Xiaomi and Meizu are now being sold officially in the US
through a carrier and that carrier is US Mobile. The MVNO, which uses
T-Mobile's network, is now offering select models by the two companies, though
the orders are in fact fulfilled by a third party.
The m2 note is the only Meizu smartphone that you
can get at this point, priced at $149 if paid in full, or $9 a month for 18
months. The Xiaomi options include the affordable Redmi 2 at $119, the aging Mi 3 at $139, and the Snapdragon 615
midranger Mi 4i at $219. All of these can of course be
purchased in monthly installments as well.
The catch is that while three of the smartphones (Mi 3
excluded) do support LTE, none of them has radios for T-Mobile's 1700MHz band.
So you'll be stuck at 3G speeds, which may or may not be a problem depending on
where you stand. US Mobile CEO, however, states that in the future devices may
come with proper LTE support. Not exactly a promise, but it's something.
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