Anyone know anything about Chinese smartphones?

This looks like a half decent deal for £125:

http://www.jiayu-store.com/jiayu-s3-4g-5-5-inch-mt6752-octa-core-ram-3gb-1080p-screen-dual-sim-4g-lte-mobile-phone.html

Looking to replace a Samsung S3!

had a THL W8 a while ago, high spec for low price. Not the fanciest feeling phone, lots of plastic, but as a phone it was great. screen was good, dual sim, fast. Only problem I found was it didn’t like running endomondo, but that was a hardware compatibility issue with the MediaTek chips. Worked fine with runkeeper. Think tath issue has been ironed out now though.

If I needed a new phone, I’d go chinese again

Oh, and of course, chinese phones don’t tend to have many options when it comes to custom ROM’s from XDA, if that’s your thing.

Given what you can get branded for £100 odd (with a decent warranty) I wouldn’t bother.

Given what you can get branded for £100 odd (with a decent warranty) I wouldn’t bother.

so are these running stock android then?

I always fancied a dual sim approach to save carrying two phones (personal and work)

The OnePlus One is discounted at the moment, £175 and it’s a great phone.

https://oneplus.net/uk/one

I had one a couple of years ago, I used it as a stop gap for about a year. I had no problems with it and the spec was amazing really for the price (Although beware some are listed with over specifications to what they actually are.). I know some are better than others so its worth reading a few threads and find out the current model. The only problem I had with mine was that the battery didn’t seem to last very long, I used to struggle to make it last a day. However the batteries are generally removable and you could get higher capacity ones which I never bothered with to be honest.

Given what you can get branded for £100 odd (with a decent warranty) I wouldn’t bother.

Good luck getting any branded £100 phones with that spec:

– Octacore 64 bit, 3GB RAM
– 1080p display
– 13MPixel camera
– 4G
– etc

Looks pretty good to me. Check the version of Android, and obviously it may well have backdoors for the Chinese government.

Check that the 4G will work in this country.

EDIT: that oneplusone looks good.

I always fancied a dual sim approach to save carrying two phones (personal and work)

I think the one I had with the dual sim, only one sim slot could work with data/3G, the other could only be used for calls/texts. If that matters.

I had a cubot from ebay recently. £120 for an octa-core phone.
Was actually very good- a little plasticky. Lots seem to have some minor issues- if they do then get it sorted asap- once you’re out of the ebay returns time and paypal dispute time then you’ll be stuck with a faulty phone (the manufacturers pay no attention to the supposed warranty they provide!). But everything else worked as it should and worked well.

But it was a great phone, great spec and great price. Mine went for a flying lesson from my pocket whilst running across a road, cracked the case and the internet stopped working properly- but it went for a big tumble so thats my fault, not the phones. I keep it as a spare now.

Try ZTE (ebay), they’re probably the biggest and most reputable of the chinese phones.

My friend also got a huwaie (spelling??) for the same spec from carphone warehouse for £120, so you don’t even need to go buying them from abroad now if you shop around.

I’ve upgraded now to a sony xperia Z1. £200 and its waterproof, metal construction, great camera. I think its worth the extra £80.

I had a Cubot (via Amazon) a few years back. For the spec of the phone, it seemed a good deal at under £100.

It was fine (if a bit slow and short on memory) for a about 9 months, and then the screen started getting more and more dead pixels until the screen just flickered wouldn’t display anything.

It seemed like it should be a warranty return, but Because I’d had it for 9 months and it had come from Amazon Market Place, I had to deal with the Amazon seller direct.

They were in China and less than responsive. In the end I got £25 quid back.

The phone had generally positive reviews on Amazon, so maybe I was just unlucky. Guess you just have to take a calculated risk on it, and accept any warranty that comes with it is probably worthless.

Had a Cubot P7 for about 18 months the only downsides were battery life and the cheap feel of the phone

I had a Xiaomi Hongmi red rice or suttin…
Via Amazon.

It had good specs for about a hundred. It did quite a few buggy things and so I chickened out within a couple of weeks and sent it back for a refund. I thought I can’t be doing with trying to sort out bugs with a China based firm.

I’ve now got an Archos 50 diamond on order.
Great spec and reviews for 180, and I’ve only got to deal with a country ‘ next door’….

