the most part, it’s going to be difficult to download apps without first downloading the Google Play Services apk and installing everything from there. Again, the Oppo has it’s own marketplace built in, but it’s all in Chinese.
- And I think most importantly, is the notification situation. There is definitely a situation. I have spent countless hours reading articles, forum posts, and watching videos from other countries, all trying to fix the Chinese ROM notification situation.
- Here is my best understanding of the situation. There’s a good chance I’m incorrect, but it doesn’t seem like any other English speaking person seems to have a better grasp.
- Apparently the Chinese version of Android is built to by default do a couple things. Try to keep people off their phones, turn notifications off, and save battery. Which is all exactly opposite of what companies are trying to do in the Western Hemisphere.
- The first thing I discovered was that any new app I downloaded, notifications were completely disabled. But just like any American phone, when you open the app, it asks if you want to turn notifications on. BUT. Even when you say yes, turn them on, there are no default notifications available. You need to go into the settings and toggle on that you want sound, vibration, banner, and/or lockscreen banners.
- Ok, that’s a little tedious, but I did it for every app, and now we’re good, right? Wrong.
- Due to the battery app wanting to save as much juice as possible, the system itself will put any app to sleep, if it’s not used for over an hour. Which means, you guessed it, no notifications. And that INCLUDES apps like the Phone and Messages apps! So I found the section of the battery settings within each app that can disable this “Feature”. So I tediously went and toggled that for every individual app as well. Now we’re all good, right? Wrong again.
- There is another setting that overrides the battery AGAIN, that tells the phone that there can only be a maximum of 5 apps that open automatically in the background. So all that work, and it will only work for 5 apps. Well that’s unfortunate.
- I found a workaround that, long story short, roots the phone, changes the battery setting, freezes the battery settings app so it can’t be opened or changed. But unfortunately I still seem to be missing random notifications. Not to mention I need to plug the phone in to my computer every time I reboot it to reROOT it!
- So in conclusion, after 2 months of desperately trying to get a China ROM based phone to work in the United States, I think I’m about ready to finally give up. I’d love to keep this phone on my shelf, but I’m not sure I can afford such an expensive paperweight, no matter how amazing it is.
- If you’re interested in getting an amazing Chinese phone, it is possible to use. They definitely have their quirks but it’s possible.
- And lastly, this is a plea. A plea to companies that manufacture and sell phone in the United States. Please start making nice, cool, fun, whacky, interesting phones again. I miss the LG Wing and Flex, the Nokia Windows phones, the Ngage, and the Motorola Moto Z Force. And also a plea to the people of the United States. Please stop settling for this generic junk. These phones that are so pastel that you can hardly discern if they are supposed to be yellow or green, or maybe that’s supposed to be a blue. Tell the world that we want our weird phones back!
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