Here Comes Xiaomi

Due to the complicated nature of the Asian smartphone market with each country/region having its own set of preferences, needs and spending power, Chinese tech giants like Xiaomi often have to build region-specific devices. These devices are usually only on sale "officially" at that designated country/region, and as such, the software and telecommunication bands are only optimized for that part of the world.

This is fine to the average consumer, who tend to buy phones that are officially available to them in their city/country anyway. But to tech geeks who often import products, this creates issues. The original Mi Mix is a good example. The device was meant to be released in China only, so it only contained the China version of Xiaomi's MIUI Android skin. Because Google is banned on the mainland, Xiaomi's "China ROM" version of MIUI is not optimized to run its apps. You can still install them if you want, but there's no guarantee they will run optimally. To this day, all the Google apps on my Mi Mix 1 have bugs (it keeps asking me for "body sensor" permission every few days).

The Mi Mix also lacks LTE bands in the U.S, meaning the phone can only get on 3G networks with certain U.S carriers.

Thankfully, with the Mi Mix 2, Xiaomi has opened up the phone for a global audience. The Mi Mix 2, as I reported in my review, will come with the "Global ROM" version of MIUI, which has been fully optimized to work with Google. More important, its modem supports 43 network bands, including "all U.S. LTE bands," according to Xiaomi's product management director Donovan Sung.

"We are launching this phone globally," Sung said to me during our meeting last week, before immediately clarifying that the phone will be on sale "officially" only in markets that Xiaomi already has a presence in (that's 40+ countries). But Sung seems to want me to read between the lines: "Well, it won't be on sale in the U.S., but it supports all U.S. bands, if you know what I mean."

That means American techies who frequently import devices won't have to worry about whether or not the Mi Mix 2 will work on their networks, whether it's T-Mobile, Sprint or whatever.

This is a big step for Xiaomi to grow in the west. As someone who covers Chinese handsets here on Forbes and on YouTube, I know there is quite a bit of interest in these Chinese devices that seem to pack insane specs (the Chinese version of the Galaxy Note 8, for example, will get a RAM upgrade over the vanilla U.S. editions) at jaw-dropping prices. For almost every one of these devices, the question I get most is, "Does this have U.S. LTE bands?"

Usually, my answer is "No." With the Mi Mix 2, finally, techies can import without fear of network compatibility or Google apps crashing. Xiaomi has freed the phone to Americans, so to speak.

This might come in handy in a few hours as some Americans will probably scoff at the $1,000+ price tag of Apple's new bezel-less phone.