The OnePlus One is discounted at the moment, £175 and it’s a great phone.

https://oneplus.net/uk/one

Bah, sold out 🙁

miketually – Member

Bah, sold out

They are (or at least were, last week when the sale was on) releasing them in batches each day.

They are (or at least were, last week when the sale was on) releasing them in batches each day.

Ah, cool. I signed up for their emails to see if that tells me when they’re released.

I just got one of the 64gb one+ phones (JUST NOW) as my nexus 4 is dying..
£225 posted – not bad..

Hopefully I won’t be too shocked by the size difference!
If it’s not for me, I can always move it on..

DrP

I guess the take home message is, you pay £120 for a high spec chinese phone and expect to tweak it a bit, or you pay £200 for a similar spec brand phone and hope not to.

Got a ZTE Blade 3 for Mrs NBT last year. £50 from Argos. It works. Not fast, but it’s £50. Had no issues with it at all since the day we got it

One thing to be aware of… My Chinese colleague was going to buy a Xiaomi phone when in Shanghai but realised that it would only operate at 3G speeds here in Switzerland despite being 4G in China. I think all European networks are the same so you might want to check that it’s designed to work with foreign networks before splashing the cash…

The one+ thing has that issue, but my carrier isn’t 4g at the moment. If that changes, I can always switch SIM..

DrP

The one+ thing has that issue, but my carrier isn’t 4g at the moment. If that changes, I can always switch SIM..

DrP
Don’t know the actual specs of these phones, but it may need more than just a SIM swap, it could be a difference in the frequencies that the phone radio is designed to work at, in the same way that the iPhone 5 wouldn’t work on the frequency that O2 had chosen to use for their 4G, IIRC.

The OnePlus works on 4G with a couple of UK networks.

Three and EE – https://oneplus.net/uk/one#features

I was about to push the button on a Jaiyu phone a couple of years ago but Google reduced the Nexus 4 to silly money so I went for that.

You can get a lot of phone for your money going the Chinese route but don’t forget to factor import duty + the VAT.

retro83 – Member
The OnePlus One is discounted at the moment, £175 and it’s a great phone.

https://oneplus.net/uk/one

All the phone nerds are raving about these at work. Amazon have them apparently.

One plus one here, running 4g on three. Great phone, far far better than the S4 it replaced.

4g support (or slight lack of)is the main downside to the one in the uk, as I you want 4g you are limited to EE and Three.

I got a Lenovo S750 Chinese version about a year ago, as I wanted a waterproof, dual sim phone with enough storage to add more that one or two apps! Interestingly, there’s still odd bits of menu that are in Chinese, but nothing that seems to matter. If you need a Chinese phone for gps, try and find out what gps chip it has – mine’s very, very, very slow to lock onto satellites.
One sim card works as 3G, and t’other is 2G, so I use that for calls and texts, and the 3G for t’internetting.

Well I’m sat here playing about on my one plus..lovely phone, feels really solid and quality. Not plasticy or cheap feeling.
Fast, lovely screen.

Thoroughly surprised it was £225!

DrP

Colleague has a supposed Galaxy clone.

The spec is clearly not as advertised – struggles on graphic intense games and apps, even compared to my old Ace 2.

Some duffers out there.

I just got one of the 64gb one+ phones (JUST NOW) as my nexus 4 is dying..
£225 posted – not bad..

Exactly what ive just done…bought the 64gb in last weeks ‘flash’ sale (1 – 7 June) to replace my Nexus 4 which my son is having (how is your n4 dying? Mines still working great, maybe slightly less battery life). Bit of a marketing con in that they’ve now reduced the prices to the ‘flash’ sale prices anyway 🙄 However the 16gb is rare…lot of moaning on forums/FB etc that no batches of the 16gb were coming up in the sale.

Anyway, got the phone…looks nice, time will tell. Strangely ‘furry’ back on it

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TCL-S720-5-5-HD-IPS-OGS-Octa-Core-Android-4-2-dual-sim-unlocked-3G-Smartphone-/301660199400?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item463c5959e8

Its 5.5″ but its long rather than wide – good for holding if your hand – less good for using the keyboard in profile.

how is your n4 dying? Mines still working great, maybe slightly less battery life

This – but to me, not being able to last to the end of the working day (or even earlier if i make a few calls) =dying!

DrP