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What do you guys think of Chinese smartphones? Anyone here tried them?

Loey Lee

Newbie
Jan 11, 2012
43
0
Hey,

I was wondering if any of you guys have had any experience with android smartphones from China. I buy cheap android tablets from there all the time and many of them are surprisingly very good. You just need to do a fair bit of research before purchasing; however, I have no knowledge of Chinese smartphones and which ones are worth buying. It would be great if anyone here could fill me in on which models I should consider or at least point me in the direction of where I can attain such info.

Here's an example of what I'm looking at:

M50--Mobylab Co., Ltd

08281329_N2keYiysVw.jpg


Summary of specs

Product: M50
Chip: MTK 6575, ARM V7 A9 1GHz
Wireless & Cellular: Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n), 2G GSM EdGE 850/900/1800/1900
OS: Android 4.0
DDR SDRAM: DDR3 512
Storage: 4GB
Input/Output: 2x SIM card slot, Mini USB port, Micro SD slot, etc

Also, I'm concerned about Carrier compatibility. If I bought one of these things, do you think I would have trouble getting service from the major carriers?

Thanks in advance
 
You really do get what you pay for. If you pay $100 for a cell phone, it will NOT be as good as a mainstream device. You are at the mercy of a manufacturer who produces hundreds of devices a year for updates. Outlook for getting Jelly Bean? Zero chance. There will also be no developer support for such an obscure device. You're stuck with whatever software comes with the device. Hope it works.

That may work on AT&T's 3G network (850/1900 MHz), but won't work on T-Mobile (1700/2100 MHz)

Overall, I'd recommend staying away.
 
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When it comes to Chinese Android phones, If it comes from some make you've never heard of, ahem "MobyLab", or is some knock-off make, e.g. "Somsong", "Motopola" or "Nckia", and it's cheap, it's almost certain that it will be crap. I know, I live in China and see them all the time. And when it comes to personal experience of cheap Chinese Android tablets, I'd say that most of them can be rather crummy, There's usually some issue with them, like DOA or bricking.

However there's plenty of really good quality Chinese Android phones around from well known and reputable manufacturers, like Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, TCL and Changhong. Their phones tend to be much more expensive of course.
 
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Those are reputable large manufacturers, that make good products and have an established international presence. Not like say Shenzhen Double Happiness Crap Tech Co. Ltd or whatever that makes fake iPhones and sells them on Ebay.

Yeah. What I was referring to was something along the lines of off-brand smartphones because I'm already aware of ZTE and Huawei. I also know that buying no-name stuff from China is high risk. That's why I was hoping to get some input from anyone who has knowledge of China generic smartphones because like I said, I have experience with generic China tabs and I know the majority of them are complete crap. There's no mistake about that. But if you go to a forum like say "Slatedroid" you'll see that there's a HUGE community that can fill you in on which particular models are good and which you should stay away from. That's the kind of specific info I was seeking here because slatedroid is mostly geared towards tablets and not phones.
 
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Yeah. What I was referring to was something along the lines of off-brand smartphones because I'm already aware of ZTE and Huawei. I also know that buying no-name stuff from China is high risk. That's why I was hoping to get some input from anyone who has knowledge of China generic smartphones because like I said, I have experience with generic China tabs and I know the majority of them are complete crap. There's no mistake about that. But if you go to a forum like say "Slatedroid" you'll see that there's a HUGE community that can fill you in on which particular models are good and which you should stay away from. That's the kind of specific info I was seeking here because slatedroid is mostly geared towards tablets and not phones.

Problem is a lot of the time, these cheap off-brand and no-brand phones seem to come and go so quickly, like weeks. Read something that sounds good on a forum, try and get it, and find it's not available any more, or the Chinese wholesaler or Ebay vendor has substituted it for something else, that's supposed to be the same, but isn't.

