* If you live outside of Xiaomi's official market, you have to purchase from third-party resellers who are sometimes more expensive, less reliable and don't provide as much aftersales as Xiaomi officially would. The list of recommended resellers can be found [here](resellers.md).
* Do not buy a [Chinese Version](versions.md), even if it comes with an official Global ROM pre-installed. On Chinese Versions, it's not possible to boot the Global Stable/Developer ROM with a locked bootloader, which is inevitable to pass SafetyNet and get Google Play certification. Additionally, Xiaomi rarely releases Global ROMs for devices which are only sold in Mainland China and China ROMs are difficult to set up and use globally, so if you want a Global ROM, wait for a [Global Version](versions.md) to come out and buy that.
* If you purchase a Chinese device with MIUI from a reseller, it might come with a reseller ROM if there's no official Global ROM available for it at the time of purchase. These ROMs are badly optimised, buggy, not safe to use and often bloated. If you encounter a reseller ROM, you have to get rid of it by yourself. Learn more about reseller ROMs [here](custom.md).
* Xiaomi devices, especially Chinese models, are made for the Chinese market and support primarily Chinese networks so they probably don't support all the LTE bands used in your country. Some models have Global Versions which support additional LTE bands used outside of China. See detailed network compatibility [here](ltecoverage.md).
* Xiaomi does not provide customer support or warranty for unofficially purchased products. Many of their products are exclusive to Mainland China and only get support there. Keep that in mind when you purchase from a third-party. If you encounter an issue, the best you can do is ask for help online, on the official MIUI forums, on the Xiaomi.eu or the XDA forums.
* If you are interested in modding (flashing/rooting) your device, do not get a MediaTek-based device. MediaTek does not release sources and so custom development is generally bad for MediaTek devices.
### After purchasing
* During setup, it's recommended to create a Mi account but there's no need to use Xiaomi's own services, such as Find my device or MiCloud. The former makes it difficult to untie your device from your Mi account in case you want to reset it and/or sell it while the latter is simply inferior to Google's own service, Google Drive.
* MIUI comes with plenty of pre-installed apps that many users see as bloatware. Some of them can be easily uninstalled but most can't. If you'd like to get rid of such apps, look into my [uninstalling guide](systemapps.md).
* Apps are often killed in the background by MIUI to prolong battery life and as a result you might not receive all your notifications by default. To fix that, change [these settings](notifications.md).
