currently im holding a g5, but every since 2g network got shut down, my 2sim slot become useless. i need a phone with 2 active sim slot. shortlisted mi5 as it's affordable and it has decent spec.
but after reading this thread, i'm all confused by all the terms 'bootloader', 'flash to global rom'. is it a must to do this bootloader thing after one get the phone? I'm just a regular user, will prefer to avoid all these trouble.
and where sells this phone at the cheapest price? Qoo10? lazade? any issue with warranty if i will to get the phone online rather than xm store?
No real need to unlock bootloader or install global rom. I bought the Mi 5 and it came with the China ROM. I updated to 8.1.6.0 (Marshmallow), factory reset, set the language to English and installed the Google services pretty easily.
It has been working beautifully ever since. Dual sim 3G+4G, IR Blaster, GPS, Google Play, dual apps... everything works perfectly. I quite like MIUI 8, snappy and responsive, battery life is excellent, and camera is very good.
I haven't updated to Nougat because it's been working so well and I've heard of issues.
MIUI 9 should be arriving in August so I'll wait until then to update.
Regarding the global rom, the only benefits are integrated Google Play services and the removal of some China only apps. Neither was a problem for me and the China rom had better audio and overall performance last time I checked (although it may have improved since then).