BTW I bought a new Lenovo two weeks ago, to replace a broken Samsung Galaxy S. I must have gone around every phone dealer in town looking at phones, and there's quite a few phone dealers here and a heck of a lot of off-brand, unbranded and counterfeit phones out there. :rolleyes: Every one I tried, always fell short in someway or other. like crappy construction, poor screens, slow, laggy, horrible software, even DOA. In the end I bought the Lenovo from the main China Mobile showroom, that only stocks known brand phones, and NO counterfeits.

Thing is, even well known Chinese brands are being counterfeited now, e.g. Chonghong instead of Changhong, Huawee instead of Huawei, DCL instead of TCL. STE instead of ZTE, etc.
 
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Personally I would never ever trust them. I am not even American, yet am paranoid about the Chinese! ;)

Here is a quick link, but I have been hearing about these things for a long time. Do your own research on this and be a little worried.

http://freebeacon.com/huawei-too-dangerous/

Like I said, do your own research as that is just a quick link I threw up, there will be better more reputable sources with the same information. Either way, I don't fancy having anything to do with that!
 
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Problem with generics is that among possible bugs the parts you may need later (batteries, accessories, etc) may not exist later on. So if you want a phone you'll keep awhile, I don't recommend it. I found out that the hard way with a motorcycle that I couldn't buy a stator for because they change them so often or switch names. But if you are the type to constantly upgrade or switch devices, then its not too bad. I've had some good luck with my ZTE phone but there are issues (random rebooting) so if you can live with that...

Just an FYI, all smartphones are "made in China". If I could buy a "Made in USA" phone I would. The last one was a AMPS phone that no longer works.
 
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Hi everyone,

As i see on this post, there are many people talking negative things about android chinese phones. I'm here to speak the opposite.

I'm european and i buy a lot of smartphones from china.
Before buying any phone you should search for support first. It is true that many companies don't release any kind of updates or product support, but other companies do.

So before buying you must choose one very carefully.

I work with a very good supplier, he don't lie to me, i always have what i've ordered and all the smartphones that i've bought have support. Even on Xda-Developers.

another important thing is that he always recommend me which are the best to buy.

From every phone i've ordered from him, none gave me any kind of problems. All have a good display, processor, ram, etc.

At the moment i've 3 chinese phones:

Galaxy Note 2 (Samsung Galaxy note clone):

Dual Core processor 1.0 ghz Armv7
512 MB Ram + 4GB Rom
8 MP Camera
960 x 540 display resolution

Goophone i5 (iPhone 5 clone):

1.0 GHZ Dual Core Armv7 Processor
1GB Ram
8mp Camera with auto-focus and flash
960 x 540 Resolution

One X (HTC One X clone):


1.0 GHZ Dual Core Armv7 Processor
512MB Ram
8mp Camera with auto-focus and flash
960 x 540 Resolution

So, all this phones are very nice to use, there are updates from them. None of it came with defects or any cons against them.

I've already bought more than 30 smartphones and none, i repeat none came broken, or not working, or with software issues. To be honest when i bought the goophone i5, it came with some chinese stuff but passed 3 days they've released an software update the fixed that.

I hope this helps you out to know a litle bit more about chinese stuff. And remember, everything is made there. Even your Oven or microwaves. LOL

Regards
 
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If anything, cheap Chinese phones makes a good disposable phone. But I suppose if you do the research to somehow find a good one that includes warranty and a reputable source that will talk to you if your phone bugs out on you, then you're in luck. I personally rather pay more for the real thing knowing my phone will be wells supported if something happens.
 
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Think this is the appropriate thread for this one:

Bought a cheapo off-brand Chinese ICS 4.0 5inch phone a couple of days ago, a Kliton I806. Kliton of Shenzhen, Guangdong, China is supposed to be a reputable tech manufacturer AFAICT. Phone itself is actually quite good for what it is. It looks somewhat like a Galaxy Note though, although it's certainly not pretending to be a Samsung Galaxy Note.

However I was looking through one of Kliton's product promotion brochures.
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That looks very much like Apple iPhones and iPads to me. They don't care. :rolleyes:

kliton1.JPG
kliton2.JPG
 
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