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Buying a Chinese phone....


wunfellaff

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There has been a few mentions in recent threads from other posters plus me :)

So, I have been salivating over the jiayu g4 since February , from a company renowned for being late with the launch. It was meant to be April, but delays delays.

Part of the problem was the advanced version was 2 gig RAM , and just before launch the chip manufacturer mediatek upped the spec of the quad core to 1.5mhz which caused probs with the 2 gig but not the 1. The basic version launched , but it was hold off for ages for the advanced and when it did a month ago it was only the white version.

10 days ago the black appeared , so I bought one from spemall, with a extra battery and shipping. Phone £205, battery £20 ish and shipping £10er or so.

Website says email in 24 hours with dhl tracking number so I left it 36 with the time difference, and raised a ticket. They responded within the advertised customer service of 24 hours saying it would be dispatched on Monday past.

24 hours later the sales team were still replying to queries on the product page saying dispatch within 12 hours, which made me "uneasy" as that was 4 days afore my date.

Fair doo's, email from spemall on Monday with dhl tracking number, but then a few hours later asking for $25 as I am in a "remote" area although I expected that. Paid it through paypal and within a couple of hours saying "thank you, product dispatched already". Sound.

Dhl tracking working, currently at second point in Hong Kong. Looking good :)

So, for a revised total of £250, I will get a 2 gig RAM , 32 gig ROM, 4.2 Android phone, packing a 13mp rear/ 3 mp front camera, 3000mah battery, with spare and charger for it, dual sim which godsend up here, hspda+ 42 meg speed capabilities , 4.7 screen with gorilla glass 2 and the ability to take an SD card.

Only thing comes close is the nexus in my mind, but integral battery, no SD card rules that out for me.

Xaomi launched the "red rice" recently, which is 42 meg capable, spec close to the cheapo iPhone5 but with the advantage of android. It's under £100.

These are out the same factories as the big boys, aren't clones but proper brands that outsell Samsung etc.

I will update when I receive a house brick in the post and my bank account is emptied :D

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Ps...

Minuses for the phone I know about.....

Buttons are not backlit.

Some widgets don't work , like "internet" etc. Can't hack the dual sim, but that's livable.

Plusses for spemall..... mark goods as $24 so no import duty.

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It arrived :)

Right people , first impressions.

Very fast in terms of accessing apps, scrolling etc.

Good construction, feels solid.

viewing angle excellent.

plays HD content fine though only 720p.

battery...24 hours with probably six browsing, YouTube etc. Just put spare in so delighted.

sound is fantastic on speakers, but very poor on earphones. This might be in settings, though an app should cure it.

lack of backlit buttons is strange, but even after only a day its liveable, and f**k , there's only three.

All in all its outstanding for £200, and the cheaper option is @£150? which pisses over the stuff over here bar the nexus, though as stated afore...no remove able battery and no SD card make you daft if you bought one.

thumbs up from me..

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just as an aside , one worry was whether or not it would deal with the dc-hspda frequencies in this country.

where I live it hasn't got a fast mast so did a speed test in the wilds of Ben Wyvis this morning ...

post-23278-0-70170700-1380369428_thumb.p

Extremely pleased it works.

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  • 3 weeks later...

How's your phone doing after a few weeks? Do you still think it's the way to go? I've considered getting a clone as a back up, but they're made with the same chinese components anyway

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Thoroughly enjoying it.

"If" doing the same again I "might" hold off for the LTE phones to be launched in the semi near future.

The build quality is very good, though as jiayu is a proper brand and not a clone I can't speak for them. But heck, even the xaomi "red rice" is a proper brand and only @ £150 ish.

Haven't mucked about too much as I want to put clockwork mod recovery on it first and It is in Spanish :D

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 2 months later...

This new Chinese phone from One Plus has been getting rave reviews and is being considered as a genuine rival for Samsung, Apple & HTC's flagship phones for less than half the price of it's competetors. Only downside is they seem to be really hard to get your hands on.

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/oneplus-one-1244307/review#article-comments

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This new Chinese phone from One Plus has been getting rave reviews and is being considered as a genuine rival for Samsung, Apple & HTC's flagship phones for less than half the price of it's competetors. Only downside is they seem to be really hard to get your hands on.

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/oneplus-one-1244307/review#article-comments

That looks very braw.

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  • 2 weeks later...

They look sooooperb, though issues with the screen I have heard (they blame rooting and custom roms).

Would take one in a heartbeat,

My second Jiayu G4 has a tinge on fast scrolling web pages which the original didn't, and crashes when playing flash. Both on firefox. 'Tis fine on stock browser but I 'like' Firefox.

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Was interested in the one plus to start with but the whole invitation thing to get one has put me right off. Looks like a cracking phone too but the obviously can't make enough to meet demand.

I'm thinking about getting the Moto G 4g another phone getting cracking reviews and I think you can pick one up on Amazon for £139

Edited by Romeo
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  • 1 year later...

The wife broke her screen on her Galaxy S6 last week and didn't like the crappy temp phone she was given while hers is away getting fixed, so she bought one of these instead.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Doogee-X5-5-0-Dual-Sim-3G-Mobile-Phone-Android-5-1-8GB-Quad-Core-Smart-Phone-/321904197963?hash=item4af2fc414b:g:tgUAAOSw14xWL0lS

Its actually a pretty decent phone, so if someone is looking for a cheap android phone i'd defiantly recommend it. Theres quite a few guys on ebay selling them.

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  • 4 months later...

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