I'd be wary of buying the import model simply because it may not be possible to get warranty service outside of China, both contractually and because they probably won't seed replacement parts into their international supply chain until closer to the international release.

The one good thing about the delay of the release to international markets is that China gets to have the early adopter growing pains and the rest of us benefit from them being patched or get our waiting time for a patch reduced.

I'm very interested in this phone and would love them to announce the official US release date, but also happy to wait a month or two while Chinese consumers get to help them smooth out the rough spots in their software.