Lately we have seen Xiaomi officially sell their phones via their Australian Mi Store. Today we have seen a rumour surface of Xiaomi beginning to sell their phones through Australia’s most well-known phone retailer — JB Hi-Fi.
Over at everyone’s favourite bargain shopper’s website, OzBargain one member posted about a sale on a grey import of the Xiaomi Mi 9T, shipped form Hong Kong. The price and the specs etc were not the big deal about this — that occurred in the comments. According one user, CheapGit, JB Hi-Fi will have the Xiaomi Mi 9T in store next week.
CheapGit went on to further state that in next week’s catalogue we will be seeing:
- Xiaomi Mi 9T — $699
- Xiaomi Mi A3 – $499
- Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 (5G ready) – $1399
- Vivo Y17 – $369
- Vivo S1 – $449
It is interesting to see Vivo making an appearance in Australian bricks and mortar stores too, especially when we have not seen hide nor hair of them in Australia before. They are of course owned by the same company as OPPO and OnePlus, BBK Electronics, and we have seen OPPO on our shores for quite a number of years now which have become well known as great value-for-money phones — expect much of the same from Vivo.
When you head on over to the Vivo Australian webpage, yes there is one, it has the Y17 and the S1 listed as coming soon to JB Hi-Fi. Vivo side of rumour confirmed.
While of course you can find these phones cheaper elsewhere online they are only cheaper (and available) from grey market importers but if you are someone who would rather purchase from local stock, which means local testing and local chargers etc, and of course a local warranty of two years then this may definitely be an option for you.
We will of course wait with bated breath for next week’s JB Hi-Fi catalogue to see more details and whether this “leak” or rumour is in fact true. In the meantime we will be searching and speaking to as many people as possible to track down some confirmation of this speculation — confirmed instore today as one of our former writers and now tipster has walked into a store and purchased a Xiaomi Mi 9T.
It would be great to see two more players in the Australian market and with Xiaomi and Vivo such larger players in the world smartphone market it will certainly give a shakeup to the current players already in this space. It will be interesting to see how the market responds.
Would you pay a small premium to get local stock of an Xiaomi or Vivo phone?
How good are Xiaomi with their updates? For me, this would be the deal breaker. If it is as bad as OPPO, then no thanks regardless of how good the phone or value is.
Ziaomi max3
Best investment ever, huge screen ,massive battery life and all round excellent performance.Had it for one year and no problems at all. GREAT VALUE TOO. Bloody BEWDY !
Ziomi ma3
I purchased a Mi 9T from JB in Brisbane City today and as Flossy Carter would say, this phone is a major, major, major go! PS don’t mind paying $699 at a bricks and mortar store as it comes with a local warranty in case of any issues. Signed up for the JB $45 pm Sim only plan for 12 months with 50GB data too. No thanks to Telstra
Vivo owned by Huawei?
Does that mean we’ll get OnePlus soon?
Xiaomi and vivo are good and all but when are we going to get OnePlus
JB sent an email today about the Xiaomi phones so it’s correct including pricing
Hope to see the Xiaomi Mi A2 being sold here officially as well. The Mi A3 isn’t much of an upgrade
Yeah, those prices are terrible. Mi 9T in Philippines start at around 15,000 peso…which is $435
I am assuming they have all been passed through Aussie regulations and include Aussie chargers in the box which would account for some of the added pricing. Rest of it being the Australia Tax maybe? Or that’s JB’s percentage?
What a rip off! I paid $350 including shipping for a Mi A3 on catch of the day.
i think that’s the thing. Do you pay for added convenience of buying from a bricks and mortar store , one with Australian warranty etc. I would assume that most readers here at Ausdroid wouldn’t care that much but for Joe Public it is definitely a much better option.
I would pay a small premium for an Android One edition of these phones.
I’m with you — had a play with a Mi Mix 3 at MWC earlier this year and was fairly impressed with it. The sliding front facing camera was different…. but it needs better software but remember at that end of the market OPPO made their way into the Oz market with some of the worst software ever (they have since improved it immensely).